#I hate nothing more than when villainous characters who have the potential to do good are strict of that for the sake of plot

[ilikekidsshows]

You know what I hate the most about Chloe’s damnation arc is that never really did anything with it until those terrible mayor for a week episodes. At most she’s just an annoyance to Marinette and her class for most of season 4 and 5 before getting unceremoniously shipped off with her abusive mom when there was potential for her to be a genuinely compelling villian.

Maybe have Hawkmoth still see her potential uses like her clout and the sheer hate she has toward Ladybug. She could start an anti-Ladybug blog that gains a lot of clout after Ladybug loses the Miraculous. Or have her become a villainous Queen Bee working for Monarch.

But no, dumb as a rock but somehow becomes mayor of Paris at 14. Alright, sure.

---

Chloé is supposed to be both the ultimate evil because we’re meant to be in awe when Marinette defeats her, but also a pathetic loser because she can't outshine Marinette even long enough to build her up as a threat. And then there are times when she's just a joke or an excuse to get an Akuma. In seasons 4-5 there's so many characters who do nothing more than ship Adrinette, yet Chloé is somehow pulling quadruple duty as the outgrown civilian nemesis, gag villain, queen bee bully who’s totally still in power and a climax boss. And yet she's still the antithesis of the original Chloé.

Chloé got really popular after season 2, so they had to make her lame. People thought Chloé had potential for good, so she had to be made super evil. People were taking her story seriously so she had to be made into a caricature and a joke. She had some of the coolest transformations, so we got Queen Banana, basically a parody of Chloé's cooler alter-egos, Queen Bee and Queen Wasp.

Looking at seasons 4 and 5, it really feels like they’re backtalk seasons. These are the seasons where the writers start talking back at the fandom through the show. Every time there's something weird going on, like an obvious retcon or personality change, the reason for it is that the writers are mad at the fans. Chloé in seasons 4 and 5 is like that because the writers don't like her having fans. The same happened to Cat Noir. I was watching some of my old favorite Miraculous music video edits, and Cat Noir used to be the coolest character in the cast. He would do barrel rolls while leaping through the air, he would be so cool and suave when he wasn't being silly, he’d swoop in and rescue people, Marinette included. Even Adrien used to have an actual personality with strong emotions other than just “sad but he'll take of himself” and “mindlessly content for Marinette to enjoy”. But he was too cool and too popular, so, rather than have Marinette do more cool things, the writers did their best to make her “competition” look lame, Chloé especially.

It's very obvious the writers are over-correcting when they accidentally made Chloé too cool, compelling and sympathetic.

[risrambles]

possible hot take but lowkey the reason that the hype for doomsday isn’t as high as endgame or infinity war and the the reason it’s getting more joked about is kinda bc they haven’t done much building up to the movies and nothing has really connected like it did in the other phases. like all the movies leading up to the avengers were so tightly woven into that eventual product. then phase two everything led up to civil war and such, and then obviously endgame. but phase 4 and on has jumped around so much and introduced so many characters that it’s like… we know these all won’t tie in. like we get a hawkeye show but neither protagonist is in the cast (yet), we get moon knight and not a character is in the cast (yet), we get she-hulk and not a character is in the cast (yet). they overload it with tv shows and movies that end up being one-offs bc it’s quantity over quality atp. whereas phases 1-3 all lead up to something together, this is just. kind of a mess. and i say this as someone who was in the fandom a lot in 2021 and kinda saw the beginning of the end. and i say this now as someone who loves marvel so dearly.

not saying i don’t think it’ll be good—i think it has potential. but instead of marvel being the epitome of modern superhero storytelling and being considered good media, it’s turned into more of a joke bc people a) hate too much for the wrong reasons b) the movies are actually not good c) we get one good movie or show once in a while that is actually really high quality with meaning that is immediately followed up by something less hype d) the characters are going up against things so much bigger than themselves that it’s just plain unrealistic to the MAX. like sure thanos was a Big Bad but at least it kinda seemed like an avengers level threat. all this multiverse stuff with Not Enough multiverse-level superheroes is wearing on me. not to mention they either kill their best or most interesting characters (aka wanda, who had a lot of potential) or bench them (moon knight). the strongest characters currently in rotation off the top of my head are doctor strange, loki, and sentry (who is apparently in doomsday, so that’s cool!) but honestly other than that it’s all supersoldiers or people with physical skill over the skill and power actually needed to fight god level villains.

i’m not a hater, i promise. i just miss when it wasn’t so unrealistic that it was hard to get past and have a fun time watching. (and i get that it’s movies so it can be unrealistic, but comparing it to the actually decently realist tones of the first few phases it just takes me out of it when i’m watching) it’s probably a part of the reason that people always seem to like ca:tws or the avengers or iron man, because it was smaller scale and it makes sense why it’s only those heroes in those movies. cause why is it just the thunderbolts trying to handle sentry?

take catws. it’s captain america, black widow, and falcon against hydra and more specifically the winter soldier. THAT makes sense. it makes sense why it wasn’t anyone else. it was a small scale threat that can be played off during the movie as a big one bc to the characters in the movie it is and to the ones not in it, it isn’t. the entire avengers team doesn’t have to assemble to fight the winter soldier and they don’t, which is good! Then take wandavision, where it was jimmy woo, monica rambeau, and a few others against the literal scarlet witch who was bending reality, not a single avenger really even tried to stop by. this is a situation where every avenger should have been locked and loaded and ready to step in but it just WASNT.

now remember i say this as a marvel FAN. i love marvel and ive loved marvel since i first watched captain america the winter soldier. i guess im a sucker for old marvel but it comes to a point where even though they’re doing a lot, it’s just like they’re trying too many things at once. i hold out hope for doomsday and secret wars, and i hope they wrap all of these individual projects together nicely, but i dont know. if im going to be honest, im not the biggest fan of the multiverse saga even though some of my favorite projects have come from it.

[granitegrumbles]

The paradoxical potential of one Stella Goetia

I feel like a lot of people who observe the critical community tend to chalk their like of Stella up to two things. Either the fact that she makes Stolas suffer, or that they got too attached to their headcanons and can’t reconcile that version with what she’s really like. What “potential” is there for a character who has always been an aggressive brat since childhood? It’s more like Stella would be a fascinating character if a layer of nuance was applied to her, and at this point (post season two) that hasn’t happened yet.

Stella was unintentionally made incredibly sympathetic in an attempt to pile on the Stolas suffering. While Stolas was forced into an arranged marriage at a young age to sire a precautionary heir, so was Stella. She is constantly belittled by her brother, Andrealphus, for being stupid and is told numerous times that her only redeeming quality is being attractive. This does not stop her from being abusive towards Stolas, nor does that make it okay that she is abusive.

The reason for her abuse has been debated before S2E1 released was one of many reasons. Was she lashing out at someone she knew couldn’t fight back in a desperate bid to feel in control for once in her life? Had it only started once he cheated on her, seeing that their image of perfect Goetia family, an image that would matter to her far more than it did to Stolas because of her lack of power and value outside of it? Octavia said in S1E2 that her parents didn’t use to hate each other, so was she just oblivious to the true nature of their relationship or did Stolas and Stella genuinely used to love each other instead? The Circus says it outright without a single room for nuance at all:

This is not a retcon. Stella was always intended to be an abusive spouse who stays with Stolas for the sake of making his miserable. I would argue that not only does this make Stella worse as a character, but it also drags down the whole show as a result. She doesn’t stay with him for any deeper reason, like the upward social mobility that being his wife would provide or in a bid to have him killed and inherit his power. Just because she hates him.

“Well, not every single villain needs to have a deep and complicated backstory, and not every abuser needs to have a reason for why. Sometimes there are people who are just like that!”

That is a good point. In real life, that can be the case. But Helluva Boss is not real life. It is a story. Every character acts the way they do because someone wrote it down. There was a conscious choice to make Stella abusive because she enjoys tormenting Stolas.

This immediately takes away so much of the intrigue of Stolitz; how can Stolas in good faith pursue a relationship with someone he barely knows while it throws the home life of his wife and daughter into chaos? The answer is without guilt because his wife is a screeching harpy who likes tormenting him. Sure, his daughter might not understand it at first, but she’ll come around eventually and come live happily with her father and his new boyfriend!

Speaking of their daughter, she has no concrete relationship with her mother. Stella calls her sweetie and Octavia calls for her mother first when she has a nightmare. She’s present in the portrait showing their visit to Loo Loo Land, and while she doesn’t look happy she clearly didn’t ruin the illusion of a happy family because otherwise Stolas wouldn’t look back on the trip fondly. Does this imply that Stella tried to be a good mother in spite of the forced circumstances… or is she uncaring and feels nothing towards her?

This cheapens the plot; if Stella is a hateful shrew who feels nothing towards Octavia, then why is she under the impression that her parents used to love each other? Is she just that sheltered? Did Stella keep up the facade in front of her with Stolas, sharply contrasting her alleged stupidity? Speaking of that, we should probably talk about her brother, Andrealphus.

He is incredibly patronizing towards her, treating her like a child and calling her a “stupid cow” and “silly minx”. When he yells at her in S2E11 she doesn’t react with shock, only upset. He’s done this before, and she’s nothing more than a stepping stone to getting Stolas’s power. In a story more interested in having a nuanced approach to it’s characters, this could very easily be the catalyst for Stella’s behavior. But no, because there was a portrait of her strangling a dog when she was a child, she has always been an abusive bitch wife, undeserving of a shred of nuance.

[utilitycaster]

Sometimes I think people do not really care for the villain per se, it's more important that their faves remain "pure" or at least having the moral high ground and that's why they want the villain spared instead of killed as an act of revenge?

So I'm not here to arbitrate who is a True Ludinus Fan and who isn't, because I do not care. I AM however saying that like, it was not impossible to not just call him as the villain from his very first appearance in C3 if not earlier (most people called it somewhere between his first appearance in 2019 and his great moment in episode 2x97, which aired not quite 5 years prior to the finale of C3), but also to avoid (as a fan) falling for his bullshit.

But yeah the issue really is like. No one really thinks the plot of C3 is good and satisfying, even its defenders. Those who defend it are first and foremost fans of Bells Hells, and have a love-hate relationship with the plot of their actual story. And whereas fans of Campaign 1 are like "oooooh I hope Vex and Percy are bitchy and Grog runs the Moon Olympics" and fans of Campaign 2 are like "I hope Fjord's boat sinks again because it will be funny", Bells Hells fans are indeed obsessed with the moral righteousness of Bells Hells. Now, the problem is that while the campaign was running, Bells Hells didn't really have a coherent moral position because that would require making a decision and having some convictions. So their fans sort of went for an amalgam of vague inclinations from the characters, personal projection, and contrarianism, and took a hard anti-god stance. This started to fall apart circa Downfall, when Ludinus did a whole monologue and Imogen's very first response was to laugh in his face and ask if they watched the same orb, and while the party continued to drag and flop their way through the moon plot for the remainder of the campaign, the end result was that every single god was saved, thanks to boons from multiple gods but notably the Arch Heart and Raven Queen. So now those fans find themselves in the position of needing to do an abrupt about-face because they spent 1-3 years whining about how the gods deserve to be eaten, but the main defense of Bells Hells as good people now is that they are the saviors of the gods. So now they have to rehabilitate Ludinus Da'leth. The problem of course is that Ludinus has done literally nothing to rehabilitate himself.

Now, here's also a good time to point out that radical forgiveness is 1. EXTREMELY Christian and 2. entirely about giving up a personal victim mentality, which is frankly hilarious given that the people saying it's about "Radical Forgiveness" spent the entire campaign arguing that Bells Hells are Persecuted Victims and that most of Bells Hells spent the entire campaign stewing in the traumas of their pasts and their resentment thereof. Like, genuine Radical Forgiveness would mean forgiving Delilah Briarwood, which is not what anyone is arguing for. (the Radical Forgiveness book is free online btw, read the prologue, warning, it gets REAL Jesus-focused but also really woo-woo/appropriative of eastern spirituality before the book fucking starts).

Now, I think what these fans actually are trying to say is the much more valid theme that everyone possesses the potential for redemption. Redemption is actually quite different than forgiveness - redemption is about whether you are genuinely putting in the effort to become a better person, whereas forgiveness is about no longer holding any grudges against people, independent of whether they have changed or not. Redemption is pursued by the person who did harm; forgiveness is granted by the person who was harmed. I am in fact a huge fan of the general theme of "anyone has the potential for redemption", because I think it is far more important to genuinely turn from doing harm in the future rather than pursue the good opinion of everyone you have harmed in your past when they might prefer to be left the fuck alone and never see you again.

In this case, it is pretty clear to see Ludinus has done precisely fuck all in service of redemption; and that it's pretty rich to claim you care for this theme if you've spent even 30 seconds bashing Essek, who has done a fraction of the harm of Ludinus (quite literally; Ludinus is the minister of war for one of the major players in the one (1) war in which Essek was involved, and that's after, you know, Molaesmyr and Centuries of Fey-Slurping) and has made an sustained effort to help others and do better ever since, so like, there is an obvious winner here. I mean you don't have to like Essek, but if you've argued that he doesn't deserve redemption you have pre-emptively destroyed any attempt to argue Ludinus does.

You can also argue a theme is not so much Radical Forgiveness (TM) but rather that stewing in one's resentment forever is unhealthy and will destroy you and it's important to just move on regardless of whether the source of harm has changed or not. In which case that raises the question, again, of "so what about the fact that multiple members of Bells Hells spent most of the campaign mad about shit that couldn't be fixed like the Titans and the fact that the gods didn't save them in their youth and used this as a reason for letting the gods die, which was rightfully called out as particularly resentful and unkind" and also "you do realize that Ludinus's entire deal is Stewing In Resentment For A Thousand Years While Everyone Else Moved On, correct?" Hell, I think that while C3 is, again, thematically incoherent, a larger theme of basically every other CR work is precisely these (everyone deserves a chance to change; stewing in resentment will destroy you) and that's why I think Ludinus's story, as emblematic of that calcified resentment and refusal to change, should end.

I've mentioned the Bedsheet problem of C3 - whenever you try to address one issue, it requires you pull the too-small bedsheet and a different corner pops up. This is yet another example - if the theme was radical forgiveness, or the potential for redemption, then what does it say about you if you were punitively clamoring for the heads of the gods for 60-odd episodes? Either the campaign did a shit job of conveying this theme; you did a shit job of understanding what the themes were; or you're just a vengeful asshole. So anyway, the people claiming it would be an abandonment of the themes of C3 if Ludinus is killed or captured need this to be true, because otherwise they definitely fell for his bullshit and they incorrectly called the themes of the campaign, of which they claim to have a deeper and truer understanding than anyone else, even though again I think they mistook Radical Forgiveness for "everyone deserves a chance to be redeemed" and "it is important to move past resentments". But even if he does live and is forgiven, they obviously failed to pick up on any of those themes while the campaign was running given how they hate basically everyone who isn't Bells Hells, so it's sort of a lose-lose situation for them anyway.

[marley-manson]

Hawkeye and Frank are the two most diametrically opposed characters on Mash. They clash politically, ideologically, emotionally, intellectually, and even physically on more than one occasion. There is virtually nothing they agree on. But they do have one significant similarity: both Hawkeye and Frank are notably, pointedly effeminate.

Hawkeye is the central protagonist, so he's written to be likeable, even admirable, especially in the first five seasons of the show when satire dominated rather than character drama. He's the character who makes the correct political points and voices the show's ideology, and male audience members are encouraged to identify with him and aspire to be like him. He's witty, he's smart, he's charismatic, he dodges consequences a lot, he's highly skilled in his work, and he has a strong personality and natural leadership qualities.

Frank is the main antagonist up until the end of season five. He's written for audiences to hate him, mock him, and occasionally be horrified by him. He's dull-witted, incompetent, awkward, easily led and manipulated, and always gets his comeuppance. Few audience members are likely to aspire to be more like Frank Burns.

And yet, while most likeable protagonist/detestable antagonist duos in American popular media would also be differentiated in terms of gender performance as a matter of course - the effeminate villain being a standard stock character, always set against a ruggedly masculine hero - Mash takes a different approach.

From his core personality as a sniveling, weak-willed follower, to the way other characters, including Hawkeye, routinely make fun of him by comparing him to a woman or insinuating that he's gay, Frank Burns certainly fits the part of weak, emasculated villain. What's more interesting, and much less commonly seen in Hollywood media, is that Hawkeye is portrayed as just as unmanly, and just as, if not more prone to having it pointed out in the show.

Often Hawkeye's jokes at Frank's expense include the implication that Hawkeye is attracted to him himself, and not necessarily as "the man." He jokes, "Guess it's a marriage, Frank. I know I can do better, but at my age, can I wait?" in Hawkeye, Get Your Gun; he switches from calling Frank one of his vampire brides to taking the feminine part in post-coital pillow talk after siphoning his blood in Germ Warfare; he kisses or tells Frank to kiss him in Major Fred C. Dobbs, For the Good of the Outfit, and Bulletin Board, etc.

Other times, the jokes Hawkeye makes about himself are virtually identical to the jokes made at Frank's expense - their respective attractions to Margaret as a potentially dominant sexual partner, eg, with both Frank and Hawkeye portrayed as eagerly submissive. For instance, in 5 O'Clock Charlie Hawkeye jokes about tying Frank to Margaret's tent, then dismisses the thought with, "He'd probably love it. I know I would." And Hawkeye/Trapper and Frank/Margaret are sometimes paralleled as dual couples, Hawkeye and Frank usually being framed as the more feminine partner in each.

And of course, unconnected to Frank, there are many, many more examples of Hawkeye's effeminacy, both in jokes and in personality traits.

Hawkeye is a self-professed coward who is loud and proud about how terrified he is to be stuck in a war zone. He's emotionally open and highly empathetic, always willing to listen to others' problems and discuss (or scream about) his own. He abhors institutional violence and faces every enemy combatant with his hands firmly in the air. When authority is thrust upon him he strives to relinquish it, and uses it as little as possible.

More shallowly, he has little interest in sports and exercise, derides masculine hobby magazines like Field and Stream and Popular Mechanics, is incapable of performing mechanical tasks to the exasperation of others at least four times (Comrades in Arms which explicitly frames this emasculating, In Love and War, Patent 4077, and Hey, Look Me Over), mocks traditional masculinity in many ways, and enjoys musical theatre and Hollywood gossip. And he makes and takes literally hundreds of jokes about being unmanly and having sex with men himself, many more than he makes at Frank's expense.

But while the jokes are at Frank's expense and meant to belittle him, they're rarely made at Hawkeye's expense, especially in the first five seasons. Hawkeye doesn't make the jokes out of self-deprecation, he makes them out of pride and a desire to differentiate himself from the army men he's surrounded by. He's almost always in on the jokes others make about him, rather than offended - Potter telling him to file a paternity suit against his rival in Hepatitis makes him laugh delightedly, and Trapper's remarks on his effeminacy, such as Miz Hawkeye in Hot Lips and Empty Arms, are sometimes lightly teasing but always a regular aspect of their dynamic that Hawkeye enjoys playing up. Frank doesn't make any jokes directly mocking Hawkeye's masculinity that I can recall, beyond vague "pervert" and "degenerate" remarks, which, while often historically homophobic, in the show's context tend to be treated as a reference to his heterosexual endeavours.

Frank's effeminacy is a point of mockery and derision, but Hawkeye's is a point of pride, and not intended to make him any less likeable to an audience. Antagonists don't get to score points off of Hawkeye by mocking his feminine traits, but Hawkeye makes fun of Frank regularly by mocking his feminine traits.

This difference in framing can partially be explained by the nature of their respective gender performances.

While Hawkeye and Frank are both effeminate, they're effeminate in many opposite ways. Frank is weak-willed while Hawkeye is strong-willed. Frank is unappealing to most women, while Hawkeye is something of a lady's man. Frank cannot face his fears to rise to a challenge, but Hawkeye can. But on the flipside, Frank refuses to admit to fear while Hawkeye openly proclaims it. Frank strives to attain authority while Hawkeye refuses it or takes it on only begrudgingly. Frank is obsessed with guns to a freudian extent while one of Hawkeye's most famous monologues of the show is a speech about refusing to carry one. Frank worships the concept of traditional masculinity even while he can't perform it himself, while Hawkeye mocks the concept and would refuse to perform it even if he could.

The Sniper is an excellent case study of these contrasts. In this episode, Hawkeye is effeminate and at ease with it, while Frank is desperate to prove himself masculine. Frank and Margaret flirt with strong Freudian overtones while Frank shoots a gun while nearby Hawkeye flirts with with a nurse with a line about "tasting" her. Hawkeye connects with the nurse he's wooing by relating to how scared she is and huddling in fear with her, while Margaret demands that Frank prove his masculinity by going out and taking down the sniper himself. Frank carries a gun while trying to approach the sniper, while Hawkeye carries a white flag. Frank tries to make fun of Hawkeye for wanting to surrender, but he can't bring himself to approach the sniper while Hawkeye does.

This contrast of gender performance is a consistent aspect of Hawkeye and Frank's dynamic throughout the show, but The Sniper makes it a central theme so it's a useful example to show how their relationships to masculinity are a deliberate aspect of their dynamic.

And while Hawkeye makes fun of Frank's femininity, it's significant that he also regularly makes fun of Frank's masculinity - his love of guns (eg The Sniper), his sexual affairs (eg the exchange about Frank as a "fantastic performer" in Yankee Doodle Doctor), his numerous attempts to exert authority (eg Welcome to Korea), his desire for socially approved success (eg Hot Lips and Empty Arms), etc.

Both masculine and feminine sides of Frank are comprised of negative character traits, while Hawkeye embodies the best of both - emotional expression and healthy ways of coping by talking about his feelings; bravery but not machismo; intelligence and skill as a doctor rather than an officer; empathy and a willingness to listen; sexual prowess but largely through his love of foreplay rather than his dick game (which, in the context of the early 70s, is a somewhat feminine attribute that distinguishes him from a typical traditionally masculine man); etc.

Hawkeye demonstrates some of the most appealing and healthy qualities of both masculinity and femininity while Frank demonstrates, or strives to demonstrate, the more toxic qualities of both. Through including a few positive masculine traits in the mix, the narrative is able to depict Hawkeye as likeable, admirable, and desirable in his effeminacy while Frank is depicted as loathesome in his. Hawkeye gets one of many, many women in The Sniper by showing vulnerability, while Frank only appeals to Margaret, and Margaret is portrayed as borderline pathological in her sexual attraction to violent masculinity (the scene where Frank excites her with his gun, for example, also includes an electra complex joke, and there's a running rape kink gag in this episode as well).

Another aspect to consider when it comes to differentiating Hawkeye and Frank's respective femininities is hypocrisy. Similar to how Frank and Margaret's affair is mocked because they can't admit to it while Hawkeye and Trapper's affairs are glorified, part of what makes Frank's effeminacy so mock-worthy, while Hawkeye's feminine qualities are a source of pride and rebellion, is that Frank refuses to admit to them.

Frank desperately wants to be the ideal heroic army man and often play-acts the part, poorly. When Hawkeye mocks him by calling him a woman, for example, he's drawing attention to Frank's failure to live up to his own ideals. And when Hawkeye calls himself a woman, he's mocking those same ideals. The message is that Frank is pathetic not so much for failing to be traditionally masculine, but for wanting to be traditionally masculine at all.

Ultimately the ways Hawkeye and Frank perform masculinity and femininity are pointedly in opposition, from which masc and fem traits they embody, to how proudly they embody them. The show itself draws attention to these gendered similarities and differences between Frank and Hawkeye through a constant barrage of jokes, and even whole scenes and episodes. In this way the show portrays Frank as a hypocritical loser who wants to be masculine but fails to embody all but the worst traits, and Hawkeye as a cool, admirable guy who disdains the traditional pillars of masculinity and embraces his own effeminacy.

[wishful-thinking64]

One Hell of an Unpopular Opinion #03

Characters like Barbie Wire, Chaz, Crimson, Octavia, and Stella only exist as plot devices to garner sympathy for other characters. _______ I knew fully well that Chaz and Crimson were going to merely be plot devices for Moxxie the more I watched Exes & Oohs. And sure enough, Chaz was killed at the end of that very episode and Crimson is yet another wacky cartoon villain that the narrative expects for you to take seriously. Both of these characters existed so that the audience could gain sympathy (or at least pity) for Moxxie being raised in a Mafia family and having been abused as a child along with being betrayed by his ex-boyfriend (who also happened to be Millie's ex-boyfriend for some reason.) Other than Moxxie's Mafia family upbringing making zero sense the more you think about it, Viv has basically done this exact backstory before in the form of Angel Dust (with the whole mobster backstory who was also abused by his father.) However, the Exes & Oohs episode and title actually stems from one of the HH mockup episodes that was originally about Charlie and Vaggie coming across Charlie's ex, Seviathan (yes, that's what Viv named him), and his sister, Helsa, while they were at a dinner party.

Now, do I think Chaz and Crimson could've had the potential to be good characters? In all honesty, no. Especially not Chaz. The guy is a harmful stereotype of pansexual people and how, "They'll sleep with anyone," which no, they won't. I'm not pansexual myself but that thought process is as gross as it is fucking stupid. The only person who I've seen even re-writing Chaz has been Loves Art23 (I mainly know her for YouTube videos being critical on Hazbin Hotel + Helluva Boss along with other shows like the disaster known as High Guardian Spice) and I think she's done a fairly good job so kudos to her for making him work. Personally, though I'm scrapping him as that gives me one less character to worry about when re-writing HB. Crimson would have to be heavily and I mean HEAVILY reworked/re-written in order for him to make any actual sense. That and I'm tired of every character having some variation of the same daddy issues in the Hellaverse. Which means he's also gonna get axed from me. Moving onto the ladies I mentioned, let's start off with Barbie Wire.

Having been foreshadowed since the pilot of I.M.P. (as seen when Tilla was still Barb's and Blitzo's older sister rather than their mother) Barbie Wire was an anticipated character by fans for years! And then her actual appearance finally happened in Unhappy Campers, an episode hated by practically everyone who saw it, and no one really cared about her showing up, other than the fact that the writers thought that having her seduce a BARELY legal adult would make for a good joke, when in reality, it only made everybody uncomfortable and several people dislike Barbie because of it. Sure, near the end of the episode she had that "emotional" scene with Blitzo that wants the viewers to feel bad for him and Barbie before she left but in the long run it didn't matter as fans barely even talk about it because of how uneventful it truly was. So, with that out of the way, would I keep Barbie Wire around for a rewrite of HB? To that I say, yes! There are several paths Barbie Wire's overall character could go in. If you're mainly sticking to canon, then what you have to work with is a former circus performer who lost her mother in a fire caused by her twin brother that left his own best friend to rot and be disabled for the rest of his life. It's very likely that this very fire, caused her to be out of a job and probably even homeless for a bit which could explain why she ended up becoming both a drug attic and a drug dealer. Homelessness is one of the few things that nobody wants to experience. It causes people to be filled with a sense of overwhelming loneliness and desperation as many of them either believe that there's nothing they can do or they do anything and everything that they can to get out of it even if that means resorting to crime. If you wanted to have her be loosely based on canon instead, you could make it to where she never learned about who started the fire and actually stuck with Blitzo well into adulthood. Have her become one of the members of I.M.P. and later down the line have her learn through someone like Fizz or maybe Cash (her and Blitzo's father) what actually went down that day. Have her be rightfully pissed off at Blitzo for screwing over multiple people along with being the one responsible for killing their mom. Anyway, let's proceed onto Stella and her daughter Octavia.

As much as the narrative wants me to hate Stella with a burning passion cause she hurts Stolas, I can't do it for multiple reasons but I'll list my top three. #01.) Stella's just as (if not even more so) stuck in this arranged loveless marriage as Stolas is. #02.) If the man I had no choice in marrying not only cheated on me with a man from one of the lowest classes in all of Hell but IN OUR OWN HOME & SHARED BEDROOM NO LESS? OH, FUCK NO!

#03.) This woman had to spend 9 months having to nourish and care for a baby inside her stomach that she had with a man that didn't even want to sleep with her. On top of that, she had to have become pregnant with Octavia when she was a young adult since current day Stolas and Stella are only in their mid 30s. I need you to let that information sink in.

In short, I can't hate Stella for loathing Viv's pathetic self insert bird twink with every fiber of her being.

Having said that, would I have Stella in my HB rewrite? Well, considering that I plan on keeping the war that happened in the bible that caused Lucifer and several angels to fall from grace, one of which being Stolas. Kind of. Allow me to elaborate, I would keep Stella as Octavia's mother but I wouldn't have her marry Stolas. I'd have her be a surrogate mother that way Stolas still gets an heir and Octavia could still exist. Speaking of Octavia...

We all know that she exists to make Stolas look like a better person as several stans of this show love to say how much of a good dad Stolas is when he isn't. He neglects Octavia frequently in favor of Blitzo and only pays attention to her when she's gone although EVEN THAT doesn't last long as shown in Seeing Stars where HE KNEW Octavia was missing on Earth but rather than ACTIVELY look for his daughter, what does he do? HE SITS THROUGH A STUPID LIVE COMEDY SHOW CAUSE BLITZO IS PERFORMING! HE COMPLETELY SIDELINES HIS OWN DAUGHTER IN FAVOR OF A LIVE COMEDY SHOW!

God, Octavia deserves so much better than to have a dad like him. I'm keeping Octavia for my HB rewrite so that this poor girl not only realizes how much of a bastard her dad is but eventually gets the found family she deserves. I don't plan for it to be through I.M.P. though. In closing, the characters of this show deserve to be better developed but especially the women in them.

_______

That was a long one to get through cause it's been on my mind for a while. Thank you all for reading through it and bye for now everybody!

[comicbookgirl2]

Pls don’t be mad at me because I’m genuinely curious here

But why do some people seriously think that the writer of jjk hates Gojo?

Because I’d argue that if anything Gojo was one of the favorites (yes even tho you could argue the cruel irony of his track record)

I’m not saying the way he was handled near the end of the story was flawlessly perfect (in fact I sort of have problems with how most of his story played out tbh) - but:

I genuinely think that right off the bat Gojo was built or manufactured to be memorable or popular. His design is eye catching. He is rich, good looking and charismatic all while harboring his own contradictions and convictions on himself and the world around him. He’s the entire clan leader of one of the pillars of jujutsu society meaning he has just as much social power as he does political power. His personality reminds me of Howl Pendragon??? So right off the bat he’s guaranteed to be at least intriguing/successful.

I mean in the grand scheme of things he’s the only character who got a full blown backstory arc. Not the mc not the main villain. Him.

Hes been in every single jjk movie- and his backstory got both a movie and a multi-episode arc while Yuki legit got nothing remotely close.

Plus he’s the best at everything no matter how much that kneecaps or limits others because he’s a literal glass ceiling. The story practically had a non spoken rule that pretty much no one could be better at Gojo in anything combat/sorcery wise (maybe save for Shoko/Sukuna with external RCT but I sorta digress.)

In the world where nearly everyone else had humble or unknown beginnings His backstory is almost akin to a mythological demigod- his powers are tied to a god-like being (Tengen) via fate- and the act of his birth alone shifted the balance that badly. He even alludes to his wakening/enlightenment to having some sort of higher power/divinity (idk maybe his frontal lobe was fried but still-)) Like how is that not cool and intriguing???

And that aside he’s practically got some of the best powers/moments in the series and got to fight more than once. And even when he was too strong to be around the story put him in a box in a relatively good state. Like he didn’t get pointlessly packed up like Nobara did (who ended up losing an entire eye btw), or nearly dismembered like Hana/Angel who lost an arm just to make her powers weaker. Or killed off like Yuki who probably would’ve given Sukuna a VERY hard time if she’d lived ((I’m so sore about how Yuki/Nobara was treated. Like there’s just no satisfying answer there to me lol))

Heck I’ll just say it now that a good chunk of the best writing in JJK is connected to or is from Gojo. The BEST stories in this arc do NOT happen without Satoru Gojo being connected to it in some shape or form.

So no Gojo we can’t all just forget about you.

So why do people think the writer hates him say moreso than Nobara or Miwa? (Hate how the story treated these two btw) At least Gojo’s loneliness was taken seriously.

Sure his death is sorta spotty and I do think his revolutionary ideas were loaded with untapped potential/ambition that could’ve been used to strengthen the characterization of others and the world but Like compare everything he got to how Yuji, Megumi, and so many members of the female cast got and are we sure the writer hated Gojo?

I just want to hear someone else’s take.

Maybe it’s all just a joke tho.

[lunarbard]

I legitimately think that the first three borderlands (as in 1, 2, & TPS) are good dystopian satire, despite their questionable writing at times. A game/series that took itself more seriously could highlight this better, but Borderlands would lose a lot of its edge if it did.

Handsome Jack isn't just some charismatic villain that garnered a lot of affection from players by some fluke, but rather an excellent personification of the dystopian elements of Borderlands' background setting that make it engaging.

If you look at Borderlands 1, for all its effective lack of plot, the game is about these megacorporation's disregard for the human lives they ruin and their self-defeating obsession with attaining power and control (as seen with Commandant Steele's death). Borderlands 2 took that premise and swapped out the corporate antagonist, but it's not just a new coat of paint/roster of enemies: the motivations change while following similar themes as implied in BL1, now personified in Jack.

In BL1, the Atlas Corporation believes it owns Pandora, and everything (and everyone that primarily DAHL brought), on it is unrealized property they have free claim over. They believe the vault and its contents are owed to them, and it falls on the vault hunters showing up in the nick of time to remedy the potential resulting calamity.

Handsome Jack, meanwhile, has that similar belief that Pandora is "his," just that it's his to "save." He's Hyperion's current CEO because he is willing to do whatever it takes to get what he believes he is owed, one of which is respect as a hero of the people. The people he hates the most are those who deny or deprive him of those things: see his treatment of his daughter, after "what she did to her mother." His ego and disregard for the humanity of basically anyone else, treating them as a character in his story to be stepped on and/or discarded reflects an attitude of the megacorporations that makes the backgrounds of Borderlands so dystopian. I 100% believe that the system that makes a person like Handsome Jack could have produced nearly anyone in a similar mold.

Meanwhile, the Borderlands 1 vault hunters in 2 stand in stark contrast to not just Handsome Jack/Hyperion but also DAHL. Unlike Jack, they don't care about the aesthetics of heroism; they're just trying to protect as many people as they reasonably can from the horrors of Pandora. Unlike DAHL, they didn't abandon the planet and the survivors still there when the thing that brought them in the first place didn't pan out.

I think there's also something to the crude city of Sanctuary supporting plenty of residents versus the pristine city of Opportunity that's almost completely vacant of anything except instruments of war.

Of course, Jack's fall is thematically different from Atlas. Atlas gets defeated when it's claimed "property" slaughters the military sent to claim it; Jack gets defeated by watching his notions of heroism fall apart as the vault hunters cut down the calamity he summoned to "save" Pandora.

Then you get to Borderlands 3, which understood nothing but the aesthetic of the preceding series.

The only difference between the corporations you ally with and those you fight is the former have some friendly franchise blorbos (Rhys, Zer0, and Hammerlock). The corporations aren't fundamentally flawed factions that drive the terrible conditions of the setting for their lust for profit, they're just sometimes headed by someone evil and/or incompetent who maybe wants a merger (The "merger war" between Atlas and Maliwan is a good idea in theory, but it's ruined by going "this one is good" rather than focusing on helping those caught in the crossfire).

Meanwhile, the twins don't present a coherent threat as an element of Borderlands' underlying dystopia. They're just bad guys with lore things (derogatory) and their streamer gimmick. What I think is most insulting about them, though, is that they're just an excuse to use bandits everywhere with no though for an underlying point. The bandits of Pandora are the people DAHL left behind on that desolate rock of a planet, many of whom never wanted to be there in the first place. The twins could have shed some light on how receptive the bandits are to promises of salvation by whatever means because they have no hope otherwise.

I feel like a game that was trying to be more thematically coherent with previous entries would have flipped the villain script: the twins should have been misguided/tragic figures actively striving for a new, redeemed life for Pandora, while their corporate allies use them up and discard them.

[sweetshelluvaau]

Finally: I finished Michael, the Paragon saint and Golden Boy himself!

The hours I spent on this I'm just glad I'm done but I'm overall proud of the results.

Like always, notes under the cut. Drawn in Clip Studio Paint and with Photoshop CS6 for final touches. Okay to reblog, Feedback is encourage.

Let's talk about Adam very quick:

Considering that Michael is to replace Adam in my rewrite/AU, I feel it's only fair that I talk about the character himself because boy howdy do I have things to say.

I have...mix feelings about Adam. I don't hate him, but I do find him to be wasted potential but that's basically all of Hellaverse at this point.

Alex Brightman, as always, brings his A Game. He sounds like he's having a blast playing the character and won't lie, Hell is Forever is a pretty solid villain song and one of the better tunes in the show imho

because I don't know if I'll ever get a chance to talk about it, I think Hazbin's musical score is a mix bag. The are some genuine bops (Hell is Forever, Respectless, Stay Gone being some of my faves) but there's duds as well (Poison is basically 'We have Addict at home' without any of the charm that made that song good and Whatever it Takes doesn't work because we barely know anything about Carmila to get invested and honestly it's basically a nothing song). Overall I think the soundtrack is fine but all blended together as part of a musical? It falls flat however I feel their are people who are better to talk about what makes a musical good in regard to how it tells it's story.

Anyways... that's all the positives I really have.

The way for me to describe how I feel about Adam is kinda the reverse effect on how I feel about Mammon being they are similar characters in a sense. Both grew on me in some ways but unlike the case of Mammon where his vulgarly and general asshole-ness is kinda endearing in a way (that and he's voiced by Michael Cusack who plays Pim on Smiling Firends so I'm kinda a bit bias), Adam on the other hand comes across as grating to me. I don't know why but he just does. That plus because Adam is suppose to be an angel/Saint given a higher propose, one who's in change of the Extermination that happen every year mind you, while also being thousands of years old and the first man only for him he acts like...

This!

idk man, I have nothing agasist him being a frat boy but I feel it would have made more sense for character like Adam to have a more Knight Templar persona. If you want to play with this a bit though, have Adam behaves differently around those in Hell/winners and angels that have no power vs Heaven's higher ranking Angels/Seraphim.

Around Sera and others with roles similar to hers he acts like the righteous, paragon saint that Heaven praises him to be but to those who's word wouldn't be taken against him and the citizens of Hell regardless of where they are on the hierarchy? He doesn't hide his true personality where he's basically a self righteous asshole who has no problem stepping on others and enjoys partaking in the Exterminations but also indulging in some other sinful behavior during that time because he gets to cut loose a bit from Heaven's strict mandates.

This would also play greatly within the trial subplot where it'd be harder for Charlie to sell her idea of Redemption when Heaven's leadership takes Adam's word over hers while also having the mask he wears slipping the longer it goes on, everyone slowly seeing a bit of his true colors.

As I said before, Adam was wasted potential and his role could have been played any character really. Honestly, I'm surprise they didn't go with the archangels being how well known they are in biblical stories.

Also his design sucks but that's not really much of a hot take, is it?

...This part was suppose to be very quick wasn't it?

Anyways, let's get into Michael now:

I don't really have much to say about his design other than the fact I wanted him to give off the appearance of being seen as 'prefect' and a 'paragon' especially compare to his brother, Lucifer who's seen as the boogieman by Heaven and history. He does have a more casual outfit on days he's not wearing armor but I haven't designed it yet. He does have a Halo but I forgot to add it XD

Gave him golden colored wings to add to his 'Golden Boy' persona Heaven has dubbed him. That and they're just pretty.

As I said above, Michael is to replace Adam in my AU/Rewrite. He's in charge of the Heavenly Host, Heaven's army along with it's the sub group who conduct the annual Exterminations as mandate by the Seraphim Council. Unlike Adam however, it's not a task he enjoys. Quite the opposite. He sees them as an necessary evil (or at the very least, that's what he tells himself) to keep Hell's numbers down but even then he's starting to question if this is the way of handling it. He's not on board with the idea of the Happy Hotel at first but eventually warms up to it and becomes one Charlie's bigger supporters.

Personality wise, he differs from Adam as well. Michael has a good heart. He's brave, kind and loyal to all of Heaven; but he isn't a pushover by any means. His honestly can sometimes get him in a bit of trouble with the Seraphim but he fights for what he believes is right.

Michael is seen in the lens by Heaven as their 'Paragon Saint' in contrast to his Fallen brother. He doesn't really like this title because he doesn't see himself as any better than any Heavenborn or Saint/Winners but it ended up sticking and Heaven needs to fuel it's propaganda machine after all. He's also referred to 'The Golden Boy' both affectionally and sarcastically.

He doesn't hate Lucifer. There are a few times that Michael, even with his brother being declared Fallen and 'The Devil', tried to reach out to Lucifer to mend their relationship because despite everything; he does care and loves him. Lucifer on the other hand doesn't have the patience to want to 'fix' things due to his own bitterness and Pride, even if he was the cause of his own downfall.

I'm sure there are other notes I could add by my brain is fizzing out and I worked long enough on this post.

Kesha!Bee (Already drew Beelzebub herself but I'm posting these two together) and Stolas are next on my redesign chopping block and I'm currently working on my Wrath Ring post as well. One of those will be next...

[mdhwrites]

i wanted to ask you about some legend of Korra stuff but I know you've said your not a worldbuilding guy so here's my toh ask instead: what is the appeal of camillip (Camilla and Philip)? I'm not asking as a belos hater (I mean I do hate him but more cause I find him un-intimidating- he's not exactly competent) but it's such a crackship. I'm not against it I support most ships so long as pedophilia/incest isn't involved but it's a very odd ship. Same goes for goldric but I actually didn't see as much of that ship like other people in the fandom at the time did. So why do you think people are so drawn to this ship? I know the villain x hero, enemies to lovers dynamic is popular and how there is that corruption vs innocence and bigot in love trope but most people remove Philip's villainy/bigotry? So why do you think people are so drawn to this ship?

So first: I can criticize worldbuilding, I will criticize TOH's after all, but it's just not my strongest suit, especially when it comes to my own fiction. The bigger issue with asking me about Korra stuff is just that I've only seen the first season when it was coming out, and like two episodes of the second, and went "Well, I like the slice of life stuff, didn't like the actual plot stuff and WOW this is bad now. Peace." It's also so long ago I can't actually give any real opinions of my own for something I found mostly forgettable.

Second: I would bet Philip and Camila as a ship actually has nothing to do with Philip being a villain. So a potentially awkward take I have about Belos is that part of why he may appeal to certain parts of the fandom is that, well... He's the only dude with confidence. He's the only one who might ever put his foot down. Everyone else is either too nice or submissive to have a proper backbone and there are going to be fans who strictly don't want that out of the male characters they play with. Belos gives that to someone for TOH and Camila can play against that in many ways. Either you lean into how subservient she is to her daughter's whims and have her second to him, or you have him and her push against each other as peers or you lean into the fact that both theoretically want to temper Luz into being a better human being but have very different ways to go about it, leading to its own push and pull. There's a lot of good, dynamic stuff there just by base personalities.

You also admittedly have another side of him: The Hunter side. Hunter is your edgelord, punk kid with a tragic backstory and as someone who has spent time with Belos enjoyers, one of the REALLY compelling parts about him to them is that he is arguably wronged in many of the same ways that Hunter is. Someone who was raised a certain way and was told by his family to believe in those ideals until suddenly he was betrayed out of nowhere and found himself alone. However, unlike Hunter, the cultural brainwashing actually, you know, was cultural brainwashing and he took the words to heart and committed terrible things because of it. Things he has now doubled down on for centuries as they are all he has to cling to.

That sort of backstory is RIPE for an "I can fix him" mentality and Camila is the perfect sort of character to do that. She is kind, has the patience of a saint, a firm moral code but also a perseverance which means she won't give up. Who better then to pull out the better man in him, the leader and visionary who made the Isles into frankly a damn near utopia besides his one law, than Camila? Mix that with the history he has with Luz, or general conflicts he could have with Luz, and this adds a lot of angst and stakes to anything to do with their relationship.

Camila is also admittedly the only non-squicky option for all of this with him really. I mean... As far as women who are legal go, you either need to age up characters, all of whom should hate his guts pretty vigorously, or you have Camila, Eda, Lilith, Evalyn, Terra, Dora the Explorer or whatever her name was, and Odalia. That's a lot of names... Not a lot of characters. Half of those people are people most of the fandom overlook or just don't really have a character. Odalia loses ALL of the points I talked about here because PURE EVIL according to the fandom and then Lilith and Eda both have big reasons to despise him with every fiber of their being AND they also don't really have the right attitudes to lead to a redeemed Belos, not as a main draw. Camila is the only one with the right storm of traits to tell more sympathetic sides of Belos with.

And that's okay. There's compelling stories to be had there and that's what fanfiction is all about. It is fun to dissect what romance tropes and the like are at play in a given ship though like this, so thank you for that and see you next tale.

======+++++======

Funny enough: I don't think I've personally seen almost ANYTHING of this ship so all my analysis is just off the theoreticals I can see by my knowledge and instincts. Admittedly, I don't see a lot of TOH content in general nowadays.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[kawaiioni]

I wanted to be cringe and draw King Magnifico.. (not a redesign, just wanted to get him out of that ugly stank ass outfit of his, like do my man a favor)

Also, just a warning, a rant is in coming

Regarding Wish

I watched Wish a while back- and it's been on my mind since then. Now, you're probably asking yourself "wow! They must've liked this movie so much that they are still thinking of it," WRONG. This movie, singlehandedly, was the worst Disney film I have ever seen with my own two eyes..

How your movie gonna feel like a million things happened and nothing at the same time? How are you all flopping after making classic after classic? 

I know that a lot of Disney fans currently are claiming that the movie wasn't that bad, but by saying that.. you're still saying it had something bad in it and let's be honest, it was everything from music, art, story, etc.

I don't like being negative though, so let's talk about one thing that I did like.. that being King Magnifico. [The crowd boos]

Now, I hate to defend a man whose villain song made my ears bleed but I gotta— since through the whole story I was cheering for Homie. In a way, he had a point to fear who gets their wish granted but at the same time, it wasn't correct he was keeping them for himself, duh. This right here could have served us enough content to make an interesting premise, let's be honest.. wishing upon a star doesn't do shit, but in the same context.. let people still try to achieve their dreams. (The princess and the frog did this.) 

Overall, I wouldn't have minded all too much if they had redeemed Magnifico— his bad qualities which are having the biggest ego, being a narcissist, could have led to an interesting story where he learns to be more humble but at the same time, kind. Even then, being kind was something we saw him doing.. he carried a heavy burden of wanting to appease all of the kingdom goers. That in a way, it was hard not to feel sorry when he lowers the curtain to unveil a man who is accustomed to being used as a genie rather than being able to form meaningful connections with people.

In a way, his character (as well as everyone else's character in this movie) felt like wasted potential. If this is the way that every single original IP of Disney is going to be, then someone needs to pull the plug because I cannot sit through another Wish.

TLDNR: King Magnifico felt like he had multiple personality disorder in this film because it seemed like he was good then bad— but also, King Magnifico had a point and subsequently was then jumped on camera and ended up on world star.

[ckret2]

after reading your goldie fic I think it’s alright for me to assume that you’re a Mabel liker. And that’s great because I am too!! But, I’m sure you know about the Mabel haters in the fandom and they use reasons such as “she’s selfish” and “doesn’t feel any remorse for causing Weirdmageddon” to justify their hatred for her even more. I just wanna hear your thoughts about these claims and what you think about Mabel haters in general? (also hi hope you’re doing well :))

I think Mabel haters are ridiculous lmao

I've got nothing to say that hasn't already been said by hundreds of other people who think the Mabel hate is ridiculous, but she's no more selfish than any of the other main characters (and also significantly less), pretty much any time during the show that she IS being selfish (Boyz Crazy, Sock Opera) she realizes she's out of line and corrects herself, and honestly I suspect too many people took Bill's deliberately manipulative analysis of her in Sock Opera as the truth instead of asking sensible questions like "wait, why is Dipper keeping the job that lets him hang out with Wendy slightly more than all the time he already spends hanging out with her more important than helping a lost merboy reconnect with his family? Why is that a 'Mabel is selfish' point rather than a 'Mabel guided Dipper into doing the morally right thing' point?"

The only time we fully focused on Mabel long enough to find out whether she regretted being tricked by someone disguised as a friend into starting Weirdmageddon was Escape From Reality... at which point she hadn't been told Weirdmageddon was happening. Once she found out, she kind of spent the rest of the series stopping it?

We have whole episodes dedicated to her inserting herself into other people's lives to try to solve their (personal or romantic) problems, because she can't stand seeing anyone feel bad. We have a whole episode where she has a breakdown about potentially not being a good (enough) person. We have multiple episodes that end with her saying "I'm sorry" to Dipper (and Pacifica, and Candy, and Grenda...) after she recognizes her mistake—which is more than most characters do after realizing their mistakes. Selfishness is not her predominant character trait.

She's got flaws, sure, and anyone is welcome to dislike a character for any reason. I enjoy the fact that she's sometimes kinda obnoxious in a "loud child" way, that she hasn't learned yet when well-intentioned meddling makes things worse, that she's comfortable enough with teasing her brother that sometimes she doesn't realize when her teasing goes too far, that she's afraid of the future because she sees better things for herself in the present that she's scared of losing. Other people might not enjoy those flaws. That's okay.

But when the two biggest criticisms of her are [trait the villain misrepresented to manipulate her brother] and [action the villain misrepresented to manipulate her into doing], people are missing the point.

[maxdibert]

honest opinion about Bellatrix?

Well, she’s a character I feel pretty indifferent about. I mean, I just don’t care much (at all), because she basically represents blind political fanaticism and how some ideologies are really just an excuse for certain people to unleash their sadism and violent aggression, justifying those actions through ideological principles.

I think, honestly, that beyond beliefs, what she really enjoyed was the feeling of legitimacy, the permission to let her sadistic tendencies run wild and channel them toward a specific group. Being in the Death Eaters and having Voldemort’s approval gave her the freedom to feel validated in those tendencies, and that’s why she became Voldemort’s little lapdog.

But in the end, Bellatrix suffers from the same problem as every other female character in the saga: Rowling is a fucking misogynist. Since Bellatrix isn’t a mother, a maternal figure, or a devoted wife, she’s just portrayed as a crazy, evil villain. No nuance, just pure caricature. Rowling ends up painting her as a violent fanatic who acts like one of Voldemort’s minions (a man, of course), constantly seeking his validation, and she ends up looking like one of those totally unhinged religious fanatics you see in certain cults. A simp, really.

I do think her character had a lot more potential, but Rowling hates women and doesn’t know how to write female characters, so, well, here we are. That said, I still find her more interesting than her sister Andromeda, who for some reason the fandom gives way too much importance to. Honestly, if I had to learn more about the Black sisters, I’d pick Bellatrix over Andromeda, but Narcissa interests me more than Bellatrix, for example.

By the way, one of the worst and most underwhelming moments in the whole saga, for me, was without a doubt when Molly Weasley kills Bellatrix. I found it insulting. It was Rowling’s way of saying: “Look how the housewife is superior to the ‘crazy’ woman just because she’s good and has kids and loves her husband.” And she even calls her a bitch, like that’s the peak of feminist revolution. Just... no. Everything about it was wrong. I would’ve preferred literally anyone else to kill her. But Molly? What a joke. You’re telling me Molly “I-have-no-life-outside-of-my-kids-and-knitting-sweaters-and-bullying-young-girls” Weasley could just take down one of the most powerful Death Eaters like it’s nothing? Why? Because she popped out seven kids and is a devoted wife and mother? Please. I’ll stop now.

But getting back to the main point... yeah, nothing special. It also bothers me when people try to turn Bellatrix into some kind of girlboss, because she wasn’t that at all. And not that being a girlboss is the empowering thing people think it is, in fact, it’s usually not. But that’s more on the fandom than canon. In canon, Bellatrix is just... whatever. Still, she deserved a more dignified ending. I mean, she didn’t deserve it in the moral sense — she was a terrible person — but not even she did something so awful to warrant the humiliation of being killed by Molly Weasley, especially when Rowling’s typical misogyny shines through in that moment via the whole “bitch” line. Very disappointing.

[my-acotar-thoughts]

There’s no one right way to enjoy a book series…

So one thing I tend to see a lot in the ACOTAR fandom is people questioning why people who don’t like or are critical of Feyre, Rhysand, and the Inner Circle are even in the fandom. Some people just flat out just try to gatekeep and say the rest of us should leave. And honestly, those are kinda dumb takes. 🫤

Feyre, Rhysand, and the Inner Circle are not the only characters in these books. SJM created a variety of character that are enjoyed, even the ones that side of the fandom seems unworthy of love and praise. You can enjoy books and not just accept everything handed to you as gospel. There’s only one pov in these books, Feyre’s, and sorry, not sorry, but there’s nothing in this world that will convince me that her pov alone is the most accurate telling of events, especially when she actively blocked out information that makes her uncomfortable like when she’s confronted with the consequences of her actions.

There’s nothing wrong with taking a step back and trying to understand situations from the perspective of other characters like Tamlin, Nesta, Lucien, or Eris, but so many people act like sympathizing with these characters and trying to understand their mindset makes the fans evil.

These are work of fiction. What people like in fiction doesn’t have to reflect their real life desires and views. People who claim they do are no better than the people who claimed video games encourage murder and that’s simply not true.

I like the ACOTAR series. I really do. I also hate Feyre and Feysand as a couple and am critical of Rhysand and his Inner Circle. I see so much potential in the world SJM created as I wanna see where things go. I adore her secondary and background characters. I think the bat boys are aesthetically hot. I prefer Rhys in his villain mode minus the SA. Nothing ever condones SA, not even the enemies to lovers trope. I adore pre-FAS/SF Cassian and kinda wish Nessian was nothing more than a fling. I don’t give a shit about the Elriel/Elucien shipping war and I’m a multi-shipper anyway. I do hate how shippers treat each other though! Please be kinder to each other! I think the Tamlin, Nesta, Eris, Lucien, and Jurian hate is blown out of proportion and half of it is made up or projection.

If you like Feyre, Rhysand, the Inner Circle, Feysand, or Nessian, good for you. I’m happy for you. Do whatever you please, but don’t shit on the part of the fandom who doesn’t. Let people enjoy a made up world of hot faerie men and women however the hell they want.

ACOTAR isn’t perfect but fanfiction exists for a reason. Write your own or read some that hit you in the feels like you hoped. Draw and commission art that brings you joy.

Don’t shit on people for enjoying this series in a different way than you.

If people wanna gatekeep, gatekeep against people who send death threats and wish physical harm on others. People who wish to harm others should never be welcome in fandom spaces. Death threats are pathetic and cowardly.

[foxwitchaine]

Which is your most hated character in Miraculous Ladybug?

I wouldn't say hate so much as strongly dislike, as it takes a lot for me to outright loathe a fictional character. More often than not, I have better things to spend my energy on than hating a fictional character.

But if I were to answer that, five take the top spot:

1.) Lila Rossi

I know. Surprising, isn't it. Well, it's all fun and games until you actually meet one in real life. And it's frustrating as hell getting those with the wool over their eyes to listen until it's too late. I have to emphasize that it wasn't originally part of the plan to redeem her in the early drafts. It was thanks to Rafe that I even considered doing a Lila redemption.

Lila had a lot of potential in the early seasons. Of course, that was before she was turned into a one-dimensional villain with little in the way of making her interesting. It says something that I got the feeling the showrunners were trying to make her hateable without actually putting in the effort while reading the Chameleon transcripts. (I had to stop reading to settle my blood pressure)

All in all, Lila is just a symptom of a bigger underlying issue regarding the show's writing. I personally think she has a very nice design, but it looks better in 2D than 3D.

2.) Gabriel Agreste

He's a severely underwhelming main villain. At the start, he had potential. But as the series drags on, it's become painfully clear that the showrunners don't actually know how to make a compelling main villain. He was surprisingly much more intimidating and better-designed in the pilot PV.

Gabriel also lacks the charisma you would find with iconic main villains such as Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII, the rogues gallery in the first Powerpuff Girls, Batman's rogues gallery, and so on. I could make a whole post about how to write Gabriel better, but I don't feel like resurrecting a dead horse.

3.) Adrien Agreste

The poster boy for wasted potential. When Rafe and I first started watching Miraculous Ladybug, Season 2 hadn't been released yet. He was nice, if a bit bland. Could have used some flavorblasting in both design and personality (he's a fashion model, for crying out loud. Where's his fabulous wardrobe?)

And then all the red flags in Seasons 3-5 started popping up.

As it stands, he's nothing more than a plot device to humiliate poor Marinette. And a mouthpiece for the writers' very skewed morality. We weren't going to redeem him at first, but then it occurred to me a fantastic way to strike a devastating blow against Gabriel. I won't say anything more since they're spoilers.

4.) Alya Césaire

Ohhhh boy. Where do I even begin with this one? Disregarding the racism allegations towards the writers regarding her character, Alya is just an awful best friend, plain and simple. While it's true that she's a go-getter who isn't afraid to go for what she wants, that same trait has pretty much been solidified into a toxic trait courtesy of her refusal to question Lila later in the show. Even after Marinette broke down in front of her and confessed her secret identity in Gang of Secrets.

I will forever hate that episode just for how entitled everyone was about Marinette's secrets.

When Rafe and I were brainstorming who to use as our civilian antagonist to fill in for Lila, it was rather telling that Alya was among our first choices. It wasn't our intention for her to fall as hard as she did in The Wolves in the Woods, but honestly? It was inevitable.

5.) Caline Bustier

She's a non-authority figure who coddles the troublemakers in her class. I'm restraining myself at the moment because I've had teachers just like her in real life. Who look good on paper and are the sweetest people on the outside. But their inability to discipline a class regardless of behavior does a lot more damage in the long run than many would care to admit.

Bustier is a character who I could have grown to understand if the writers handled her better. The biggest brat of the school is the daughter of the city mayor. That right there is a beautiful setup for interesting conflict. We could have gotten a plot where we had a good, caring teacher trapped in a terrible situation by her superiors. Which is unfortunately something that can and does happen in real life. Instead, we got an airhead who can't for the life of her understand this simple thing called nuance.

I find it very telling the fandom prefers Mendeleiev over her.

Honorable Mentions:

Principal Damocles: Too much of a spineless noncharacter to really care about

Tom and Sabine: I try to understand the parents' side of things given parenting is far from an easy task

Bustier's class: A mixed bag here, since I don't think they're necessarily bad kids

Mayor Bourgeois: Again, another mixed bag here since he's another spineless "parent"

Zoé Lee: Too much of a blank slate to have an opinion on

Félix Fathom: What kind of a name is that?

Master Fu: He was done so dirty in his backstory

Chloé Bourgeois: Another with wasted potential

[white-lotus-pavilion]

Qi Rong and Shen Jiu

You know something I am not all that surprised at the characters that I like the most in MXTX's novels are Qi Rong and Shen Jiu.

And in all honesty this is because of the fact that they are both villains who essentially have so much depth to them but it only gets revealed near the end when they are no longer part of the story and the potential that they have to become amazing characters not good people but just amazing characters is essentially wasted by the end of the novel and it leaves me just hanging and so invested in their stories.

Now the thing is in regards to Shen Jiu this want for more of his story and more of him as a character is very taken care of as I have been a part of the SVSSS fandom for a while and the abundance of art and fanfiction of him as the centered character is amazing and there's so much depth that is delved into when it comes to his character and I absolutely adore the SVSSS fandom for this and it is one of the main reasons they are part of my main fandoms.

We saw that his character was so interesting and he has so much to give as a character and we sunk our teeth into it and he's one of my favorite characters in the entire SVSSS series because of the fact that he is a character that is taken so seriously. He is a character that people actually think about an in turn write about and the fanfics that are centered around him are absolutely amazing and I adore every single one of them.

Now the thing about Qi Rong is that this is not the case for him. For him I desperately want more fic where he is the center focus. Where he is the one who is being delved into as a character. There are so many aspects of his character that I find so interesting.

The fact that he is essentially an abused child who grew up to become an abuser adult and then who after centuries adopts a child who essentially was just like him and helps that child heal (even if he does it in his own deranged way)

Like, that is so interesting! The past of someone who used to be abused turning into an abuser and then not reforming but finding that one person whom they can see themselves in and making it so that there's one less person in the world who becomes a horrible person. (even if it is under the gize of 'toughening them up'

There are so many aspects of his character that I find so interesting, so many can be delved into but there are essentially no fanfics or fan art about him that really go in depth into this aspect of his character. Fics and arts that really delve into what it is like to be Qi Rong. coming from and abusive household. Coming into wealth but not receiving the affection (the real affection) and understanding he needed to heal and than going right back to being abused for centuries and his self sabotaging character. The thing about him is that he is incredibly self aware of all his horrible actions and I neeeed more exploration of that!!! He is a character that fills me with so much grief because I'm like there is an amazing character right there in this fandom who is as complicated as Shen Jiu who is as hated in Cannon as Shen Jiu! Someone who has such an interesting compelling story that you have to do a double take and be like how can I expand on this.

And the fact that the potential with his character unlike SJ is being completely wasted is so devastating to me. I want fanfics that are basically all from his point of view from when he was being abused by his father to the very end of tgcf when he dies and oh my God I can't find anything and it pisses me off and it makes me want to cry because this is a travesty! a devastating travesty.

It's to the point where I'm reading tgcf fanfiction he comes up and he is portrayed as just this one-dimensional bad person I skip the parts where he is in because there's nothing interesting about his character that is being portrayed. There are so many parts of him that are so interesting the fact that even though he is crass and a horrible person his truth speaks so much louder than his lies... I want people to delved into that more.

I'm just in need of more QI Rong centered fixed that go deeper into his psychological mental state and how he views the world because he's such an interesting character but he's not talked about enough.

And don't say do it yourself. I'm deep into a small fandom that I am cultivating and am currently deeep in the brain rot for so there is no way I can focus my attention on that and sadly can't write anything for qi rong.

Fellow authors I beg you!!!