#No matter how irredeemable their actions might have been.

[intp-t-bestanalyst]

What happened to kunigami in wild card

We know that kunigami went through hell and back in those weeks he was there but we don’t know how. We know that he didn’t want to give up his dream so he entered the passageway but since the manga didn’t give us any hints on what happened, only showing us that he is now more buff than before and can shoot with both legs. It certainly doesn’t help that his personality did a while 180 from how it was before since we're used to the fair play kunigami and not to this….. emo one. So what happened to him that would make him throw away all of his manners and turn into this mannerless dark horse? I think that ego, with his manipulative tactics (we all know he has them) used a way to get into kunigamis head.

Maybe showing him his old teammates from team Z and how they succeeded/failed? Maybe he was shown how naruhaya suffered a disastrous fate because he couldn’t keep up? (I think naruhaya wouldn’t give up on his dream easily and would walk into that wild card door because of his backstory, it’s his only chance after all) maybe a couple other people he knew also walked into that door on the day they left blue lock and so he started to realise, slowly but surely, no one would keep up with him and that he was the only one that could? Making the other players there despise him and stir away from him - thinking that he was narcissistic and only cared about himself?

this could have been the reason of kunigamis change in attitude as he’s always wanted to be the hero but the way these guys are seeing it is as if he’s the villain here and he’s the one in the wrong. He’s the one that isn’t playing fair and that he’s using his physical prowess to his advantage.

I also imagine that ego got some top class soccer player/coach to train them in wild card and he was absolutely RUTHLESS. Often eliminating players if he deemed them not good enough. The coach could’ve had something against kunigami which is probably unlikely cause yknow, it’s kunigami. It would add onto the trauma and bad experience though but, In my eyes at least, it’s quite unlikely.

There’s no telling what actually happened to kunigami in there unless the author himself tells us. (I’m anticipating this day and will be waiting for the chapter to be released)

anyways I just wanted to think of what could’ve happened, feel free to add onto it :)

[angrydemonfawnbaby]

maybe one day i will be over bridgerton season three and my hatred for penelope but that day is not today

i understand that the books are different and that book polin and penelope are not what their show counterparts are but i need book polin and penelope fans to take a step back and examine the absolute psychological horror of what show polin is.

genuinely there is something so insidious about a girl who meets a guy, believes it's love at first sight, and then befriends his sister. in fact, her ONLY friend is his sister. she spends years pining, sitting and staring out of her window so often that everyone in her life knows this is a common occurrence for her. a habit. she loves him, she wants to be with him, she wants to be a part of his family, and that family treats her well, they treat her with kindness.

and she tears them down. secretly. she uses her friendship with the daughter, her closeness to them, to prop herself up. to write vitriolic things about them, to cast shame on them, to bring their reputation into question time and time again. there is something so irredeemably manipulative about a girl who takes the secrets of those who trusts her and reveals them publicly when it best suits her--when she does not want the boy she loves to marry a girl who has been kind to her, a girl who considers her a friend, who has shared her anxieties and heartbreak. it does not matter that this girl would be a good wife, or that the boy truly cares for her, because this girl is not her. and she could've told the boy herself, but that boy is kindhearted and sensitive and good and he might still marry this other girl. and that is what is truly unacceptable, that is what can't be allowed to happen. so she destroys it, thoroughly. it does not matter who is caught in the blast.

it did not matter how this embarrassment would effect the family she claimed to love as her own, the family she wanted to be a part of. it did not matter that it would ruin marina, the only other person to consider penelope a friend. it led to marina nearly dying, it led penelope's own family being shamed and shunned. it did not matter, because to penelope, the only thing that mattered was that colin remained unmarried so that he may one day love her the way she loves him.

it did not ever matter that colin already loved her as a friend, because to penelope that was not a love worth having. not from colin, or marina, or eloise.

she does not care who she hurts. again and again. with daphne, with anthony and the sharma sisters, with her own best friend. eloise confides in penelope things that not only could destroy her reputation and that of her family, but things that could get her in trouble with the queen--views that are dangerous. and despite what she says, she does it to save herself first and foremost, to keep eloise from discovering her secret.

and when she thinks that the boy she loves will never return her interest, when he returns from his time away different from the boy she has spent years obsessing over from afar, she writes about it once more. to make herself feel better, to make him feel bad. for not loving her, for daring to try and change, for daring to be something he is not--something different from the boy she supposedly loves.

penelope actions as whistledown have shown her to be a callous, selfish, manipulative person. she understands that being whistledown means having power, admits it, and she has constantly used that power to destroy other women--regardless of how kind they were to her (marina), how much they trusted her (eloise), or if she even knew them at all (kate and edwina, the queen and her infant grandchild). she is a vicious and mean person on paper, with no loyalties to anyone but herself. her actions as whistledown are undefendable and cruel. and she is whistledown, they are one and the same.

i cannot see how anyone can look at the two and see anything to romanticize. she knows eloise would not want her in bridgerton house, rightfully so, but she goes to be close to colin, and then she invades his privacy by reading his journals. she continuously lies and crosses boundaries, but her eyes well with tears immediately after and so all is miraculously forgiven--nevermind that she will go home to write something cruel by candlelight later.

even their first kiss feels like a manipulation. a coersion. she begs, cries, pleads, claims she could die never having been kissed and she knows colin is a soft, sensitive boy. he was going to marry marina after a short courtship, convinced of love, he might've went ahead married her if he'd found out about the pregnancy privately because he is a good and kind man. so of course he will kiss her.

and then he proposes, and before they can go about it properly, before he can rethink it or back out--she publishes it in whistledown. so that the whole ton knows that she has finally won. she has succeeded in becoming a bridgerton. and she continues to lie to them all. she continues to lie to colin. she smiles and plays the role of the innocent girl next door, when she has been their primary antagonist force behind the curtains for years now.

even her declaration of love is said to distract, to protect herself, when he has discovered her secret, her true identity, and she can no longer hide. she shouts it at him, like it is meant to make everything okay, to make all of the bad things she's done go away.

and in a well written story, with well written characters, it would not. it would be seen for what it is. desperate. manipulative. but this season of bridgerton is a let down in many ways, and all of them are rooted in how the narrative has catered to washing away how horrible of a person penelope has been, instead of acknowledging it and moving forward with a true redemption arc.

so instead, we get to watch a gossiping mean girl who has spent years stalking and preying on one family in particular, manipulating her way into her happy ending with said family. and everyone just has to be gaslit into believing this is okay when it's not.

[sky-fire-forever]

To the people who say that Ed never harmed the Kraken Crew:

I am genuinely so confused by this take. First of all: Ed is shown to be violent even if that's not directed at the Kraken Crew specifically. He threw Lucius overboard and thinks he killed him in cold blood and he tortures Izzy by mutilating him. Even IF he never physically harms Jim, Frenchie, Fang, or Ivan directly, he is still behaving violently. He is killing people and taking out his depression on both Izzy and the innocent people (ish, they're still naval officers) that they are raiding.

Even if Izzy (and Lucius, remember) are the only direct victims of his physical abuse... they are still victims of that abuse? No matter what Izzy has done, be it threaten him, verbally lashing out at him, or even abuse of his own if you interpret it that way justifies how Ed physically takes him apart and makes him EAT parts of himself. That is beyond abuse. That is both physical and mental literal torture

And remember, Lucius was entirely innocent. He was actively trying to HELP Ed and that did not stop Ed from behaving violently towards him.

If you say since we see no signs of Ed abusing the Kraken Crew, I will remind you that the way Ed led the Kraken Crew got Ivan killed. Ivan DIED due to decisions made during Ed's time as captain of The Revenge, likely due to the constant raids making them exhausted and weakening their ability to fight.

We don't know enough about Ivan's death for me to really say that for certain, so it's speculation. But if Ivan died during a raid, the responsibility still falls on Ed's shoulders. He is their captain, it is his job to protect and defend his crew and we are explicitly told that he did not bat an eye when Ivan went down. We even see Ed kill a member of his own crew during his suicide attempt. A crew member falls overboard and we see Fang reach for them. This is directly caused by Ed sailing into that storm.

He points a gun at his crewmates and they have NO IDEA if he's going to shoot him. They're clearly afraid that he might. Fang starts crying and they all tense up. Frenchie expects Ed to kill him when he finds out that he's been hiding Izzy. They are afraid of their captain, they believe he does not care about their lives and that he could kill them at any moment.

This is abuse. I genuinely do not care if it is physical towards anyone but Izzy or not, it is abuse plain and simple. Ed behaves in an abusive manner towards his crew. That abuse actively puts their lives in danger. Constantly forcing them to go on raid after raid after raid for no reward (because he makes them dump the treasure that they believe they are earning for themselves, as Frenchie flat out asks Izzy if they're receiving "their cut") and exhausting them in the process makes them more likely to be killed on the field. Fighting while exhausted and demoralized is fucking difficult!

And before anyone says that's just life aboard a pirate ship, isn't Ed supposed to be better? Isn't he supposed to be better than Hornigold? Even Ed remembers having good times on Hornigold's ship with Jack. And the Kraken Crew appear constantly exhausted and terrified, carving out their own moments of joy just like Ed had to while under Hornigold

I have seen posts claiming that Izzy fans have a disconnect between interpretation of a character and their actual actions, but the lengths I have seen (certain, not all) Ed fans go to to completely absolve Ed of his cruelest actions absolutely baffles me. Like... Ed made Fang kill his dog and that's BEFORE he became the Kraken.

Ed is a dark character. He does twisted shit. Is that not INTERESTING to you? Does it not fascinate you that a man perfectly capable of torturing his crew and driving them harder and harder and harder until some of them die fueled by his own desire to make himself irredeemable STILL at his core is a man who wants nothing more than to be loved? Do you not find it somewhat beautiful and that this man with so much blood on his hands is still told "someone will love you. You are not a monster, but a person despite your cruelty"? Do you not think the story of a man so completely consumed by all he has done realizing that he can not erase the damage of what he did isn't a good tale to tell? Do you think there is a fundamental difference between the man who tells Stede not to kill and the man who has killed for himself?

I feel like stripping him of his horror takes away so much of who he is. So much of what makes him interesting. He CHOOSES to leave Stede's crew on an island to die of exposure or starvation. He CHOOSES to basically kidnap Frenchie and Jim. He CHOOSES to hurt those closest to him in horrible ways

And he chooses to come back from that. Chooses to try to do better. To learn. To grow. To love.

I have issues with season two, but if we had more time to watch Ed come back from this, to see him make amends with the crew he so horribly damaged, I would have thought this was the best arc ever. Redemption stories are my favorite because it shows that everyone is capable of both good and evil. Ed is capable of both too. I really wish people would see his growth for what it is: a man so entrenched in violence with a nonlinear recovery that hurts people and still keeps trying anyway. Rather than someone who never hurts anyone at all

[ropes3amthoughts]

Kabru no last name you fascinate me. I can’t stop thinking about him. He’s such an interesting guy. Here are a couple of moments I’ve been thinking about (there are so so many more but I can only put 10 images at a time, also this isn’t a proper cleaned up essay or anything I am just rambling):

Kabru has such a weird little set of morals. What I’m making of this is essentially he thinks if someone is greedy, a thief, doesn’t want to kill monsters, and/or doesn’t want to lift the curse on the dungeon, it makes them a bad person. If someone is a bad person, it makes them irredeemable and therefore it’s 100% ok and ethical to kill them because they deserved it. But if you steal from the people who stole from you, you are just as bad as them, which is a very odd and neat little thing for him to say, at least to me. So it’s ok to kill the guys who tried to kill them, but not in a revenge like fashion. It’s only ok if they’re bad people and therefore deserve it? In that case, he isn’t the type to think two wrongs make a right, he’s more of a “evil should be punished no matter what”? This behavior seems to be normal because his party (I didn’t include the image because I have very little image space) seems to expect and encourage Kabru killing the thieves and agree with this way of thinking. They seem to know of Kabru’s desire to conquer the dungeon for good and do good, even if it’s in a vigilante justice way that may or may not involve killing a few people.

I also think it’s interesting how Kabru determines when justice is needed. When they catch up to Laios’ party, (image also not included because Tumblr is a bitch and I want to talk about so many things with Kabru and it’s like “erm only 10 images fuck you”) Rin ushers Kabru to take action immediately since they are the thieves and Kabru had said he thinks they aren’t good people. Kabru, however, wants to meet the party and learn more about their motivations. This makes me think there’s two possibilities as to why he said they’re bad, but he doesn’t want to take any action: He does think the Touden party is made of bad people, but he isn’t entirely sure, and he wants to confirm they are bad people before he takes action or he lied to his party to encourage them to go along with him because they seem very adamant about getting revenge/serving justice and they might not be as open to spending two weeks in the dungeon searching for Laios and Co. if Kabru just said “I’m unsure what kind of people they are, but I’d like to find out.” I think either is equally possible, since Kabru is precise and his assumptions can often be wrong, and he tends to lie to people if it helps him reach his goals.

There’s also this part which I find very interesting. He thinks Laios is being selfish for letting all those people die because he can’t stand to kill Falin, all because he loves her. Kabru makes a valid point here, Falin is a monster and she is killing others, so she needs to be stopped, even if she’s Laios’ sister. Laios realizes this himself, it causes him to come to his senses and even attack her himself. Then he makes a valid point about how they can’t kill Falin because it will draw Thistle to them. He listened to Kabru, and agreed with him to an extent, and offered valid criticism. Kabru is killed before he can say what he wants, but it’s clear this moment gives Kabru faith in Laios. He is interested enough to listen to him after being revived and wonders if he is a good candidate for conquering the dungeon, something that has proved wildly unsuccessful before because everybody was deemed too corrupt and selfish.

With the conversation with the elves, it’s clear he doesn’t think Laios is the best person to be conquering the dungeon, only thinking about monsters and not the future of the island or humanity, but he has potential. He’s smart, he’s capable, he cares about others, and he is a tallman, a short lived race, who is closest to conquering the dungeon. Kabru doesn’t know Laios very well at this point, saying he’ll “deal with him later” likely meaning he’s going to properly judge him and decide what Kabru thinks he deserves, like how he did with the corpse revivers. He probably wouldn’t depend on someone he’s unsure about so much if it weren’t for the pressure of the Canaries.

This drives me crazy. “Am I really ok with this?” The dungeon could’ve been conquered and sealed off right then, the threat of monsters neutralized, which is Kabru’s goal. But he doesn’t want elves to take over because they always look down on other races, take things from them, and don’t explain anything. He wants answers, he wants a more equal distribution of power amongst races. He sees short lived races conquering the dungeon as something that must happen.

I think about this so much. Kabru is fully prepared to kill himself and Mithrun here if it means it’ll buy Laios time to conquer the dungeon. Something that’s so interesting to me is that Kabru will do anything to get others to like him, but it’s not because he wants people to like him, it’s because he wants to manipulate them into acting in the interest of his goal. But he’s not a manipulative and bad person, he’s hoping to manipulate people and do whatever else is necessary for the good of humanity. This just drives me so crazy. Kabru uses himself as a tool in order to use others to reach his goal of helping humanity. Kabru can be selfish at times, thinking he has the right to decide who lives and who dies, or stopping the elves from sealing the dungeon because he doesn’t want elves to take control of it, but it’s also for good reasons. I can’t get over the fact Kabru is willing to kill himself and Mithrun to help Laios. It’s clear he’s no stranger to dying, but it’s also clear he’s a bit too eager to offer his own life as some sort of sacrifice.

This second half is written August 4th and the original half was written July 28th so the post’s tone gets totally fucked up past here. I’ve had this in my drafts for like a week and I forgot about it 😭 I’m just gonna leave the stuff above this unedited so it can reflect the original image for this post. The images beneath this were already here, but they didn’t have anything written about them so I’m just gonna try and remember what I wanted to say about them.

I think I was gonna rant about how much he loves people here? Something about how he’s super cute? Something about his smile? He does have a lovely smile. Every time he smiles, an angel grows ten pairs of wings and fifty eyes and ascends to biblically accurate status. Or maybe I was gonna talk about how he has an interest in others at the expense of himself? Like he’s so fascinated with people but he pays little mind to himself and what’s good for him and like his life. Or maybe I was just going to affectionately call him a freak?

I’m medicated now but I was not on meds like a week ago when I was writing this because they ran out. I was so much worse about him not on meds you guys it was nuts. Like I’m always nuts about him anyways but like I genuinely couldn’t think about anything besides him. Usually I think about other things too, like what music I want to listen to or what I’m gonna eat for dinner but like while I was doing literally everything I couldn’t stop thinking about him. This isn’t an exaggeration like I was eating dinner and instead of thinking “yummy dinner” I was recounting the events of “On the First Floor” and wanting to explode. When I was listening to music he kept popping into my mind. I couldn’t process a single word being said to me and I was just blabbering on about him. Without my meds to save me he would seriously consume my every waking thought. Can you guys imagine what would happen if I ran out of both of my meds 😭 I only ran out of one and it was wacko lmao the Kabru posting that would ensue from 0 meds would be really crazy I think. I hope I’m never going to see that happen though because when I’m off both of my meds I get all fucked up and sad and unmotivated and paranoid like it’s a whole mess like there’s a reason they hooked me up on two different meds lol.

Anyways, I don’t remember what no-meds-me was gonna say. I tried looking for clues on discord but all I could find from that day was that I saw a picture of him and I got so excited I felt like throwing up, I started gripping my legs and sweating (because I saw another picture of him), and my face hurt from smiling (because I was thinking about him), so I don’t think that’s any help at all. I think I was just being extra nuts that day (because no meds), but this looks like a pretty well put together rant? I honestly don’t know what I was going to do with these pictures since they don’t seem to follow the natural progression of the rant. There’s a lot to be said about every single image of him so this could’ve been like a spit let anything. Yeah so I have no idea what past-me wanted to be said about this picture.

I’m like 90% sure I wanted to gush about how stupid he looks here. Like bro doesn’t know how to care about himself at all 😭 I’m also pretty sure I wanted to go on a rant about that one IKEA poll. Ok so basically there was this poll that was like “Could Kabru (Dungeon Meshi) assemble IKEA furniture? 1. He would try it and be good at it 2. He would try it and fail 3. He wouldn’t try it, but if he did he’d be great at it 4. He didn’t try it and if he did nothing good would come from it.” And for some reason a lot of people were convinced he could and would be able to assemble IKEA furniture? Look at this man for like five seconds then look me in the eyes and see if you can still tell me with full confidence you think he could and would be able to assemble IKEA furniture. No way in hell Kabru as in “Cooking? Laundry? I don’t know much about that.” “Dust cloth? I don’t have one. What is it for?” “He just likes to clean up sometimes. I told him he doesn’t have to.” Kabru could assemble IKEA furniture. Also he probably wouldn’t anyways. He’d buy IKEA furniture and be confused why it isn’t assembled already and then he’d just leave the pieces in a corner and his landlord would assemble it for him. Kabru would be all like “Oh, you don’t have to do that. Really, it’s fine :)” but then the landlord would do it anyways and secretly he’d think to himself “I’m glad he did that because I was never going to put that together myself.” What a silly man. He’s so smart and charming and cool, but he doesn’t know what a dust cloth is. What a guy.

I feel like I’ve already talked about this picture before so I don’t know why it’s included? I could probably talk about this picture several more times though. Man he’s so crazy though what the hell. He has one million things wrong with him I love him.

I don’t remember if past me wanted to say anything after the pictures too. Maybe I should’ve just posted this without putting words on the last three pictures of just deleted them man idk. I should just get this out of my drafts though because this little thing is just gonna collect dust. I do still like Kabru I just totally forgot what I was doing with this rant and the remaining images. I’m just like awkwardly filling in the blanks lmao. Maybe I’ll write another rant on him all in one go so the rhythm doesn’t get all messed up and I can say all the things I want to say. I probably will lmao I love to talk about him.

[highfantasy-soul]

I think a fundamental misunderstanding of morality is so prevalent in Star Wars discourse and I wish more people would think in complex nuance rather than 'this side is right and if you listen to a single thing the OTHER side says, then you're falling to evilness'.

I don't think Osha listening to Qimir's side of the story and understanding it is 'her seeing she's like this evil person, and so deciding she might as well be evil too!'.

I don't see Qimir as evil. I don't see the jedi as good. So where are we when we analyze character choices?

Fighting for freedom and choice is not inherently evil (see: The Rebel Alliance). You have to dig deeper than 'I don't like the Jedi code' when determining if that person rejecting a super high-control cult is doing so to harm others or simply seek freedom for themselves or the galaxy.

Is it possible to fight against the Jedi for evil reasons? Yeah (see: Palpatine). But that's not the ONLY option.

It feeds into this idea that once you 'identify' the 'good guys' in a situation, you need to back them uncritically and to listen at all to those you're 'identified' as the 'bad guys' means you're falling to corruption and evilness. That's just...a terrible way to 1) engage with media, and 2) engage with the world.

You could have been wrong when you identified the 'good guys'. But if you never listen to the things the 'other' side says, if you dehumanize them to the point where even when they're making valid points, you shut them down simply because 'well, you're the bad guy, so it's physically impossible for you to have any 'right' things to say at all', you stagnate as a person/group and corruption thrives in your ranks and the conflict between you and 'the bad guys' will never end. Not to mention, you miss out on a lot of good philosophy when we're talking about media analysis.

It's about actually looking at what people are saying and doing critically, with as little bias as possible, that will help you make your way to 'the truth' of the matter. If you've decided you're going to put on rose-colored glasses when you look at all the decisions made by 'the good guys' and piss-colored glasses for all actions taken by 'the bad guys', then you're going to miss the actual path forward.

Sometimes, NO ONE is 'the good guy' and sometimes, NO ONE is 'the evil guy'. What we CAN do is look at everything, the effects of their actions, their philosophies, and analyze it dispassionately to try to glean some lessons from it. After all, this is a fake world filled with fake people - acknowledging Qimir might have some valid criticisms of the Jedi order isn't putting a dictator in charge of your real-life country. This isn't a life or death situation here, so maybe take a breath and realize it's ok to sympathize and understand characters in fiction who might have done things we consider to be bad.

But it's also correct to say that the way we conceptualize morality in media CAN impact how we interact with our real world. That's why I think it's so important to expose people to the idea that there isn't a clear 'good side' and clear 'bad side' you can neatly separate all people into in a safe environment such as storytelling. You cannot separate real people into 'orcs' or 'hobbits' in the real world and I think a lot of people with their purity politics are forgetting that. Is it easier to dehumanize those who do things that harm others? Yeah. Is that good storytelling to make a clear and irredeemable enemy? It can be! But it's not the ONLY way to tell a story.

Seriously, look into some more 'lit fic' stories and you'll see that the common 'good vs evil' storytelling of fantasy/fantasy adjacent genres isn't the only way to write a compelling and meaningful story. Everyone can have good traits, everyone can have bad traits, and some traits can flip flop depending on the situation. Most importantly, identifying with the antagonist and certain traits they posses DOES NOT MAKE YOU A BAD PERSON!!!!

I guess the tl;dr of this is that it's ok to not be able to identify the 'good guys' or the 'bad guys' - it's ok to look at the characters and say 'boy, this is messy' and leave your moral judgement at that. There's no law that says you have to correctly identify the perfect people in fiction and if you get it wrong, you're punished somehow. Release yourself of that expectation and I think you'll find engaging with media a much more rewarding and eye-opening experience that can help you learn things about yourself and others that you can take into the real world in a non-combative manner.

Black vs White morality is not the only dynamic available in media and it's time we reminded ourselves of that, especially when looking at Star Wars.

[confusedgayscreeching]

Hi! It’s been a while lol- I’m gonna try to get back to posting semi-regularly but I make no promises! I am currently feeling very frustrated about the arguments about Stolitz I’m seeing verywhere and I need to rant so here we are!

Okay so one thing I think a lot of people trip up with in analyzing this relationship is comparing them in the way of “who is worse.” To me that’s weird and not a realistic or productive way to talk about out this. They both suck in their own ways and it makes more sense to analyze how they effect each other and themselves rather than arguing over something so subjective, especially since even if we were able to come to a conclusion as a fandom about who is worse (which again is not possible to do objectively) it wouldn’t do anything or move the conversation forward at all.

Blame shifting and villainizing characters because you relate to one more or understand one more might make you feel good but it doesn’t actually contribute to the conversation. They both do fucked up things at different points and they both suck sometimes, but to me it makes more sense and is more interesting to look at how they both effect each other and their psychology, especially because trying to assign morality to any actions in a show like this is redundant and misses the point- looking at it from an outside lens and saying “x is bad so they are bad” doesn’t mean anything within the context of the show or the relationship and it never has.

I know a lot of us love these characters and/or relate heavily to them but starting arguments online because someone suggests your poor little meow meow possibly isn’t perfect is genuinely just dumb and doesn’t move the conversation forward at all, nor does it help us resolve or continue the conversation in a satisfying way.

This show and these characters are fucked up. They’re meant to be fucked up. They do awful things that can’t be justified and that’s just the point. When you make it a competition it doesn’t do anything for anyone and all you end up doing is invalidating other people’s feelings and opinions whether you mean to or not.

We all need to try to be more neutral and just acknowledge why each character might feel a certain way without feeling the need to justify that feeling or make them a martyr. Just like with people in real life a character’s emotions are just their emotions, they don’t need to be justified or have an arguable reason for feeling that way, feelings are valid no matter what, and what matters is how they handle those feelings.

Idk about anyone else but one of the reasons I fell in love with Hazbin hotel and helliva boss is because they’re all awful and irredeemable but they’re still sentient beings who are written in a way that shows they still deserve empathy and love, the show isn’t trying to force these characters to justify their existence by being good and that’s beautiful because the idea that human decency is conditional is far too prevalent.

Idk this will probably seem preachy and long winded but it just feels silly and disingenuous to try to talk about right/wrong with these characters or this show in general, especially considering that it ignores the more emotional inner reasons for why these characters act the way they do, which is so much more interesting to explore.

[originemesis]

"creation took 7 days; now watch me fuck it all up in one night"

canon divergent adam / abel // haz.b.in h.o.tel

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Caard-Esque:

Blog is 21+ for content concerns and mun is 25+ (an old) and will not interact with minors on this blog. minors should technically not follow me here either ~ so, don'tttttt...do that? thanks! if i catch you, you're yeeted to the shadow realm.

Do not follow this blog if you are sensitive to the sensitive topics related to this particular genre. I tag with "content word cw" for the extra wild stuff, but that's about it. adam literally has the highest swear/slur count in the show and he's only in 3 episodes, so be aware of that.

I tend to be private/selective as i get fairly overwhelmed with too much activity. i really get into plots though, and i'll spam the dash with some silly original dick chauvinism from time to time when ive fed my inner gremlins past midnight. That said, I do get easily overwhelmed when I'm following too many people and multi muse blogs in particular can exacerbate this feeling, so if I do not follow back - I might just not be in a good place to atm or I just don't see possible interactions btw our characters. It's nothing personal! ^^

This is a mutuals only interaction blog for my sanity (anons being fine). if i can see plots happening between us, i'll likely follow. but i get overwhelmed easily so please don't take it personally if i don't follow back or follow back right away.

I am not exclusive, but I prioritize my plotted threads and may have some mains/activity based off that as far as my main verse goes. But I will never be fully exclusive and i enjoy exploring different character dynamics. Also multiship is fine, but I am not exclusively here to ship or write suggestive content. My muses have always and will always require plotting and scene chemistry for me to consider writing ship material. In the case I do reblog shippy prompts still feel free to send in ofc! I'll see if I can make it work or not.

If I don't get a follow back within a week or two, if blogs i follow go inactive for up to 6-7 weeks, or if there's just no attempt on either of our ends to connect for an indefinite amount of time - i'll occasionally go through my list and soft block to clean things up. if we ever want to give it a go in the future, the option is there for us to re-follow and resume! i have in the past been made to feel like I'm walking on egg shells in rpcs regarding these matters and id rather avoid it here...im just here to chill, write and leave weird surprises in dms.

I don't like the feeling of being 'collected' so...if you are interacting with multiple of my muses, I ask you have a different dynamic for mine than them. This is just an act of courtesy I also extend to my rp partners. I interact more with folks that have a special relationship with my muse, so it's needed to deep dive into more interesting topics for me. I also do not usually interact w/ other of the same muse cuz I feel like I 'absorb' how others play him and I want to keep my version separated from that. I might give it a shot some times though depending on how it's presented.

I know that Adam is a bad guy. He's insufferable and can push buttons- but I am not him and I dislike constantly feeling like I'm being barraged for his actions, especially since I consider him to be a heavily layered character that should not be shoe horned into a standard 'ok irredeemable and never allowed nice things' box. So- if you honestly hate this character please don't interact. I am here for exploring taboo topics and ways that a flawed character can make others think he's justified, betray them, make people feel COMPLICATED things... I also love torturing my muse and taking the piss out of him, so I don't need people moving in and tying to constantly put him down/ruin his current plots by being god modey or not at least asking me how we should proceed in a power dynamic, or relationships cuz you don't ship what I ship, or find my interactions with other characters 'toxic' and 'not allowed'...let me explore and enjoy what I like on my blog within reason and do talk with me on dms if you don't like how things are going with our muses and you wanna explore other routes. I love to plot and I am very reasonable.

This post/my rules and conditions are subject to change based on what I get up to on here.

[firecrackerhh]

I sometimes wonder if the reason (if not at least one of many reasons) why antis are so against Hazbin Hotel as a show (besides the obvious anti viv bullshit) is because the very concept of redemption is anathema to them.

They do not believe people can change, and thus the entire premise of hazbin, (and frankly helluva too) is something they literally cannot understand. Refuse to understand at the least.

They don’t care about other people, they do not care if their actions in the name of their own twisted form of justice causes undue suffering, they simply want to be seen as a “good person” without putting in any actual effort to be good.

Sure, it’s easy to find a shitty person online and rake them over the coals for things they’ve said or done years ago. Effortless. But it takes real patience, compassion, perhaps slight firmness but certainly no undue cruelty to convince people they need to change, and even then, that’s a personal journey that others can at most try to influence, but they can’t make people change.

And even if the person they’re bitching about does, it’ll never be good enough.

There’s nothing Viv can do to change these peoples minds, nothing we can do. No matter how many apologies she gives they will never accept it. No matter what we say they will never accept that Viv is not fucking Satan incarnate.

Engaging with these people is a waste of time. Always has been. If Viv is so irredeemable to them, they likely look at us the same way.

I wonder what skeletons people like this must hide, anyone who acts holier than thou about being a “better” person while engaging in reprehensible behavior themselves is a rather irritating form of hypocrisy that boggles my mind.

I am no saint, god knows I’m no fucking saint, but I know what’s right and wrong and antis are wrong every. Single. Time. Any evidence they claim to have of Viv’s awful behavior is either nearly a decade old and thus clearly irrelevant given the people who vouch for her in the present, doctored discord messages (which even if they were real, shows no dates, so we have no idea how old those are to begin with) or the ‘evidence’ is so flimsy that if a lawyer looked at it he would say you’re wasting his time.

I think these people don’t like Viv’s shows because they are morally incompatible with it. They do not believe in redemption. They believe once you’ve fucked up in life, that’s it, no second chances.

I fear what they must think of our current prison population. I fear what they might say.

These people have no moral high ground whatsoever.

They dare to talk shit about the fandom, Viv, anyone else associated with the show, pretending that they’re saying what they’re saying in the name of justice, as if attacking people with their past when they have clearly changed and made apologies is in any way a justifiable thing to do.

They don’t have to like Viv, they really don’t, but calling her irredeemable, calling us irredeemable, is fucking bullshit.

None of us are irredeemable.

The fucking conceit. The fucking gall. The fucking balls on these people.

Everyone has the capacity to make good and bad choices in this life. Yes, many people don’t make the best choices, but that doesn’t mean that they should be stoned to death for the most minor of offenses. For shit that’s long been in the past and apologized for.

I’m not going to say I think very highly of humanity as a whole, I’m a fucking misanthrope through-and-through, but I don’t think we’re incapable of being good, or doing good things, we just…choose not to, a lot of the time.

I also do not deny that there are some crimes so horrible that redemption isn’t even on the table, nowhere near it. But I feel like antis treat every perceived fault of Viv as some most grievous sin that must be met with full penance by…doing what exactly?

Apologize? Again, they won’t accept it.

Donate to charities or causes? She gets shit on for it, say she’s “flaunting her wealth.”

Get off the internet entirely? In an anti’s wet dreams maybe.

Her very existence makes them so mad. It would be funny if it wasn’t so fucking pathetic.

These people twist her words in every way imaginable to make her look like some horrible person undeserving of her success, without realizing they make themselves look far worse than her by several measures.

They claim she’s racist and queerphobic, but if anything acting as if BIPOC and queer people shouldn’t ever be shown doing awful things because “bad queer/ BIPOC rep” or whatever I think is just as racist and queerphobic. Minorities are human beings, and as such they are just as capable of being shitty. I already made a post about this before, so I’ll keep this paragraph short.

They claim she’s abusive to her coworkers when it seems the one person bitching about it has no problem putting other past co workers under the bus for their personal gain. Antis claim she’s abusive while engaging in downright emotionally abusive behavior (I know that sounds kinda dramatic but I’m making a point) themselves as they shit on us for the stupidest reason imaginable: liking a cartoon.

They cry about ableism while ignoring their own.

Not that I’m all that offended if I’m honest, it’s just more evidence that antis aren’t any better than the people they bitch about.

I could go on about this for a while but you get the point.

I repeat, these people have no moral high ground whatsoever.

Frankly, as much as it bothers me that they leak patreon shit and whatnot, many fans are actively warning against them, and I think the idea of someone actively choosing to give money to someone they hate just so they have more content to shit on is fucking pathetic and getting upset about it is exactly what they want.

They want you to be just as miserable as they are. They just want to suck all the fun out of this fandom, I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again, these people are tar pits, trying to drown us in their muck. It’s pathetic and sad. No use in having sympathy, they don’t deserve any.

It’s funny how antis scream and cry about how awful we are as they ignore their own sins and mistakes, hypocrites.

If anything, their behavior is far more irredeemable than Viv’s has ever been.

I wonder when they will realize that, if they ever do. I can only hope some of them grow the fuck up and realize what the fuck they’ve done. If the ensuing guilt eats them alive, I can’t say I have pity for them.

Wonder how many of us would accept their apologies, if they chose to make one.

Alright it’s almost 7 am I gotta get to bed. Peace.

🔥🧨~Firecracker out~🧨🔥

[theheirofthesharingan]

imagine if itachi didn't die and he got a chance to live could he be redeemed for his actions? he'd helped them in the war, how do you think Konoha would react to him after knowing he undid edo tensei?

The unqualified truth is that Itachi's actions were irredeemable from the start. He could spend his entire lifetime taking care of Sasuke and helping him heal from the damage he'd caused him, but even then there was no redemption for the killings he'd done. As an Akatsuki too the list of his crimes would be too long. And he knew all of it.

The reason he inspires sympathy in readers' hearts is that he wasn't deluded about his actions and the gravity of their consequences. He never thought 'oh, i'm a victim. can i ever be happy?' He took full responsibility of his actions rather than victimizing himself and even went to extremes to ensure he was punished rightfully by the person he had wronged the most - Sasuke.

When he met Sasuke in the woods after his death his first instinct wasn't to chastise Sasuke for becoming a "criminal". He knew it was his own doing and Sasuke shouldn't be blamed for that. He didn't go 'I did it because I had no other options' etc.

Furthermore, I have very mixed feelings about Itachi living or surviving his battle against Sasuke. For his own sake, I don't want him to live. The way he'd been damaged since his childhood and found peace only with his death, living would only mean extended sufferings and torment.

For Sasuke's sake, however, I want him to live. Sasuke loved many people - Naruto, his own parents, but he never loved anyone like he loved Itachi. Worse still - Itachi destroyed his life. Sasuke would only need Itachi to find some sort of comfort and closures, and if not he'd much rather die by his side.

Forgiveness, redemption etc., are shallow words in context of Itachi's life and his death. Not only there was none for what he'd done, it would never be enough for his own healing whether he lived or not. What could redemption or being forgiven really achieve after being pushed into hell by the grown ups around him?

He knew very well his actions were unforgivable and that's what he told Sasuke too. Sasuke forgiving him is a reflection of Sasuke's character rather than Itachi's.

Coming to the second part of the question -

Konoha didn't care about Itachi, or Sasuke for that matter. Once Edo Tensei was undone, war went onto becoming more and more grave until Kaguya was defeated. The prejudices against the clan would affect Itachi just as much as it did in the past, when the only one witness of the clan's tragedy would be him. Homura and Koharu might or might not open their mouths "for the sake of the village" that too after the war when keeping up their good image of Konoha was so important to all of them.

Itachi, along with Sasuke, would probably move into a little cabin where he wasn't disturbed by the responsibilities and burdens of being a Shinobi anymore. Team Taka might accompany them. Plus, whether his name is cleared or not would always be Itachi's call. And he wouldn't want his name to be cleared either since it might make the matters more complicated for the world on the whole.

And that would still be much better than Kakashi and Naruto deciding to follow Itachi's words verbatim of keeping the truth a secret, because it won't be affecting Sasuke all that much. Itachi's truth coming out, again, was more important for Sasuke than it was for him, in my opinion. But when Sasuke could be with Itachi, he would gradually come to understand his brother's pov on this matter, because for sasuke being with Itachi is always going to be more important than anything.

[aroacettorney]

re: moriarty purposely antagonizing casey and posing himself as a villain as his method to draw public attention.

the more i think about it, the less it makes sense to me.

according to ludger, he wanted to use caseys solid reputation to expose the secret crimes committed by the highups in the kingdom of delica. but if we review his actions, they actually went entirely against his goal since he ended up killing every witness and burning every physical evidence leading back to the real culprits. not to mention, he also decided to take all the blame to himself.

caseys reputation throughout the continent was an independent variable to his villainy. she was already the messenger he needed — who everyone would be forced to believe. there was literally no need for him to become the public enemy if his goal was simply to expose the secrets of delica. he could have worked together with her. heck, he could even have secretly leaked all the clues he had found to her if he preferred them working independently. but of course, we know why that didnt happen.

ludger had another goal: to avenge arte's death. it's unlikely that he could assassinate his targets discreetly, given their important positions and the scale of this operation. casey tracing their murders back to him would only be a matter of time. as there is neither legal nor moral justification for him to commit mass murders even when his only targets are the scum of the earth, there is no universe where he could remain in a positive relationship with casey after becoming a known criminal. perhaps his crimes would have been understood if he at least told her the truth about arte, but why should he? he must not be perceived as a victim by casey. ludger becoming a murderer/criminal was a choice that he had already made without hesitation — there were people who needed to pay for their deeds. but, at the same time, he also understands casey well enough to know how important the value of justice is to her.

how cruel would it be if he were to make her choose between a friend and her own principles? how brutal would it be if he were to put her in a situation where she was forced to stop a friend's revenge instead of consolating him over his grief? how could he live with the knowledge that he might become the one who makes her compromise her sense of justice? her purposes of life?

for that reason, ludger alone must pose himself as an irredeemable evil.

She immediately overcame the sadness of betrayal and ignited her sense of justice as a righteous detective.

She possessed a heart as strong as steel.

"James Moriarty. I will arrest you here and now!"

Contained in her eyes was the sublime determination to definitely exterminate the evil in front of her.

"By all means."

By all means.

James Moriarty finally smiled.

for that reason, casey had better never know the truth.

“Maybe she found out the truth about Mr. Ludger by chance.”

“...What difference does that make?”

“Hmm. But wouldn’t it be better than not knowing?”

“It’s better not to know.”

He doesn't know how Casey found out the truth about the past.

Knowing doesn't change anything.

The past is the past.

It had already happened, and the spilled water could not be collected back on the plate.

“Because knowing doesn’t change anything.”

for that reason, casey should never forgive him even if she finds out about the truth.

“Are you pitying me?”

Casey didn't bother to deny it.

“You’ve changed. Casey Selmore.”

“Everyone changes.”

“But because you are like that, you shouldn’t forgive me even more.”

“……What are you talking about."

“No matter how good one's intentions may be, if it is an evil act, you should not stand by and ignore it.”

“That…”

Casey was about to say something but pursed her lips.

“Don’t forget, Casey Selmore. No matter how much there was a misunderstanding and no matter how good the circumstances were... In the end, I am a villain with blood on my hands. It doesn't matter if your intentions are good. Everything is proven by the results.”

for that reason, nothing will change: in the end, he is a villain that casey must defeat with her sense of justice.

“What are you trying to do, Casey Selmore? What are you here for?”

"Shut...up...”

“Didn’t you say you would bring justice? Didn’t you say you would eradicate evil in the world?”

Casey bit her lip. There was no way to refute his words.

“Stand up.”

Ludger's voice was filled with disappointment or perhaps anger.

"Stand up!"

Casey clenched her fists and strengthened her trembling legs.

The body that seemed like it would stumble and collapse stood tall again.

“I’m still here!”

[raincitygirl76]

There’s been a lot of Sara posts floating around lately. Rather rhan hitch my wagon to someone wlse’s, here’s mine:

I empathize with Sara, yes. And I think her neurodivergence does make it more difficult for her to understand neurotypical people. And in several of the paragraphs below I talk about how I think the show is setting up a redemption arc for her. And I want to see that arc play out in S3. But there’s no denying she’s made some spectacularly terrible life choices in S1 and S2! Her neurodivergence may well play into why she made those choices, but it’s not the only reason. In 1.06 she cut a deal with the sex offender who’d just victimized her little brother, all so she could board at Hillerska. That’s a BAD choice, no matter why she made it.

I don’t think she’s irredeemable. In fact, I suspect a big part of Simon’s arc in S3 will be him figuring out a way to forgive her, and forge a healthier sibling relationship with her going forward. Just as a big part of Simon’s S2 arc was him figuring out a way to forgive Wilhelm, and forge a healthier romantic relationship with him going forward. Simon and Sara’s relationship has always been somewhat dysfunctional, but perhaps it can become better. Although I don’t think Simon will forgive his big sister until late in S3.

On the bright side, as of Sara’s last scene in S2, she’s trying to make amends already. In 2.06 she breaks up with August, rejects the dream gift he offers her (owning Roussea herself), and calls the police to report August’s crime. Sara is now actively trying to atone for the harm she’s done to her younger brother. She just doesn’t realize that she’ll get him into legal trouble, because August won’t hesitate to use those pill bottles against him. Sara seems to have accepted that Felice also feels betrayed by her. She’s chosen to return home, so Felice will no longer have to share a dorm room with her.

So it seems like a redemption arc for Sara has already kicked off. She did something terrible to her brother in 1.06, and she spent most of S2 doubling down on that initial awful choice by pursuing a relationship with August. She also sent risqué selfies of herself to the guy she already KNOWS leaked a video of her brother naked and having sex. Which is astoundingly dumb, given Sara is an intelligent young woman. Or perhaps more naive than dumb. She’s in love for the first time, after all. She trusts August because she loves him, not for any objectively logical reasons.

But as of 2.06 at the shooting range, Simon now knows Sara repeatedly chose August over him. She got into bed with August (figuratively in 1.06, and literally in S2) knowing full well he’d committed a sexual offence against Simon. And she’s finally realized Simon is DEVASTATED by the news she’s betrayed him profoundly. Also that August wasn’t worth protecting over her brother. He’d used her tip-off to blackmail Simon instead of to confess his crime to the police, as she’d expected. It was naive of Sara to expect that from August, but she’d projected what she wanted to see onto August.

But when push came to shove, August, even though he truly loved Sara, didn’t hesitate to pile a new felony on top of the old one and blackmail her brother into silence. Because love or no love, August will never take responsibility for his actions. When push came to shove, by contrast, Sara finally realized her actions had been horrific, and she soon started trying to atone.

Would it be better if she’d realized earlier in S2 she was making terrible mistakes? Would it be better if she’d never made that initial deal in 1.06 to throw her brother under the bus? Yes and yes, of course to both. But while she made those fucking awful choices in the first place, she has now chosen to take responsibility for said choices. And to try and clean up her mess, by reporting Simon’s abuser to the police, and vacating the dorm room she shared with Felice.

Simon might think at first this is too little, too late from his sister, after such a huge betrayal. Especially since he’ll probably end up in trouble with the police himself over the pill bottles August still has. But while August regretted leaking the video, he never seriously considered taking responsibility for the harm he caused Wilhelm and Simon. In fact, he went to extraordinary lengths to avoid being held responsible, by the police, the judiciary, and the general public. Sara did awful things too, but the penny finally dropped about how badly she’d hurt her brother and how little August deserved her trust. And then she wanted to fix her mistakes, make things right for the people she’d hurt.

So yeah, Sara Eriksson’s made terrible, spectacularly bad decisions. But she’s certainly far from irredeemable.

EDITED TO ADD:

In retrospect, “redemption arc” may not have been the right wording. I do think Sara will be on a journey in S3 that will end in personal growth and hopefully a better relationship with her brother and her mom (Sara can’t be so critical of Linda for not leaving Micke immediately now Sara too has been in love with a bad person). Anyway, below @bluedalahorse has a great post about the term redemption arc, its connotations, etc.

Also, @darktwistedgenderplural has a great addition to my original post, referencing Sara and Simon’s childhood trauma from Micke. And suggesting that Sara dodged a bullet by seeing August’s true colours only a few months into their relationship.

Gradually August could’ve turned abusive, and it would’ve been much tougher for Sara to extricate herself from his life if they’d been together for years, possibly been married, and possibly had children to tie them together even after a divorce.

And this debacle of a first love affair Sara’s experiencing could bring her closer to her mom. Linda could have valuable insights for Sara from her own experience being in love with a man who turned out to be a walking red flag. And Sara might become less dogmatic than she was in 1.06, when she blamed Linda for not leaving Micke immediately, as soon as she realized he was hurting their family.

Because Sara now has her own experience of having a romantic partner and loving him (and hoping he’ll change). Even though he’s hurt a loved one of hers. For Linda the partner she loved and wanted to change was Micke, and the loved ones he hurt were Simon and Sara. For Sara the partner she loved and wanted to change was August, and the loved one he hurt was Simon.

Either way, I could see Sara displaying more empathy towards Linda now she herself has been in a similar situation. And Linda maybe opening up to her daughter more.

[eyeknowmayhem]

// thinking … idk. How to best words this but I have been like, mulling it over in my head about how to write a but. Here’s some word vomit under the cut. Content warning for talk of emotional abuse and poor caretakers and also spoilers for mutant mayhem, I guess.

Mostly thinking about how for mutant mayhem so much of like, why the stockmans as individuals and a whole group are the way they are is because of Superfly. I mean, when this line is literally in tales:

“You grew up in a loving and stable home… they grew up with superfly.”

Idk, it makes me think. I hesitate to talk about a lot of the superfly stuff in detail because it’s an upsetting topic that for many including myself does hit close to home. I mean, it was written to be an unhappy and unstable living situation. It was a deliberate choice to have it be a reflection of splinter and the turtles; and both families were shown as complicated and multifaceted. Splinter is imperfect in similar ways Superfly always was. To represent that experience- of not having a cookie cutter “nuclear family” all media n Hollywood tends to show kids. not everyone gets caretakers that love them the way they should.

Make no mistake I do try and incorporate and acknowledge in my portrayal both for canon and adjacent verses. No matter how you slice it the other stockmans were embroiled in a worsening situation of crime and isolation, suffered emotional abuse, and had to witness their oldest brother commit unspeakable acts of violence in the name of “protecting” them. On the flip side,

Frankly I hate a lot of the way fanon can try and twist this to be one extreme or the other— excusing SF’s actions due to his past trauma or vilifying him as an irredeemable monster. He’s neither of those things. He did what he thought was best for his family, he put his blood, sweat, and tears and that fermented into resentment because their situation was, fucking hopeless. Their situation would’ve continued being hopeless even if sf never decided to build that machine.

It’s just, complicated. A caregiver with ptsd and no way of managing symptoms or having a support system will always inevitably end in disaster and heartbreak; let alone a caregiver who started out when he was literally a child himself (!!) it was a tradegy from the start. My own mother has ptsd and she struggles to this day. Even with her support system and her coping skills. It’s hard to talk about in a way to make sense for an outsider because- you never really get it unless you see and experience it first hand. How hard it can be to navigate. How frusterating it is for everyone to write it off as a lost cause

One day I might write out specific headcanons and meta about like, the way specific stockmans handled it all and how they’re doing in the aftermath. Just because canon moved on immediately doesn’t mean I have to

[luthwhore]

Waaay too late to the party, wanted to write back when you made the post about the twitter thread complaining about possibility of Lex being redeemed and forgot 70% of what I was gonna say, but I agree. Beyond personal preference, my argument is that the big part of the character and his dynamic has always been the "You could've used your genius for good" tragedy, and that just doesn't work if he's written as the evilest man on Earth. Might as well talk how sad it is Darkseid ain't running a utopia. I get how that can get unfomfortable with "He's a BAD billionare instead of a good one, which would be the best thing ever", but I think it can just as easily be framed as "he chose to be a billionare instead of a scientist"-hell, the vigilante thing fits into that pretty well!

exactly!! and tbh the fact that lex isn't an irredeemable monster is honestly one of the most interesting things about him? lex seems himself as a hero and he wants to do good, but ultimately his own ego usually ends up getting in the way of it, because he's usually more concerned about how other people perceive him than the actual effects of his actions.

there are also only so many stories you can tell that are "superman vs a super evil guy who has a lot of money and keeps buying his way out of trouble" and eventually, it's going to get boring and repetitive, esp bc it's disheartening to see superman lose over and over again.

his story is far more interesting, imo, when there is some kind of emotional stake for superman. when you have a superman who sees a sliver of good in lex, no matter how small. that's part of why i like seeing stories where lex is contrasted with the joker, because lex -- at least when written well -- has standards and isn't usually interested in harming civilians.

(probably the thing that will make me groan and tune out of a lex story faster than anything is seeing him referred to as "a sociopath", both bc i feel like it's a gross misrepresentation of his character, and because I'm personally really tired of seeing personality disorders tossed around as pejoratives.)

i think it's also very telling that -- at least in my observations -- people who care deeply about superman lore tend to prefer pre-crisis and superman: birthright lex over the byrne-era, whereas most people who want lex to just be the evil CEO -- or worse, who want him to be "updated" into just being a musk parody -- tend not to be people who actually read his comics or engage with superman lore in any meaningful way.

there's a reason, imo, that most superman content from the 2000s onward has been trying to retcon lex to be either closer to his pre-crisis iteration or closer to smallville, and that's bc those are the versions of the character people actually... you know... like.

[mantisgodsdomain]

15 secily iopara ?

(for this ask game)

15. Worst thing they’ve ever done

For SECILY IOPARA? War Crimes Georg?? The woman who attempts to sword fight and kill a random kid??? Secily "has murdered enough of Repiton's population of trolls to be a statistically significant cause of death" Iopara???? THAT Secily????? There are so many war crimes on that list! She's done So Much shit!!! There's a good chance she's, like. murdered someone in front of their bondmate and then left them to rot on the floor for As Long As Corporate Cleanup Takes To Arrive as an example or something! She would still think she's justified in doing so because her years of existing as nothing more than a pawn and weapon for Corporate have irreversibly twisted her view of herself and her actions and her own ability to exist as a person has grown steadily more detached from reality! You expect us to pick a single worst thing she's ever done from SECILY IOPARA???

...volume eleven's toll road was pretty fucked up, we think. Not in terms of, like, how objectively morally bad those decisions might be, or in terms of how bad it was compared to Everything Else She's Done, but emotionally it feels a lot worse to kill someone who you genuinely love and care for than it does to kill people that you are socialized to see as Irredeemable Criminals. Even if it's not necessarily, like, the worst thing she's done objectively, it certainly feels worse, and that's part of what matters, really. With any enemy, you can convince yourself that they are inhuman and unneeded and deserving of death. With a friend - with someone you would consider one of your foremost allies - it's different, and to allow a death of inaction when her own life has been haunted for years by a death of inaction? Is, in its own way, worse than the deaths she has directly caused herself.

[zushimart]

I think him not deleting himself is a better way for the story when it comes to meeting the people he's affected, I just think that the way he deleted himself was better way for the story for himself. I think they handled his attempted suicide and attempt to fix things really well, because not only does it show that you can't actually change the past or future of teyvat unless you're an alien variable, but also that he was willing to take his life for a person he spent hundreds of years "hating" just because he learned they didn't betray him. It just fits really well with how he still hadn't moved on from the death of the first people who let him exist as himself.

I'm explaining this kinda messy because I'm hungry rn :/ but what I mean is I think what they did with the story was the best for both teyvat lore in general and also his own self, but if he's to meet the inazuma squad in an event or something I think it's gonna be kinda messy to write it well. Like maybe they'll just include a line that's like "oh yeah the traveller told me about you etc etc" and I don't really want that, but I also don't want one of those black background white text "wanderer explains what he did in the past" so even though I really like the way it's written I'm kinda worried for the conclusion of his own arc (kaedehara buddhist enlightenment) because I can't think of a way to show it well without it being either very long or anticlimactic

YESSSS i agree with you onn that. i think ive talked about how i do like (from a storytelling perspective, not.. you know.. LOL) the severity and SWIFTNESS of his decision to erase (kill) himself. it was very stomach-dropping in the moment if you were someone that already cared about him. i actually remember putting the game down and walking over to my roommate to just sit in silence for a little bit LMFAOOO. it exemplifies how impulsive & swayed by emotion he is and just how deeply his self hatred motivates his actions as well as his EXTREME DESIRE to love and trust others (and how he felt like he couldnt for so so so long). but i also think it effectively shook any mistaken preconceptions other players might have had if they werent as invested in his character (people who thought he was irredeemably evil or inherently malicious in character, it's pretty hard to believe that about someone who can regret their actions so much and so quickly and immediately try to correct what he's done at his own expense). i'll try and go find & reblog my initial thoughts ab the quest tbh i wanna go reread what i wrote.

from like an authorial perspective, erasing himself from irminsul feels very much like one of those "i want to write this so bad because i think it is a fascinating development for this character, but it does not fit in with what i want to do with this character in the future and therefore might be more trouble than its worth as it undermines other plot points i would like to achieve with this character" which when i encounter that i usually write the scene to get the inspiration OUT but treat it as a separate timeline or a "what if."

this is legit completely personal opinion so it doesnt rly fucking matter at all but i honest to god don't find "no matter what you do, the past cannot be changed" something to be particularly interesting. so i guess thats why i have so many qualms with this direction. maybe its bc like. duh. to me. and maybe bc im not particularly invested in the overall story, so i didn't catch anything it might move along in the traveler's development. So i guess thats why im a believer in 'this could have been done differently and better. some Other way for him to find out about niwa.' especially because i've already had a myriad of qualms with the storytelling regarding scara before this point. so my perspective is a bit warped by opinions .

i think i just HATTTE the clunkiness that i expect to follow in regards to his character relationships. like there is something so uncomfortable about it to me like, i just.. u word it very well. it's gonna be Messy. and im always stressed about "messy," especially because i already felt like the storytelling behind his resolution was Already messy. the quest itself re-iterated his past .. so many times... i remember getting Annoyed... (through a) already accessible lore, b) that stupid academic paper, c) irminsul scene d) the "storybook", ANDDD e) re-living his memories... it felt very repetitive, almost overkill to me). so im just dreading what's to come especially if has to re-hash things to characters in-game that have already been explained to the player literally four sometimes five times over. i just want to get to new developments, NEW plot-points, NEW storylines and i want them to be COMPELLING and i want him to develop COMPLEX and MOVING and STRONG character relationships.

[katyspersonal]

@ Fellow people with BPD: if after a friendship got broken with you (or it even was just a bad interaction) you are told that you are toxic, abusive, have been horribly manipulative, are harmful and other stuff like this - check the facts.

Talk with people that like you and had no drastic problems with you so far, read up into what IS the difference between unhealthy relationship and abusive relationship, if you can - seek a mature and unbiased person to properly reflect on your actions. If you somehow got blessed to have a nice therapist (like I did) - TRUST them when they justify how you aren't a monster. Apparently we are very easily convinced that we are irredeemable harmful abominations that should never be trusted. We get called abusive and we BELIEVE it. Why? Well, for the same reason we fucked up that friendship - because we have 0 clue about emotional boundaries and what defines harm and manipulation. We just can't know better because constantly being disturbed and hurt is our NORMAL state of being, but we are inclined to believe EVERYTHING we are told about how bad we are. We just want to agree because it feels like the only way to not cause any more harm, but it is not.

Odds are, you are not a harmful abusive monster just because you don't take rejection and abandonment very well, or because you sometimes can snap or vent too much, or because you let people know when you hurt yourself or want to die. People who do like you are not "unwitting victims who just can't tell how you are an awful person that better stay away from everyone", they simply have different boundaries and different temperament. Some people might just feel less bothered by your mood swings, some people can't help but feel bad for you rather than creeped out, some people know what you tell them when you spiral is not true, there are people with their own issues, there are people who are immune to strange and erratic behaviors, there are very emotional people who consider frequent fights normal, even.

Don't let anyone convince you that you should just rot in loneliness and that every single negative emotion you display after being put "on the watch" is somehow evidence that you can't heal or be good. The practice of attempting to exclude and throw away a person for being mentally ill in a concerning way will NEVER, EVER be okay. It will also never be okay for some entitled ableist freaks to try and learn every single detail about our personal life to find more "evidence" that we should not be loved or trusted. Mentally ill or not, not a SINGLE human being can permanently get rid of some natural flaw, they can only control and suppress it but it will show up sometimes. People without BPD also might have poor impulse control, they also can get too clingy, they can also go insane from fear of abandonment, they can also cope with pain in unhealthy way, they can also end up manipulative. But they do not buy attempts to be thrown away, they realize they have a flaw and still seek place in society. We unfortunately have many flaws, but we should demand being held by the same standards as other people rather than being written down as "too defective". None of us deserves to be starved off affection and attention just because we play life hard mode and mess up a lot while trying to find love.

Abusers do not seek 'love', they seek CONTROL. That's a huge one.

I hope that people you unfortunately have hurt can find healing and peace, and naturally they have right to leave you without a chance for forgiveness, but they can NOT speak for people that love you no matter what, they can NOT speak for "society" in general, and they can NOT speak for YOU.