#and also have it not be so disingenuous bc the characters are mostly always in character and are assholes as a result

[sqwdkllr]

fuck radiosilence/radiostatic fans fucking ruin me with the extremely relatable aroace perspective in their creative works. I don’t think I would have ever predicted genuinely getting emotional over some guy with a screen face and a guy with a fucked haircut. This is so awful why are you guys some of the most talented writers I have ever seen

How am I supposed to sleep and move on with my life after reading an aroace character realize they are different and it’s not common and find themselves mourning for that connection while detesting it outright? Fucks sake just gut me instead it would hurt less than this

[pastelpinkkadan]

My most blunt, controversial ACOTAR opinions. Nothing is safe, nothing is sacred. Mind the tags for your own peace of mind please.

P.S.: Absolutely not directed at any other blog/person specifically. Just general fandom/shippers.

Elriel/Gw*nriel:

Gwyn is not that important of a character. She is a secondary character whose main purpose in the story was to be Nesta’s friend. She has no connection to any overarching plot. She could literally never be seen again in the books and all the main plot points would still work.

People have inflated Gwyn’s character and importance solely because they ship her with Azriel. And they ship her with Azriel because 1. She is the only other single female character (besides Elain) that he has interacted with. 2. Gwyn is enough of a blank slate for people to project/self insert themselves into and thereby romance themselves with Azriel 3. Gwyn has only been shown in a positive light, with only positive personality traits (good friend and can wield a sword) so there’s no REAL controversy on her character/personality. Because there’s not enough to actually have any controversy.

If Gwyn was actually that important, Emerie would also be as important, if not more so. But 90% of time Emerie is forgotten by the fandom. Even to the point that the theory of an Illyrian plot is somehow given to Az and Gwyn, rather than Emerie. The two people that, arguably, have the least skin in the game concerning that theory. And the reason Emerie is this pushed out of her own potential story line is because she isn’t shipped with Azriel or another Fae male.

If there was no Bonus Chapter Gw*nriel would not exist. Or at the VERY least, it would be acknowledged as the crackship that it is. Because outside of the BC, there is nothing in the main ACOSF to accurately ship them to the degree that the fandom does. Elriel, however, still has several books where canon scenes have taken place. The BC is absolutely not needed to show that Elriel have feelings for each other, we already knew.

“Well Elain gave by TruthTeller, so Elriel isn’t end game!” Is one of the stupidest reaches I’ve seen. TruthTeller was always, OBVIOUSLY, meant to be something lent to Elain for the war. It wasn’t a permanent gift, and Az didn’t say it was. He said he wouldn’t use it TODAY, implying he would expect to use it again in the future. Imagine -

“Well Gwyn gave back the books Nesta recommended to her, so they obviously aren’t friends.”

Thats what y’all sound like. It’s just purposely misinterpreting things in a scene that obviously aren’t there for the sake of your ship. It’s disingenuous and not at all the win you think it is.

You cannot call Azriel an incel/fuck boy for Elain and then ship him with Gwyn in the same breath. If he’s all those things with Elain, he’ll be the same for Gwyn. She is not magically going to make him “better” or a gentleman. Actually, he’s already a gentleman. He just didn’t have sexual thoughts about Gwyn and y’all can’t stand it.

Same vein, but if Azriel had had those sexual thoughts in the BC about anyone else besides Elain there would have been no issue/debate.

If a Gw*nriel book did somehow happen, it would 1000% be for fan service/peer pressure. No previous books have set it up, even the main story in ACOSF. Elriel has been setting up since book 2. It makes sense. Anyone who says it doesn’t just doesn’t want it to happen, mostly because they don’t like Elain. And that’s also mostly because they can’t see themselves in Elain, so they lash out.

Saying Elriels are delusional is the wildest thing, because Elriels have the most canon scenes spread throughout the books, Elain and Azriel have interacted with each other positively the most and the longest, and they are the only potential couple that actually bluntly like each other. They exist outside of misinterpreted bonus chapters and “what if” theories with no real backing.

Elain:

Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, part of the Elain hate IS misogyny. The amount of hate this character receives, compared to what she has actually done in the series, is entirely undeserving. She has received the same level of hate, if not more, than Tamlin, any of the ACOTAR villains, and Nesta, who is still a very controversial character. And for what? Liking Azriel, and not wielding a sword while doing it, apparently.

Elain liking flowers does not determine who she’ll end up with. For fucks sake we didn’t know Nesta liked to read smut or was great dancer until her book. And neither of those things determined her partner. It’s just what she likes. Same with Elain.

Nessian/ACOSF

The idea that Nesta will leave Cassian and make her own court is stupid.

Being anti-ACOSF but Pro-Nesta is a streeeeeetch, because all of Nesta’s actual good character development came from ACOSF. Like, did you like that she was angry and unhealed before? Because that’s where she would still be without all that happened in ACOSF.

People don’t understand the intervention that HAD to happen with Nesta in ACOSF. And I would even venture to say that most people against it have never HAD to have a real intervention with someone to that level. The level of, go to rehab/therapy or you are not allowed to be in my house/take up my resources. Because you will not get better on your own, you will only hurt yourself or others and I won’t enable you anymore. It’s a difficult decision that but often it is NECESSARY. Speaking as someone with several addict family members.

El*cien/Lucien:

All the theories about an El*cien plot line are completely focused on Lucien, and ignore everything built up with Elain. It’s always about Lucien figuring out his heritage, becoming some High Lord of one of the courts, or something with the Band of Exiles. Elain doesn’t have to be involved for any of that to happen. She’s pushed to the side in her own romantic story line. Nothing about her Seer powers, or the fact that she’s apparently been gaining spy abilities, or her place at the Night Court.

Lucien fans make me hate Lucien more than Lucien ever could.

The poor Lulu mindset can die.

While we’re at it, the theory that Elain likes Lucien so much that she avoids him is also stupid. That makes no sense. She loses her boldness around. She got better WHEN HE LEFT. All of Elain’s most powerful moments are when Lucien isn’t around. And that says something.

People cling to 1st book Lucien so much, but he has not been that way SINCE book 1.

Tamlin:

Tamlin already got a redemption arc when he brought Rhys back to life. He doesn’t need another one, and he certainly doesn’t need a full book.

The Tamlin/Elain ship is stupid and only benefits Tamlin, not Elain. Once again placing Elain to the side of her own romance, much like El*cien.

ACOTAR:

If you hate everyone in the IC, you don’t actually like ACOTAR. They’re the majority of the books, including half of ACOSF. And it’s actually really stupid to hate the IC and still pretend you’re an ACOTAR fan. Because, again, the IC is the MAJORITY of ACOTAR. Please read something you actually like.

If you hate the entire main story and main characters of ACOTAR, but like one or two characters, you don’t like ACOTAR. You see yourself in a character, and want the story to reflect what YOU want to happen to that character (ie, yourself), and can’t handle that it didn’t. You don’t actually like the ACOTAR series. Again, maybe it’s time to read something else.

3 Acherons x 3 Bat Boys isn’t cliche. It’s a pattern. It’s a literary motif. It’s a theme. It is a pattern that SJM has naturally set up, the fact that you can see and assume that Elriel would be apart of that just means you can recognize basic literary devices in a fantasy novel. Which is the POINT.

I have no intention of debating anything. I’m just stating my opinions on my blog, like everyone else gets to do. So take that as you will.

Anyways, thanks for coming to my TedTalk.

[comradekatara]

This is kind of related to the ask that you just answered (about how azula interacts w the others after she’s a better person) but what do you think about her and iroh’s relationship going forward?

this is an interesting question, bc as opposed to the other characters in the show with whom azula would/could have the opportunity to mend her relationships, iroh is also at fault for the nature of their fraught relationship. he basically all but disregarded the wellbeing of his niece, so positioning him as a victim of azula’s crimes would be incredibly disingenuous considering that he was the adult. and imo if he considered zuko his responsibility, he should have cared about azula too. iroh would be hypocritical not to recognize that azula is equally capable of growth, learning and healing. so he should try to show azula the same unwavering love and support he showed zuko, even when zuko was at his worst. it would be cynical to assume otherwise. 

i’ve written about this before here, but i think azula resents iroh in ways that zuko never did, so it would definitely be more difficult for her to accept love from iroh, especially seeing as azula didn’t have ursa as a healthy model of what love should look like to compare him to like zuko did. when zuko was at his worst, his relationship with iroh was certainly fraught, but it was also quite evident that he loved his uncle. azula is both better at lying to others and lying to herself than zuko ever was. so accepting iroh’s support would be difficult. 

even if/once azula disavowed ozai’s worldview entirely, i still think she’d resent iroh on a personal level. she’d probably feel abandoned by him under ozai’s abuse, knowing what he did for zuko while leaving her alone with her father. iroh knew full-well what ozai was capable of doing to his children, and as far as we know, he never tried to reach out or help her. she probably also feels like iroh was trying to poison zuko against her, and that iroh helped fracture their relationship. so there would be a lot for them to work through emotionally. 

i’ve written about their reconciliation in this post, and i’ve been toying with the idea of azula staying in ba sing se, becoming the new tea server at the jasmine dragon. for a little while, at least. having the “lee from pao’s tea shop” moment she deserves! and since sokka frequents the jasmine dragon (as a student at UBSS), mostly to play pai sho with the owner, he would delight in bossing azula around, giving her increasingly more complicated tea orders. and playing pai sho with her while she’s on her break. (sokka and azula’s hypothetical friendship is just so delightful to me. ok anyway!) 

of course, i want azula & iroh to have a good relationship. it sucks that in the show, we see iroh try his absolute hardest to reach out to zuko (with spectacular payoff) but he never even seems to show sympathy to azula, who is also suffering from ozai’s abuse. the “she’s crazy and needs to go down” comment has always left a particularly bad taste in my mouth. (but iroh is canonically a misogynist sooo....) but even with all their baggage, i think they could forge a relationship. they have a lot in common, and i’d like to think they could see eye to eye. there’s a lot to apologize for, and to work through, but we know that iroh is capable of doing the work, and i do genuinely believe that azula can too. so. they’ll get there.  

[matoitech]

there’s this scene later in the book where ratha’s like i’m too compassionate.. my instinct is to be kind and reach out when it shouldn’t be.. and im thinking huh ratha i don’t think anyone would ever accuse you of being ‘too nice’ and i’m not totally sure where you got that your instinct was to reach out when your instinct has, in previous books, been the opposite.. though this book features her thinking more abt / wrestling more with misogyny explicitly than any previous except maybe the first book when she overthrew her tyrannical uncle and became leader in the first place. and that scene in book 5 also has her thinking ‘maybe all the powerful men i’ve stood up to in my life were right and women can’t lead because we’ll always be swayed by kindness’ like ok i get the intention w this being ratha’s darkest loneliest moment and her thinking she’s failed her clan, but i can’t say i really understand RATHA saying it, when ratha being pretty brutal has always been a part of her character, and she always has to make a conscious choice to reach out and struggle past her own fear and even revulsion of anything Other to do so. maybe it’s not supposed to be that relevant to her it’s just a dark moment for her and she’s thinking of things others have told her or she grew up hearing? i’m thinking it’s probably more that... would also be disingenuous of me to ignore that the authors a woman so it’s likely that misogyny became a stronger feature of this book bc it was smth the author wanted 2 include more or was thinking more about, and also that book 5 in writing style and themes makes a lot of nods back to book 1s writing (mostly w sensory descriptions, but w this too)

[initiumseries]

Well I remember how @zalrb was talking about how villains are given too much emotional backstop which undercuts their evilness these days, but I thought that Joker was done well in the sense that it wasn't like his mom died and he was like ok I need revenge because I'm so sad... like there is this whole thing where he starts off as a depressed clown, he has a laughing condition, and his mom keeps all these important secrets from him but he kills three men before he learns all this messed up stuff about his background. He is evil beforehand, doesn't feel remorse since the poor in Gotham hail him as a hero (because the guys he killed were rich) and its like the secrets from his background just intensify his descent into evil and madness.

This is also a story where I thought the mental health trope of like madness/disabilities as a reason to be evil was not overdone/offensive, since Joker being the way he is because he is actually insane makes sense with his character from the comics. Like I know the whole point of Joker is that he doesn't want his identity to be known so giving him a backstory was controversial, but I think they pulled it off. And the way he got supporters in the film was so interesting clever as well. I really think you should watch it, I wonder why you think it will be self indulgent?

ah okay, gotcha.

Mostly I think it looked self indulgent because, at this stage in the game, ANOTHER movie about a sad white man who just gets more sad, and because he's sad, we're supposed to root for him when he begins his serial murder spree, over circumstances that marginalized groups have to navigate all the time, amongst other things, and don't go around murdering a shitload of people, will always look self indulgent to me. The concept that, a white man, who benefits so largely in a system he vigorously created and maintains, would now transform into some every day hero because he killed a few other rich, presumably white men, for I'm sure, more personal reasons than they have money, is pretty laughable and disingenuous to me.

And story wise, I'm really disinterested in this turn where, now we need to give villains these sad, sob worthy origin stories. For what? We can provide villains context and complexity without justifying their villainy. Which is again, self indulgent bc white men are given sooo much latitude and justification for their real life villainy. Anyway, what's next? Sauron was just a really good guy who's girlfriend married his best friend on the same day his mother died and the day after he got laid off from his blue collar job, so now he has to take over middle earth? It's corny and boring at best. I didn't need a Joker origin story outside of what they already covered in Batman the Animated series and I don't really think I'm missing anything crucial by not watching it.

[infini-tree]

3, 8, 17, 29, 38? For the fic writers meme

| memes for fic writers

|      3. Is there a trope you wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole?

besides the obvious Nasty Stuff, any sort of epilogue that’s just. “and the main ship got married, had biological children, and the once (usually cool as hell) female character got relegated to housewife”. long story short its boring as hell and usually the female character who was fridged to being a housewife would never??? i guess that extends to just any fic involving pregnancy as a concept

also, while not as severe but just not interesting to me-- amnesiac redemption arcs, bc what’s the point of a redemption arc if the person whos being redeemed doesn’t know what they’re redeeming themselves for?

|      8. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

ok. im going to cheat and show off a preview of a fic i haven’t posted yet. for context its a set of fic drabbles that highlights oogway’s transition from warlord to grand master and this happens right after he kills sends kai to the spirit realm

as for why i’m proud of it? oogway is Extremely Difficult to get into his headspace, au, mainverse or otherwise. writing him in what is effectively the beginning of a rocky redemption arc even moreso. it comes down to having to figure out what bit of character oogway has in canon is something he inherently has (clever vibe, tendency to flip to a conversational cadence even in high stress situations), or something he had to work towards (like his patience).

“Really?” He clasps his hands together as he enters the room, claws raking against each other deliberately. His tone lilts in disingenuous curiosity. “You’ve never done such a thing before-- usually, me and Ka--”

“Don’t speak his name here.”

“Kai,” he said, almost an attempt to taunt. “Would clean it ourselves. And I would like to continue that-- I thought you pandas would understand tradition.”

That bit of bravado was snuffed quickly, and the panda in question bristled angrily as the words of his people were thrown back in his face. One of the ears on the pandas pinned back in alarm as he took a step forward. 

This was too easy.

“Get out.” It was a raspy hiss of a command.

“...What?”

“I know you understood me the first time.” His cadence flips back to a mock-conversational tone. “Do not make me repeat myself.”

He takes a deliberate step forward. The pandas flinch, and eventually comply, bounding out the door all at once.

“You haven’t changed, have you huojia?”

|     17. Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?

as i’ve always joked ever since my hoastory days-- chronology is my Enemy. i just write all the Fun Stuff first before getting into the connective tissue, which really shoots me in the foot when i do anything longer than a oneshot sorry @ everyone waiting for the next part of bukesiyi

|     29. If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

what’s the middle equivalent of a pre/sequel? interquel? bc i would do that for the other grandmaster. heck, even going straight sequel would be fun bc kai is? probs alive still to see tl. and shen

|     38. Talk about a review that made your day.

there’s this one for bukesiyi. i’ll just post the bit of quote that stuck w me

When I first started reading this fic, I sort of was expecting it to be just like the movie except with characters switched around. But no! You've made it your own in very powerful ways, and I love how you're representing everyone and how the their changed backstories have changed them. I can still see the movie versions- but your versions shine out beautifully on top of that. It's a wonderful feat that you have accomplished that not many others would be able to do- so feel rightly proud of yourself!

and like, i think to myself, wow, i made a person think about my writing that deeply? i feel emotional and kinda honored that someone cared a whole awful lot abt this au-- which, mind you, has a main cast that consists of mostly secondary characters that are sometimes overlooked and one villain in original canon. i just. YELLS

[staboteur]

What canon ship are you talking about? And which ocs did/do you ship with?

//my canon ship weakness is eng/iespy haha although medi/cspy also has a place in my heart if it’s done right. Rene’s very picky about canon characters tho lmao like if they aren’t a specific portrayal of a specific canon character he just isn’t interested in an extended long term ship, like sure, sometimes he might be interested briefly or he might think they’re attractive, but ultimately he craves both the physical attraction and a deep emotional bond which... is understandably difficult to come by with the canons of this fandom

//as for ocs, I currently have three ships in the works (as in, they’ve been roughly plotted and are currently in the “if René mun can get off his ass and fucking reply to people things may actually get done” phase). I won’t tag them so I don’t spam their notifs, but meetthethiefa and I have been planning something for years but the mun took a long hiatus for a few years and we’re just getting the ship going again. Another one is between René and Maddy (from frauline-kritzkrieg) which is gonna be an AU a ship (considering their canon age gap and also considering we’re planning for yandere!rene, we decided an AU would be best for this situation). And I also have vague nebulous plans with Marius (merkissescanhealyou), but I’m mostly approaching it as a “we’ll see where this goes” thing.

//there have also been more ships than I can count going back over the years tbh but the most memorable was Rene’s first ship (when I first started the blog) with Amadeo, but this was like,,, 3 ish years ago. There have been others in between that didn’t make as much of an impression bc I struggled with Rene’s muse for awhile after amadeo left

//honestly, there just weren’t many canons who 1, stuck around and 2, have chemistry with rene. If platonic ships count, I think the only one was Jay (unflappable-red, who has since moved fandoms), who was a canon divergent red engie... and I think i had something planned with another engie but the mun and I talked about it privately and it didn’t work out the way we wanted it to, so we dropped it. Same with a couple of canon medics I’ve interacted with, which, like, I get it yknow? Rene’s relationship demands are really specific and usually, canon mercs can’t fill that super specific niche.

//ofc I can’t talk about all this without mentioning Alois. Like... my primary ship partner is and always will be @not-so-solemn-vows (the mun and I have written together privately for around 4 years now, but I have a few fics with René and Alois on my AO3). They’ve been around *forever* and Alois is an enormous part of Rene’s character whether it’s an AU or not (bc I believe in that multiverse multiship stuff). Obviously mun chemistry plays a huge part in this, since the mun and I are very good friends and we’ve stuck together whether we’re talking about René and Alois or not, but the muse chemistry is just,, idk it’s irreplaceable, and it sorta occupies its own niche in my overarching “muse wishlist” for René I guess?? Idk how to describe it but I cannot imagine René the way he is today existing without Alois’s influence

//also yeah I know a lot of the older ships that date back more than a year ago usually feature a large age gap of some kind, and it’s bc I was much younger when they started (and it would be disingenuous of me now to call it quits). I also used to put Rene’s age at 41, rather than 48, but I didn’t check my math until later and had to age him up so he’d be old enough to fit parts of his backstory.

//oh and how could I forget will! And Marina!! Two of my ocs!!! Will and René dated in the 40s, and marina and René dated in the 50s. Those were the only two super serious relationships René had in his past.

[lilyhoshikawa]

Aoi Zaizen & Misogyny

The characterization Aoi is given in Vrains isn't exactly subtle about how it wants to frame her, but I've had a fair share of ppl try to say the writing isn't misogynistic, and so to prove my argument here, I just figured I'd go beat by beat in her character arc and see what it points to.

Aoi is a character defined by her helplessness. Before we even meet her, she is made helpless. From the very beginning her struggle is about her brother trying to watch out for her because he's worried she'll get hurt- this isn't inherently a bad setup for a conflict or a character arc, I'm not say saying it is. But it's already starting Aoi off in a position where she is being protected, and any attempt to break out of that is considered selfish. We are expected to understand early on that Aoi is putting herself in circumstances she cannot handle by getting involved in the plot. And it shows. Before she even gets her first duel, Aoi is brainwashed. That's a new record, even amongst Yugioh girls.

The duel with Playmaker is, itself, fine. It's pretty well written and it allows the potential for future growth on Aoi's part. But it'd be wrong not to note that it's this situation that reinforces her helplessness and puts her in coma #1. Aoi is being controlled and is reliant on Playmaker to defeat her, and later, to save her. Her consciousness is wagered in the duel against Revolver, yet it always seems strange that it is. Yusaku's motivation for fighting Revolver is absolutely not about Aoi, it's about his revenge. Aoi is an afterthought. He's not dueling Revolver to save her, it's her needing to be saved that gave him the opportunity to duel Revolver. They have enough tension at play by this point to make Aoi's involvement irrelevant, the only contribution it offers is the occasional shot of Akira watching the duel.

I'm gonna mainly gloss over the duel against the A.I. and Akira vs Yusaku aside from noting a few things. Aoi defeating the AI is fine, it gives her a decent win. It's mostly a result of being on Playmaker's side, and it's not really a significant opponent, but it's a meaningful win if it establishes a new character shift. Which I'll go on to establish it doesn't do. Aoi reaching out to Playmaker and wanting to know his story would also be meaningful and relevant if it went anywhere, but 50 episodes later she still doesn't know Playmaker's identity and had to be given another connection to the lost incident bc her relation to Yusaku was that weak.

So in any case. Aoi awakens from coma #1 and is determined not to be weak anymore, and decides to fight for the sake of others in her duel against Vaira. This is the ONLY relevant win she ever gets, and the one everyone seems to love to parade around as if it proves the rest of her losses don't count, or that I'd be the misogynistic one for ignoring this win. This is ignoring, however, that this duel was part of a series of duels building up Aoi, Yusaku, and Go as they ALL got their own respective Knight of Hanoi to defeat in order to bump up their characters. Go and Aoi hadn't done much by this point, and if they were meant to be Playmaker's partners, they needed something additional to build them up. This one win can't be counted as any more significant than Go's win against Doctor Genome or Yusaku's win against Faust. I like these episodes, I like the way Aoi is written in them and I LOVE that she gets to be the hero. But it's disingenuous to imply this single instance of winning dismisses the following assault of bad writing.

As part of her decision to fight for others, Aoi sympathizes with and even tries to save Specter, who by all means she should have every right to hate. In a twist of backwards development, he gets to win, so that he can have a hastily-constructed reason to duel Playmaker instead, making her the only one to lose to a minor villain out of the party. This duel is riddled with Bad Stuff so much so that I don't even feel a real need to touch on it. The main thing of note though is that the annoying plant man's arrogance comes from the fact that he sees everything coming, nothing surprises him. He gets to be in control the whole time, guiding Aoi along as he mocks her. She is helpless from the beginning of this duel. Whether or not you'd like to claim Specter specifically is a well written character is it's own argument, but necessary in that conversation is the note that any development he gains is at the expense of Aoi. She is an expense in this duel, a sacrifice to give Yusaku one more big opponent before Revolver. Enter coma #2. The Tower of Hanoi arc ends and everyone comes back.

Season 2 is when all the character transformations happen, and for Aoi, each one is just a big neon sign of her imposed weakness.

Blue Angel becomes Blue Girl. This is meant to be a big moment on Aoi's decision to fight in a new way and improve herself. She talks abt improving her deck and becoming stronger. In the episode literally titled "Blue Girl's First Duel" she loses to Soulburner and does not duel again before her second transformation.

This strange, confusing and ultimately pointless transformation doesn't last long, as soon enough she encounters Aqua and suddenly remembers Miyu.

Enter Blue Maiden. NOW we're supposed to understand that Aoi has ACTUALLY matured, for real this time, we promise. Now she's fighting for her childhood friend's consciousness, she has the plot-armor of an Ignis, and a new deck. She is framed alongside Takeru and Yusaku as a main protagonist. She's even being called a victim of the Lost Incident now, albeit secondhand. It seems that while she was put through the wringer, she's at least finally been given the chance to shine.

Several Yusaku, Takeru, and Blood Shepard duels later, Blue Maiden finally gets her first duel. A speed duel against Haru. She wins. Hooray, she beat a relevant character, and all it took was a completely new deck and 2 transformations! Sarcasm aside, she naturally couldn't lose here. You can imagine Marincess debuting only for its user to immediately be killed off again, and to top it all off, this is before the killing game of late season 2 begins. They're saving the deaths for that. But on the bright side, Aoi gets a win to show off her new deck and new resolve, and it has the handy side effects of taking care of Haru and giving slight motivation to Bohman.

But now Bohman is here, and he has to defeat literally everyone except Playmaker so we can have their 5th duel. Aoi is, of course, the first to duel him. He wagers the data for Miyu's consciousness in much the same way Revolver wagered Aoi's. Even with plot armor though, Aoi has to lose. Does it make narrative sense? Oh, sure. Can't have the big bad lose on the first big match. But if that's where your analysis stops, you aren't trying to think critically at all.

You have to understand the implications of these repeated losses. Aoi is given new resolve each time only to have it ripped away, and a random new motivation is thrust upon her as the plot demands it. She loses so Playmaker can clean up the villain she failed to beat.

And that is, of course, without even bothering to ask why Miyu has to be in a coma at all, why Ema loses so much and is being sidelined now. Whatever happened To Queen, after Go lost? The very few girls Vrains has bothered to write have very little agency. Aoi may get the spotlight among them, but she is highlighted only to be the designated loser, the one who tries her best and always falls short to show how dangerous the threat is. Whatever this may do to her psyche can be worked out by thrusting a new character motivation onto her. Next arc she'll once again care about becoming stronger, for the sake of some new arbitrary thing. She'll always be attempting to grow, with no success.

It's also worth noting that much of Aoi's suffering is to serve Akira's very lukewarm character arc. And you can ask yourself why Aoi has to fight for her brother always, or later on her childhood friend, when Yusaku gets to fight for himself. Aoi is almost always fighting for the sake of someone else, but the answer is simply that this is a byproduct of what Aoi has had to become. Continually fighting for herself is redundant if she can't win the way Yusaku does. She needs a new reason to reignite her flames of passion so that her drive to get better won't go out. Yet it will always fall short, each and every time.

Aoi's character is defined by helplessness and desperation as she struggles against forces that have already decided she is worthy neither of victory nor even basic respect.

[freedom-of-fanfic]

hey there! so, i strive to be philosophically consistent and i think i need some insight: what would be the point of critizising stuff if you ultimately couldnt claim that some content is inherently bad? why would any of us want to critizise anything at all if problematic content is always allowed to exist? how can i ever say 'X show is mysoginistic' if i also say 'noncon/loli/etc is acceptable'? im not trying to test u with these q's, i just want to hear some other opinions bc im confused. x

these are good questions tbh. I’ll try to keep the rambling to a reasonable length for once. but the really short answer to all three of the questions you posed is 

it’s all about context.

question 1:

what would be the point of critizising stuff if you ultimately couldnt claim that some content is inherently bad?

First let’s define the words ‘bad’ and ‘inherently’. (This phrase gets used so much in anti parlance because it’s ill-defined and vague and therefore perfect for wrecking debate attempts.) in the context of the rest of your ask, I think I’ll define ‘bad’ as ‘immoral’. (Therefore, ‘good’ means ‘morally upright’.) Also, to make it clear: ‘inherent’ is ‘innate’. 

to say something is ‘inherently bad’ is to say that the quality of ‘badness’ is inseparable from the thing. so the core of this question is: can fiction be innately immoral? and if not, why would you critique it?

IMO, because fictional content is fictional, and thus unverifiable, no one fictional work can ever have an inherent moral value. However, critique is absolutely valuable as a supported opinion (though it cannot be a verifiably correct truth).

There’s debate as to whether humans have an inborn moral compass. If they do, then it’s possible that certain actions can be innately immoral. Deliberately harming another person’s physical being by assault, rape, or murder would certainly count as innately immoral. Lying is immoral; stealing is immoral. There may be good reasons for some of these things (though not all) - harming or killing in self-defense/in battle, lying to protect or for social grease, stealing to survive - but they are not moral actions.

Similarly, a character in a fictional work might act in an immoral way. But does that make the fictional work itself immoral? 

The answer will depend on the person. Some people will feel that any morally gray action in a story means the fictional work is endorsing immorality. Others might feel the work depicts the acts but condemns them. Others still will feel it’s simply an aspect to a good fictional story, and yet others may feel that the work is trying to do one thing but actually accomplishing another.  

And they will all be right. Each person’s individual understanding, created by how they read the work, their personal experiences, their cultural background, their personality, their identity - will come together to create an entirely unique experience with any fictional work, and each person’s final opinion on the work can never, ever be wrong.*

If the only reason for criticizing a work is to determine whether the work is good or bad on some universal scale, then yes - it’s useless to bother. no scale is actually universal when it comes to fiction. But if the purpose of critique is to give a reasoned opinion and appeal to others to agree with you, then criticism is still valid as part of ongoing, honest debate about what makes fiction ‘good’ to you and people who think similarly to you.

In short, no crit of fiction can truly encompass every individual experience of a piece of fiction, so no crit will ever be the ‘absolute truth’ any more than any story will be ‘innately good’. it’s all about context, and everyone has individual context when it comes to fiction.

*an opinion can be misinformed or lack information, so some opinions may be more valid than others, but an opinion is an opinion: it’s not wrong. It’s personal.

question 2: 

why would any of us want to critizise anything at all if problematic content is always allowed to exist?

because fiction may be allowed to exist - but so is your opinion of the fictional work that has content you find problematic!

Just because fiction is allowed to exist doesn’t mean you can’t try to dissuade people from consuming it. There’s nothing wrong with deciding you hate something and telling everyone that you hate it and you think it’s awful and bad in every way and nobody should ever look at it.

However. (when is there not one!)

It is the responsibility of a critic or reviewer to review with respect, particularly in the realm of fanworks. Just as a creator should be held responsible for tagging their work with the correct pairings and warnings (or make it clear that they choose not to warn to avoid spoilers and consumers should be aware the work might have upsetting content), a reviewer should be held responsible for:

keeping their review focused on the work, not the creator, and 

being clear that their review is an opinion, not fact.

keeping their review focused on the work - depiction is not endorsement. there is no way to know, unless a creator states it directly, that their work is a direct reflection of their personal beliefs. Saying ‘this story contains [x] and therefore the author is an [x]ist’ is defamation.

being clear that their review is an opinion - A reviewer can use facts, their personal experiences, and their knowledge of the creator’s other works as backups for their opinion, but their opinion will still just be an opinion. people who assert their opinion is a fact are being disingenuous and shut down discussion rather than stimulating it, which is a shame because more discussion leads to be better understanding of why a work is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ or whatever.

unless one is the appointed spokesperson of a group, and that group has agreed that whatever that person says about a work is their collective opinion, no opinion speaks for an entire group. if a reviewer asserts ‘I am [x], and this work upsets me because [reasons related to being [x]],’ that does not mean that everyone else who is [x] will feel the same way. (expecting a marginalized or hurt individual to be the spokesperson of everyone who shares that marginalization/hurt is actually a form of stereotyping and really shitty!)

When reviewers don’t review responsibly, particularly when giving negative reviews, they can incite personal hatred of the creator and fear/hatred of the work itself. Depending on the situation and severity, it can even lead to mob-law-style dogpiles and attempts to scare the creator into either taking the work down or running away themselves - a form of group censorship, to be frank.

In short: critique must be kept in the context of opinions, or it stifles conversation and leads to censorship in situations where discussion and education would be more effective and valuable.

question 3:

how can i ever say ‘X show is mysoginistic’ if i also say ‘noncon/loli/etc is acceptable’?

because it’s okay - and, maybe paradoxically, more logically consistent - to have different stances on the same subject depending on the context. 

you can’t apply the same rules equally to all people, all situations, or all experiences and expect to get fair results (and if you try, you’ll inevitably bring down the most harm on the people who need the most help). For a simplistic example, if you taxed everybody the same income percentage, it would look fair. But more of a poor person’s income goes directly to living expenses than that of a rich person’s income. If you tax the rich person 10%, they won’t feel it in any want of necessary food, clothing, or shelter, but the poor person almost definitely would.

what I’m trying to say is that it’s acceptable - even ideal - to apply different standards (and different scales of reaction) to fanworks than to published books, than to high-circulation published books, than to TV shows, than to internationally-released movies, than to real life (etc etc). There’s several reasons for this:

the scale of impact is widely different. Fanfics rarely get even a million unique views, even after years of circulation. A tv show reaches millions of pairs of eyes every week.

the context is widely different. Transformative fandom, a relatively small space, has a disproportionate number of non-straight/non-cis participants, is overwhelmingly female/afab, and probably has an unusually high number of survivors, not to mention relatively high awareness of social issues that impact them. The average audience member for a fanwork is therefore a very different one from that of a large-scale media release.

the vulnerability differential is widely different. Social power in fandom is mostly determined by popularity, but this is a very volatile source of power and can disappear in an instant. A single fanwork creator, therefore, is about the same level of vulnerable to a rumor, a callout, a complaint as everyone else in fandom (very). The vulnerability of a movie director, on the other hand, is relatively low. If hundreds of thousands of people rallied behind callouts and expressed their anger and hatred of a director, it probably won’t make any meaningful impact on their output or their personal life without outside factors.

So to use your example: You may be bothered by misogynistic content regardless of what you consume - fanwork or TV show or otherwise, but if you call it out in the TV show vs call it out in the fanwork, you’re going to have a very different impact level (not much on the TV show/its creators, but a lot on the fanwork/its creator).

Conversely, nonconsensual sex in a TV show reaches not only a much larger audience than a fanwork, but also a very different audience. For the TV show: a smaller percentage will have experienced sexual assault and the level of education about sexual assault will generally be lower. Also, unless the show explicitly warns for rape, it’s possible some people won’t even realize it’s noncon depending on how it’s portrayed - whereas fanwork ettiquette demands tagging and warnings. In other words, noncon portrayals in TV shows are more likely to send a damaging message than noncon portrayals in fic - fic, which has warnings on it, reaches a much smaller audience, and has an audience that is more likely to judge the content on personal experience and education than the TV show audience.** 

Basically, it’s not contradictory to take a different tack of behavior to the same issue in different spheres, and it’s not contradictory to decide that you’re okay with content that is potentially damaging existing in some spaces but not in others. That’s putting your opinions and morals into context and changing how you act on them.

In fact, it’s downright important to do this. When you don’t change your response level or moderate your judgement in consideration of relative power and/or impact, the people who are the most likely to get run over are those who are at a disadvantage already: LGBT/queer people, black and brown people, immigrants, survivors, women, etc. Who is going to be more hurt and scared by people coming down hard on noncon fic: the rape survivor who wrote it for personal therapeutic value or the person who wrote it for titillation and fun? I bet you can guess.

the title of this blog is related to fanfic specifically because the hard stance I take on censorship is one I’m comfortable taking in the realm of fanworks, but I think the line - already a bit fuzzy at this low impact space - gets blurrier and blurrier the higher impact you go. Where does responsible depiction outweigh the freedom to portray? At what point does tolerating a fictional content become inappropriate? Where’s the line between fiction and propaganda?

These are all great questions to ask, but in the meantime, I’ll be down here saying that fanworks - lowest of low impact, plastered with warnings, and with the empowering effect of giving largely marginalized people a voice outweighing the danger of portrayals of immoral things - should always be free to exist.

**again you run into the issue that every fictional portrayal of something will have a unique interaction with every individual. What one person finds pornographic and harmful might be therapeutic to another. But with mass media the question of ‘does the message this sends amplify already-existing harmful opinions?’ becomes more important and ethical to ask.