#bare analysis

[heartburstings]

i think the thing about jason mcconnell for me is that i don't think he has to be likeable. of course i wish more people liked him, or at least hated him correctly, but jason does not have to be likeable. likeability should not, and does not, change the fact that jason's death was an un/avoidable tragedy. it is aspiring to be as likeable as possible that led to his death, and that lead to the actions and words jason says that make him unlikeable and unrelatable to most people today, and in general is the main problem for many characters. to argue that jason should be more likeable is to miss the point, to me.

[ilovetheater24601]

CALLING ALL THE BARE FANDOM

Im planning on getting a Bare tattoo but i don't know what to get. Im wanting to get a little symbol but i don't want anything that somebody would think is there for religious reasons. If you have any ideas im begging you please share.

[dysfunctionalcreature]

just rewatched Dune Part 2 and noticed something, when Feyd Rautha enters the area for his birthday fight, and after he wins the fight, the people in the audience of the arena are chanting his name in a very rhythmic and quite frankly terrifying way - "Feyd Rau-tha! Feyd Rau-tha! Feyd Rau-tha!"

And after Paul kills Feyd Rautha, takes Irulan's hand in marriage, and declares war on the great houses, the Fremen people around Paul begin to chant - "Lisan al Gaib! Lisan al Gaib! Lisan al Gaib!"

They chant for Paul with the same rhythm and ferocity with which the Harkonnen audience chanted for Feyd Rautha earlier in the movie. If that doesn't show Paul's transformation and loss of humanity then idk what does

(also FeydPaul parallels in general yessssss I love every connection between these two fucked up boys, it's tragic that they barely even get ten minutes of screentime together)

[emblazons]

"You Okay?" • "I'm Okay."

Cloud Strife & Tifa Lockhart Nibelheim Flashbacks • Final Fantasy VII (Rebirth)

Bonus: Yuffie Sees All

[piosplayhouse]

Wwx is the only mxtx main protagonist who would not be a my little pony fan. But he does own a 20% cooler shirt

[zeb-z]

I know it’s played as a bit at first, but Chip struggling to wield Destiny’s Blade in Gillion’s absence is so important, because that’s just it, isn’t it. The weight of his destiny is something so great, so heavy of a burden, but there hasn’t really been insight into that until recently, and now both Chip and Jay are getting a look into just how hard it is to carry such a destiny. To raise the sword that Gillion does seemingly with ease.

But despite its weight, Chip keeps it close. He uses it when he’s out of ideas, when he needs options. He holds it tight to summon water, so Pretzel will have something in her bowl. He lifts it up to summon a shield when he needs protecting from a thousand different blades that would otherwise kill him. And there’s something too about how it’s Gillian’s blade, left behind without it’s wielder, protecting his friends despite his absence. How the manifestation of this magic is an imitation of Gillian’s - the shield protecting Chip as a swirling sphere of water, the shape water spell a Gillion classic of course. Even when he’s gone, his influence, what he’s left behind in both possessions and memory, are protecting Jay and Chip.

Maybe there’s something there about how whatever destiny Gillion has felt the weight of, it will always include protecting his friends - his family. Or about how their destinies are now forever intertwined, because Chip is using this Destiny’s Blade to find Gillion and it’s now his burden to bear. And it’s hard, and it hurts, and he feels the weight of his own actions now more than ever - but Jay promises he won’t bear it alone. And even while he’s lost, and unable to protect himself - Gillion still has a hand in protecting them.

[chuuyadelune]

(BSD 113 SPOILERS) the fyodor jesus imagery is driving me insane, so here are a couple of things i noticed from this chapter (all translations from @/nineofscans).

1. fyodor’s position

so the first thing that was most obvious was fyodor’s positioning here. he may not be on a cross, but this is very intentional i would say! he is still in the position of christ on the cross.

2. fyodor’s outfit

i could be reaching, and this is less to do with jesus, but his outfit to me resembles a monk’s habit somewhat—perhaps signifying his position as a man of god.

3. stabbing with spears as the rooster crows

two things are standing out to me here:

first of all, stabbing fyodor with spears as a means of execution is interesting to me considering how jesus also was stabbed by a spears before being taken down from the cross after he gives up his life (following the “my god, my god, why have you forsaken me?” line—which was quoted in the last chapter!)

i cannot remember if jesus is also stabbed before then, but that is the one i remember the most.

the second thing that jumped out to me about this line was the part about the rooster crowing.

in the new testament, when jesus is betrayed by judas, he warns peter that before the cock crows, he (peter) will have betrayed him (jesus) three times.

what are the implications of that? i can’t really say, maybe it has something to do with why bram later gets stabbed with the holy cross sword and why he later works under fukuchi/fyodor. but it felt like an intentional nod to this part of the passion of christ.

4. bram as the devil

this is perhaps another reach, but i’m including it anyways.

before jesus re-enters jerusalem and the events of the passion of christ, he fasts for 40 days in the desert, where he is tempted from the devil (each of the gospels talks about this differently).

but anyway, this does say something. if bram is the devil, and considering all of fyodor’s positioning and religious imagery surrounding him—i feel the jesus references are very intentional. fyodor is deliberately positioned as— if not jesus, then definitely at least a disciple, or a messenger of god, almost supernatural in energy and appearance.

and with all the buddhist references to angels scattered throughout this arc—i think there’s a lot to be unveiled about fyodor yet. we definitely haven’t seen the last of him. but i’m excited to find this all out later!

[pyrobot1cs]

just got out of the shower thinking about how some of the best written female characters I’ve seen that weren’t from media catering to girls are from Homestuck

Like. Homestuck is a fairly female-led story, like yeah the two leaders for each of the main sessions were TECHNICALLY boys, but Vriska was really the one moving the story along for the trolls and Egbert doesn’t even count that much as a boy anymore (I loev June). Rose and Jade for example are two REALLY WELL WRITTEN characters (and they should have talked more) , and when you read about them, you CARE about them. Pretty much all of the troll girls are great as well, Aradia, Vriska, Kanaya, and Terezi (and if we get into dancestors, Meenah, somewhat Damara, and Aranea) are all HUGE driving forces for the plot and,, for most of the boys- well June herself puts it better than I could have

When we get into the Alpha kids though it gets a little blurred, Jane and Roxy are both amazing characters but Jake and Dirk seemed like way more of the focus characters, probably mostly in the fandom but I think Jane and Roxy’s characters kind of suffer in-canon as well, also since a lot of both of their characters revolve around being boycrazy about their respective crush and it sucks!! ALSO!!! CALLIOPE IS GREAT I LOVE HER BUT I NEED TO THINK OF MORE ISSUES WITH HER

THE FANDOM ALSO SUCKS ON HOW IT TREATS WOMEN CHARACTERS TOO BTW like that’s where the worst of it is really, I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen fanart of just Jane on her own and not in a ship or in a lineup

sighhhghghhghh thank you for listening to ramblings im just talking talking blah blah

[transmascutena]

utena's inability or refusal to see herself as a victim can be attributed to many things, among which is her general lack of awareness about what abuse can look like when not in the form of obvious overt physical violence, along with the subtlety and insideousness of grooming that preys on that very lack of awareness, but it also comes from the perceived dichotomies of victim/abuser or victim/saviour (mostly the latter for her), where you're either one or the other and cannot be both, even though that does not at all reflect the reality of ohtori or just the world in general. utena has a tendency (due to her age and general inexperience with the world) to view things as simpler and more black-and-white than they really are: abusers are Bad People and so people she thinks are good cannot be abusive (if she is uncomfortable with something akio does to her, it must be her fault, not his); victims are Good and therefore cannot also be perpetrators (she does not understand anthy's part in the dueling game, both because of this and the way anthy hides it from her); victims are also Helpless, and utena would rather die than ever be helpless again. "anthy is a victim + i am not like anthy = i am not a victim" and "abusers are mean and violent + akio has always been nice to me = akio is not an abuser." but of course none of these things are really true. akio is an abuser, he is just good at hiding it; everyone in ohtori is both victim and perpetrator of the system to various degrees, unwittingly or otherwise; being strong and independent and proactive does not actually prevent you from being or becoming a victim, and thinking that will in fact only make you more vulnerable to it, because thinking you're immune will make you less careful. "that could never happen to me" until it does. and even then you might not realize it because you're so caught up in the narrative of "things like that don't happen to people like me." the show deliberately plays with these kinds of expectation too. anthy is immediately set up as The Victim, in the very first episode. she's a victim of the dueling game and of the student council's direct and indirect violence, and so it's not really surprising when she turns out to be a victim of akio's sexual abuse as well. but when the same thing starts happening to utena? that is surprising (or at least, it's supposed to be). "things like that don't happen to people like her." except they do. they can (and will) happen to anyone, that's the point: in the end, all girls are like the rose bride.

(i think this exact kind of mindset is also part of why some fans are kind of dismissive of the abuse utena goes through as less real or significant than anthy's. or, conversely, why some people are so intent on calling her stupid. "a smart person like me would never fall victim to grooming." but i digress.)

[dyketubbo]

forgive me if i lose tubbo character analysis points (rolls eyes heavily) over this or something but i honestly dont think the date was very ooc or that the frubbo romance is going to be played as something that makes qtubbo better. obviously qtubbo gained a lot of trust issues and lost a lot of hope in others + started to strongly believe that love only hurts after purgatory and the funeral. and hes an extremely defeatist guy at heart

but he also makes exceptions because no matter how much he tries to disconnect himself he still cares so so much about others. he has such a weird fucked up view of love and justifies seeing sunny as an exception by saying they wont hurt each other because their love is unconditional and yet he also claims empanada isnt safe when bagi is around because the eye workers will use that connection to their advantage And Yet he constantly looks after and takes care of sunny anyways. even though hes already mourning her before theyve even died. even though by his own logic it may be safer for sunny to not be with him

and like.. he says dont get attached empathy makes you weak but he tries to ruin fit & pacs date so they dont abandon him. he still jokes around with them and has happy moments with them bc ultimately theyre his friends and even if they dont Really understand what hes going through or what would help him they want to be there for him and make him happy and they Do make him happy. bc qtubbo doesnt spend all of his time with his friends whining and groaning about how theyre going to leave him some day and despite being suicidal and defeatist and at times a fucking jerk that isnt his whole personality

depressed people Have happy days. they have ups and peaks in their life and yeah actually many of them do manage to have nice relationships and theres a lot of depressed people out there who are fully capable of just. not being complete downers to be around all the time (cough a lot of comedians have depression cough). if anything i would argue it isnt just in character but realistic for qtubbo to be able to just. have a normal date where hes a bit of a loser and manages to get through an actual confession

and its not like hes going all in oh we're dating and we're going to get married now bc he doesnt even consider themselves boyfriends and he turns down sunny claiming fred as another parent. he just had a happy day and it boosted his mood a little. i dont think fred is really on his list of trusted people and in fact i feel like him just being very silly and awkward during the date is a Part of him not fully trusting fred or wanting to be super serious around/with her. i think to qtubbo fred symbolizes sure some pain from the whole funeral situation but also still a lot of happier simpler times and ultimately a time where tubbo was happier and openly hopeful

if anything, tubbos relationship with fred is another form of escapism for him. of course it isnt going to make him better. he literally brought fred to him and sunnys island where they plan to live far away from everyone to avoid their problems. its all a fantasy for him, and one that he isnt even allowing himself to fully jump into but will joke about and dance around the subject of nonetheless

[heartburstings]

ok i've been wanting to bring this up for a while, but first i wanna preface this by saying that my goal with this post is not to accuse anyone or to make anyone feel guilty. i just want more consideration going forward before i go crazier than i am supposed to be, that's my goal with this post. so if you want to add something please keep that in mind. with that out of the way...

i think it's common enough knowledge that sister chantelle is a racist caricature (if the read more isn't working then lmk if you want to read it, bc i can copypaste the thing for you--but before the cut is still a pretty good summary of the issues in her writing).

so is it just me, or is this characterization and/or treatment of her character sometimes perpetuated in fandom? i'm not talking about fic, i don't really read fics for this fandom much, so i wouldn't know if there are any fandom-racism problems there. i'm talking about the kind of jokes (and they're always jokes) that are being told in the tags.

like, an example of one of these jokes (or a type of it anyway) is when we talk about sister chantelle's allyship. while yes, it's great that she's supportive, i feel that jokes which utilize her allyship as a punchline are prone to treating her as if that is her only trait, boiling her down only to her supportiveness. as a result, fandom perpetuates the racist portrayal of her as a stereotypical black best friend--ally, whatever--and it's not great that she's often supportive in a sassy way either, if you get my meaning.

you get what i mean, right? i don't really have a good closer for this post but like... is it just me who gets bothered by posts like this? like lmk if it's actually a non-issue, bc (quoting the post i linked here) i'm not black tho so i'm just speaking as a bapo enjoyer. but i wanted to put this post out there anyway so that we, as a small fandom/community, can have a conversation about it and work to improve it.

[bonefall]

What did Sagewhisker do? All I remember was that she was Yellowfang's mentor, and I used to love YS. (I was a lot younger at the time, though.)

oH Lord, a lot of people who read YS when they were younger kinda don't pick up on how shitty Sagewhisker is. It goes over their heads that she is the one who's actually responsible for Yellowfang being forced to be distant from Brokenkit

From a young age, Sagewhisker is pressuring Yellowpaw to be a medcat, when she doesn't want to

Yellow LIKES the satisfaction of healing itself, but LOVES being a warrior more.

She's a fantastic hunter, has always wanted a family, and is just genuinely filled with a lot of self-satisfaction when she gets to do her warrior duties.

(They also had to retcon the stupidest magic power, super-empathy, into Yellowfang so that she nonsensically wouldn't like fighting. Yellowfang. The cat whose first appearance in TPB is attacking Firepaw and didn't hesitate to blind Brokenstar. THAT Yellowfang.)

In contrast, when she starts healing, she's constantly filled with shame or horror. She also gets bullied viciously by several cats, while others do that Thing that an older family member does when they don't like what you're doing. You know;

"Ohhh that's so good, for you. If it makes you happy it's good!! I mean, but, wouldn't you rather do Other Thing? I mean no, I understand, you like This thing, but Other thing would... no no it's okay, nevermind. I'm happy for you."

This while she's already courting Raggedpelt, and planning a future with him.

So to begin with, she has a lot of negative feelings when Sagewhisker tries to pressure her into this role, especially as Sage insists she "Wants HER" and "It's your destiny." But that's not all;

When Cloudpaw (later Cloudpelt) gets viciously mauled and might not survive, Sagewhisker takes one look and says, "It might be kinder to let StarClan take him now."

Yellowfang is FURIOUS at how quickly Sagewhisker gave up, and Sage just waves this away with "oh I won't stop you but be prepared for heartbreak lol"

Sage continues to tell her shit like "You can't save every cat" after Cloudpaw's mother sees her son all cheese-grated up.

So... either Sagewhisker was going to just leave Cloudpaw there to bleed out or die of infection, OR she was implying euthanasia.

And it's probably euthanasia, because when Yellowfang is pregnant later, she says,

Sooooo... considering how WEIRD WC generally is about abortion, acting like it's not even an option and giving Clear Sky some Angel Fetus Children in DOTC...

Sagewhisker was probably implying that Yellowfang would smother infants. Or do whatever Sagewhisker was planning to do with Cloudpaw.

I don't even know if pressuring Yellowfang into an abortion would have been better... honestly this exchange is uncomfortable no matter how you slice it.

It gets worse ofc. Yellowfang gets this warning from StarClan about how “Only one thing can stop the tide of hatred this birth cursed cat will bring: the courage of a mother to know her destiny.” Silverflame also suggests just being his friend, if she can't be his mother.

Forget that though, because Sagewhisker continues to snap at Yellowfang and remind her that she can't look at him for too long, else people will get suspicious or something.

"It's a woman's responsibility to have children for our glorious war society, Yellowfang, unless they have A RARE GIFT THAT MUST NOT BE WASTED."

In the same conversation she's then like, "Also don't go into the nursery, the child I forced you to give up needs a chance to bond with the abusive foster who hates his little guts."

In general Sagewhisker also prevents Yellowfang from standing up for herself or her position in a way that is absolutely infuriating. Foxheart comes in and starts bellowing about "HOW DARE YOU HAVE APPRENTICES RUN ERRANDS FOR YOU?" and Sage is just like, "Turn the other cheek uwu"

Yellowfang is punished constantly for the sin of being Yellowfang. She is not allowed to be snarky at all. It fucking sucks. This book is MISERABLE

SO basically, Sagewhisker forces her into a role she isn't very happy in, stops her from standing up for herself ever, guilts Yellowfang over "wasting her special gift," gives up on cases that are too hard for her, suggests killing kits, says some wildly misogynistic stuff, prevents Yellowfang from doing anything about Brokenkit, and then dies.

She's the worst and no one ever talks about how fucked up this character is. and I really mean AS A CHARACTER

Because her PURPOSE in the story is to do all of these things and be hailed as a good mentor in the end. But the fandom is REALLY bad at analyzing characters as narrative tools.

She's right to pressure Yellowfang into her role, with the ending comic even trying to have Sagewhisker apologize for pressuring her and Yellow going "d'aww dwai you didn't force me into anything 8) ignore the entire fucking book before this point"

Giving up on a battered teenager is supposed to show Yellowfang's talent and resolve, not reflect poorly on Sagewhisker.

WC fully believes that "wisdom" she espouses about Lizardfang. Lizardfang is a bad woman because she doesn't accept her place as a queen. This kind of guilt and blame is reserved exclusively for mothers in WC, not fathers, note how Mudclaw doesn't help at all but no one gives a shit.

Killing the baby would have been the best option because, again, Brokenkit is BORN. EVIL.

I'm pretty convinced that "Courage of a mother to KNOW HER DESTINY" refers to the fact she is supposed to be a medcat, who kills her child. What FINALLY ends Brokenstar's reign of terror is being poisoned-- not the kindness she was finally able to show him in TPB while he was prisoner.

So Sagewhisker guilt-tripping Yellowfang into a position she doesn't like, keeping her away from her child, suggesting murdering the baby... that's all good, actually. That's something that is framed as correct.

And I think people really sleep on it. Sagewhisker is like this perfect little encapsulation of how shitty clan culture is in WC, an enforcer of the series' misogyny while being a woman herself, someone who makes Yellowfang's wife HELL.

But because she didn't do it violently, no one notices it.

[fumifooms]

Canines

The hand that feeds

Mickbell Tomas & Kuro Dungeon Meshi

^ 1: Ink-the-artist, I will remove my teeth / 2: Margaret Atwood / 3: C.S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy / 4: Mitski, I’m your man / 5: Ojibwa, I love you like a rotten dog / 6: KotOR II / 7: Stardrop, Everything that’s ever been mine is covered in teeth marks / 8: Sodikken, People Eater / 9: Mitski, I’m your man / 10: maxime., The life and death of a dog / 11: Mitski, I bet on losing dogs / 12: maxime., The life and death of a dog / 13: hun, I did not bite with Malice / 14: C. Michael Davis, Don't Pet the Dragon / 15: Mitski, I’m your man

v 1: Early versions of the myth as in aeschylus orestes / 2: Ink-the-artist, I will not remove my teeth

[arceespinkgun]

Has anybody said yet that the Starscream from Earthspark and the Starscream from the Skybound comics are both good takes on the character? To me, they both feel like reinterpretations that adapt the source material well while keeping the goals for their stories in-mind.

Earthspark is a family show with a major theme of coping under oppressive systems, so it draws on the uncomfortable history of Starscream being used as a punching bag across the franchise, and it also focuses on the side of the character that goes back as far as G1 but has been largely untapped—the Starscream who would point out practical issues but would often be ignored (usually by Megatron, some others were better about this).

The Skybound comics so far have been focusing on the gritty reality of war, so they draw on Starscream's cruelty and ferocity and depict how truly terrifying this would make him when juxtaposed with organic life. This Starscream as leader draws from other instances in G1, in which he was temporarily leader and his arrogance made him ineffective, selfish, and cruel.

And then both series still have him being an arrogant asshole who treats his underlings poorly while also being a capable warrior on the battlefield. I feel like now is a great time to be a Starscream fan, you literally have two different great flavors of the character.

[exilepurify]

something i really appreciate about how the japanese language accommodates subtle character development is how personality is reflected by how a character says “i’m sorry”.

There’s some aspect of this in English as well, of course. You can get some sense of someone’s personality from whether they say “Sorry”, “I’m sorry”, “I apologize”, “I regret…” etc. but I feel like it’s more potent with Japanese due to how subtle a lot of Japanese media can be, putting the weight of the implied more heavily on what IS said. “gomennasai”, “gomen”, “sumanai”, “suman”, “warui kedo”, “moushiwake gozaimasen”—you can imagine each one being said by a different kind of person, even beyond normal distinctions like politeness or directness.

bringing this back around to mp100: mob uses “gomen” a lot, reigen uses “sumanai”, and teru uses “warui kedo” (just from the top of my head/what i remember most from watching sub). This would be like Mob saying “Sorry” (casual and very direct), Reigen saying “I apologize” (polite but genuine), and Teru saying “I regret [that i have to do this]” (casual and also a bit guilty).

[theblacktiecacti]

jay went to clown school. let’s talk about that