#bc lets be real izzy is barely even a villain

[tediousdelusion]

my controversial(ish, maybe, idk) take on steddy hands is that two semi-apparently contradictory things have to happen first and they are both along the stizzy axis: 1) stede and izzy have to each recognize the other as competent. this takes more growth in stede’s part bc... look my dears, my loves, perhaps even my beloveds. as endearing as stede is, he still ends s1 as an incompetent pirate. he’s never taken a single ship and he has spent his entire life in the lap of luxury. (for his fuckery, he lets the danish board their ship. they live, but they don’t take any property - which is the entire fucking point of piracy). the boy needs to face a material hardship. it builds character, much like working customer service.

and 2.) izzy needs to accept some mild hedonism. pleasure for the sake of pleasure is gooooooood. anyone who tells you different is selling something. this is the one that takes growth on izzy’s part - he doesn’t see value in pleasure alone and like, god, my man perhaps i wish i vibed with you less but...

if these don’t both happen, i can enjoy it, but i can’t believe it, if you feel me. stede is a man who is insecure bc he doesn’t think that he deserves what he has... and up to this point this has lowkey been true. and izzy is fixated on being needed to the point where imo being wanted doesn’t occur to him. (ed is a whole ‘nother bag of worms and this post is toooooo Fucking Long)

but in the end, they need all need to both want and need each other. i think need comes first, but want shouldn’t be short to follow. the want has staying power.

also you can’t dom someone while also being a total incompetent i didn’t say that yes i did (guess im drunk enough)

[subway-tolkien]

u sure the problem isn’t gonna be izzy stans harassing the creators when izzy doesn’t inexplicably become the main protagonist and love interest of the show bc I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be that

Okay, extrapolating from your ask I’m guessing you are irritated that Blorbo X is enjoying a popularity surge, while you prefer Blorbo Y. It’s not fair that Blorbo X is getting attention that rightfully belongs to Blorbo Y, because Blorbo Y is morally superior in every way. Even worse: Blorbo X is evil, and evil characters are bad characters and the people who like them are also bad. So, you've decided the constructive response is to hate Blorbo X and Blorbo X’s fans for “stealing” the spotlight from Blorbo Y, and the way to do that is with online bullying and snotty, anonymous asks aiming for inflammatory but falling short and landing firmly in cringe.

That’s my theory, anyway, because I felt the same about Krycek being more popular than Mulder for a while, when I was fourteen. I didn't bully people because I wasn't raised like that, but I sure resented them, for no real reason, until I grew out of it and moved on.

At any rate, here's a little remedial lesson in storytelling: the purpose of a villain is to supply conflict to the plot by opposing the hero(s). Villains are also compelling because good villains are complicated people with their own set of morals and motives. For some folks, they are just as interested in the villain’s arc as they are in the hero’s. Additionally, some people enjoy villains more than the heroes or side-characters, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Punishing other fans for enjoying the same show because they focus on a different facet of it than you do is, in a word, stupid. In thirty years of fandom, I’ve never understood the need to target, harass, and bully internet strangers—and the cast and crew of the show!—because of a difference of opinion regarding fictional characters that do not exist. 

This is not unique to OFMD; this behavior is a cancer on every fandom it touches and has gotten so much worse over the last ten years that I barely recognize modern fandom anymore, but OFMD is the latest victim of entitled fan behavior, blind ego, and a distinct lack of critical thinking skills, so I'm focusing on it right now.

I don't know anyone who thinks Stede will be replaced by Izzy as the protagonist of OFMD; you're exaggerating in an effort to antagonize me/other people, but you just sound impossibly young and, frankly, very boring. You really don't warrant a reply, but I seem to have Opinions on this subject and since you felt the need to share yours, you get to enjoy mine. 🎉

Anyway, I've no dog in this fight. I like Izzy as a villain just as I like Ed and Stede as the heroes, and the Revenge crew as the supporting ensemble. I trust David et al to know what's best for their own show. I wish everybody could. I don't care what characters people like or why, I care what characters I like and why. I read the fic I enjoy, I look at the fanart I like. I make good use of filters and blocking. I also know how to scroll past things I don't want to see. What other people like about the show has no effect on what I like about the show, because I don't take other people's opinions of the show personally. Their opinions have nothing to do with me.

Let people like what they like, and step back and analyze why you resent the opinions of one segment of a broader fandom to the point where it threatens your enjoyment of the show enough to drive you to attack strangers on the internet and harass an actor for just doing his job.

We are all on the same boat, heading in the same direction. Stop trying to sink it.

[meanieyards]

Look, i really don't understand why you hate Cassandra Clare so much. I read the books and now i watch the show. If she hadn't write the books show wouldn't even exist. Yes, in the books Simon was a cheater, Clary and Jace were incest, Alec hated Clary at the beginning but this is how the caracters were. This happens in the real world and there is no reason it can't in the books. No hate at all, i am just trying to understand your thoughts.

im gonna put this under a read more bc i typed a lot. i hope this helps !!

the thing is, cc wrote malec’s relationship as super toxic. alec was biphobic and slutshamed magnus and then tried to take his immortality without consent. this is so disgusting and damaging because you know how little lgbt+ representation there is in media and for them to be represented as toxic like that is very damaging. she also used them for popularity and not because she cared about good rep. book malec was in the books so straight girls could fetishise them and act like they’re proper rep.

then we have aline and helen, the only wlw couple in the books and they were both terribly mistreated with helen banished for her species (plus race but ya’know, whatever). 

we have clary who genuinely slutshames izzy which is also, once again, toxic as hell. she hates on izzy so much and in a time where girls need role models that support girls, its a shitty thing to do. you also see izzy do the same and shame clary for almost everything. 

next there’s maia, who gets cheated on (mistreatment of a character of colour) and then ends up with her past abuser. you might think, oh but she forgave him! and he had an excuse! trust me as an abuse victim, you never really get over the pain of your abuse. the fact that she ended up with him invalidates the struggle of her and abuse victims everywhere and sends the message that no matter what, your abuse still follows you and you end up with your abuser. that part specifically effected me so much

lets not forget about sebastian who is homophobic, a child murder, a rapist, and someone who’s into incest (which is disgusting, there’s no excuse for incest). i get that he’s a villain, but his death was romanticised and the books glorified him in the end. cc knows that a lot of book stans practically worship him and lets it go on, she supports it because it sells.

jace in the books is an outright asshole who is shitty to not only simon but also clary and what does that promote?? falling in love with the bad boy who mistreats you. which, this may be just bc im an abuse victim but its what i think, could lead to abuse!!

simon in the books cheats, we’ve established that. and it may be something that happens in normal life but it’s not the first case of mistreatment of women in those books. and it also villainizes the only jewish character (main character at least) in the series.

simon and izzy’s relationship is downright toxic. izzy treats simon like trash basically and makes it very obvious and known that she dislikes vampires. even though she acts like “i dislike all vampires except you”, knowing that someone hates your entire kind is super super harmful. also you know, simon cheats. simon is also constantly shamed for having to drink blood even though its not his choice, which also, harmful.

also, her treatment of characters of colour is so so shitty to the point where i was uncomfortable reading the books and had to stop. i want you to think about the last book when they were all in edom, it was the characters of colour who were screwed over the most. raphael died and his clan was left without him. magnus was pushed into calling his father for help and was manipulated greatly. lets not forget how magnus had barely any scenes, he and alec weren’t there for most of one of the books, and he was treated as just “the boyfriend”. its also pretty clear that the downworlders symbolise people of colour and you see so many of them turn evil. meliorn supports sebastian, someone who wants his kind dead and clearly dislikes downworlders as well as murders a shit ton of people. raphael, a vampire and a man of colour, is painted as a villain too. he manipulates simon and spikes his blood at one point too. this is such a terrible, stereotypical portrayal of latinx people. basically, cc saw people of colour as only another tool so her books would sell. they weren’t good rep at all.

there is not a single happy, healthy relationship in those books or any good role models or any good and comforting portrayals of people of colour. the amount of girl hate was discouraging at best and the negative portrayal of Jewish people was gross. plus, that writing style? atrocious