#bc there’s a LOT of unresolved resentment between them? from when she like.. left him.. she sort of ghosted him in a way

[thedeadthree]

— FIVE SONGS TAG.

my dears @multiverse-of-themind, @statichvm and @jackiesarch to do this cutest tag! thank u so much loves!

when u get this, list 5 songs u like to listen to, then send this tag to a few of ur followers 🌿

tagging: @griffin-wood, @blackreaches, @risingsh0t, @marivenah, @chuckhansen, @queennymeria, @florbelles, @leviiackrman, @marivenah, @confidentandgood, @shellibisshe, @saintsilver, @adelaidedrubman, @rosebarsoap and you!

MITOSIS / eartheater

THE LIAR / marriages

BLACK PUNK / rico nasty

KILLER / fka twigs

ZERO / the smashing pumpkins

[siswritesyanderes]

This is a series of asks bc, while I do LIKE all the charas of Fantastic Beasts individually, much of the romantic pairings dont sit well with me. By that mean the messy love polygon w Newt & I think I finally figured out why & I'd like another's opinion on it. For starters, Newt's attraction with Tina is too fast for me considering he was friends w Leta, got expelled out of Hogwarts for Leta, carried Leta's photo in his case, & basically loved her for YEARS. But this is all undone by a [1]

jaunt in NY having met a woman, who he admittedly went on a huge adventure w, over the course of maybe a few weeks. He's so taken w her she replaces Leta's photo w her own &, after refusing to go to Paris for Dumbledore, leaves immediately once he finds out she's there. I just find this unbelievable. I can rationalize it from Newt's perspective where Tina is a fresh breeze sweeping into his life on (percieved) unrequited pining, but this is my conjecture based on my understanding of Newt. [2]

The audience shouldnt be left to rationalize endgame couple of the mc on their own. & the whole thing w Leta is so messily handled I dont think they can save it even if they bring her back in FB3. How she feels for Newt vs Theseus & unresolved lingering affection, etc. She & Newt were SO important to each other & we SEE that & they dont HAVE to get together, but they need proper resolution bc they have actual history between them. God Leta in general deserved so much better. [3]

But my main gripe is that this love polygon serves no purpose to what I believe is the main selling point of FB: the world. HP having love stories makes sense bc we're following the story of a boy as he goes through adolescence & his journey through that via school is part of that, which is why the romance feels fitting. It's a very personal story. FB on the otherhand is the best peak we have at the wider wizarding world beyond school. HP introduces the world of magic, but FB rlly expands it [4]

To that end Jakob & Queenie's relationship is the only one I find myself liking, bc it's deeply tied to the world setting, the series' biggest selling point (in my opinion, should have said this earlier). It underscores the attitudes of the period & the conflict they face feels suitably substantial & not like filler. There's a moral question between them of are they worth it? And how far should they go to be together?

Imma be real hear & say FB2 was rlly Queenie's movie & they should have been ballsy & just make Queenie the mc for FB2, bc her story was actually considerably more important to the overall development of the story than Newt's, which mostly came off as a rushed & a tad clichè soap drama. & making it about Queenie I think builds more room for good conflict & independent narrative for Tina that would serve her chara better. [5? 6?]

If I bad to be REAL ballsy, I'd say my big issue w/ the relationships in the FB series & how it enhances or impedes the main story & what I believe to be it's biggest attracter (the setting) could have been solved if they made Newt's romantic interest a muggle. It attaches a deeper meaning & relevance to them & the story so it felt more deeply that they truly moved WITH the narrative rather than beside it but I guess Im just picky. Thx for putting up w this! [Final]

(My response below the cut.)

Yeah, pretty much all of this is right.

Regarding the Tina thing, it was definitely rushed, especially since there was literally nothing romantic between them in the whole first movie, except maybe the end part where they're stumbling over their words. Despite knowing how movies work and knowing that they were the male and female lead, I still found that completely out of left field, because they don't really share any interests and I didn't feel like they felt anything in particular for each other before that. She really wants to be an auror and feels really intensely about it; he just wants to travel the world and write about magical creatures and take care of them. I don't see a lot of compatibility there, and the movie didn't really do anything to reconcile that gap.

Jacob and Queenie made sense, because they actually sowed some seeds for it. It's not even about the fact that they both like to cook; they showed an interest in each other throughout. They noticeably like each other. Newt and Tina never really had that, to me, so it was bizarre for her to become his primary motivation in the second movie.

Queenie's trajectory in movie 2 overall bothers me, so while I agree it would have been better if they'd centered it more around her, I definitely think they needed to drastically rewrite pretty much everything she did. Enchanting Jacob at the beginning never sat well with me; I usually only have to say this in the Descendants fandom, but if one half of the ship is magical and the other half isn't, we can't have the magical one enchanting the non-magical one for romantic reasons without addressing what a violation of trust that is. Like, Jacob would be justified for never trusting her again, over that. Also, the fact that she apparently holds it against people if they think bad things about her is not something I would expect from someone who has been a Legilimens as long as she has, and not a detail I like, at all. Especially since it was used to give her justification to be mad at Jacob after she enchanted him in the first place. I find it sad, because Queenie was definitely my favorite character in the first movie. (Also, joining Grindelwald was a nonsensical thing to do. I can only assume she's there to spy on him or something, because it makes literally no sense.)

As for Leta, I really don't like how that was approached. First of all, I don't like how their mention of her in the first movie was "She was a taker; you need a giver," because once we actually met the character, that only made me resent Queenie for representing her that way. Leta deserved better in pretty much every way, and they definitely shouldn't have killed her off like that. I find the whole situation really iffy from a racial standpoint. The first black character to be written three-dimensionally in all of HP lore, and they make sure to preemptively tell the audience that she's a "taker", kill her in the same movie we meet her, and manage to trivialize her death by turning it into a little "Who was she saying 'I love you' to?" mystery. I like her relationship with Newt and Theseus, and I'd definitely want to see more of it.

Yes, it definitely would have been better, thematically, if they'd made the love interest a Muggle. (I'd honestly say they should've paired Newt with Jacob, but I know they're unwilling to do that. That would be kind of cool, though, to see the movie shaping up with two male characters and two female characters and have the men end up with each other and the women just live their lives as humans.)

With the story they ended up telling, though, I don't think that is needed; since Queenie is already dealing with the wizard/Muggle storyline, Newt could have a different conflict. Maybe his love interest should be a werewolf or something, to tie in the wizarding world's unresolved dislike for "half-breeds". And if he were in a relationship with someone already regarded as a creature, the wider wizarding world might take a different view to his studies and look down on him a lot more. Idk, a thought.

And then, with Leta/Theseus and Grindelwald/Dumbledore (if they were willing to actually deal with that), they'd pretty much hit every controversial beat they've got: wizard/Muggle, wizard/"half-breed", interracial, homosexual. Credence and Nagini are both creatures, kind of, but I still like them together, so their relationship doesn't have to tie into any theme; it just has to be developed way more.

On the whole, Crimes of Grindelwald felt like they skipped a movie. It feels like they needed a middle installment to make these relationships happen, instead of jumping from "Do Newt and Tina maybe have feelings for each other?" to "Newt loves Tina and Tina is possessive enough of Newt to be outwardly upset with him when she thinks he's engaged to someone else," and creating a whole relationship between Credence and Nagini that we see none of.

The fact that Queenie and Jacob were done well in the first movie gives me a fair amount of goodwill for them, but that goodwill only offers enough cushioning from the botching that movie 2 did that I'm near-indifferent to the ship, now, instead of actively opposed. I'd like to see things improved, but as it currently stands, I'd be just as happy seeing them end up not together as together. The fact that Leta's relationships with Newt and Theseus were more interesting than any of the aforementioned makes it that much more ridiculous that they killed her. What ship am I supposed to care about how? If I can't go into the next movie delusionally hoping Newt and Leta will get some moments, or enjoying the Theseus and Leta content, then I'll just be sitting there waiting for Credence and Nagini to share a screen, and who knows when that'll happen?

[dogbearinggifts]

Interesting (imo ofc) parallel between Diego and Vanya: both are angry/bitter/resentful bc of their upbringing and while I’d say Diego is more obviously verbally aggressive, they both lash out at their siblings, but Diego attacks others (most notably Luther) to shine light on their abuse, when Vanya attacks others she usually glosses over their own abuse and trauma to highlight her own (a la “you couldn’t handle that Dad might find me special!”)

That is an interesting parallel that I hadn’t noticed before, honestly.

I think their difference in behavior comes in large part from how they see their pasts. Diego was raised in the Academy while Vanya was mostly at the periphery of it; and while it seems clear that Vanya knew at least the basics of what her siblings endured, we know she thought her own exclusion was worse. There are a number of reasons for this, and I’ve touched on some of them before—she thought they were more favored, she may have accepted a somewhat sanitized view of their pain, she may have decided whatever pain they endured was worth the glory of being in the Academy—but the important thing is that Vanya saw herself as the least favorite and the most abused. Maybe there wasn’t a chance for her to unlearn this as a child, since we see her siblings do exclude her on the security tapes; but she squandered her chance to unlearn it as an adult when she chose to mostly cut ties with them. Her book alone—and her lack of remorse for writing it—is evidence enough that she hasn’t let go of the notion that she had it the worst as a kid and that her siblings’ suffering can’t even compare.

Diego, on the other hand, was in the Academy from the beginning. He endured verbal abuse and constant negative comparisons to his brother, but he also saw that what he went through wasn’t unique. It was different from what Luther endured, and not the same at all as what Klaus was put through, but unlike Vanya, I don’t think Diego ever believed he was the only one who suffered. I do think he remained bitter toward his siblings for a good long while, and he probably spent some years believing he had it worse than anyone simply because his suffering was different. But unlike Vanya, he didn’t cut ties with his siblings. Not completely, and not forever. He definitely went low-contact, and I think he maintained that for at least the first year; but I also think he eventually re-established contact with Klaus. We see him listening to a police scanner to find crimes to stop before police can arrive, and Klaus speaks of his work as a vigilante as if he’s witnessed the bloody aftermath firsthand. I wouldn’t be surprised if Diego kept one ear on that scanner listening for any mention of a junkie matching Klaus’ description so he could make sure to beat the police there and keep his brother out of trouble. And if that were indeed what he did, I think those glimpses into Klaus’ life would have changed his thinking toward him, taking his thoughts from Oh my god, my brother spends his entire day getting high, why is he such a loser  to My brother is in deep shit.

In the years following Ben’s death and preceding Reginald’s, it seems Vanya avoided her siblings as much as possible. They all moved in different circles, which probably helped keep them separate. And I think this separation made it easier for Vanya to go over what she’d endured, compare it to what her siblings endured, and decide, again and again, that she had it worse than anyone. Memory isn’t a recording of an event; it’s an individual’s impression of it as seen through the lens of emotion. I don’t think her memories of her time at the Academy ever became wildly inaccurate, but I do think they twisted a bit. We see it when she’s walking through the Academy, hallucinating her siblings telling her she’s not welcome. She sees each instance as one where she’s cruelly rejected from the family dynamic; but the only moment that fits this description is when Reginald refuses to let her be in the family photo. All the others are rude, to be sure, but nothing out of the ordinary for siblings who have been interrupted. Ben’s “To go on a mission, you have to have a power” is definitely blunt, but it’s also a statement of fact. Yet because Vanya remembers her siblings as willful tormentors who hated her for something beyond her control, she sees each of these encounters as far, far more sinister than her siblings likely intended them to be. In isolation from her siblings, Vanya seems to have built up an entire story where she is constantly victimized by a father and siblings who want to hurt her with every word and deed—a story she eventually shared with the world.

Diego, on the other hand, might have had contact at least with Klaus, as I mentioned. But even if he didn’t, I think he took stock of his childhood, much like Vanya did. I think he relived some memories, and I think he went over conversations in his mind. None of that made him any less angry—if anything, it seems to have left him even more bitter than he was as a kid—but where Vanya used her memories to reinforce the story she’d always told herself, Diego used his to challenge that narrative. Maybe he went over one of a dozen conversations where Luther defended Reginald, and instead of focusing only on how he’d felt in that moment, he started to wonder—okay, Luther had just gone through something that left him broken and quiet; he wouldn’t say what it was, but why the fuck would he defend the guy who put him through that? Is this like those times when Dad yelled at me until I cried and then yelled at me for crying, and I walked away feeling like I’d done something wrong? His resentment toward Luther seems to have remained steady through the years, but there’s sympathy present too—sympathy that I don’t think existed in their childhood and teen years.

He and Vanya are still both very resentful toward their siblings; and in Diego’s case, I’d wager his resentment is strongest toward those he believes had it better than he did—Allison, Luther, and Vanya. Ben is dead; it seems his dislike of Five is based more on personality clashes; and he’s protective and even somewhat kind toward Klaus. But with Luther, that resentment takes on a different tone. They’re still bitter rivals, and they lash out at each other on more than one occasion. But when Diego dishes out verbal abuse on Allison and Vanya, there is no purpose beyond reminding them of something they did wrong or making them feel less than. It’s meant to point to their own wrongdoings and rub their faces in it. But when he verbally abuses Luther, all or most of that abuse (which I might track one day in a different meta) points back to Reginald. Some of it points more directly (“He turned you into a monster”) while some is more circumspect (“At least I make my own decisions”) but when he reminds Luther of his own inadequacies, he often seems to hint that Reginald is at the root of them. He holds Allison and Vanya responsible for their own failings, but he tries to get Luther to see that Reginald is the cause of all his problems. I don’t think he likes Luther at this point, and I think he has a lot of unresolved anger toward him; but I think he’s at least beginning to see him as a product of his environment, rather than as someone who was just awful right from the cradle.

Vanya also takes multiple opportunities to point to the failings of her siblings, most often Allison. But this verbal abuse is more akin to what Diego dishes out on her and Allison. It’s personal. It’s sometimes condescending and sometimes acerbic, but I don’t think she ever uses it to point back to Reginald as the ultimate villain. The only instance I can remember where she brings Reginald into it at all is when she gaslights Allison after her confession: “You couldn’t handle the fact that Dad might find ME special!” In that case, it’s crystal clear that Reginald was the villain; but in Vanya’s account, he is transformed into a henchman, acting in service to Allison’s pettiness and jealousy. Diego might remind his siblings of things they’ve done wrong, flinging it in their faces when he wants to take the upper hand; but he calls attention to their actions without ascribing motive.

I’m not saying Diego’s verbal abuse is right, and I’m not saying it’s justified or remotely okay simply because he uses it to point to Reginald as the one to hate or because he doesn’t exaggerate or gaslight the way Vanya does. I’m not defending his abuse at all. It would have been far more productive and kind for him to try and sit down with Luther, clear the air with whatever apologies or explanations might be necessary, and then steer the conversation toward Reginald and how he’d come to realize their childhood was abusive, fucked up, and something that’s going to take years to recover from. What he does instead is childish, abusive, and absolutely wrong on nearly every level. He’s trying to make things better, but what he chooses to do makes things even worse. But at the same time, he’s recognized that he wasn’t the only one who had it rough, and he knows that Luther is going to need help to see what he sees. When he lashes out at Luther, this belief that they both suffered and that Luther just needs to see it—that is what guides his actions. Vanya is still stuck in the belief that her suffering was far greater than anyone else in that house could even imagine, and her treatment of her siblings is guided by this belief. She doesn’t need to help them see that they were abused. To her mind, they were hardly abused at all in comparison to what she went through. Therefore, while Diego tries to get Luther to see something about himself, Vanya’s only goal is to get her siblings to see something about her. 

[chariflare]

end of work week so No Brain Energy for a “full post” so here’s just like. a brain dump of stuff i liked and disliked about 7 deadly sins (s1). pretty spoiler-y

dislikes (so that we end the post on the most tasty part of the meal)

they give melio.das a flaw of “repeated sexual offender” with the same level of gravitas and plot-irrelevance that ya authors make their self-insert protagonists “clumsy” (i.e. it’s written as a “flaw” but doesn’t affect the plot and is often used for ““comedic effect””). unlike clumsiness though, repeatedly groping women should get a person arrested. thanks

elizabeth is still a damsel

jericho. not the feminist take that the author thinks she is. awful

ultimately the cool female villains turn out to be not that strong or important, and also get love interest’d with members of the main heroic cast (& both’s motives depend on a man)

depending on how her character arc ends up diane’s obsession with wishing she wasn’t a giant is kinda uncomfortable

i don’t mind that elaine looks young-ish but i find it uncomfortable that she has an anime kid voice to top it all off (in jp...?)

gil.thunder’s side-switch wasn’t appropriately established and his og character sucks. years of acting as a moustache-twirling bishie villain don’t appear to have affected his psyche in a meaningful way, and it’s impossible to come away knowing what he’s supposed to act like now

final villains of the first arc are BORING (i think they get more characterisation after they come back to life lmao)

usual shonen bullshit that is both a draw to the show and also makes threat levels kind of ridiculous and non-existent after a certain point (getting bogged down in endless fights, people coming back to life, refusal to acknowledge that maybe their society’s awful power structures are the problem, rapidly changing definition of “the most powerful villain EVER”, etc.)... all encompassed in one pig death fakeout

the weird fatphobic king thing

tiddy outfits. (though i don’t mind didane’s actually?)

more generalised misogyny

the most important hetero ships this season are mediocre

if you know king arthur shit you will know that everyone’s loosely based off of characters from arthurian myth. if you don’t know you will be so pissed when king arthur the 16yo sports anime character shows up to be like “YOUR NEXT ARC IS HERE”

holy SHIT the second opening song is so bad. it’s so bad y’all (the the first op for comparison)

likes

all the characters are adult colleagues (above everything else) and they act like it. (they’re... kind of found family nakama but there’s a bit more there.) they’re all unique, respected, practiced masters of their craft from the beginning of the story

gula & jericho for the when they were threatening were REALLY cool. i am so psyched at the thought of a random minor young female villain who is so badass & dedicated to the evil cause she’s willing to enter a near-death state to chase some random losers into hell. gula’s outfit slaps

(cw: suicide) ban is a really neat character. he’s like... an interpretation of a “vampire curse”. he was never really happy before he achieved immortality (seeking it only because ”if you live long enough, something good might happen to you eventually, i guess”), and getting it (by accident) only made him Worse - more self-destructive and more isolated from the people around him. he often can’t bring himself to care about much of anything, other people don’t care about him, and ultimately his existence is so fucked up and he’s laden with so much guilt that he doesn’t care about himself either. but he’s also a fun guy! incredibly powerful! will help you beat up your abusive dad! probably bi! also he has his tits out at all times and who am i to say no 2 that

personality: part of the reason that he’s isolated from other people (and othered) is his social class... but a main part of it is how his childhood kind of, created his personality. he doesn’t really connect to social norms (or laws), has niche interests, and has a “weird”, disconnected personality (again, made way worse by living 100 years past his lifetime). that being said, he’s not emotionally unintelligent, has interests outside of fighting, and is ultimately a good person

(maybe don’t read this one if you’re interested in watching? it’s all spoilers) Depression: ban willingly runs head-first into danger not just bc it’s a valid fighting technique for someone who can’t die but bc he’s... too ready to give up. but this reveal is only interesting bc it comes after like. a period of getting along with the group, being friends and having fun. ultimately hanging out with them hasn’t solved his problems - it’s just made him able to put them aside for a little while... until his trauma gets brought up, at which point he’s willing to take the first hint of an easy exit, despite how unlikely it is that it’d achieve his supposed goal, if it just lets him relieve himself of his guilt and existential suffering by letting him believe for just one second that he can fix all of the things that he “broke” with his own death (note: killing melio.das would have broken his heart and probably have been suicide by proxy). (this causes a lot of trouble and is not framed as positive, but it’s also not framed as all his fault. and he has to deal with the consequences of this? he realises in retrospect that it was an incredibly unsound idea? and lEAVES THE GROUP BC HE REALISES HE HAS TO TAKE A BREAK???)

comparing ban to a traditional vampire arc: unlike with vampires (who are often an allegory for a group of people, e.g. rich people or oppressed groups) there’s only one ban. and therefore instead of having a group with the same trauma he just suffers alone

meaningful conflict between the main characters. i don’t think i’ve ever really gotten this in a shonen show? there’s a LOT of unresolved trauma. the characters still work together bc they’re Adults... but it’s simmering

ban <-> meli: meli is the only person besides elaine who ever really understood ban... but that doesn’t mean that ban’s ok, now (in fact, the resentment about only being understood by one person kind of makes him... worse). (e: meli also has connections to the rare fantasy creature which started ban’s life hell). ban has too much damage to the point that he becomes a liability

ban <-> king: resolved early, but still good. king is convinced that ban is the cause of all of his suffering partly bc he’s too jealous to admit that smo else got close to his sister when he couldn’t; ban has enough guilt that he just Takes It. even afterwards their personalities are kind of incompatible so it’s fun to see them hang out

meli <-> (king <-> diane): relationship drama but it’s not a frustrating bc it’s relevant to each character’s flaws and Baggage (and the plot doesn’t bother to pretend that diane will end up with melio). king has a lot of guilt over accidentally (?) ghosting his family and SOME of it’s valid (but not all). king is jealous of meli for being the target of diane’s affection but also kind of lowkey thinks he doesn’t deserve her bc of the pain he’s caused her

meli <-> elizabeth <-> diane: diane KNOWS she’s not going to be in a relationship with meli but she still desperately holds onto hope. diane’s fears about being unlovable feed into her lack of self esteem as an oppressed (or at minimum, villanized) minority

elizabeth (the princess) is firmly a member of the team and her determination and character improvement is taken seriously. she DOES get badass moments BEFORE she’s revealed to be a reincarnated angel child or whatever

diane (the only female member of the 7 sins who has a big role this season) is consistently taken seriously (by the writers & other characters)

elizabeth & diane get to INTERACT!! and BE FRIENDS!!

i love elaine. first show i’ve seen that (unintentionally? & through fantasy tropes??) nails Older Sister Disease, i.e. the oldest female sibling being left to deal with all the family business, emotional and physical baggage, while all the male/younger siblings just fuck off. caring for your family members but also lowkey resenting them. they don’t invalidate her feelings even after relieving king of a little of the responsibility for her suffering. (i liked the romance prequel manga a lot - i p much only picked up the anime bc i bought into the romance b/w her and ban)

(despite everything) meli.odas acts like a proper leader for his squad. he takes his responsibilities seriously and treats his colleagues as his equals

ngl the twist with gowther disguising himself and his protagonist hair as a disposable marked-for-death npc was really funny

aesthetic is unique and distinct from the overdone isekai dnd fantasy that’s popular atm

the first ed song by flow & granr.odeo cheers me up every time

the feeling of going on an adventure with your buddies. it’s fun!