#beautifully flawed character

[saijspellhart]

Tumblr keeps recommending me posts with some of the worst takes on Catra’s character. Always an//ti//Catradora posts. (Like, did we watch the same show? We couldn’t have possibly watched the same show. Why the fuck would anyone compare her trauma to Hordak? Because they are on two entirely different character journeys, at wildly different age ranges and maturity, and with wildly different amounts of time to grow and change. Never mind the constant outside negative authority influences on Catra all the fucking damn time, that Hordak never has to deal with until season 5. And fortunate for Hordak, Prime doesn’t allow him the free will to choose a path, so Hordak gets a free pass, his character growth and budding humanity remain intact.) Don’t get me started on this, I could write a whole critical analysis on why Catra is a wonderfully written complex character, and why comparing her to Hordak is fucking ludicrous. Honestly the lack of comprehension about writing, character, fantasy, narrative and trauma astounds me when I see some of these Catra hate posts pop up in my recommended feed.

Tumblr, hopefully your algorithm gets this, but I LOVE Catra. I love her. I love this tortured mess, I love the writing that went into her character, I love her waffling precarious hold on sanity and reason. I love how she struggles to cope with her trauma. I love the realism put into her character despite the fantasy setting. But I also love that they didn’t push the realism too far, because it is at the end of the day a fantasy story. I love the delicate balance they wove into her character. I love the complexity and thought put into her entire character arc through the whole series. (And before anyone comes to crucify me, I say I love Catra, as a person who suffered immense parental trauma and manipulation. As a victim of some of the worst of it. I shouldn’t even have to mention my own trauma to justify appreciating a FICTIONAL character. But here we are.)

Would I have loved one extra season to really explore her redemption more thoroughly? Yes of course. An extra season would have been delightful to explore a lot of the character relationships more thoroughly. But we didn’t get that, and what the show creators did give us was still wonderful and satisfying. (Even if I have some critiques on some things.) the writing of the show at the end of the day is still smart, and tight, and so so competent. (Looking at the myriad of other story driven cartoons and shows that fall apart in the later seasons or just have an overwhelming amount of inconsistencies and botched writing. **coughs** Voltron, Miraculous, YGO, Netflix Carmen Sandiego, Bleach, many animes in general, just to name a few. Not that I didn’t love and adore most of these shows too.) the fact that She-ra (2018) stayed consistently tight and snappy and smart with their writing, narrative, and characters from beginning to end is a treasure.

Anyway. Catra is great. I could write a character analysis going into why from a writing and storytelling standpoint. But honestly I don’t think anyone cares that deeply, and I don’t exactly have followers who are particularly interested in She-ra. Tumblr, you god forsaken windfall apple, please stop suggesting an//ti//Catra and an//ti//Catradora posts. I don’t want to see them. I support the canon relationships. And I support the non canon ships too. What I do not support is hating on shippers who like other ships. It breeds contempt in a fandom, and leads to a fandom canabalizing itself until there are no fans left. Also letting hate and disdain take up such a large amount of time and space in your brain, leads you down some dark paths mentally.

[bloodymarymorstan]

The OFMD writers were really onto something when they named the season 1 finale "wherever you go, there you are" because it's becoming more and more apparent that that phrase completely sums up Ed's arc in that it's the thing he is consistently most unable to accept. He has all these different personas that represent different parts of himself and every time he's unhappy with his circumstances (which is often) it's suddenly time to make the switch. He shaves his beard and changes his clothes and supposedly he's not Blackbeard anymore but then he feels shitty so he draws the beard back on and adds dramatic eyeliner but then he feels guilty about the way he acted so he throws his clothes in the ocean and just... I think by the end of the show Ed really needs to realize that it doesn't matter if he has a beard or what he's wearing or if he's calling himself "Jeff" or "the Kraken" or running off to become a fisherman because he will always be the same person who killed his father and who was left by Stede and who did terrible things to the crew of the Revenge and who believes himself to be unlovable. Wherever Ed goes, he will always have to be with himself, and running away is never going to be the thing that stops him from hating himself.

[shannaniganss]

Thinking about how Armand told the guard to rest in the museum and they froze and stopped speaking and how Armand told Daniel to rest and yeah his body stopped moving but he was still able to talk and Armand said “curious” and I’m not sure if it was about that specifically or if I’m just reading into things, but maybe Armand was like “huh okay this dude has spunk”

[emoangel44]

i think the thing that makes people mischaracterize and completely miss the point of chara is that theyre written to be two very different things concurrently that dont really mesh together.

from what we know concretely about chara as a character, they were a very mentally ill child and complicated person who simultaneously hurt and helped people around them, who held both a lot of love and hate in their heart. they are fairly vague but also have specific character traits such as liking chocolate and filling up water glasses to the brim to maximize efficiency. they take speaking patterns from toriel and an interest in gardening from asgore. if you believe in the narrachara theory, they even have a character arc that changes depending on the route you take. they are inarguably a character who haunts the narrative due to their decisions in life having lead to tragedy that shapes the very plot of the game inextricably; and arguably a character that haunts the narrative and shapes the story much more literally in being a conscious force and companion that accompanies our journey.

at the same time, chara isnt treated as a character at all and is instead a meta-narrative device meant to act as an in-universe player stand-in. in this way chara isnt actually a person with character traits, but a vehicle for toby to provide commentary about the people who play video games. they are a concept that represents the state of thoughtless exp grinding. in the no mercy route their main purpose is to be a reflection of you and your mindset, even more directly than flowey. the reason theyre named after you is because, for a number of aspects in the game, they are supposed to be you; with no notable separation like there is with frisk.

this problem also heavily applies to frisk, for who there is an effort to separate their identity from yours at the end of the pacifist route but who still ends up with no real character traits of their own. people compensate for this by using black-and-white thinking; which results both in assigning frisk and chara a sort of "good-and-evil" dichotomy leading to their early fan interpretations, and in thinking that frisk and chara can only be either fully fleshed out characters or mindless player inserts leading to people favouring option one and basically ignoring the player as a concept except to occasionally use it as a generic big bad.

i think toby prioritized meta-textual implications over actual textual characterization for the human characters in undertale. this left chara as a character feeling unclear, unfocused, and incongruent due to them trying to be several things at once with no real through-line; and frisk as a character feeling practically non-existent outside of being a vessel. there are effectively two different charas in undertale, the character and the plot device, which makes it hard to talk about them as one consistent whole. i think this is why in tobys second game hes been putting such a focus on kris as a character and their separation from the player, as to improve on what he didnt properly touch on in undertale.

[sysig]

Anime good :) (Patreon)

[imminent-danger-came]

Personaly think that, if Nuwa does care for MK it's out of the kind of love an artist may have for their favored creation, a beautiful, flawless little thing she sculpted to divine perfection, worthy of every admiration

I'm down for most interpretations that aren't "Omg!!!! Nuwa is MK's mom!!!" or any care/love Nuwa has for him being a result of motherly instinct.

For me I'll always go back to "A simple creature, with no past, no family, and no name." (which was said AFTER we had already gotten flashes of an implied creator). Like if nothing else, MK was catalyzed with no family (including any familial connection to his creator). SO. I'm just really interested in where this is going to go tbh

[thealogie]

@ the people who didn’t like bottoms (2023) were your tastebuds just irreparably damaged by years of smoking or what

[zhoufeis]

Truth be told: I am very certain that the only people who enjoy the ATLA live-action are those who have never had the pleasure of watching Asian dramas.

[uty-confessions]

i'm on a fandom that is very media illiterate about my fav character (who happens to be a woman, and she was manipulated and hurt terribly, therefore made some choices that weren't the best but she's on a better place now), so i pretty much was expecting a similar treatment to ceroba (blaming her for her actions despite having really poor mental health and how that influenced the way she acted) but. seeing how the fandom genuinely cares about Ceroba and immediately tells people who blame Ceroba/are really weird about her (on a bad way) that they got it all wrong, it's really encouraging. It's nice to see how many people genuinely care about this game, it's characters and the story. i hope my fav character gets that treatment too eventually. and i hope people stop being weird /neg about Ceroba. i hope she gets a therapist

☆

[athousandbyeol]

tattooed nueng's name on his back, gave him a bracelet, soft carasses when in distress, dancing, forehead touches, the shoulder kiss, purple lighting, sharing a bed scene(s), the whole beach scene(s), those handwritten letters, kissed the wei yi tattoo and many more— never let me go did romance just perfectly.

[carefulfears]

“is scully too good for mulder” quite literally the silliest question you could ever ask about this show. misses the entire point.

[forcebookish]

at a point in my fandom life where if someone says "it's not perfect but--" my instant response is yes it is

[awilddaydreamer]

Listen. Listen to me. c!Ranboo is so full of love. It’s such a core part of his character and it’s a driving force for a lot of things that he does. I’d say it’s one of the main reasons for his “choose people not sides” mentality. This character loves in so many ways, and yes he messes up, causes problems, and upsets people partly because of this, but god damn if he isn’t trying.

They were so torn apart over Tommy’s death (probably the one who was most upset) and they planted flowers outside Tommy’s house to show this. They were kind to Wilbur after he was revived and tried to give him a chance, multiple times. They wanted to believe that Wilbur could recover and improve and be a better person, and they wanted to be there to see that. They were gentle and stayed by Tubbo’s side and supported him during his presidency era.

They were one of the only ones to visit Tommy in exile and supported him as much as they could, sending him letters of encouragement and being his tether to outside of exile for a while. They made an axe for Techno after he lost his out of the kindness of their heart. They tried to make amends and be amicable with Quackity even after he and Tubbo butted heads over the outpost, even leaving a gift for him in Las Nevadas

He loves his son and his family and everyone else so damn much that he would die for them (and has. TWICE. Once to prove a point and stop Wilbur from hurting anyone else and once to protect his son)

He is so incredibly full of love that it even permeates to his fucking ghost who can’t even feel emotions. Even without being able to feel, love is such an intrinsic part of Ranboo that Ghostboo was still sweet with Michael, still kind to Tubbo, still gave Tubbo a tulip and said with the gentlest voice “This is how we got him home the first time, remember?” Still gave Tommy his Rapple when Tommy was on the brink of a panic attack. Even though he couldn’t feel he was still so full of love, it’s just part of his core. It’s him.

They just wanted to love… they just wanted to be loved. They wanted to be remembered. And yet… They never showed this love to themself. Ranboo never gave their love to the person who needed it the most

[pokemonruby]

finished the demo for octopath 2... i’m going to throw up i don’t think i can wait another 2 or something weeks guys. it’s so fucking good so far 

[novella-lover]

Daisy Jones & The Six is awesome I will not hear otherwise —

I’m a little over half way through and I don’t have time to read a lot this week! But I’m gonna try and make time to finish this ✨

[sysig]

I did some Souichi studies because I’m love he <3 (Patreon)

Bonus:

Here are the Studies compared to their Originals btw :3

So like, not a joke, not an exaggeration, I’m pretty sure this is my favourite panel in the entire Challengers/KoiBo continuity (and I decided to draw it first lol - it’s ‘cause I have such big feelings about it!!) It just hhhhhh, it so perfectly encapsulates everything he’s feeling in that moment; disbelief, betrayal, uncertainty, distrust, conflict - every moment of love he’s built up to that point has been thrown into immediate relief to what he’s been told and it’s all there, right on his face, it’s such a masterfully done expression ;; <3 I legit cry every time I reread, that whole scene is just so good, I could actually talk forever about his relationship with Morinaga in that one moment

The rest aren’t nearly so intense lol, mostly just grabbed from moments when I thought he was being especially cute <3 Concerned lad! His hair is so swoopy in Challengers hehe <3 <3 It’s actually even fluffier in his super early-on appearances, which are also excellent >:3c But I still like his KoiBo look best ♪ You can also see it’s a bit of a challenge to make his face as slim as he actually is, just thicken the lines inward until it almost looks right! Lol

I love this panel haha, everyone so silly chibi’d out. You can also really get a good look at how ridiculous his hair is, look at how the tuft that’s tucked behind his ear joins up with the tie! How does he tie it up like that, consistently?? How is he allowed in labs like that!! He’s ridiculous <3

Confused and blushy Souichi ft. Morinaga, I just kind of filled in the details he was covering lol. I love Souichi being dumb and having no self-awareness <3 He’s actually quite intelligent and emotionally aware a surprising majority of the time! But his blind spots leave big gaps haha

I love when he has his eyebrows in a relatively neutral position, he’s normally so grumpy! He looks so friendly even with just a neutral expression :D Plus his hair!! The way it’s communicated to be thin and feathery by being able to “see through it” to his lab coat, ah <3 Handsomest

Shy boy <3 I also really love the way his hands and wrists are shaped, such cool lines ah

I could’ve sworn he and Morinaga were like, almost the same size in Challengers... I guess Morinaga did have a second growth spurt, but still! It’s just an excuse to see him being cute!! Oh noooooo (lol)

Grump man <3 Beauty boy <3 His hair flows so beautifully!

It’s also fun to see a younger Souichi in a flashback, rather than in the Challengers style haha. He was a mess by himself, he’d hate to hear it but he really only does well with others haha. I also love how this scene is from the POV of one of his admirers, Momo is such a good girl and she’s so right <3

He’s being such a meanie to his sister in this scene lol, he’s the worst! <3 I was going to leave it at that, but adding his little frameless-glasses stem holes really made it look like Spamton’s googly eyes and I about lost it lol