#but one is treated like a poor little meow meow and the other is villainized to hell and back

[simplyender]

why are the miguel fans and the spot fans fighting....we should be allies, comrades.

[toxicwasteempire]

Foreshadowing in book one for Sidestep secret.

We all know by now but did we always? How many of us picked up the clues for the first book?

I personally was 100% convinced Sidestep was a Re-Gene before I started to play Retribution. This is because my mind is huge™ (Lying). It is interesting how it isn't information the first book is withholding, it keeps bringing it up to the point it feels natural once you read it once again with that knowledge. It doesn't hide it, it's just not said explicitly.

This is not a exhaustive list. I did one playthrough and took every reference, just so you all see my point. Remember, this is all just from one playthrough.

Is not foreshadowing (or is it?) but the phrasing is interesting knowing that Sidestep was made to do undercover missions. At the start, one things they're talking about gender norms in general but Sidestep was taught those in a clinical, artificial environment, with the goal of being as unassuming as possible. Only cuckoos are socialized this way, something that separates them from other Re-Genes.

More clear impossible and this is at the start of the game. Close your eyes and imagine baby Sidestep in a test tube. 🧪👶🏻

Tech-savvy Sidestep knows the capability of modern science, they're a product of it. Is the topic of race and heritage touchy because they see themselves as having no heritage or is do they consider Re-Gene culture as their heritage. (We know they have a unique language) If the latter is true, they would also feel isolated from it, since cuckoos are set apart.

Here is The Point™ it occurs in every playthrough. The existence of Re-Gene is explained and Sidestep is shown extremely distressed after calling the Special Directive. This is the point where it's practically confirmed there's story between Sidestep and the GeniTech corporation. it's difficult to not at the very least suspect.

I mean, the whole situation is stressing Sidestep the fuck out. If her crying, sobbing and throwing up about this isn't suspicious I don't know what is.

"You see Re-Genes have NO HUMAN RIGHTS because a CEO (of a company that kicked off after moving somewhere without a bioethics board) ~~claimed~~ that Re-Genes, allegedly 😒, are not sentient. Oh, you see they can mimic 😋🤗 so if you see some acting alive that's just silly pretending Which is why they have to be BRANDED as the MINDLESS OBJECTS they are just so nobody confuses them for actual people. 🙄 They have no mind after all. Or so they say. 😒 They are used for war... Do what you want with that info."

The way Sidestep talks immediately sends off alarms. Putting aside her being a Re-Gene, it is very clear the moment the Re-Genes are mentioned, the text is also putting in question the apparently known fact that they are not sentient.

Even if Sidestep had not been revealed to be one, I would've be on the side of the Re-Genes. Made by a sketchy enterprise somewhere with little to no regulations, they're marked to make sure nobody confuses them for a human, sent to make rich people richer in proxy wars abroad. The company says uuhhm actually they have no soul so it's okay if they got not human rights. 💕 And I'm supposed to believe that? Go away

Also a journalist was straight up murdered. Como cosa rara.

So the supposedly mindless robots need to have their thoughts shielded from possible telepaths 🤔 how weird.

There's show of kinship if you chose to save the Re-Gene. You see me and I see you. We are the same. We don't deserve this.

Sidestep stop hating your body challenge (impossible)

The first one can assume she's talking about being a villain but we know better.

Kinship between Sidestep and Heartbreak. They both being treated like less than a person. I see you. You see me we are the same etc. We also get a glimpse of her life in The Farm.

If you already got the inclination to believe sidestep is Re-Gene mid playthrough, the game proves you right with texts like this.

My poor mew meow...

Being serious, one assumes their tragic backstory means Sidestep's childhood was sad. When actually is simply non existent.

[hpeter1]

i haven't seen this take yet, but i think cradle is a poor little meow meow. he got delt a awful hand, there was already so much wrong with him and rain went and gave him all that was messed up with him and gave it to cradle. his plate was already full before, that was salt to injury. yeah, rain did it by accident, craddle kinda did it to himself by accepting (he could have given it to the others so they tested it). like, i understand that cradle didn't feel emotions (at least not conventional), so imagine someone gave just one emotion and it was fucking rain's?? that's miserable dude. i think cradle was extremely unlucky and as unfair as everything is in this book that was pretty low hanging fruit. i bet he'd be labeled a dark empath or something. let craddle be happy!! his villain origin story is justified! lets remember rain locked the fricking door! god i hate rain. craddle deseeves a little rain torture as a treat.

to be frank, how exactly did he change the dreams? is it stated? was it just the blurring of the voices? or did he change rains as well? were all the dreams innacurate because they were emphasizing aspects that they were focused on more, so they erased details that didn't fit their narrative unconsciously? like mama mathers in rains dream?

I'm in first read, stopped before heavens 12.none, please no spoilersss.

what the fuck is the fifth member of their cluster?? i don't remember if they have a fifth power, I'm stupid

[a-local-idiots-shitpost]

Cat Yuu-Heartslabyul

Riddle

at least the Cat is better behaved than Grim, which isn´t a hard feat to achieve but it´s better than nothing

and it does help him catch Rule breakers, but it still isn´t allowed at formal parties

the Cat might not be a rule Breaker but they are a horrible distraction every time he tries to study it just keeps sprawling out on his desk and demanding pets, which it might do because Trey is worried about Riddle overworking himself

the Cat also tried to chase the Flamingos and Hedgehogs multiple times which forced Riddle to put the Cat on house arrest as soon as they are supposed to be playing a game

and it always manages to sneak into the Cafeteria to beg for treats or leftovers from the other Heartslabyul students

which forced him to give the Cat a firm talking to

the collar Riddle got the Cat does look suspiciously similar to “Off with your Head!” which Riddle will deny

Trey

if the Cat plays nice and doesn´t bother him while he´s working in the kitchen he will sneak the some Cat save sweets

but not to sweet, he can´t brush the Cat´s teeth, he tried once and it didn´t turn out so well for the toothbrush and Trey´s hand he wasn´t allowed in the kitchen for some days because of it

he also hides this from Riddle because he´s rather strict about the Cat´s diet

Trey also learned to enjoy doing his homework when the Cat is around, mostly because you can´t be mad at a furball happily rolling around in the sun

he also sometimes stays up late with the Cat cuddles into his lap but because of the lighting a lot of students see Trey sitting like an evil villain instead of an adorable moment

Cater

he thought he found the perfect prop for his Magicam account but what he didn´t anticipate was just how difficult one Cat pic can be

even bribing it with treats doesn´t work, it always manages to make the pics blurry by moving around like crazy while eating

he even tried using one of his clones just so he can take a picture but they quickly managed to find out who´s the real one and who´s a fake

the only time he got a picture was after Ace and Deuce were forced to chase it around for the entire day because it managed to escape the Dorm and was chasing the poor Hedgehogs again

but it was worth it because like always the Cat pic blew up

but if you don´t count him always trying to take a pic of them, they get along rather well, they even cuddle up to him when he doesn´t hold his phone or just when they notice he isn´t doing to well

Ace

he never liked the Cat and the Cat also started hating him, he hates them for always snitching on him and after some time always leaving their spat out furballs in his shoes

they even bite him once!

he thinks the Cat is nothing but a spoiled little shit and believe me you don´t even want to hear what the Cat thinks of him

he always runs away when it´s his turn to look after them or conveniently forgets to feed the Cat because he had something very important to do which didn´t give him time to tell somebody to take over for him

he even tried to prank the Cat, which weirdly enough succeeded but he also just put a glass of water over the Cat´s favorite nap spot so not a really creative one

Deuce

he likes the Cat they even join him in his Club activities sometimes

it´s always a funny sight to see a small Cat just keeping up with all of the NRC students or even being faster than them

and the Cat is a good helper when he´s studying, well kinda they usually just sit in his lap so he can´t move away and starts meowing really loudly when he get´s stuck on a problem

he´s 90% sure the Cat was the reason he managed to improve his grade

and they sometimes sneaked into the Classroom when he was taking a test and caused so much chaos that he got some extra time

he´s also the one who has to make sure nothing happens to the Cat, which is just him keeping Ace away from the Cat and the Cat from Ace

those two really don´t like each other

[starlemonbunki]

At the hospital rn so here are some headcanons of bsd men with cats

Chuuya:

- *cat meows* *he meows back*

- likes cats that are chubby

- if someone so much as says "heck" in front of his beautiful little baby he will go on a rampage

- "WHICH ONE OF YOU MOTHERFUCKERS HAS BEEN SWEARING IN FRONT OF MY LITTLE GIRL"

- absolutely spoils the shit out of his cat

- BTW it's a black one with elegant green eyes and she's a total bitch but that's why he loves her

- same spoiled rich bitch energy

- they were made for each other

- he def rants about dazai to her

- idk abt a name yet but I'm thinking he'd name her something fancy like a type of wine or an author of an old book he likes or smth

- they look like they judge people together

- they absolutely do

- if you think ur safe no u are not

- she does not like dazai AT ALL

- whenever he sees her he tries to be friendly and even give her treats but she just hisses or ignores him

- *dazai enters chuuyas apartment (uninvited)* heya Eleanor!

Eleanor: *hisses*

Dazai: okay! :D

Dazai:

- ohhh dazai's cat would absolutely despise him

- it's not really his cat, it just kinda keeps coming back to him for food

- whenever he tries to be affectionate with it it just hisses or bites him

- but it still keeps coming back the next day

- hmmmm sounds like a certain someone

- he also gets the shittest cat foods ever

- "heyyyy I hope you like this new tuna I got ya!!! It's chocolate flavored :)"

- the cat will def vomit on his shoes

- it's happened more often than u think

- BTW it's an orange tabby that he likes cause it's mean and orange and reminds him of someone

- GEE I WONDER WHO

Fyodor:

- fyodor has the most spoiled snooty ass little Persian cat in the whole entire world

- it looks exactly like the ones you see in cartoons

- she's all white with pretty blue eyes and a nice little collar that costs like 10,000 in usd

- I can also see him with a cat like chuuyas, u know the ones villains in movies usually have

- tje black pointy slender ones

- you'd walk into his lair or smth and it's all dark and it's just him in his chair facing you and caressing the cat on his lap

- me next me next ME NEXT ME NE

- it also acts like his own personal spy, by lurking around his enemies (dazai) and finding out all sorts of dirt on them (his love for chuuya) and bringing them to fyodor for him to exploit (putting a hand on his forehead and eyes going "the gays are at it again")

Nikolai:

- your friendly neighborhood animal abuser😝

- u know that cat from the start of princess and the frog???

- the one that lottie had when she was a kid???

- yea it's like that

- bro torments the SHIT out of that poor kitty (mine next please please)

- he would come home and just throw it into the air as a greeting

- his ceiling is covered in cat scratches from every time he's done it

- atp he would just randomly go "Hey where nikolai junior???" Like he's Phineas and Ferb looking for perry meanwhile his poor tortured cat is hiding from him somewhere

- he would bring that thing everywhere

- airport, barbers, hospital, restaurant, PRISON

- "sir you can't have pets in here" "awww why not :((((" "because this is a correctional facility"

- he'd be with the gang😎 and sigma jus goes "nikolai....what's in your shirt???" And he's like wdym?? And sigma goes "it's...meowing?? What have you got in there???" And nikolai has to answer very carefully bc of all the times fyodor has told him NOT TO BRING HIS GODDAMN CAT INTO THEIR MEETINGS so he just smiles sweatily and says "drugs" which for him is honestly way more believable but fyodor just sighs

Anyway that's all I got for now wish me luck at the hoptal guys :DDD

[disventurecamptakes]

Welcome back Mod Jake ! :>

If you don’t mind answering: How do you feel about the current remaining contestants (as of Episode 15)?

Hi anon, thank you! These might not be thought out super well but here are my basic takes:

Jake: The blorbo from my show! I feel like the build up to Jake’s character arc was dragged out in the first 12 episodes or so, but for the last three I’ve really enjoyed him— Tom was really holding him back clearly. His friendship with Aiden one of the highlights of the season for me. It’s nice to see him become more honest and emotionally mature and happy after everything he’s been through. If he doesn’t make the finale I’m going to sob.

Ally: Hot take but I like antagonist/morally gray Ally for the most part. The idea of a character who is so online that they become too insecure to function, who ends up pushing people away and becoming hated in their quest to be loved, is really interesting. And frankly sometimes characters have to become worse before they get better. However, within the context of the show’s pattern of either having the female characters work as support for the male protagonists or villainizing independent female characters, I do see why people find it frustrating.

Grett: Grett’s another character who had some weird build up (up until episode 13 she just felt like “Yul’s poor sad meow meow girlfriend” to me tbh, I felt like she wasn’t doing much) but I do like what they’ve done with her in the last few episodes. She’s clearly been through a lot of hardship and it’s nice to see a character come out on top of that. I also loved her friendship with Gabby, it was really cute and I wish it would’ve lasted a little longer, it’s nice to show Grett reconciling with her past by improving for the future and treating the person she was the worst to with kindness, as opposed to Yul who was terrible to her and left even worse. I would’ve written her a little differently but she still deserves to win imo. Also she slays always.

Riya: What did they do to my girl?? I loved Riya’s arc in season two, I thought she and Ellie had two of the best villain arcs in the series and I thought Riya was one of the best season two characters. But they really flushed that down the drain by making her comically evil and forgetting her motive. In season two Riya was a villain but she was sympathetic; she gradually lost sight of her morals in a quest for affection and fame, alienating her closest friend (Rosa María) and ultimately putting herself in mortal danger, which caused her to somewhat see the error of her ways. In the beginning of season three I think they tried to carry this over, showing her inner conflict in earlier episodes like episode 3. But by episode 14 they’d just…totally lost what made Riya human— a desire to fit in to what other people think of her (whether that be movie star or villain), close relationships with Connor and Alec, guilt, a sympathetic past, everything that happened in the season two finale— now she’s just evil because she’s evil, full stop. It’s really disappointing, because having her try too hard to lean into her villain persona and ultimately snapping out of it would’ve been so much more interesting, and I feel like if that’s what they plan to do later then they’re building up to it terribly tbh.

Connor: I really liked Connor in episodes 1-7, I thought he was a good straight-man and foil to Riya and Alec, I thought he was just pleasant and I liked seeing his growth from season two to now. But these last few episodes have simultaneously made him very unlikable while also making him essentially the main character, for some reason. The nepo baby plotline wasn’t built up to at all and it really undermines the successful businessman thing he had going, which made him feel more mature and intelligent; plus making him a union buster on top of that is just poor taste, like wtf. Having Jake as his right hand makes Jake more likable but it just makes Connor seem pathetic having this dude constantly go “nooo Connor pull it together remember that speech you gave us? really cool”. Like yeah Connor rallying the heroes together that one time was good, a little corny but ultimately good for the plot, but other than that all he does is be passive aggressive (or just aggressive) with Riya and Alec and be sad. Also making his feelings for Riya just disappear?? What?? He was in love with her, they understood each other in a way that no one else did in season two, his love for her humanized him a lot and vice versa with Riya’s feelings for him. Why remove that entirely? Sorry if I’m being harsh but I’m honestly really disappointed in how Connor’s being handled, he and Riya and Alec were a highlight of the early episodes and now they’ve been reduced to like the TD love triangle 2.0. But like, fanon love triangle, where Courtney is ridiculously evil for some reason and Gwuncan are just poor sad babies who did nothing wrong. Also if Connor makes the finale I’m going to be so annoyed. He doesn’t need three million dollars, he’s already rich.

Alec: Alec has gone from one of the most calculating and clever villains in the show’s history to a groveling little baby man and I don’t like it. On one hand I do like the idea of Alec growing a conscience after all he’s done to manipulate the game, and I do think it would be cute if that came from his relationships with Riya and Connor. But on the other, he’s become too pathetic imo. Alec’s defining traits are his intelligence, apathetic tendencies, and level-headed demeanor, and they’re really stripping that all back to make the audience sympathize with him when we already could’ve done that easily based on what’s already there?? The Riyalec kiss scene was really good at this; it showed us Alec’s and Riya’s deepest insecurities and regrets, then showed us the two understanding each other and finding comfort in that. Shipping aside, I genuinely think maintaining a positive relationship between them, friendly or romantic, would make them both feel more human while also allowing them to both remain as antagonists because they both would enable each other. They just took all the edge away from his character for like, mid yaoi crumbs. The way Riya is written vs how Connor & Alec are written actually feels reminiscent of how some m/m fics will demonize the fuck out of a character’s girlfriend or female friend or etc to prop up the male characters as sweet angels who’ve done nothing wrong, if I’m being honest.

Overall, I loved Aleconniya until episode 14 but I just want all three of them gone at this point because their writing is really far off from their original characterizations and it’s overall just not very good. But I do enjoy Jake, Grett, and Ally for the most part and hope they make the finale. Sorry this got kinda long, thank you for the question anon!

[haleigh-sloth]

I feel kinda weird when people are like "Shigaraki is a grown adult and needs to be held accountable even if you feel bad for his child self". Not in a poor little meow meow way. People need to take accountability for causing harm even when it's a result of mental illness. But the manga has always been clear that he didn't develop right? Like it's weird to expect him to shake off years of grooming when he hit 18. This is difficult to put into words without sounding like I am making excuses lol

I mean, you really don't even have to make excuses for him. The story is working toward forgiving him pretty blatantly without the excuses.

It's a story. A story exists to explore ideas. A story like BNHA explores ideas that are based off of our reality, but because of the sheer fact that it is a fantasy story, the exploration of those ideas will be quite exaggerated, and in turn, unrealistic.

That's why when people say shit like "He should be held accountable for his actions", I just eye roll. They're wanting a realistic telling of how criminals we are familiar with are treated. And to that I say--find something else to read, because you don't deserve the story for what it is.

In our reality, there is no real way to "redeem" oneself after ending other peoples' lives. I mean, no there just isn't. But in fiction ideas are exaggerated.

In FMA Scar murdered like...close to 40, if not 40+ people in a fucking military state country that committed genocide against his race. Scar helped save the country from demise, and then was offered a position to help the military that massacred his people. And then that same military started working to rebuild his country, just like that. Would Scar face the same fate in our reality? Fucking no. But it's a story that explores the idea of what certain situations DO to a person, what it can lead a person to do.

Now let's apply that to Shigaraki.

Gonna repeat myself--they're wanting a realistic telling of how criminals we are familiar with are treated.

Shigaraki has killed many many maaaanyyyyy people. Oof, so many. Pretty bad, yeah?

But Shigaraki's position in BNHA is a challenge to the main character to deliver a certain theme that the story has centered itself around. And with that, what has Shigaraki personally done to the main character? Not really much. Bakugo doesn't count, because for one: Bakugo isn't even gonna stay dead, but for two: it's not even Shigaraki specifically who is responsible right now. And no I don't mean fighting. That's circumstantial with them being a hero and a villain.

What I'm getting at is that Shigaraki's character, his arc, and his actions were all constructed a very specific way so that a different character could deliver the themes of the story hand in hand with Shigaraki at a certain level of ease. I say that because it doesn't have to be realistic. It needs to be convincing.

Realistically, Shigaraki would have been killed, detained, what the fuck ever. There'd be no happy ending in sight. He's done.

But this is BNHA, where the notion of a true hero exists, and such an idea is based around saving someone's existence in every way. It's an exaggerated idea that you won't ever see in your lifetime, in our reality. But in a story that wants to explore the idea of saving someone no matter what, because that someone is in pain and they as a human being matter, these ideas are convincing.

Yeah mental illness is not an excuse for harming someone. God fucking bless, I have been living this statement every day at my job currently. But that's not what the story is asking you to consider.

It's asking you to consider if Shigaraki is worth saving behind the monstrous cover he is wearing right now, because deep down he isn't a monster. He's just a person who is feeling anything and everything in the worst way.

The realistic aspects that you're talking about --I would say Horikoshi utilized very realistic trauma reactions to make the character convincing.

But imo the whole "he didn't develop right" argument is kinda moot, cuz that's not the question the story is asking. That's just the realistic part of the character that makes the resolution the story is building up toward (saving regardless of actions) convincing.

Realistic things can be used to make a character and a story convincing. But a story does not have to portray realism to be convincing. It just needs to follow up on the ideas it put in place.

For BNHA, if Izuku saves Shigaraki with the same mindset that he used to save Bakugo, Shouto, Iida, Kota, and Eri---then it's convincing. Because that's an idea about Izuku's character that has been implanted since chapter one.

Izuku saving Shigaraki after all the mass murder and destruction is not realistic by any means.

But because of the way Shigaraki's character has been constructed (a mess of emotions that makes it impossible for him to say what he really wants--which is for a hero to save him) and the way Izuku's character has been constructed (a hero who decides to save someone without them asking for it), it will be convincing.

You can make excuses but tbh, you don't need to. It's not necessary imo.

[kacievvbbbb]

Hello.....If you don't mind me asking, can I ask, what are your top 7 favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series) and your top 7 favorite (fictional) characters from any media ? Why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this questions before......

Hello!!!

Sorry about the late response I usually use tumblr on my phone but i was having a hard time typing something so long so it’s taken me a few tries. 

Thanks for being my first ask! I would love to answer your question.

Deciding on my favorite all time characters was so much harder than I thought it would be. I think it’s because the character exists so thoroughly in their own world to me that it’s hard to stack them against each other. But I’ll do my best!

I’m going to split my answer between your two asks because I don’t want the response to be too long. Also, forgive me for I cannot spell and punctuation is my natural enemy. 

My Favorite Characters (as of right now)

Jason Todd a.k.a the Red Hood - Batman/ Red Hood Comics

This is pretty simple actually I’ve been obsessed with him since I watched Under the Redhood the animated movie and then went on to consume so much content about him. I think he is if not my most favorite character, then at least my most consistent character (I jump from hyperfixation to hyper fixation alot) So yeah he’s great. He’s very much a shining example of characters I tend to gravitate to in media. 

Kugasaki Nobara - Jujustu Kaisen

Justice for my girl Nobara. I consume quite a bit of media alot of which you could argue was originally geared towards menand so female characters are usually not the best or most fleshed out and so rarely become my favs which is why I hold the ones that do so close to my heart. Nobara is like no other female protag I’ve seen in shonen, she’s allowed to be so much she’s so mean and so forthright and she’s silly she’s a non-hypersexualized comedic relief character and that’s so hard to get with female characters that isnt just them beating up the main character who just lets them. Don’t get me wrong she’s mean to yuuji but in the way we are all mean to our best friends. Her moral philosophy is one of my favorites in the show, shes so complex and so fun and here powers are so interesting. I wish more would be done with her.

Ice Bear - We Bare Bears 

I don’t really have much to say here. Ice Bear’s just a cool dude.

Reigen Arataka - Mob Psycho 100

This is very basic of me but I love Reigen so much. I love mob to but Reigen just slightly edges him out because of his sheer insanity. The way Reigen is animated is so god he can never just do one action he’s so hyper and he’s such a bullshitter I love him. But really I feel like we never really get these kinds of  stories with “sensei” like characters. Cause in the beginning He’s presented to us as Mob’s master but it’s so obvious that he’s a con man but the thing is he still gives really good advice and in his own way he is genuinely really helping people. And he gives the single most best piece of advice to a teenage mc that I’ve ever seen. Like how often to you hear the master character tell their pupil that the right thing to do is runaway. That he shouldn't be responsible for fixing the messes of adults, he’s a child and should be allowed to be a child that all the villains are adults and it’s frankly pathetic that they are trying to fight actual children. Reigen simply is him and he grows so much in the way he treats Mob. It’s hard not to love him. Also he has no friends his own age so I feel bad for him. 

The Archangel Michael - Supernatural

There’s not much to say here. He has like 20 minutes of screen time across 15 seasons, but the ways in which I am unwell about him are limitless. He’s my poor little meow meow I will defend him to my dying day. 

Honorable mentions to those I don’t really think about often,and like more in the context of a dynamic, but when I do I go on an absolutely fanfic fuelled mania. 

Erwin Smith (AOT) - There is no canon evidence for this whatsoever but he strikes me as a man that is just a little too much like his mother (unhinged). This is solely based on a specific fic series but the ways in which I am unwell about this trope has implanted unto him. Also love his dynamic with Levi

Robb Stark (GOT)- Honestly I cried about the red wedding for 5 days straight and yeah I like reading about his dynmaic with Jon. 

Shinsou and Aizawa (MHA) -  cheating, but I like them as a dynamic and i flip flop between who I like better, especially in fics where Shinsou isn’t just a vehicle for trauma.

Mihawk and Shanks (OP) - We don’t really know alot about either, though Shanks has gotten a bit more fleshed out recently. I think if we ever find out more about Mihawk he would ascend to one of my favorite characters but right now all Ireally have are headcanons. Also I love Shanks I love seeing him on screen I find him such a fun but tragic character and i dont really know why but yeah he cares so much he’s like a slightly more weighed down luffy what’s not to love?

And finally the ogs

Zoro (OP) - I was so obsessed with him when I first started reading one piece. Love him and Luffy

Nico di angelo (PJO/HOO)  - I think mostly I’ve outgrown Percy Jackson but what kind of person would I be if I didn’t give love to the ogs.

and so here's my list of favorite characters very convoluted I know. I'll probably respond to the second half of your question tomorrow because this kind of wiped me. 😅

But thanks so much for the ask! this was fun

[mssboo]

I am gonna repeat it once again because I said it once and nobody cared. Netflix misunderstood Werner’s character and they’re presenting him like a tortured soul!

First of all, if Werner Pfennig has one fan, I am the fan. If he has 100 fans I am one of them. If he has no fans I am dead. I LOVE WERNER. I LOVE LOVE HIM OKAY. He’s my all time favourite male lead, he is my cutie patootie lovey dovey boy!!! And I am mad as hell. I know he’s not the most amazing person in the planet and I know probably half of the readers didn’t really empathise with him too much but I DID! I don’t agree with Netflix making him a tortured soul unaware of what he is doing because it is not the case, but I do think Werner plays at the same time the role of manipulated and manipulator/villain/not so good person! Even if we really want to ignore it there has been hundreds of cases of soldiers, people or anything really that has done things against their beliefs with the only desire to survive. I am aware perfectly that Werner’s case doesn’t apply because he is a very morally grey character (something that ALONG the novel has been established several times and is something that kind of reflects Werner’s view and perspective of some things) and most of the time, if you read a little bit between the lines, he doesn’t really know what he is fighting for. Yeah sure, Hitler, but Werner doesn’t exhibit any N*zi behaviour outside of participating in the war, so that indicates that Werner doesn’t really know what Hitler values are (outside of what he has learned/heard). After all, even the killing, he IS a victim too and I know people find it hard to acknowledge that someone from the bad side can be manipulated but IT HAS HAPPENED. IT HAS!!! CHECK HISTORY!! And you’re going to tell me, “But what about Frederick??? Frederick wasn’t scared of standing for what he believes in! Frederick is more good person that Werner is!” Girl I love Frederick, but the thing about Werner-Frederick dynamic in Schulpforta is the difference of their actions. They have very different levels of courage, they do not feel, or perceive the world in the same way. And I’m going to say more, Frederick is a rich kid. Frederick has been able probably more times than Werner (even if they are few) to speak his mind (Not Schulpforta tho, but other decisions). Werner doesn’t have that kind of privilege of saying what he thinks. He obeys, because that’s what people in Zollverein had taught him to do, obey the superior. He is manipulated by a group of N**is because of his social status, his monetary issues and his vulnerability (because Werner is a CHILD when he enrolls Schulpforta, barely 14 years old!).

I know he is not the best person and I cannot express that enough but it’s not fair that 1. Everyone treats him like the bad guy 2. He is portrait as someone he is not! He is not a tortured soul, or a poor little meow meow, he has killed people and he has participated in the worst dictatorship to ever exist. He is not a good person but he is not a bad person either!! Werner does the things he does because that’s his way to survive! Werner wouldn’t had left his sister back at Zollverein, Werner didn’t want Frederick harmed, Werner didn’t want any of those people dead and Werner didn’t want to hurt Marie in any way. THATS THE GODDAMN POINT. Werner’s character is designed to survive a series of very terrible circumstances any kid should be put through and he was shaped (in a very bad way) by them. He IS a morally grey character! Thats HIS theme!

[cryptidanathema]

jasper

Why I like them: He turned out to be a much more complicated character than he seemed to be on the surface. It took me until his literal last scene in the game to realize this but damn if that scene didn't paint all of his actions in a new light. Like yeah he's still a bastard but you saw WHY he became the way he did. How easily it all could have been avoided. How he and Hendrik deserved the chance to move past the lies that poisoned their relationship without him having to be a ghost living in his armor. It hurt in a weird way. He became my first true character hyperfixation and honestly opened my mind to engaging with fiction in a whole new way. No one deserves to be painted in the Crying Lucifer Painting pose more than him lol 

Why I don’t: I will forever have a chip in my shoulder that he didn't get a redemption arc, sorrynotsorry. Even Party Chat tries to desperately downplay the significance of the armor scene if you check it on the now-memorial balcony. On a lighter note the fact I missed 99.9% of the Piers fandom is entirely his fault because I was too busy hyperfixating on him lol. Also, the classism. The classism is bad, mkay? :P

Favorite line: His melodramatic evil speech in the throne room where he lists love first as something he's given up on is hard to beat. Also his final line in the game being "we will never be apart again'...yeah 🥲😭

Favorite outfit: The evil queen ensemble. It's so...very.  Exactly the sort of thing a raging disaster gay that designs his own outfits (according to the character book) that's devoted himself to eeevil would wear. 

OTP: He literally only makes sense as a character if you assume he was extremely, painfully gay for Hendrik and sublimating it in a WEIRD way. And Hendrik certainly showed enough signs of feeling the same way (the way he clutches his necklace to his chest after his death in the first timeline...) Mordegon and Heliodor's toxic monarchy just got in the way... 

Brotp: Jade was apparently just as close to him as she was to Hendrik but the game NEVER EXPLORES THIS AT ALL. Also I think he and Sylvando could have been absolute terrors together lol. And I've always liked the headcanons where he and Mia bond over their shared pain and rage at their (perceived) abandonment. 

Head Canon: Quite a few, so I'll just share one that he wrote the MOST emo poetry as a pining teen, something he will never admit to on pain of death as an adult. I'll also bring up the fact he's successfully taken over the world but still paying for cake as proof he's not as happy as he thought he'd be and eating his feelings about it in Act 2 lol

Unpopular opinion: No one reads deeply enough into him, everyone takes the bullshit he tells himself at face value even when he directly contradicts himself *eyetwitch* I often suspected I was literally the only person right about him lol. Also, the Gay Armor Marriage was incredibly touching, but not enough. He shouldn't have died at all. Also while I've read Jasper/Sylvando fic and enjoyed it before I don't really ship him or Hendrik with Sylv myself which kinda feels like a minority take in this fandom 

A wish: At this point I can only hope he gets the Psaro treatment where his death is avoided entirely when the game is rereleased in like 25 years 

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: I honestly don't want Square to revisit him, they treated him so harshly compared to other villains of the same caliber that pretty much got away with everything so yeah, just leave the angry wet cat man alone guys...

5 words to best describe them: Poor little meow meow supreme 💛

My nickname for them: Bastard son, the Purple Titty Monster (for Unbound obviously)

[princeescaluswords]

I’m unsure how to say this but a lot (not always or even a majority) of the time when I see people complain about people liking black/white morality in characters it’s tied to them being upset that people aren’t whitewashing the actions of villains. There’s an intense need for others in the audience to treat the actions of the antagonist as understandable and redeemable no matter how unrepentant the character is about horrific actions. It seems more often they want to simplify the nuances down to the point that the character isn’t help responsible at all.

I am in complete agreement that too often people who employ "black-and-white morality" as a criticism against a fictional character are simply trying to recast a villain's actions as somehow justified. I find there are very few black-and-white protagonists portrayed in media anymore, especially since the turn of the millennium, United States audiences simply don't have the taste for them.

The greatest irony to me is that the parts of the fandom who rail against a heroic protagonist's "black-and-white thinking" eventually become guilty of it themselves. They choose to scorn evaluating individuals and actions through the lens of a rigid and unbending moral system only to replace it with evaluating individuals and actions through the lends of a rigid and unbending emotional partisanship. In other words, every engagement they have with a character to whom they have an emotional or physical attraction must, in the end, be positive. To use the common parlance, their "poor little meow-meow" must be defended against any negative evaluation, even if blood drips from their hands. In the world of politics, this is called partisanship or a cult of personality, and it can be quite dangerous; in the world of fandom, it can lead to similar, if far less serious, behavior.

Before I give an illustrative example, I want to remind people of the difference between protagonist, antagonist, hero and villain. The protagonist is the primary actor in the story; their decisions are the focus and they are changed by the plot. Antagonists are obstacles in that story with which they must grapple. There is not necessarily a moral component to the relationship between protagonist and antagonist. When there is a moral component to that relationship, they are called a hero and a villain.

My personal fandom, Teen Wolf, has a heroic protagonist in Scott McCall. In a stroke of misfortune that has had repercussions for years, the villain of Seasons 1 and 4, Peter Hale, once criticized Scott for "black-and-white thinking" and the villain-stans ran with it, even though this idea literally can not hold up to any close inspection. Here's the quote that started it from the episode Fireflies (3x03):

Peter: Oh, come on. How much damage can they do? So they off a few homeless people, a drunk stumbling out of a bar too late. So what? Let Scott deal with it. Let him be the hero of his morally black and white world. The real survivors, you and I, we live in shades of gray. Then again, even if you did kill them, you're still an Alpha. You can always make more werewolves.

I can guarantee you that no one in the production wanted the audience to think that this was a legitimate criticism. Peter was arguing that Derek, his nephew, allow his sister and one of the teenagers for which he is responsible to run moon-mad and kill innocents rather than risk injury to them or him, because this was all part of Deucalion's (one of the villains of Season 3) plans.

Peter's position isn't shades of gray. There's no moral trade-off happening here. It's selfishness. Letting Cora and Boyd murder innocents isn't going to stop Deucalion's plans. It's going to undermine Derek by driving a wedge between the alpha and his other remaining family member, one of his two remaining betas, and with Scott, who is -- and parts of the fandom are extraordinarily content to forget this -- Derek's consistent and reliable ally throughout the season. If Derek accepts this advice, it will increase Peter's influence by convincing the alpha that he is more like Peter; that they're the same. They're not.

But, in the unending labor of villain defense, the true context of this scene is purposefully discarded in order to paint Scott as the true danger because of a "black and white world" he doesn't actually live in. Scott's refusal to kill victims or allow innocent people to be killed is oversimplified to a No-Killing Rule he never had. His suspicions about Peter and Derek -- vastly overstated by parts of the fandom -- are transformed from not unreasonable cautions about people who tried to murder him and his friends and lied to him repeatedly about it but into moral rigidity that causes him to judge others unfairly. One BNF has argued that Scott sorts people into Villain and Victim as a function of his black-and-white morality and can't comprehend that people can be both, even as Scott canonically argues that there is hope for Peter, comes to Peter's and Derek's aid, and speaks not one word of criticism to the sheriff.

The whole enterprise is illegitimate because there are plenty of scenes where Scott acknowledges that his attempts to save innocents might end up in other people dying. In Party Guessed (2x09), Visionary (3x08), Lunar Ellipse (3x12), and The Beast of Beacon Hills (5x19), Scott acknowledges that they might have to kill. The key of course is the word reluctant; the truth is that Scott's morality isn't so inflexible that he can't conceive of killing, but it is strong enough that he's never going to make it his first choice. Yet he doesn't cast Peter or Derek into the outer dark for their eagerness to kill. He works with both of them, especially Derek. Several times he does go to Peter for help and advice. He's so non-judgmental of Peter the serial killer that Stiles, his best friend, scolds him twice about it. And when that very same Stiles accidentally kills someone in self-defense and in a panic hides the fact, Scott is shaken, but he doesn't end his friendship with Stiles or even make a moral judgement -- he doesn't throw Stiles out of the pack or call him a monster, no matter what deranged anti anons might think -- a disappointed Scott tells Stiles to go talk to his Dad, the sheriff, which I think is an appropriate response when your friend accidentally kills someone.

But that's where the true black-and-white thinking comes in for the fandom. Scott believes that killing, however necessary or unplanned, is a bad thing, though he clearly doesn't believe that the person who kills is unsalvageable or even unworthy of his love or affection. But parts of the fandom do not share this ability with Scott. In a strange twist, in order to 'stan' a character, they must treat the character as justified no matter what they choose to do, so a villain's crimes -- in Peter's case manipulation, treachery, and serial murder -- must be justified, and any who oppose it in the slightest must be wrong at their core. No matter how much they protest otherwise, they can't acknowledge that the heroic protagonist should be able to react to what a villain does. Thus the very act of a heroic protagonist rejecting the crimes that anyone in their right mind would reject becomes the actual crime.

So suddenly, the heroic protagonist becomes their enemy. If the heroic protagonist has made mistakes as well, they're a hypocrite for even suggesting that the villain's crimes are actual crimes. Stans of a villain draw a bright line around their favorite. Anything within that line is justified, and anything outside of that line is hypocrisy or moral vacuity. This is a black-and-white dichotomy.

[venndaai]

Poor Little Meow Meow Poll Round 1, Class Conscious Cringefail Archer Edition

my babies, my sweet cheese good time boys, my blorbos, my wettest of kittens.

ROBIN STEWART (Scottish Archer, would-be regicide, biggest loser in literature)

Qualifications:

I made a whole poll about this

but to summarize:

manipulated into becoming an assassin because of his class resentment

falls in love with his first assassination target, who happens to be the first person who has ever liked him

does not successfully assassinate anyone (but oh my god does he try)

vibes so bad he can't even successfully sell out his country because no one on the opposing team wants to talk to him

bitterly jealous of an 8 year old for being able to solve a riddle he couldn't

QUOTE: “You treat life, all of you, as if the world was a tilting ground. The lusty arts of leisure! When you're born to a mean spoon and a worn thread, when the only food in your mouth and the only clothes on your back and the only turf on your roof is your own bloody sweat, you get good heart out of all your braw hours of leisure, I can tell you!”

SU SHE | SU MINSHAN (the most dedicated villain henchman and Supreme Demonic Cultivator)

Qualifications:

as a scared teenager, made the selfish decision that he wanted to live and not die for his richie overlords

hated ever since

despised by the fandom for having bullyable vibes despite actually being a badass who made a lot of good points

insane little fucker who will cast a curse that turns his own chest into swiss cheese in order to horribly murder his bully. inspirational

insanely loyal to the man he loves just for remembering his name

dies trying to save him

QUOTE: “Lowlife? What right do you have to call him lowlife? All of you praise yourselves as decent clans and noble gentries. You're just counting on your lucky birth and powerful family. How could you look down upon us? Aren't we, peripheral disciples, also human? If I could have protected myself, would I have been threatened by others? Would I have been swept out of the Lan Clan like a pile of leaves?!”

(Feel free to vote even if you don’t know the canons! Which one has bigger wet cat vibes?)

[dappledpaintbrush]

Blumiere and Dimentio are the same person and I’m tired of the plot trying to pretend theyre not.

Y’all I love this game and all but why were Mimi and Chunks not only still loyal to Blumiere but also said not one bad thing about him after finding out he was going to kill them despite the fact they were trying to help him this whole time and were the only mfs that cared about him- but Dimentio did the exact same thing and they hit him with a car

Like this is a genuine question I’ve been a fan for over a decade and I’m still like huh😭 about their logic. “We won’t let dimentio get away with this!” Or whatever she said- MIMI SWEETHEART BLECK DID THE EXACT SAME THING

Like if Bleck wanted to die whatever but it would’ve done so much for his character if he was like “hey the people who genuinely care for me and are trying to help me destroy everything and think they’re going to be spared? Huh! maybe I should actually spare them and create a new world for them but I still croak” unless he couldn’t create dimensions at all and was lying? But didn’t Dimentio do it with only the power of the chaos heart or am I stupid. So could Bleck have done it too? Idk maybe we could’ve had a scene where like “hey dimentio master of dimensions LOL I was kidding btw I cant do shit. Make a world for y’all whatever but I’m gonna die” and I’m pretty sure dimentio would’ve been like alright (lying, still wants a world just for him) but idk. Anyways Nintendo having Count Bleck still trying to kill his minions after everything they did for him really messed up his character and went against the writers intentions of trying to make Bleck a tragic villain but Dimentio purely evil and accidentally made them the EXACT SAME person and I just wish they could’ve handled it better because his arc could’ve been nearly perfect.

Not ONLYYY that, but he wanted to kill all worlds because he lost Timpani. Yet. There she is. Right there. And he KNOWS THAT. YET. HE KEEPS FIGHTING. KNOWING THAT IF HE WINS THE WOMAN HE WAS TRYING TO END LIFE FOR BECAUSE SHE DIED IS ALIVE AND HES JUST GOING TO ACTUALLY KILL HER. But then after they beat the shit out of him he says “kill me and stop the void- if you’re alive, it gives me peace” WHY DIDNT YOU SAY THAT THE SECOND SHE FLEW INTO THE ROOM. Maybe he was in a state of madness. But idk I’ve never seen anyone else talk about it

“But dappledpaintbrush, at least Bleck had the motivation of his one true love dying and Dimentio was just a bitch” *twitches finger back and forth while going AH, AH, AH, AH, AH* We have the very high possibility of Dimentio’s whole family fucking dying and his sister turning into like a demon according to Carson. So in game canon there is a POSSIBILITY (cause that story can be interpreted a lot of ways) that BOTH of them had tragic backstories that POSSIBLY was BOTH of their motivations to destroy all worlds. Yet Blumiere gets treated like a poor little meow meow by the characters and the clown doesn’t. Then again I don’t think the clown ever talked about it. Maybe it’s just my own experience, but I feel like the writing still tried to push the narrative that Bleck is less terrible than Dimentio.

And hey let’s say Dimentio is only a descendant of the Pixl Creator and he’s doing this for no reason other than for lols. Both of them STILL tried to destroy all worlds and only Bleck had a change of heart after Tippi returned… yet still tried to enable the Void after finding out she’s alive? Both of them lied to, betrayed, and tried to MURDER their ENTIRE TEAM. Earlier, I said “(the writers) trying to make Bleck a tragic villain but Dimentio purely evil and accidentally made them the EXACT SAME person” and this can go two ways- the first option, or making both of them tragic characters. If the writers genuinely thought this through and genuinely wanted us to pry into the lore to conclude Dimentio and Bleck are not that different, sending one to his dream world with his dream girl and the other to actual super mario hell doesn’t help their intention

And Blumiere is such an amazing concept for a character and he STILL IS, but wow the writers could’ve done so much more. Even a cutscene of him deciding the spare the minions could’ve meant SO MUCH and it really sucks nothing ever happened. With or without the “both had a tragic backstory” interpretation, there isn’t much that puts a clear line between Dimentio and Bleck’s characters. The game tries to make us think the line is there, but it really isn’t. At least not in my own interpretation of the writing. Idk lol. End of rant

[i-make-fun-of-spn-characters]

I feel like you've given most spn related things some lil spice but I always love the spice on this : hot spicy take on the "Dean is the most horrible character and ruins everyone's life and Sam and Cas are poor little meow meows who only do bad things sometimes because tyran Dean farted in their direction" takes that are not really only said by anti-Dean peeps ? Obsessed with that incredible thesis and would love the added spice ❤

SPICY HOT HOT GHOST PEPPERS CAROLINA REAPERS HELP I'M BURNING

I really try to respect other people’s opinions, and I believe there are a wealth of ways to interpret a story, and I think that’s a deeply beautiful thing. This applies to interpretations I don't agree with and outright dislike as well. That said, some opinions are simply and objectively bad, dishonest, and/or demonstrably false, and I truly do not believe you can sit down and honestly watch through the show with an open mind about all the characters, truly pay attention to what they do, say, and believe, and come to the conclusion that this show is about an evil manipulative abusive man terrorizing his pure and sinless brother and friend. It is an interpretation built from cherry picking facts to suit an ugly, miserable theory, making Mount Everest out of a bunch of the tiny mole hills, making the worst possible presumptions of feelings and intentions, and holding characters to completely different standards in order to neatly divide them into "abused" and "abuser" in a way that, frankly, fetishizes the abused person. I despise this interpretation of the story with every fiber of my being, and I have absolutely no respect for the opinion of anyone who peddles it, regardless of who they cast as villain/victim (because people have also done this with the others—it’s just more “popular” to do it with Dean... I mean... does anyone else remember how people were shitting on Sam after his emotional reaction in 14.12? Calling him an evil abuser? Because I do).

The thing that always gets me about this take isn't just how dishonest, unfair, mean-spirited, and compassionless it is in its treatment of Dean’s feelings, circumstances, and intentions... but how deeply reductive and offensive it is toward Sam and Castiel, sucking away their identities to turn them into effigies to mourn for their sad, Stockholm syndrome-esque attachment to their "abuser". Further, it grips the heart of the show—the relationship between Sam and Dean, and then the relationship among TFW as a whole—in a tight, uncompromising fist and pulverizes it. It literally rips out the heart of the show (the RELATIONSHIPS) and replaces it with something unprepossessing of any merit: A miserable, 15 years long story about a malicious abuser getting away with terrorizing those closest to him for his entire life, while his poor abuse victims suffer through until they die for him/happy to be reunited with him because they “don’t know any better” and never ever learned better, I guess. What a stupid, sad sack of a story.

Castiel is a thousands of years old celestial being who has literally beaten Dean into the pavement under no form of mind control, and has shown over and over again that he will do whatever the hell he wants, regardless of whatever Dean thinks about being sidelined. If he thinks whatever he is doing is in Dean's best interest, he literally does not care how Dean feels about it. He will nod and smile and then fly off and swallow thousands of souls with Dean begging him not to, shove Dean out of the way to attack the big bad, leave Dean alone in Purgatory, refuse to come out of Purgatory so he can self-flagellate, fly off with the angel tablet, help Sam with the Book of the Damned, let Lucifer possess him without anyone's knowledge or agreement, come into Dean's room under the guise of apologizing for ghosting him so that he can steal The Colt out from under his pillow and murder someone, decide not to murder that person and still prevent Sam and Dean from helping by knocking them both unconscious, get himself killed, make a deal to trade his life for Jack's and never tell anyone, hide information and worries and ignore phone calls, ghost Sam and Dean, and bicker and fight with Dean as if they are a married couple. Love sickness and feelings of worthlessness (which Cas has a wealth of reasons to feel—many of which aren’t even related to Dean but to his heavenly family) are reinterpreted as the result of some sort of constant, terrorizing emotional abuse. Power and authority that Dean does not actually have is forced into his hands by these fans. Maybe listen when Cas says, “Hey—not everything is your fault.” Maybe listen when he says “I loved the whole world because of you”, calls Dean a role model, says he enjoys their conversations, offers to die with him and dies for him multiple times. Maybe treat these feelings as genuine and valid and HIS and not as the delusions of some poor manipulated baby. 

Sam is framed this way even more often than Cas, and it's a damn shame, because what I typically see is this: Sam’s development into a mediator and peacemaker is twisted and reinterpreted as coming from a place of weakness and/or fear. Rationality, maturity, wisdom, and compassion are not the traits of a scared, powerless child. They are the traits of a mature adult, who has been beaten down by life, and fought and raged against his circumstances, and somehow come out of it with more kindness and understanding and strength instead of less. He has made his own decisions whenever it was possible, within the set of circumstances doled out to him. From telling his dad to go fuck himself and going to college, to getting back into hunting to avenge Jess (NOT because of Dean—Dean took him home without complaint at the end of the woman in white case), to continuing to hunt after their father died because he wanted to feel close to him (Dean was actually weirded out and sort of disgusted by this), raging and fighting to save Dean from his deal against Dean’s wishes, continuing to hunt and working with Ruby (directly against Dean’s dying wish), drinking demon blood, jumping in the cage, leaving hunting to go be with Amelia, coming back to hunting to save Kevin, fighting with Dean over what he had with Amelia and threatening to leave if Dean didn't shut his mouth, leaving Amelia to go back to hunting (Dean ultimately suggests he go back to her—Sam chooses to stay), trying to kill Benny, demanding to be the one to do The Trials and saying he is going to SURVIVE them—that being the ENTIRE POINT, losing that resolve in a fit of depression but choosing to drop the knife, demanding space from Dean (and being given it), fighting to save Demon Dean who didn’t want to be found or saved, using the Book of the Damned against Dean’s wishes, telling Charlie that this is what he wants—that he used to want normal but now all he wants is to hunt with Dean and that he doesn’t know what he’ll do if he can’t have that, unleashing the Darkness in his desperation to keep Dean with him and even saying, “I would do it again” in the aftermath, saving the town being destroyed by Amara, getting into The Cage with Lucifer, leading a team against the British Men of Letters, nurturing Jack, punching Dean in the face when he was going to sacrifice himself, leading more hunters, wielding a gun against Chuck... and that’s just some highlights. Sam Fucking Winchester does not need your bullshit about him being some sad, scared, helpless baby lorded over by mean old Dean who has never let him do anything he wants. 

Yes, in the text itself, there is jealousy and resentment at times, and there is legitimate and righteous anger on Sam’s part on a few occasions. There is blame cast on Dean by Sam for some of these choices/circumstances. Some of those moments where Dean is blamed are legitimate, and some of them... frankly, are not. Within the framework of the fucked up dynamics of the way they were raised, Sam and some fans bristle when they feel Dean is casting himself as the parent he is not, but Sam also has been guilty in the past of trying to reframe himself as Dean’s child when things got tough. Neither of them is responsible for the origin of that dynamic, but they BOTH have responsibility to change it, and they both, ultimately, succeed in doing so. For Sam, his part comes in recognizing and learning to fully own his own choices. Recognizing that he is not a child, and he is certainly not Dean’s child, and it isn’t just “Mummy—loosen the grip”, but Sam has to too—not claim independence only to blame Dean for his choices when his own decisions have an ultimate outcome he is unhappy with. That is a legitimate arc that Sam goes through imo, but he comes out the other side of it, and he and Dean relate to each other much better as peers from then on—and I’d like to note that throughout the entire series, when they don’t relate as perfect peers and teammates, it isn’t always Dean “bossing Sam around”, but Sam also trying to sideline Dean and yes—boss him around. And when they lied and hurt each other and yes, even manipulated each other, Dean most certainly wasn't always the one doing the lying and hurting and manipulating. Always, always, ALWAYS, they both had an understandable point of view, and it was complex, and you could understand why they made the choices they did, even if you thought of those choices as being wrong ones. 

I also would like to point out (because this is basically what I see all of the time) that Dean being hurt by someone or simply voicing his feelings or opinion is in no way abusive or manipulative. Dean is certainly charismatic and loved and his returning love and respect is often deeply desired, but he is not an actual siren, who bends people to his will simply by speaking or being. People are, in fact, able to tell him “no”, and frequently FREQUENTLY do. Further more, no one is owed his affection, his unwavering loyalty, or his trust. He has a right to his boundaries, regardless of if it makes some poor sad sap feel deprived of the “wellspring of coveted love” while he works through things. He can be hurt and angry, and he can wear his heart on his sleeve at times, and he can be flawed, and broken. [Insert Castiel's speech from 15.18 here]. So can Sam. So can Cas. None of them are manipulating each other by virtue of getting angry, feeling hurt, being traumatized, needing space, or having differing opinions or feelings. Sam didn’t punch Dean in the face in 14.12 because he's a cruel, manipulative abuser trying to force Dean under his thumb. He didn’t work behind Dean’s back with Ruby, insist on doing The Trials, beg Dean to use Doc Benton’s alchemy, use the Book of the Damned to cure Dean, pump him full of blood to cure him of being a demon despite the fact that it might kill him, or scream at him and fight him for wanting to get in the Ma’lak box because he “doesn’t respect his autonomy” and “wants to control him” and “doesn’t respect his right to his own body”. He did it because he loves him desperately, and Dean could stand to fucking hate himself less, and he fiercely wanted Dean to live even when Dean didn’t want to or couldn’t picture what that could be like. He didn’t force Dean to do anything simply by opening his mouth to voice disagreement and swaying Dean when he did so. Now reverse that. 

Cas didn't beat Dean into the ground in season 5 because he wanted to terrorize him into never going against Castiel ever again. He didn’t go behind his back dozens of times, sideline him, go MIA, all because he wanted to manipulate and control Dean and punish him. He didn’t throw sassy remarks at him to shatter his self-esteem. Now reverse that. 

*Breathes*

Anyway, fuck "X is abusive” interpretations. 

[sketching-shark]

LMK fandom: Oh, what do we do about this guy who has nothing but hurt Xiaotian, tried to replace Sun Wukong and his crew, hurt Tripitaka and ordered servants to cannibalize a monkey? Oh I know! We’ll turn him into our little meow meow~ he’s so innocent and Sun Wukong is obviously the villain!

What doesn’t help is this idea is perpetuated by multiple fan fic writers and artists for some reason. Especially some aus they make that turn SWK into a bastard for the sake of the story rather than considering cultural context and thinking they should be respectful.

And almost everyone lets them get away with it just because the art or fanfic is good and they get so popular that no one can point what is actually wrong without feeling like they’re going to get attacked.

I'm starting to feel like my blog is the one anons go to specifically to vent their frustrations about the Six Eared Macaque in his lego monkey show form & the associated fandom lmao. But I guess this makes sense, as I’ve had fun quasi-dragging him before & will in fact use this anon submission as an opportunity to have my own, to put it academically, bitch fest about not just this fandom's favorite protagonist-traumatizing meow meow, but about the way villains are often treated in not just fanon, but increasingly in canon works as well. But same policy as with the last anon; I'll post my opinions below the cut, and as fandoms love to say, don’t like don't read if you don't want to see me dunking on the six eared simian & common fandom tendencies towards villains.

Oh man I would say where would you even begin with this but anon you’ve pretty much started yourself with my main gripe with a lot of ways that the Six-Eared Macaque is portrayed in fandom; there seems to be this unspoken agreement that his acts of violence towards Sun Wukong, Qi Xioatian, and Qi Xioatian’s loved ones are either to be framed as somewhat or totally justified, to be immediately forgiven/excused, or to simply & completely be ignored. Like friends maybe this is just me not seeing the proper posts but while the fandom is inundated with art and fanfics of Macaque as a generally decent individual & a true member of team good guy, I have yet to see one person address the fact that this monkey literally kidnapped & mind-controlled Xiaotian’s best friend and father figures & forced them to brutalize Xiaotian while ol’ Six Ear looked on and laughed (X_X). Like this kind of fandom villain treatment is definitely not something that’s solely at work for Monkie Kid, but it is kind of nutty how fandoms will swing between yelling that people should be allowed to like villains without even mild critique, and then will just flat-out not address the villainous behavior, and will even bend over backwards to frame even characters who committed genocide as just poor innocent widdle victims who need a hug. At its worst, I’ve even seen tons of people in a fandom get really angry at other people who don’t like a villain, and will even start accusing those people of hating real-life mentally disabled or abused individuals all because they don’t like the fandom’s favorite literal war criminal. The Monkie Kid fandom is FAR more chill & better than a lot of other fandoms I’ve come across in that regard, but that is an exceedingly low bar, & the tendency to woobify certain kinds of villains-- as with Macaque and the extreme emphasis on his bad boy/sad boy thing--is very much at work.  

 I’ve also talked before about a kind of monoculturalization of certain character interpretations and story beats in fandoms, and one of the more popular ones that seems to be applied to Macaque a lot is the “hero actually bad, villain actually good” cliche, as observable from the general fandom assumption that Mr. Six-Ears he wasn’t even slightly lying or remembering things through a rose-tinted or skewed lens when he gave his version of his and Sun Wukong’s past. Like at this point it seems the possibility that people WILL NOT even consider is that Sun Wukong never did & still doesn't care that much about the Six Eared Macaque (in JTTW they weren’t sworn brothers & in Monkie Kid the only thing the monkey king really said to Macaque before attacking him was a pretty contemptuous "Aren't you ever going to get sick of living under my shadow?," & responds to his "beloved friend" getting blown up with "You did good, bud" to Qi Xiaotian, who did the exploding), or that their original fight may in fact have mostly been instigated by Macaque. After all, to repeat what this anon summarized & what I've said before about their original JTTW context (& in an example of the things that do feel like it's often lost in translation) is that the Six Ear Macaque was a villain not just because he beat up the Tang Monk, but because he wanted to take over Sun Wukong's entire life and identity so he could have all that glory, prestige, and power for himself. To quote the macaque himself from the Anthony C. Yu translation, "I struck the T'ang monk and I took the luggage...precisely because I want to go to the West all by myself to ask Buddha for the scriptures. When I deliver them to the Land of the East, it will be my success and no one else's. Those people of the South Jambudvipa Continent will honor me then as their patriarch and my fame will last for all posterity." And in order to do this, the Six Eared Macaque had apparently made Sun Wukong's "little ones," his monkey family, his captives through either trickery or force, and gotten a number of them to take on the appearance of Tang Sanzang and the other pilgrims. It's also made clear that in very direct contrast to Sun Wukong, he doesn't care about these monkeys beyond how they might serve him. In fact, after Sha Wujing kills the monkey posing as him the Six Eared Macaque not only all but immediately replaces him with another, but also "told his little ones to have the dead monkey skinned. Then his meat was taken to be fried and served as food along with coconut and grape wines." So this monkey is not only willing to risk the lives of a lot of other monkeys for his own personal benefit, but is also a literal cannibal. And yes yes, I know a lot of people have argued that Monkie Kid shouldn't be considered a direct sequel to JTTW & that's fair enough (for example, Sun Wukong probably shouldn't be smashing anyone into a meat patty in a children's cartoon lol). And of course, it needs to be noted that there are a buttload of really out there & really cursed pieces of media based on JTTW & that were created in China. Yet the above description is the oft-ignored in the west original facet of the Six Eared Macaque's character. And it is this selfishness, entitlement, and treatment of other individuals as tools for his own self-serving ends  that is, from where I’m standing, still very much present in Monkie Kid. Like besides repeatedly going out of his way to physically and psychologically traumatize Xioatian, with the last episode Macaque seemed to be going right back to his manipulative ways. I’ve seen people frame their last conversation as Macaque softening to Xioatian a little bit, but personally that read a lot more like that common tactic among abusers where even after they’ve hurt you they’ll dangle something you want or need over your head (in Macaque’s case, the promise of desperately needed training and information about a serious looming threat), with the implication that you’ll only get it if you do what they want you to, such as, in this case, Xioatian going back to Macaque as his student even after having been so terribly hurt by this monkey, which would give Macaque power over Xiaotian and probably Sun Wukong as a result. And it is this violence and manipulation that it seems the fandom at large has tacitly decided shouldn’t even be addressed, instead leaning more towards a (and this is an exaggeration) “Six-Eared Macaque my poor meow meow Sun Wukong has always been bad & has always been wrong about literally everything” reading. 

And while it is the case that I am not Chinese and feel that as such it would be best left to someone who actually comes from that background to provide more context into how common interpretations of the Six Eared Macaque from China may clash really badly with the stuff the western fandom creates, it also must be noted that, as much as we all want to have fun in fandom & in spite of all the out-there versions of JTTW from China, we westerners should recognize that there is a very long and very ugly history of western countries stripping other cultures’ important religious and literary works for parts & mashing them into their own thing while implying or even insisting that what they present provides a true understanding of the original piece. And while I trust most individuals in regards to Monkie Kid are able to step back and think “this is a lego cartoon and not a set guide for how I should understand JTTW” (especially given the insistence that JTTW and Monkie Kid should be considered there own separate works) there does nevertheless seem to be something of a tendency to take the conclusions people come to, for example, about Sun Wukong’s characteristic in his lego form & then assume that’s just reflective to Sun Wukong as a totality. I imagine a good portion of this is due to people not reading JTTW & especially to not having easy access to solid information or answers about JTTW’s many different facets (like geez awhile ago I was trying to get a clear answer on what is considered the most accurate translation of the names of Sun Wukong’s six sworn brothers & got like 5 different responses lmao), but that tendency to take a western fandom interpretation & run with it instead of doing any background research or questioning said interpretation is still very much at play. As such, & as made prominent in the way people have been interpreting the dynamic between Sun Wukong and the Six Eared Macaque in the lego monkey show, tbh it does seem kind of shitty for western creators & audience to sometimes go really out of their way to ignore all of this original cultural & narrative context for the sake of Angst (TM) in Macaque's favor, demonizing Sun Wukong, and shipping the monkey king with his evil twin (X_X).

And speaking of which, even beyond the potential inherent creepiness & revulsion that can be inspired by this specific ship given common interpretations of the og classic's original meaning (again, it's my understanding, given both summaries of translated Chinese academic texts I've been kindly provided with, my own reading of the Anthony C. Yu translation of JTTW, & vents from a number of Chinese people I've seen on this site, that the Six-Eared Macaque is commonly interpreted in China as having originated from Sun Wukong himself as a living embodiment of his worst traits, hence why only Buddha can tell the difference between them & why the monkey king is much more slow to violence after he kills the macaque), I'd argue that in the face of all the uwu poor widdle meow meow portrayals lego show Macaque is, especially if you include JTTW's events, still in the role of “Sun Wukong but worse” as he is very much a violent & selfish creep. Like he was basically running around in JTTW wearing a Sun Wukong fursuit, but there he had the sole reason of wanting to replace Sun Wukong wholesale so he could have all the good things in the monkey king's life without actually having to work as hard for them. But if you combine that with Macaque now claiming that he used to be best friend with Sun Wukong in his pre-journey days (something that's made funny from a JTTW context given that that status actually belongs to the Demon Bull King lol), his original violence has now blown into this centuries long and really unhealthy obsession with the monkey king. Like he's apparently gone from wanting to literally be Sun Wukong to being so obsessed with getting revenge on Sun Wukong that he's got basically nothing else going on in his life. Like he's only appeared in two episodes but...does he have any friends? Any family? A career or even a hobby that DOESN'T center the monkey king? Anything at all outside of his "get revenge on and/or kill Sun Wukong/use his successor as my personal punching bag” thing? Like dude! That is extremely creepy and extremely bad for everyone all around! As I’ve said before, this seeming refusal to see beyond the past or to do something that doesn’t involve Sun Wukong in some capacity is a trait that makes Macaque an interesting and somewhat tragic villain--he even seems to be working as Sun Wukong’s reflection in a mirror darkly, with lego show Sun Wukong pretty clearly not being able to heal from his own past which is hinted to be defined by one loss after another, and with Monkie Kid even kind of having these two characters somewhat follow their JTTW characterizations in that in the latter half of the journey Sun Wukong often gets sad & starts crying in the face of what seems insurmountable odds (& Monkie Kid Sun Wukong does seem to be hiding some serious depression behind a cheerful facade), whereas the Six-Eared Macaque retains a worse version of Sun Wukong’s pre-journey characteristic of getting pissed and lashing out if things don’t go his way--but it’s also what would make any current friendship or romantic relationship between these monkeys horrific. Although to be fair even the fandom seems to recognize this in an unconscious way, in that a lot of the art & fanfic seems to swing erratically between them kissing & screaming at each other in yet another example of bog-standard fandom adulation of romanticized toxic relationships lol.  

At the end of the day, of course, this is nothing new. You'll find versions of this dynamic across a ton of fandoms and now even canonical work. And as such, I can only look at this kind of popularized relationship dynamic with a kind of resigned weariness whenever it pops up, & my frustrated question with the popularity of this kind of pairing is the exact same one that I have for a multitude of blatantly toxic villain/hero ships, given common fandom discourse & the tendency to either ignore or justify the villain's actions & demonize the hero: if you're THAT convinced that everything is the hero's fault, if you believe THAT much that the hero is the one in the wrong for the villain's pain and their subsequent actions, then why are you so set on them not only becoming a romantic pair, but framing this get-together as a good thing? Like I know we contain multitudes but that's waaay too many contradictions for me to wrap my head around. And it definitely doesn’t help that one branch of underlying reasoning behind this kind of pairing seems to be the ever-present “you break it, you fix it” mentality, where the assumption is that if you’re in a failing, abusive, and/or generally toxic relationship (platonically or romantically), if you put in enough time and effort & attempts to compromise, you’ll be able to restore/have the relationship you dreamed of, even with someone who hurt you really badly. And this assumption isn’t limited to fandom: I’d even argue that it’s everywhere in the culture, hence why a lot of people feel like they “failed” if they have to get a divorce or make the choice to leave an unhealthy friendship. Personally, I feel like people could really benefit from more stories about how it is not only the case that the people you hurt don’t owe you their forgiveness & you can still become a better and happier person without the one you hurt in your life, & that while it can be really hard it can also be a good thing to leave a relationship, even if it’s one that once meant a lot to you. 

  But in all honestly, from my own perspective this kind of pairing is starting to read far less like enemies to lovers and far more like a horrible fantasy where you can pull whatever shit you want, even on the people you "love," & never be held accountable for your terrible behavior or even have to consider that maybe you were in the wrong. It's another facet that makes me larf every time I see people insist that fandom is an inherently "transformative" or "progressive" form of storytelling like friends you are literally just taking status quo toxic monogamy & rebranding it as somehow beneficial & romantic (X_X).

But as to anon’s last frustration, it is hard to know what is the appropriate response with this kind of thing...like for my own part I’m keeping my frustrations to my blog & now increasingly to posts that you would have to click on the “read more” button to see what I have to say, but I totally get the hesitation to give even a mild critique to big names in a fandom. Like I've now seen it happen repeatedly where someone who has a big name in a fandom will make something that's kind of shitty for one reason or another, someone will message them with some version of "hey, that's kind of shitty, you shouldn't do that," and the typical response is either to blatantly ignore the issue completely, or more popularly to make a giant crying circus that seems deliberately geared towards stoking emotions on both sides of the, for example, fiction does/doesn't affect reality issue so that something that didn't even have to be that big a deal gets blown out of all proportion, with the big name often framing what often started out as a very mild critique into a long crying jag about how the initial response to their kind of shitty thing was so mean/cruel and they're just a poor innocent & that YOU'RE the true racist/sexist/bigot etc. if you don't agree with their opinion. It must of course be noted that there have also been numerous instances of people taking it too far the other way & sending not just big names but smaller creators literal deaths threats over stuff like innocuous ships which like holy hell bells people that’s a horrible thing to do. But for the big names at least, the end result of all this fighting is usually that once the dust has settled they have more attention/fame/money/power in the fandom than before, and with anyone who might have a problem with their stuff feeling afraid to voice their opinion lest they be swarmed by that person's fans. In that way fandom does often seem to increasingly be geared towards presenting an “official” fandom perspective about various facets of a piece of media instead of allowing for a multitude of interpretations, and with criticism, no matter its shape or form or how genuinely warranted it may be, being hounded out of existence. I feel like a lot of this could be made less bad if there wasn’t this constant assumption & even drive to think that a different interpretation of or criticism of your favorite work of fiction or your fanwork isn’t a direct claim that you are a thoroughly loathsome individual (& maybe also if people cultivated an enjoyment of learning things about important works from a culture outside their own, even if what you learn clashes with your own initial understandings), but I guess we’ll see if that ever happens. 

So these are my general thinks about the Six Eared Macaque’s current fandom meow meow status & some of my bigger gripes with fandom tendencies as a whole. I stand by my idea that the most interesting & beneficial route for Macaque moving forward would be a kind of “redemption without forgiveness from the ones you hurt” arc--as I think was done pretty excellently with the character Grace in Infinity Train--and if for no other reason than gosh dern this monkey really needs to cultivate some sort of identity beyond his “Sun Wukong but worse” persona. 

[nebulous-tundra]

Kind of confused re: your response to green-tea-in-a-flask's post: what other "troubling parallels drawn to real life" are present in the TBS-verse? Most of the allegories I've seen are very clearly intentional and well-handled so I'm a bit confused. (Also for the record, Lauren Shippen did not write the miniseries in question, Meghan Fitzmartin did)

WHaT?! Shippen didn't write the AM archives?? wasn't that the first series to come out post TBS ending? before TCT where Fitsmartin was a cowriter? and the wiki says they're cowriters on both series

anywho, this has actually been a gripe i've had w the writing of the series since S2. Shippen's good at writing characters who feel real and coming up with interesting concepts, but definitely struggles when it comes to coherent plots and characters arcs, and struggles a super bunch when it comes to themes.

first and foremost is the setting. Atypicals are clearly a real life parallel for neurodivergent folk, they're on the fringes of society, and harassed by super secret organizations who either want them gone or want to use them for their own gain- at of course the atypicals expense. that's all fine and dandy, Dragon Age even has a very similar premise with it's mages! but Shippen fails where Dragon Age succeeds at conveying that people are all morally grey, mages can be destructive, they could be absolutely devastating(see: Tevinter, the Evanuris), but ultimately it falls on both the individual and the greater society to not only cultivate a certain predisposition towards care and compassion for others, but also ensure an environment where those properties can flourish and inspire attachment and not resentment. Bioware does an excellent job at showing this(see: pretty much any and all characters from the DA series, but especially Anders lol) Shippen on the other hand has Good Characters and Bad Characters. Chloe? Good! Damien(*i'll get back to this guy)? Bad! Agent Green? Good! Director Wadsworth? Bad! i think she really tried with Dr. Bright and Samantha to make them more "grey" characters, but they end up just being Good People who did a Bad Thing, but don't worry! They had a Good Intent and felt Bad about it cause they're Good! even the so called repercussions they face are laughable, so-and-so will find out and admonish them, they'll apologize but maybe insist they felt like they had no alternative but will grow from this. so-and-so will says they won't forget about this and will be watching very closely for said growth, and then next episode is Caleb/Adam centric and suddenly the issue is just a minor character flaw.

that's not to say the characters are flat, i said before Shippen writes very nuanced and realistic characters......but as for how the Narrative treats them, well, there's a clear way you're meant to see these characters. Let's take one for example, oh idk let's say..... Damien! Damien can been seen so many ways, ranging from vitriolic hate to my own poor little meow meow. Can he control his ability? Can he form healthy attachments? Will he ever find redemption? Who knows! Shippen only allows him to be written in flashbacks now! Never mind TBS's theme, in entire premise hinging on therapy, is that people can grow and become better than what they were, Damien is Bad so he goes to writing purgatory. Narratively, this means that he just......went away? So, on one hand, we have this theme of growth, but then here, we suddenly have a character allegedly So Bad he can't become Good(interestingly like the rest of the pre-ordained Bad Characters), and is written conveniently out of the plot so we don't have to think about how 'the AM's treatment of atypicals is slightly justified' too much, so then, why have him at all if he doesn't fit the theme of the story you're trying to write? i'm guessing it's because having an undeniable villain is fun, and fits most storylines. just not here.

a more personal allegorical scene is the last scene between him and Mark. it's meant to be an allegorical representative of abusive relationships and cutting abusive people out of your life, this is a very important thing to do because irl abusive people will almost always continue to abuse. The issue herein lies that Damien DID CHANGE. And the reason Mark gave Damien for why he couldn't be around Mark anymore is because HE COULD NOT CHANGE. so now the abuse victim is.....canonically wrong? awesome, next allegory.

Chloe's a mind reader, she can peer into the depths of a person's thought and have a reasonably well understanding of what they're thinking, this is an allegory for violating people's boundaries(i.e. reading they're diary, going through they're phone, checking they're browsing history), something people do when they're searching for trust, which has been shown to be an issue for her when she can't read they're thoughts and make sure they're Good(tm). i personally think, and ymmv here, but(as someone who loves Chloe and she's my #2 TBS chara) i personally think Chloe should have permanently lost her ability when when Damien knocked it out of her. how satisfying would it be that someone who continuously violates people's boundaries(to various extents) would only stop doing that thing when she herself is the victim of how far it can go. this would've been perfect because Damien and Chloe's abilities are said in iirc S1 to be complementary, to the point they cancel each other out. instead we get a Chloe who can now actively shut her ability off.......but also still chooses to use it a lot of the time. cool display of growth bro, next allegory.

it's mentioned when they were little, Joan and Mark were quite close. as they grew, they slowly drifted apart, for the most part because of Joan's involvement with the AM. this is actually a good allegory for predatory organization's isolating people from their loved ones before introducing them into the more insidious elements of their organization. i'm sure with covid and whatnot, seeing our loved one fall for qan0n rhetoric makes this now an especially relevant storyline. i actually really like this allegory because it not only shows how even really smart people like Joan can be targeted by cults that end up hurting their loved ones. i also like the attention to the fallout of having to regain the trust of someone you didn't even mean to hurt, and how many "i'm sorry"s and "please forgive me"s they'll have to say and mean for the rest of the foreseeable future. my issue with this one is......how does this fit into the story of TBS? the allegory by itself is solid, plotwise it's been hinted at since S1, but thematically, where exactly is the growth? is it when they were growing apart? well, no, that happened in the years before TBS. the growing Joan did when she found out about Mark? well, maybe? iirc we never really know how deep Joan was in the organization, in fact to my best recollection, Mark was her premature introduction to the more graphic elements of the AM, and she immediately recoiled and cut ties so, the journey she had then was more in her personal knowledge of the situation than any change or growth to her character. thematically, this plot beat is more relevant to the idea of cults than anything close to growth. i couldn't put my finger on why this plot point bugged me when i was first listening, but now i think i understand a bit better. it feels like the story is trying to tell use Joan needs to grow and be a better person than when she was working for the AM(and certainly she has her issues), but then the reason they give is actually quite flimsy. Joan was almost indoctrinated into a weird anti super power cult and now she needs to grow and show she's sorry? for almost being indoctrinated into a cult she immediately cut herself off from when she found out about it's insidious elements?? okay....

maybe your mileage may vary, and certainly if you still enjoy TBS kudos to you, i don't want to take away from that, but allegories that are held together with string and gum, and that's gets really distracting for me.

anyway, i apologize of this is rambly and all over the place, it's been a while since i've relistened to TBS(an usually when i do it's just Damien's episodes), but yeah i have a lot of beef with TBS lmao