#but then again if he was agressively a he just to go against the trope

[meatballlady]

As much as I love Crowley's genderfuckery, I find myself somewhat iffy about the idea of the she/her angel. Something about femininity being tied to youth and innocence and purity. idk.

[ohlooh]

You which trope I absolutely adore that I don't see enough? Character travels into an omegaverse AU.

I read a really good spider-man one on ao3, but I for the life of me can't remember the name.(I'm pretty sure it was abandoned, it was about Peter from the world where Avengers turned evil and he ended up in an A/B/O AU where the Avengers were not only good but his fated mates, the angst was glorious, if anyone knows the name comment pls, I'd like to read it again)

I also read one from @lukewarm-beef-stew , this one is MHA, where Izuku from another pretty bad world ends up in a good, peacefull one.

In the Spider-man one, Peter upon appearing in the new world becomes an omega, in the My Hero one Izuku stays the same.

I read a few others but mostly the gist is character A appears, has no idea what's going on but everyone is acting weird. And a lot of times, surprise character A is an omega now.

And there a two scenarios that I really want to see.

1) Character A is already at least somewhat familiar with the concept. Maybe they have a friend that writes/reads a lot of fanfic and they heard them talk about it. Maybe they read/write fanfic themselves. The important thing is, they already know somewhat what to expect. This could work really well if the assumptions are not accurate to this specific universe, for example, A assumes Heats/Ruts are inherently sexual, because that is the most common interpretation, maybe A worries about how they're going to be treated now that they are an omega because they mostly read works where discrimination against omegas/ them being treated as nothing more than objects was a big plot point. Could lead to a lot of misscomunication and the delicius angst.

2) Character A ends up in a new world and they are Alpha. And are struggling super hard with their new instincts. They're suddenly a lot more agressive and possesive. They're a lot more horny. And everyone acts as if it's completely normal. Everyone expects them to act like this, maybe they even get praised for it. Meanwhile A is drowning in guilt, they know better, they have better self-control than this, what's happening to them? Even better if they end up in one of the worlds where omegas have very little rights. They are expected to just go along with shit they know is wrong, but noone listens to them.

I don't know if these are anything, but if any of it inspires you, please tag me?

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s1 ep4: Phage

The episode that introduces the Vidians, it's also the first one I don't like.

The whole concept of an entire species stealing organs from other species to survive for 2000 years is kind of preposterous, aside from being, well, icky. It doesn't make sense that they would last long enough to keep reproducing enough to replenish their population if they all had this agressive fatal disease, and moreover, the notion that most of them would even choose to survive that way doesn't seem likely. Any decent people would not chose to survive by killing other people, and an entire species just being horrible unethical people is a pretty racist notion that goes against the spirit of Star Trek in my opinion. If they'd made clear that the two Vidians we meet in this episode are rogues who are taking a desperate course that their society doesn't condone, that would be one thing, but that wasn't implied here, and in later episodes it's confirmed that most Vidians do it as standard procedure. I suppose it's a problem in general with most Star Trek (and other scif-fi shows) species that they're often painted in broad strokes of 'all of x species on this entire planet have the same culture and temprament and behave in x way', which, as we know from the diversity of cultures, values, and opinions on our own planet, is incredibly unlikely, if not impossible. But at least with most other aliens who are villains, it's made clear that the villainy comes from the ideology of the government in power, and not an inherent trait of the entire species being naturally evil. I think the Vidians are the first time on Trek we ever had a whole species painted as inherently immoral, which is, now that I really think about it, why I actually dislike them so much. (And yes, we do meet a nice Vidian in a later episode, but I think it sets it up more as an exception to the rule, which reeks of 'but you're not like other people of your race/gender/religion' that bigots throw around to justify their bigotry even when they have a friend from the group they hate.) And how these two Vidians are portrayed as having rather creepy/icky/slimy voices and mannerisms also plays into ableist notions that people who are physically ill are somehow monstrous, or even, as old medieval superstitious notions would have it, that physical illness and moral decay somehow go hand in hand, or that one is the cause, or punishment, for the other. The Vidians as villains are just a bad, bad concept, which I never liked, and I've finally figured out why at last.

Other things I didn't like were Neelix's possiveness of Kes- he literally sees her being spoken to by another man, and he's off on a crazy diatribe accusing her of leaving him for someone else. Granted, he's going through a traumatic experience at the time, which can make people paranoid and lead them to say things they don't mean when they're upset, but he doesn't apologize afterward (even after she literally saves his life, jfc!) and he does it again in later episodes, so it's a character trait rather than an aberation. Ew.

I do like that Kes got to start studying to be a medic after this episode, since she deserves some more substantial stuff to do than having vague psychic sense of strange things going on (even Deanna Troi had an actual job as an actual psychologist, though they ignored it far too often on TNG.) And it's only fair the Doctor finally recognize her abilities and efforts after she spends most of her time on the show so far being his cheerleader and teacher. I used to like Kes and the Doctor's friendship in the beginning (why I stopped is a subject for future episode reviews) but looking at it now, even at this early stage, there's something kind of gender stereotyped about their relationship. The whole trope of him being the bitter middle aged man who just needed a sweet young blonde girl to see the good in him and love and encourage him to see it for himself. And he's not even an actual person yet, he's a computer program, and sees himself as such at this point, but she spends most of her screen time emotionally caretaking for either him or Neelix, both of whom tend to dismiss her, but she loves them anyway, wholeheartedly. It's just a little...yikes. Remembering the plot lines of some future episodes featuring them has me trepidatious, to say the least, but I'm gonna try not to think that far ahead. (Tbh Tom Paris was the only person who checked in on Kes to ask if she was okay this whole time; Neelix prob sweating bullets out there knowing he looks like an asshole next to Tom lol And he is. Like, even if Tom was being nice to her because he was into her, which I don't think he was, given how ready he always is to go out of his way to help people, showing concern and support is literally the right way to pursue someone??? Bad boy seducer Tom where???)

Tl;dr: not a fan of this one, sets up some ongoing stuff I very much do not like, on multiple fronts.

[disaster-j]

Last post for the f4 catch-up! This scene-

-encapsulates my biggest issue with this franchise. They don't properly acknowledge the borderline abusive behaviour. Considering Thyme's messed up childhood and his emotionally unstable state the agression does make sense. It's very much in-character, his growth so far doesn't erase the fact he has severe anger issues. The problem isn't that this scene exists but that they don't ever acknowledge it later on. That Gorya and him go right back to how they were without so much as talking about the fact that he almost hit her. Or that she expected him to.

Hana Yori Dango is essentially a Pride and Prejudice meets Beauty and the Beast plot. It combines the "rich asshole falls for poor woman with attitude" trope with the "beastly man is tamed by strong-willed woman" trope. But the issue is that it sorely misunderstands why the original stories work. The whole point of Pride and Prejudice was that Darcy wasn't an asshole, he just seemed like it because of his inability to navigate social situations politely. The entire reason Elizabeth thinks so poorly of him for so long is because he's too proud to explain himself and his intentions for too long and she's too prejudiced against him to see the reality of the situation. On the same vein, the Beast in Beauty and the Beast is generally very courteous towards Belle. He doesn't force himself on her, he respects her wishes and he supports her passion. Both Darcy and the Beast are good love interests because they are fundamentally misunderstood and aren't actually assholes. That's why they don't actively need to be redeemed, because they didn't actually go around doing terrible things.

On the other hand when you have a character like Thyme who did actively hurt your protagonist, the redemption must properly acknowledge past faults and show proper communication between both parties for it to be a stable relationship. Because otherwise you're just romanticising abusive and toxic behaviours. Not having them address Thyme's near act of violence against Gorya means brushing aside a glaring sign of future abuse. They should not just have them go back to dating after something like that. There needs to be a conversation. He needs to apologise for losing control, for scaring her, he needs to acknowledge what happened was terrible and should never happen again and then they need to show him actively working to make sure that it doesn't. The abusive behaviour needs to be left behind before they enter into a relationship.

You could say oh Jahnvi it's just a silly romance why does it matter? It matters because kids watch this, young girls all around the world grow up on these shows. Teenage girls with low self-esteem who just want to be special watch these shows with all this toxic messaging and internalise it. They think jealousy is a sign of love because that's what the romances portray, and they excuse rampant acts of aggression because they feel that love means accepting your partner's flaws. Even when the flaw is that they literally hurt you. I grew up surrounded by girls who would trap themselves in toxic relationships with shitty men because they thought it was the right thing. Because they have this insanely skewed sense of what romantic love looks like. I've had to sit back and watch more friends than I can count cry about how they wasted so much time and effort on men who manipulated and controlled them, men who wouldn't just let them go when they wanted to end things. And you know they all grew up loving these kinds of stories. It matters that we don't keep telling these same toxic stories over and over again because I'm tired of picking up the phone at four am to hear one of my closest friends have a breakdown over some man who doesn't deserve shit.

Anyway, this got a bit rant-y so I'll end the post with the thought I was trying to get to- f4 has handled a lot of things better than I expected them to so I truly hope that they had the good sense in the year 2021 to actively show the audience that hey this is abusive and it's not okay. If they brush this aside I wouldn't be entirely surprised but I will be insanely disappointed because I really want to be past the point where we just let abuse slide.

[redxblueihateloveyou]

have you any rational explanation as to why you're so obsessed with pingxie? I mean your video drove me into that pit, but they just blew me away with their love and I do not get why them specifically, since I've been through so many great chinese boys love... help

looooooooooooooooool I know what I picked in "you have to pick one" game and I can give many arguments about this one cause I've thought about it a lot.

I think to me it’s just the fact that in Chinese bl (and just in many of my ships in general) it’s mostly always this, to say, pattern of... one is on his mission to save the world or humanity/with hero complex or just has this goal he tries to reach that is the most important and the other one is just trying to save/protect that one (who’s running around) without caring for that damn world haha. And only later on the first one wakes up to realize that maybe it all doesn’t matter that much.

It’s like WWX is always tries to save everyone, but LZ mainly just wants WWX to be safe. Tang Fan is on his missions to save ppl while Sui Zhou’s main priority is saving Tang Fan. Yunlan same with Shen Wei. Wen Kexing puts revenge first for a long time until he gets that it's in fact not the most important thing. Xie Lian is just a martyr who cares about everyone and Hua Cheng is obviously all only about him, etc. 

It’s not meant in a bad way or anything bc I love them but it’s always this kind of split balance when for one it’s “all for you” and the other one is still like doesn’t get it and realizes it pretty late. And while they’re both ready to die for each other ofc, at the beginning for some it’s just his hero complex of saving everyone (not bc that one is special for him). Then at the end there’s a wake up call and he’s "enlightened". And finally realizes that OH maybe world isn’t as important as that one person to me. Oh in worse cases this one has to almost die or really die for the other one to finally get there.

And while I love this trope I mean it also fits many anime ships too and kdramas too. For me it was just fascinating to finally see the pair in Chinese world where both put each other first without regards for other ppl (cause that's my personal kink haha).

And what’s so nice to me about them is the fact that there’s no like “I’m trying to save humanity” thing going on there, like they’ve basically just met each other on the same deadly journey and then when they fall in love for both of them their main priority is the other one. And I’ve just never seen a pair such equally fighting for each other. Bc it’s really always mainly one fighting for the other one, while that one is fighting for smth else entirely. 

Idk if it makes much sense. I again do not mean that in all these pairings someone would not if needed fight for the other one, but it’s like not the main story. It’s not exactly them equally protecting each other from the whole world thoroughout the thing. And I just find it fascinating with pingxie. They did put each other first even when Wu Xie was not that "agressive" lol, but then there's also a part when the tides change so drastically that it's oh so incredible. It's like if there'd be a 2nd book of MDZS and WWX would be fighting against the world for LZ you know.

I mean imagine this state of mind like what WWX is for LZ and what XL is for HC and what YL is for SW but from both directions in a pairing lol. That’s about it. 

Idk how to explain it really. The intensity of their feelings for each other MATCH is what I mean.

And ppl are gonna yell rn at me probably but there is such a thing as one has it more for the other one. One loves more than the other one. It usually exists. And it’s not specifically just different amount of feelings, it's just a bit different kind of meaning. And that’s why they’re so special to me in Chinese fandom. I mean it’s one of the reasons I’m so in love with their love. 

Tbh my very first reason tho was that I'm just personally agree with the fact that you can't fall in love with someone for no reason. Like for me personally its nonsense. And if Qiling is just incapable of trusting anyone cause of his whole life story, Wu Xie is just unable to feel anything for ppl he doesn't care for. So it's the first kind of pairing when its not really one of them "likes ppl a lot" you know. Wu Xie is like.. he's great with ppl, but those he really cares for are actually short amount. He is himself always surprised in the book when he doesn't feel anything about most lol He's like "why do I not care? Shouldn't I care?" xD And I'm like "no, sweetie, it's okay, cause they're basically nobody to you" lol. So for both of them this whole road of developing their feelings for each other due to their actions and seeing them fall for each other and knowing why they fall for each other was the best part for me.

Like Wangxian is also besides the story my favorite bc of their dynamics of opposites attract and also the fact that I also saw why LZ fell for him and vice versa, but for example Hualian I've never felt close to emotionally to this ship bc to me it's like their love story was executed in a way that made me feel like they didn't have a choice as opposite to choosing each other, you know what I mean. HC from the quite non-coherent age decided to live for XL just cause he didn't wanna live and XL just basically had no one on his side besides HC so it kinda happened. Like despite that whole speech of "I've seen you at your worst etc", which is not really surprising cause you've had whole 800 years I was still not very into their whole "love story" personally (which is again surprising, cause these amount of years should be more impressive than you know 10 or 12 haha, althought we have a world record of 10.000 too xD). Bc like it's all great that the person that caught him was XL and he turned out great, but like what if he wasn't and he dedicated his life to some blob lmao. I really do not mind the red string of thing fate thing, cause wangxian and pingxie are that too, but like there got to be reasons for that to become a red string, not like "first I chose him, then I realized why", it should be "I know now why I chose him" haha. Like Qiling who at first didn't give a fuck about anyone, but eventually developed extra-sense for Wu Xie being in danger, just cause he fell in love.

Anywho I can go on, but they're just my type of love story I guess haha :)

P.S. did you ever watch some hetero kdramas for example, where main characters are ready to die for each other and will always find each other in some other life, but at the end you're sitting there like "but I do not get why it is the way it is tho" bc what started it was literally them just seeing each other once? xD And at the end of the show everything seems fine, but you just do not care and the whole story didn't give you any feels cause.. well, cause. I just personally do not get it.

I'm always team you initially can't feel for a stranger anything (except for being horny occasionally maybe lol) cause you don't know them. And you can't decide that some person is someone you're gonna dedicate your life to without knowing them. So like "disney" stuff isn't quite for me. That being said I do not mean it in a way that it's wrong to like that kind of stories. Like pls don't take it seriously and think that I'm mocking smth. I think it's all fine, cause like fiction has nothing to do with real life really and you can enjoy whatever. I was just speaking for myself.

P.P.S. and ppl are gonna be mad again but I truly think it's cause their relationships were written by a man and more than that unintentionally. It's not usual specific BL written by a woman from their own perspective for us (other women) you know. But just to compare many things the author of the "Dinghai Fusheng Records" and "Tianbao Fuyao Lu" is also male and the dynamics there are also very different. Again I do not mean that smth is better or worse, you pick for yourself. But pingxie, well, it wasn't even meant to be a BL, their feelings for each other just naturally grew during the story to the point where the author was like oh well duuuh even I see that they're in love with each other lol so it's bound to be special anyways haha

[fiore-rosewood9]

♫FrUk :D

Thank you for the ask, I will send a few songs that remind me of fruk, a whole playlist if you may, not only one song. I also touch a few of triggering topics as I explain the nations's personalities and relationships with one another so I apologize in advance if I upset/trigger someone and will put my trigger here - Warning - mentions of abuse, alcoholism, s*exual trauma. Under the explanation there is a playlist of songs that make me think of Ukfr/Fruk, so if anyone gets upset you can feel free to skip my general headcanons about fruk/ukfr relationship dynamics. There are too many songs that make me think of different characters or ships but I collected the ones that make me think the most of them.

I know the original song is by Lady gaga but this version is too sweet and cheesy for me so I chose the rock cover by the group Halestorm since I prefer it, it sounds more genuine and rough and kinda makes me think of the dynamic that ukfr/fruk has, that some people present is as just the enemies to lovers trope or them just fighting which is.....simply unhealthy????? Fruk is much more than that and I wish people would stop seeing it as a two dimensional thing, yeah they do argue on a lot of things and it is not the healthiest dynamic however it does work in my mind because they stick through thin and thick and that requires effort and true love since a lot of people nowdays do not take time to know the other person, they just jump into marriage and have a few divorces and just argue over everything and then separate, fruk is an off and on thing where they break and make. This kind of dedication is hard to find in today's couples. I know they're fictional characters and no one really cares but I practice my psychology skills and my knowledge of people around me, and I sometimes see people with similar or almost the same characters as fictional characters, they may not have all of their hobbies but they do act the same way. And certain pairs, no offence, just make me want to gag my self due to history with bad and toxic fans but if I look at it subjectivly and never encountered mean fans from a certain ship, I would say that they ship simply doesn't work. No ship bashing but as far as I know, people with this kind of personality from this ship that I dislike, and get upset when seeing fan art of, simply just do not get along and had a hard time divorcing, it is not only unhealthy and unbalanced, it is downright abusive because both partners seek control and to have the upper hand and this is not...what romance is about???? It is about two people taking care of each other, understanding personal space and boundaries, lifting each other up and yeah, they will argue a lot, sometimes for small things, sometimes for bigger things, but generally the point of romantic relationships is not someone using you, or abusing you financially and generally being better or bigger than you. This breeds insecurity and jealousy in the other partner and makes them feel inadequate. Usually such problems are not talked over and one of the partners acts passive agressive which is what ultimaltly leads to said divorce. So yeah, people can go away with their (BUT IT IS CUTE, IT IS SO FUCKING CUTE) pairing because real life pairings and how humans communicate and develop friendships and relationships isn't based on what your mind conciders and doesn't concider cute and there are lots of factors on whether relationship will ever happen like common interests, type personality, etc and just block me so I will never hear from them and their childish mindset ever again, which is why I blocked certain tumbrl fan art hetalia accounts who produce art of a pairing I (dislike) lowkey hate, for historical reasons, for manga reasons, for toxic fans who bullied me and made me go on 3 hiatuses reason and ultimatly in real life experience and psychology and how humans and the human mind works and what is healthy and unhealthy reason. Why should I support something where certain people have been hateful towards me and these same people that act like these characters and I know in my life are on bad terms in real life? Why shouldn't I just move on to something more realistic and more healthy, that I have seen that works with humans I know first hand? I am not a clinical psychologist and I have no power or saying in this but I had to write thesis and read books by psycholgists and analyze them in high school and my first year of Uni, in order to pass the year and I have also read reccomended books by a psychologist I went to because I wanted an advice on how to deal with my anxiety and talking to people, because my condition is extremely severe but I honestly feel stuck and try to improve but also feel confused, I sometimes feel like I am not doing enough to

self improve as a human. I sometimes come off as too cold or overly bitter and angry without intending to, and it sucks.

Francis is a really manipulative person and Matthew picked up that from him while part of Alfred's agression doesn't only come from confidence in his own abilities but the fact that England him self is an overly agressive person and is very dominant or at least used to be for a very long time, now he is more mild to keep his gentleman persona but he does suffer from severe anger issues which he hides while Alfred is prone to breaking things and screaming, Arthur is more prone to being rude, sarcastic and generally mean before he loses it. Matthew and Francis do not engage in fight if they can avoid it which is why sometimes people call them cowardly I think? And Matthew is a bit prone to being a codependent people pleaser as far as I see and he seems to have severe anxiety issues. Francis albeit charismatic and beautiful, is deep down in his core lonely.

I think that part of his pervertedness, shocking people with his s*xual humour and all of this sex obsession comes from trauma in his childhood and dressing like a girl. I wouldn't explain what the trauma in question was since it is not canon but I do headcanon that he had s*xual trauma and it is partly why Hungary dressed like a guy. I don't know if this is legit, it is bias from reading too much japanese fan comics relating to hetalia or just general history of humans and how they treated consent and what is moral today, wasn't amoral or against the law a few centuries ago, but I have seen artists touch on it. I think both Arthur and Francis suffer from neglect and they weren't particularly good fathers, in fact no country is, the whole FACE family is dysfunctional and while I love all of them, I kinda pity them. I think Rome was a bit discriminatory mostly towards France and never towards his other children while Arthur had to constantly prove him self and was bullied by his brothers. While other nations have suffered from trauma too (I headcanon that Prussia was burnt on stake and people threw rocks at him due to his albinism and being left handed) something similar happened to Arthur, who I headcanon that he was burnt for being a witch and Francis went a few times through the guillotine, or Arthur still having a bullet scar on his arm from the American revolution or Francis having nightmares from that day where Jeanne was burnt and waking up in his own sweat. Arthur also must suffer from workholism and alcoholism, judging by how much he works and goes to pubs to drink. Everyone chooses their own poison and how to cope with life and many use unhealthy coping mechanisms, hell, even I used unhealthy coping mechanisms a lot in the past and I am not proud of them, in fact, I try to improve.

I can talk about their history and how it relates to their mental health and what scars they have for hours but I would bore you. You came for a song and I am probably boring you so I apologize for writting a lot of words, in advance. I basically think that fruk/ukfr is the ultimate ship for many reasons because they click, I do ship spuk/engita/asakiku and many other things but fruk/ukfr is kinda like butter and bread, it is a great combination. I never said it is 100 percent healthy, however their relationship makes psychological sense and their personalities click. I know people like to present arthur as this dumb tsundere man that blushes and says baka, or he is this garbage rat dad that no one likes or francis is presented or at least used to be this perverted sex machine that touched other countries inappropriatly or at least the 2012-2015 fans saw him this way and while he still has the reputation of a pervert, what many young people in the fandom see as disgusting, I just see as an overly lonely man that just happens to have high libido and copes with it by having casual sex and just has a sex humour, the same way some people have fart jokes humour or darker, more cursed humour, I am really glad that fans mostly left off this whole - Francis is a r**ist and will grope you, in the past, because honestly r**e is not joke and as a character he clearly understands consent and boundaries and I don't think someone like him would do such a thing. Also Greece and Turkey have even higher libido than him and sleep around more, yet he is the ''pervert'', I don't get it??????????? but fruk is just so much more than opposites attract, they have a lot in common so I can't say they're full opposites, no one is truly. I have heard people ask why does anyone ship fruk when it is just opposites attract/enemies to lovers trope and I am honestly confused, because that is extremely rough generalization to say the least, it is like saying - All men/women are the same, it is simply wrong/uncorrect. I think they ''married'' five times - The Treaty of Paris (1657) formed an alliance against Spain. The Anglo-French Alliance (1716–31) formed another alliance against Spain. The Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata (1845-1850). The Anglo-French joint invasion of Qing Dynasty (1856–1860). And the last one which is their official marriage The Entente Cordiale (1904) fought together in both World Wars. As far as I remember Francis tried to marry Arthur but he refused and why he refused is up for subjective opinion but I must write a whole thesis on why Fruk/ukfr works so well and people are not here for that, they're here for the music and I will provide. I also always saw Francis as the more gentle and more submissive partner, I just love to see him drawn in frilly beautiful dresses with bows and stuff and Arthur as the more dominant, I mean as a country he was a powerhouse during the 1600s-1800s and used to be a punkrocker, usually rockers are mentally tough and that man is extremely cunning and witty so...people drawing him as this useless baka uwu overly feminine anorexic boy that looks more like a tween rather than a 23 year old guy just assasinated his character in my opinion and it disturbs me but I am just some awkward human on the internet and no one values my opinion anyway because this is the internet and many people nowdays love to have hot takes and try to gain followers through clickbait stuff which sometimes goes out of control and everything just seems more fake and shallow to me, the more old I get.Okay that was my silly rant no one asked about but I feel really passionate about hetalia and Fruk/Ukfr. Anyway, I apologize again for my long rant and going all over the place, please enjoy this playlist

PLAYLIST WITH SONGS THAT REMIND ME OF FRUK/UKFR

1 - Halestorm - Bad romance - rock cover https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll4NJs3NBIU

2 - Queen - Somebody to love - lyrics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj69iA_goIk

3 - ABBA - Voulez vous - (I know everyone chooses Waterloo and while waterloo is a fruk theme, I think Voulez vous works too) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwcgMVXuBJc

4 - London beat - I've been thinking about you - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixBryyQSrD8

5 - Santana - Smooth - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Whgn_iE5uc

6 - George Michael - Careless whisper - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izGwDsrQ1eQ

7 - Robbie Williams - Feel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy4mXZN1Zzk

8 - Michael Buble - Feeling good - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Edwsf-8F3sI

9 - Edith Piaf - La vie en rose - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFzViYkZAz4

10 - Chopin - Marriage d'amour (Spring waltz) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFJ7kDva7JE

11 - Vanessa Carlton - A thousand miles - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERw2LuU6Jj8

[mingmingfufu]

Can we just talk about the ending of KawoShin open discuss. *sort of spoilerish*

I feel like I’m the only one who’s like reallly disappointed LMFAO--ya’ll there’s so much “canon” alternative universe and merchandise for Kawoshin in Evangelion that it kind of makes me upset to realise this couple just went down the drain. Yeah, I can see how people were like, “Kaworu’s toxic” or “Kaworu has a hero complex for Shinji” to which I say are valid points. But the toxic thing I feel like can also be applied to pretty much everyone around Shinji tbh, except for Rei. I did NOT, like Asuka at all but I really love her character though, and I felt for her a lot throughout the series.

I did not ship them either because honestly, Shinji and Asuka seemed better off playing the sibling dynamic instead of trying to play bf/gf which honestly is kind of forced by their living situation. Also since they’re in a similar disposition non existent father and dead mother, you’d imagine they would rely on each other for emotional comfort. Though Asuka—her personality I feel like she can’t differentiate between familial love and romantic love and the affection she wants is a bit of both. But, her character tries to be “mature”; she wants romantic love more and does this through sexual means and romantic gestures e.g. like kissing. One of my friends told me that you can’t stay friends as a boy and a girl cause eventually you catch feelings. Which I say is kinda dumb cause I have a lot of male friends, and I definitely don’t harbour those feelings, but I guess it’s a common phenomena.

I think this is what happens in this case, of Asuka and Shinji. Even after rejection of instrumentality they actually are depicted as childhood friends. But knowing how they both were before to each other, it was not good tbh. Also to mention the choking like thrice— bro if anything, this showcases a really abusive relationship and I think this outstretches the idea of their character tropes. Which I firmly stand by saying they’re superficial to each other. AsuShin were never really there for each other and are using each other in a forced situation. However, you can’t deny that they didn’t at some point catch feels, also Shinji is pretty consistent how he still cares about everyone around him. Which I really like how they add that to his character because it reminiscent of Yui, because you see a duality of both his parents personality in Shinji throughout the series—it’s a really nice touch. But bruh, if we gonna talk about that coma scene—I’m out LOL.

Thoughhhh, she is a true definition of best girl I really like her arc, fighting drive, and her skills as an Eva pilot 😭💗--but bruh she’s still a toxic and sometimes annoying tsundere trope, but still she’s 14 what can you do. So I feel like Kensuke and Asuka are actually a pretty good combo, cause he’s always been pretty mature even without parents. Also Asuka was into older guys, so I guess this is a win win?? Also Rei and Shinji, I honestly cannot get my head around it cause that’s pretty much his mom—so in a way that’s like either his half-sister or mom-ish clone?? Idk but Yui is definitely the donor LOL.

Kaworu and Shinji I felt like brought a bunch of things out of each other. I don’t know which timeline begins first, but I’d like to think the manga, the anime (plus its movies), and then to the rebuild series. Because I think that order is kind of pivotal to observing Kaworu’s character development from being a person who’s trying to understand human feelings to then the kinder person we see in the final series. You can tell how he’s changed and he knows Shinji a lot more as well as being considerate to him e.g. giving him personal space or letting him work at his own pace. Also that “we’ll meet again.” Is an obvious nod to how he’s done this before.

His literal story in every timeline is always romantic LOL, like bruh I can’t remember which game it was but basically a bad ending of Kawoshin route is that you reject Kaworu and he starts the third impact 🤡. Also I don’t know why but I started to see a weird dynamic between those two, in the manga their interactions reminded me of Asuka and Shinji—which Shinji is the tsundere Asuka here. I don’t know if this is relevant but the older character relative to the character they’re with seems to play off a mature vs a childish person trope. Asuka is younger than Shinji and Shinji is actually younger than Kaworu. Then again I could be overseeing this but istg manga Kaworu and Shinji mirror the whole Asushin dynamic. Like he’s seriously agressive against Kaworu, then after killing him he admits liking him. 🤡 I don’t know which is funnier no homo Shinji, homophobe shinji, or just closet Shinji who needs to realise sexuality is a spectrum so he could’ve idk—come out as bisexual, but whatever manga Shinji lol that timeline is over.

Anyways the development of these two is real and I think the rebuild timeline shows them at their best bringing their own personage out from each other like how they both enjoy music together--WHICH I’M SO SAD WE NEVER GET TO SEE THAT CELLO AGAIN. Then there’s those feelings of humanity, love, kindness, etc. Which yeah an angel could represent those things, but Kaworu is still his own person, self-aware of a cycle and if you think about how he initially was there to USE Shinji, but ultimately turned on that plan set by SEELE because he loved Shinji (and a bunch of other things like him showing Kaworu humanity). I also can see the argument, how “ideal” Kaworu is to Shinji, but he’s more self aware of the time he has before he KNOWS he’ll die and knows how to act for himself in that duration to make the most of it. All with Shinji. At some point, I think he fell in love with Shinji tho I don’t know where it began tbh—considering that all those alternate universes do exist. Kaworu does romantically love Shinji--so, in some universe they both reciprocate their feelings to each other. 

In the last movie during that convo with Shinji. Like bREH it’s so emotionally moving because Kaworu remembers ALLLLL the timelines and how he’s been with Shinji and later Shinji himself recalls the events too. Where they show the scene from the manga and anime. Kaworu cries after being set free from the EVA cycle. Which, I definitely understood what he meant by him saying “it’ll be lonely” and how Shinji changed or that he’s actually different this time.

Either way, Shinji did right by him because it’s always Kaworu who has the purpose of “trying to save Shinji” but it always ends up the same. I thought that was really moving because Shinji tells Kaworu he’s gonna let him live a life for himself for once and he wants the same for everyone as well. Which was honestly so meaningful cause I think Kaworu’s character and like Rei too when they start to realise how to “live” like a person and not another puppet it’s truly liberating. Another thing I forgot, bruh Kaworu calls Gendo his father and ngl I feel like this is kind of a weird lore situation because I for sure don’t think he’s the donor. I think he calls him that as an insult because he knows Gendo’s whole doing and relative to Shinji—I kind of see it as a joke LOL. Like it’s equivalent to saying, “daddy chill”, or “hey look it’s daddy and his plans to end the world” also I kind of like to think of it as a father in law thing cause you know, Kawoshin *winks amirite*

The ending, I’m honestly hoping is just an open ending because it gives everything an actual start of their adult lives not being dictated by extraterrestrial forces. Though, I’m kind of wondering if the world doesn’t have EVAs does that still mean everyone else still has the same backstory, and do they remember? Maybe Mari really is just a coworker lmfao, and there’s still a chance for Kaworu and Shinji cause ngl, they did have a convo (presumably from the spoilers) about still remaining close afterwards and that stare at the ending seems very hopeful.

I call bs from Anno saying, “oh Shinji is based off him and Mari off of his wife”, like honestly any OCs made theres always some part of yourself made into that character. Which is probably why a lot of people relate to the characters in EVA because they’re based off real things (e.g. those war machines characters are named after and people around them). I think why Kaworu and Rei are together at the end, is bc they’re very much the same. They’re mass produced dolls—which oddly enough that’s the case for all the children except they don’t recall the loop. Kind of funny also how both Kaworu and Rei became farmers lmfao so ig it runs in the family (yes that’s right I like the idea that they’re siblings it was always noted that they’re like “the same”).

Another thing, i think why the rebuild really did well for Kawoshin and in my opinion canonised it—the convo with elder Ryoji Kaji (Misato’s baby daddy) that there was a time he felt incredibly lonely and depressed thinking Misato didn’t love him and so he started looking out for himself. So self love and found himself a hobby in farming which he suggests to Kaworu—basically saying he might feel like Shinji doesn’t love him but he’s gotta remember to take care of himself. if I go thru a breakup ill feel like it’s the end of the world but Kaji says y’a gotta self love broe and take care yo self gad dam fam 😭 💗.

Though, that look at the end from Shinji to Kaworu—I’d like to believe there is still hope that one day when they’re a bit stable in their adult lives, they’ll run into each other.

[the-littlefangirl]

TFATWS episode 2 rewatch commentary

We should've guessed John Walker was going to be an asshole the moment it was revealed he played football in high school

That remix of star spangled man is my villain origin story JEEEEEEESUS i want to punch something

They literally mass produced a Walker action figure in two weeks what the fuck

"Your new Captain America" GAAAAAAAAAAh * angry noises *

"For those who aren't familiar with John's resume" thank you GMA lady

My face during that whole speech: wtf and indignation intensify

Bucky's face: yep same.

Imagine being Sam and everywhere you go you're seeing your one (1) mistake spit in your face overandoverandover again that's g r e a t

Tbh that sambucky reunion was anticlimatic as fuck but i actually liked that, it was like WELL HERE WE GO AGAIN they can’t look at each other for 5 seconds before they need to start bickering

"You think it didn't break my heart" SAM SWEETIE

YeAH TELL HIM SAM

The way I know this clip by heart help me. It's still hilarious but it's even better now that I know that they literally just met and they're already bickering can you PLEASE stop you children

T H E  B I G  T H R E E

Spoiler it was a thing

Love how nonchalant Joaquín is about this entire situation lmao

"You sure about that"

*Fakes smiles* yeah, * screams *

Congrats at least you didn't rip your arm off this time that's what I call progress

is he… is he wearing high wasted skinny (jeans) combat pants?

Redwing i'm sorry for what's about to happen :(

"Look at you all stealthy" PLEASE

"it's white wolf, actually" n e r d

SAM MATERIALIZING OUT OF THIN AIR SAFHAJSFHA this is the second time that happened it’s so funny

H E LLO H O W A R E Y O U?

GOOD! WHAT DID I MISS! NOTHING

They're literally 5 CHILDREN CHILDREN PLEASE STOP

AND I CAN FLY WHO GIVES A SHIT fsdjhfadjkfh

L e t  m  e   s e e

Four

Yeah

Five!

YeaH

“So they're strong. W h a t e v e r”

SFHJDASKFA we're superheroes ma'am vibes

3 supersoldiers what could possibly go wrong

REDWING MY BELOVED FAREWELL

"I always wanted to do that" *gets punched in the face* you deserved that

YEAH BABEE look at those wings

Why do the knockoff duo have a special handshake jesus fucking christ i hate them

“SAM JOHN WALKER CAPTAIN AMERICA” Sam: *Glares harder*

Sam is having a very shitty day

So are we going to ignore that Bucky did t h e  t h i n g with the shield? Ok? Ok.

You can't tell me he wasn't thinking of just grabbing it like a toy and not returning it in the middle of the fight sfj

LOOK AT THOSE W I N G S

*whispers* t h e e arm thing

*Stares at the wall* I CAN'T WITH THAT SEQUENCE WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO MEJSFHJASFAH PLEASE they didn't have to go that far with the grunting noises PLEASE

John Walker getting his ass served is something that can be so personal<3

Also, I like that they've now established that he CAN lose a fight, which makes me wonder if he's also going to use his political influence as leverage against sam and bucky once he goes berserk

"It's one of the big three" "Aliens, androids or wizards" "pretty sure" lmao yeah I don't think that's the vindication Sam was looking for

"Look, I've done the work, okay" SHUT THE FUUUUUUCK UP

"You ever jump on top of a grenade" bucky finding out about it in the middle of a briefing during the war fic trope intensifies

"It's a reinforced helmet" well you're fucking losing the point there then you naive clown

Captain "Kind of the government" America??? NOPE NOPE GOODBYE N O P E NOOOOOOOOOOOPE

"Usually said by the people with the resources" daaamn

“I'm Battlestar. John's partner" A clown that’s what you are

Bucky: YES I'VE REACHED MY LIMIT STOP THE FUCKING CAR

"It'd be a whole lot easier if I had Cap's wingmen on my side" FUUUUUUUUUCK YOUUUUUUU

"It's always that last line" yeP

Erin Kellyman is??? So pretty???

"The GRC care more about the people who came back than the ones who never left" love how they keep putting those random bits since otherwise their position sounds??? Extremely reasonable?? BUT THEY ARE V I O L E N T  R E V O L U T I O N E R S fuck off

"Let's take the shield, Sam" oh you BET he's been spiraling thinking about 3224 strategies on how to steal the shield during that flight

Sharon name drop:)

YES I KNOW YOU WERE ON THE RUN FOR TWO YEARS I'D REALLY HAVE WANTED TO SEE MORE OF IT JFC @marvel i hate you so much

The whole Baltimore sequence * chef's kiss *

ELI SWEETIE

Friendly reminder that Isaiah Bradley won a fight against the Winter Soldier. Proceed.

"I'm not a killer anymore" bucky sweetie

"You think you can wake up one day and decide who you wanna be" OOOOF

Carl Lumbly's acting f u c k

"How could nobody bring him up" SAM SWEETIE

I'm going to go ballistic now excuse me:))

This whole scene is so well written jesus fucking christ

Have you praised Anthony Mackie's performance today?

Twitter is this clear enough for you?????

Tbh i'm actually surprised marvel allow them to go there even if the situation didn't escalate.

They put the tiiiiniest handcuffs on bucky lmfao

How many more "bucky"s from Walker's mouth until someone punches him?

"He's too valuable of an asset to have tied up" YEAH BEEP BEEP ALARMS GOING OFF RIGHT THE FUCK NOW UHM THOSE WERE SOME… WORD CHOICES… THAT WERE USED… fuck you Walker

"It's something I use with couples" oh coME ON

SFHAJSDFH this is ridiculous i love it

Malcolm Spellman: * agressively takes notes on Stackie's interviews *

SOUL-GAZING EXERCISE LMFAO

THEY'RE SO STUPID I HATE THEM

Sambucky: *chaotic leg positioning*

Dr Raynor: WOW ALL RIGHT

I love that the staring contest thing is the conclusion of the bucky staring joke lmao

AND DON'T SAY SOMETHING CHILDISH

this is literally not about you bucky

"Maybe this is something you or Steve will never understand. But can you accept that I did what I thought was right?" YEAH!!!! 

Why is everyone, on the show and outside of it too, acting as if Sam made that decision of out the blue and didn't think about it for six months straight, and look what happened! He got fucking played! He's feeling enough remorse as it is jfc

"Thanks Doc for making it weird I feel much better" LMFAO

Oh you KNOW that the shoulder clap is going to come back unironically and it's going to be soft as fuck

"I feel better" "I feel awful" props for the honesty boys!

"It wouldn't make sense to work with you" more like you're the fucking government's lap dog and we wouldn't touch that with a twelve feet long pole. Let's fucking go Sam let's fucking go

10/10 building of Walker actually being a fucking asSHOLE

The Power Broker name drop!

Yes Bucky SHOULD beat the SHIT out of Zemo. As a treat.

"We're going to go see Zemo" *CLASSICAL MUSIC STARTS BLASTING IN THE BACKGROUND*

Oh I love that last bird eye's shot at the end of the scene

Overall thoughts: This episode was MUCH MUCH better on second viewing. I do think it’s a little bit too fast paced so a lot of things keep happening and there’s not enough time to process them in between?? Again the best moments are the quiet ones like the flight back and the Baltimore scene, but mad props to everyone from jumping between comedy and drama so fucking well. Even though there are, in tone, some very opposite atmospheres in the episode it never feels chaotic, and the situations that happen are very well connected and don’t feel disjointed at all.

The highlight of the episode was definitely the two different ways Sam and Bucky are (avoiding) grieving over Steve, and how his legacy hangs between them at all times. It makes so much sense for Bucky to take the entire situation so personally because Steve was the One thing he knew he could trust, while Sam is trying to see the bigger picture and not just what Steve demanded of him.

Hope that makes sense!

[flying-elliska]

S5 Review pt 2 : the Bad

So in my last meta I listed a lot of reasons to like this season...but then why did it not (at least to me) all add up together ?  Looking back, I can think of so many clips that I thought were incredible. But looking back at the season in general, I just feel a big ‘meh’ and it’s sort of puzzling - why exactly ?  Here is where I thought the season could have been a lot better :

I loathe love triangles : I hate the trope in itself. Is S5 the worst example of it ever ? No, it served somewhat of a thematic purpose and the resolution was interesting. But I can’t help it, when I feel a love triangle coming on, I generally disconnect emotionally because I have been annoyed to hell and back by it before - one big offender being Skam France s4, in which the love triangle/quadrangle marked the beginning of the season going down in flames, with it overshadowing everything else and making the characters behave in completely obnoxious and puzzling ways. S5 isn’t quite as bad, it feels more respectful of the characters, but I find it weird that the writers chose a love triangle again on the heels of the reception of s4. 

The problem with this trope is not ‘oh we don’t want drama ever’ it’s just so bloody annoying, so trite and overused. It rests on centuries of sexist tropes : either a wishy washy girl in the middle who doesn’t know what’s good for her/her own heart ; or two girls competing for a man’s attentions. It often ends in the fandom villifying the women involved no matter the shape of the triangle, comparing them against each other, which definitely happened this time (Twitter was just so annoying this season), and this whole ‘team x’ thing gives me hives, as the assumption that this is what young women viewers care most about. 

Also it generally involves the characters showing that they have very little self respect, letting themselves be walked over, bad communication, implications about what the ‘better woman/man’ should be like, cheating, etc...it’s very rarely fun or interesting to watch because we’ve seen it a thousand times before in teenage soap operas. Again, the s5 ending avoided the total trainwreck but this is a show you watch in real time, and for weeks I was afraid it was going to be absolutely terrible, and it ruined a big part of my experience of the season. When they introduced Noée I started being scared, and when it became clear Arthur was developing feelings for her, I basically noped out emotionally. I started following it in a much more detached manner, I wasn’t looking forward to the clips anymore, I stopped writing meta so much. And it sucks. I wanted to love the season. But this was just not a ride I really wanted to be on. 

Alexia (and Noee) deserved better : I love Alexia and developing her character is one of the best things Skam France ever did. In OG, the character of Chris, if interesting, is just continually reduced to the ‘funny fat friend’ persona and it really sucks. So giving Alexia a real personality, making her bisexual, giving her more of a role in s3, making her a dancer and a singer was really cool. I’m bi myself and I spent most of my high school struggling with my weight and if I’d had a character like her, who radiates self-acceptance, it would have meant so much to me. I was really stoked for her to have more of a role in s5 - only to spend most of the season feeling really sad for her. It was just...not fun. I so wish she could have had her own season and her own story that didn’t revolve around a dude she was so supportive of and still ended up treating her like shit. 

Also, real talk : when is a curvy girl actually a love interest without it being shown as funny or not good enough ? Especially of the main character ? Almost never. Coline might have lost some weight, but she’s still written as a curvy girl this season and it’s an important part of the character. So for her to have this particular role this season - the girl that isn’t romanticized, that doesn’t get to have the cute and thrilling moments, that is just sort of there and patient and understanding as if she couldn’t get anything better, it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Sure the end of the season did her more justice but god it took so long and in the meantime, it just felt...very ill considered and careless. 

In the same way, I wanted to love Noée, I thought she was amazing, but because of her role in the plot I just felt this instinctive defiance towards her character. It would have been so cool to have her in a friend role, or even a love interest outside of the triangle or I don’t know like...have someone else fall in love with her. Also, I just did not understand why she loved Arthur ? Like she just met the dude a few times, and he’s mostly been a total asshole to her, who makes very little efforts to communicate with her...I get she could get attracted to him but love ??? The moment where she tells him ‘I love you’ felt demeaning to her, like the moment in OG where Noora falls after running after William. It’s like, Arthur has just been an enormous asshole to her, and she pushes herself to do something she’s never been comfortable with in the first place ? Why ? This show romanticizes teenage boys being assholes and girls being desperate way too much. 

The Skam dilemma, love vs politics and “Let’s all just be nice.” : There is a reoccuring problem accross all Skams, starting with the OG : they bring up very political topics, usually in the beginning of the season, and then they...don’t really do anything with them. In the OG, Noora’s feminism is really just window-dressing and we see her bend over backwards to accomodate this super toxic asshole into her life. And we see Sana’s struggles as a Muslim in Norwegian society, but then love drama takes over, and it’s waved away with an insulting ‘everyone should just communicate more’ ending. Skamfr s4 made it even worse, by making the girl squad a lot more overtly racist, never having them make a big gesture for Imane, putting her in a position to apologize, and never showing that the girl squad had an idea of where they messed up or real growth. It was insanely frustrating, especially since the beginning of the season was so good at showing all the little micro-agressions. In the end it felt like all the racism was just there to motivate Imane’s breakdown for plot reasons and not to actually say something. S5 never stoops quite that low, but there was a bit of a similar dynamic at hand here. Instead of the boys actually have a real conversation after their fight, most of the denouement of the show was consecrated to talking about the love drama. It was, again, as if the focus of the show was on the wrong things, and it robs you of the catharsis you’re expecting. As if they used the love drama for a metaphor for the actual issues, have it do all the emotional heavy lifting, and in so doing bypass having to adress the actual problem. There is this weird ideas that the audience of the show - teenagers and young women, mostly, in the end care the most about the love stuff and that everything else has to take a backseat and...this feels neither a good message to send, nor realistic to me. I like it when shows about teenagers decenter love and show the real complexity of their characters’ lives without making them paragons of virtue or wokeness - Derry Girls is a brilliant example of that. Skam, and Skam France in particular, feel a bit immature still compared to those, punching below their weight for shows that pride themselves on their social impact. 

Hit with the idiot stick : Speaking of underwhelming resolutions - yes, the boy squad messing up with Arthur, I found relevant and realistic. But...did they really even adress it ? I was really hoping for the boys to have more of a conversation, for Arthur to open up to them about what he went through, about his father, to tell them that they should have asked him/listened to him more, etc...and I know ‘teenage boys’ or whatever but ...aren’t they trying to change those stereotypes too ? Like when Arthur went to see Basile, they must have had a conversation, why the fuck did we not see it ? That’s the emotional bond I cared most about ! And we just had a hug ...underwhelming tbh. Same Arthur talking with Lucas but then it was just about their love lives ? Or when they came to the hospital, again, it was just about the love drama ? God it really sucked out the oxygen out of the season. The resolutions of those things just being hugs or speeches or handholding at the end felt hollow, and a lot less powerful than they could have been. And again, there has to be a tolerance for messiness, but I found the boys so incredibly dumb at several points in the season. Especially them being like ‘oh cheating isn’t so bad’ after they found out that Arthur’s dad was cheating on his wife ? Like why the fuck did they take Patrick’s side ? What kind of lack of empathy ? It would feel a lot more coherent for teenage boys to be furious at the destruction of a friend’s family, not talk like cynical 50 yr olds who just divorced for the fifth time. It felt so unrealistic and stupid and just meant for Arthur to finally clue in to the idea that cheating and lying is bad maybe, himself first without external clues from characters that really should have known better by now. Especially Yann and Lucas advising Arthur to keep his mouth shut after what happened in s1 like...did whoever write this read the previous seasons of the show ? There were just too many times where the boy squad felt out of character and mandated to be idiots just for plot reasons, and it felt...very crudely drawn. Disappointing, because the beginning of the season was awesome. But again, Skam France failed in delivering real growth for their friend group. At times, it even felt like character regression. Them holding hands at the end of the season made me emo but damn it could have been so much more.

Also some plot twists - the car crash in particular, just felt dumb and unnecessary, seriously. 

A too distant main : In the end, like I said before, my main issue is that I didn’t feel as connected to Arthur as I wanted to. I mean, the cheating bit was just very unrelatable to me, after how they showed how supportive Alexia was and how she supposedly made him happy like...why. But maybe that’s just me. Regardless - in the first few episodes he felt distant in an interesting way, because it made sense for his character to be so walled off. But...I felt like his self discovery was way too blurred with the ‘oh I like Noee’ part to the point where it ended up being obscured. I would have loved more clips on his own, maybe something more about him questioning his path in life, whether he truly wants to do medecine. And like apparently he liked fine arts ? Then, why didn’t we see anything about that ? Did he paint the x-men painting ??? That feels so relevant, why the fuck didn’t we see that ? Also why didn’t we see him take those LSF classes with Camille and actually make an effort this time ? Having almost all of his realization moments tied to Noee was just...the manic pixie dream girl trope. That’s what it’s called, when you use a quirky female character as a device for the emotional development of the male one. It’s...not flattering tbh. And then that farm episode - it was funny but for a week I felt like I completely lost touch with Arthur’s POV ? I’m really not sure that was the right choice. All in all, there were just not enough introspective, small, intimate clips for it to really feel like Skam, and that’s a shame tbh. I recognize a lot of myself in Arthur, and Robin acted his heart out to make him relatable, but because of the writing, there were way too many times where I was reluctant and puzzled instead of in it. I saw several people saying it was too much tell and not enough show and I think that’s very on point. I feel like a lot of Arthur’s actual character development happened behind the scenes in moments where we didn’t see it.  

Yeah...I think as a conclusion most of my issues are tied back to the preponderance of the love triangle. The season wasn’t bad but god it could have been so excellent if they hadn’t gone that route, and this swerve from greatness is just sooooooo frustrating. I don’t think it’s enough to condemn the whole season but...

Next up : some things I’m just very ??? about and a general conclusion. 

Bonus bitching round, fandom edition : oh my god, I don’t get into this often but...the fandom was so bloody annoying this season. Starting with the people sending death threats over a tv show (like...what the fuck) or thinking them being nasty assholes is somehow for the greater good (???), from people that don’t want anyone to use even 1 analysis capacity (especially on Twitter) and go beyond praising everything on the show, or the people either villifying Alexia and Noee and indulging in that ‘team’ crap, to the people that shoot down every single detail of the show without discernment or accuse the creators of being ableist sexist garbage or maltreating their actors ... And then you have the other remake stans coming to pollute the tags talking about how we were all stupid for liking the show in the first place. Like...seriously, what is up with you people. I really loved the block button this season, damn. 

[randomnameless]

Finshed VW!

It was... Honestly, I should have taken a break because I am kind of saturating with Fodlan.

Nevertheless, it was more interesting than CW and SS but not as character driven as AM.

I still... Don't understand Claude. I missed the point of the unification - why should the continent be more tolerant if it's united under a single leader - but apparently it's cool and everyone is okay so, uh... Why not?

Nemesis was focused on Seiros but didn't say a thing against cethleann or Cichol... Lorenz didn't say anything about Gloucester, it's the path to where Maurice paralogue was available so...

Meh point with Hubert though, as always he's complicated for deal with. Kuddos for him to prepare plans to deal with the Agarthians, but cucumber points for, uh, everything else?

Why are we supposed to agree with "wow Hubert is so intelligent he wasn't actually a bad guy the empire was being blackmailed by the aghartians :'(" when giving said letter explicitly confirms that they (the empire - Hubert and Elde at least) knew who they were alying with?? I swear everything and everyone is wearing effing blinders when it comes to the Empire' strike and unification of the world - expressing sympathy for a defeated foe is okayish, but when said defeated fore was using human turned into beasts, the very same thing that made everyone vomit back in the good ol' days at Remire?

Flamey said she didn't condone Thomas experiments, but in VW, she uses the results of his experimentations on her side, so again, what the fuck?

Lysithea is furious at the aghartians for what they did to her, she knows they're siding with the empire, and yet in her battle convo with Edel she expresses regret (maybe Edel suffered what i did?). Which is tlling because she (and everyone) acknowledges that the empire was used, but no hard feelings held against Edel for enrolling aghartians? (idk if lysithea knows that Edel knows (?) that her new friends were the ones who experimented on them - but elde knows what Lysithea went through - Lysithea knows that the aghartians experimented on her)

i maintain that lysithea in CF is in a Felix-tier of despair if she ever knows that she was actually helping the ones who made her life a limited shit - but it's highly suggested that no one save for Hubbie (and Emile??) take part in the aghartian extermination plan so...

I noted how Claude is furious at Rhea's refusal to spill the beans (@ultrakatua : you were right haha i never heard him so furious the jp VA really does his job which is a bit undermined by his sprite - he isn't shown to be Dimitri-tier of furious but he sounds like it!) but he notes himself that she didn't tell him everything about the children of the goddess.

Which made me laugh a little, Claude is used to get the things he wants (the diary incident) but when the nabateans avoid his questions he is pissed (in Rhea's case) or tries to jest around it but is still dead serious (in his flayn support) but in both cases he doesn't get everything he wants...  idk if it was here in the US version, but she says she's happy he turned out to be reliable/a responsible guy... which made me think, was she actually aware he was spying on her? or he was supposed to be the lolcalised memelord during his student days?

Anyways, she face tanks an explosions and she's out for the rest of the month... Given how Nemesis fixates on her, it'd have been awesome if she could join us but sadly it was not meant to happen. So no "we settle this old grudge with the two of us dying Claude (and billy because gfdi) i leave fodlan to you it is up to you to build a new future etc" :'(

I noted how her expodump felt like... an exposition dump and it was meh. Rhea said she was one of the children, said that walked around foldna searching for the remaining children - but Claude never notes on said "remaining children" (even if there's a possibility where Billy could suggest FLayn is a child of the goddess, Claude continues saying it might have been why her blood was used but nothing beyond that).

I didn't caught it the first time, but the ten dudes (+ momo) had their weapons before going to zanado, meaning that nemesis did his thing with Sothis, then his dudes did their things with some random nabateans, and then they made a bro trip to Zanado?

Rhea explicitly states that she could never forgive the ten dudes, so maybe Edel was right on that account, Seiros killed them but didn't kill their descendants (if jeralt is any indication they might have had great grandchildren by the time of their deaths given how their lives were expanded due to ingestion of nabatean blood)? This might be the breaking point that made Birdie cut all of his ties with his sister?

Nemesis dead Claude, now King of Almyra, fell in lovve with Marianne, Lorezn and Hilda married and Billy married the voice in her head because those characters can just eff themselves (which is the point of that support?).

That's it for Verdant Wind.

And I still don't understand Claude haha.

His "the world must be united to end racism" felt very... WTF, as WTF as CF suddenly telling us that we are fighting to unify Fodlan and not to first and foremost end the mad (?) dragon lady that tried to blast us.

Maybe because I've always wanted to see how a merchant republic/an alliance works as opposed to a monarchy, but we stay in the usual tropes "fig the republics". It's sad but this game has an hard-on with hegemony so whatever.

The almyrians angle was interesting (gdi i got the "you're not from fodlan you can't undertand" convo... Claude's problem is that he is from fodlan when the almyrians try to belittle him but he's a dirty foreigner when he tries to research and undertand the mysteries of the land he inherited and lived in/ran when it was under agression for at least 5 years instead of figging away to Almyra...) expect that it felt... shoe-horned? Yes he drops hints here and there, but Nader being his second in house leicester and being best pals with Holst who has been fighting him for decades is glossed over (or relegated to Gilbert's wife tier that is only mentionned but never shown despite its importance)

And poor claude being the Prince of Almyra feels like Aerone, that is being a prince of a country you don't know a thing of - the Cyril issue is glaring, and it's not because i like Cyril, but because hey, you don't know children are being used as meat fodder and captured by fodlanese people? Or just, they are effing used as meat shields on the border for "lol feasts" reasons?

Ultimately (bias talking) i still don't understand why there is this visceral need for Rhea to be gone - when he came to the conclusion that the academy was the most cosmopolitan place in the continent and that the tenets of Seiros don't prone isolationism - opposing Lorezn's dad's pov.

Which actually makes me think about his Edel comment "we had the same goals, not the same means", Edel's goal (well one of...) is to unify the continent, Claude's seems to want the same thing (again, just like Edel, this goal appears out of nowhere in the game script, it's not the official goal we start with (discover secrets/end racism/get rid of the dragon lady because she is mad) but the one we end with. And apparently, Rhea would be opposed to the unification of the country... for some reason?

Maybe i'm not reading enough between the lines - Rhea was here when Fodlan was an unified nation, she was there when it split, maybe she really doesn't want Fodlan to be unified again? Because it would diminish the "power" she has over countries?

idk.

Anyways, I need to wait for the last DLC.

[iamala]

Netflix's Sex Education was a show I thought I was going to hate watching the first couple of episodes but I turned out watching it all to love it.

And I've seen a few comments about how people were disapointed in Adam's storyline so- spoilers below- I wanted to expand on why I actually really loved it.

So the main criticism I've seen is that Adam plays into the homophobic bully is actually gay trope. Which, I fully understand as a reading. But, I actually disagree. Most of the characters and relationships in this show are set up as tropes and then play against them (Aimee as the dumb shallow promiscuous type who is actually taken advantage of and grows through having to explore herself is the quickest example I could think of bc i could write essays on them all).

Adam is a bully. He is set up from the off as the threatening kid, the one who acts out. And then with the viagra and flashing this it's played for comedy and like, dumb boy has feelings, still and idot. But then he gets dumped and the more complex part of his character comes out. Because he gets dumped and he can't let go of trying to find out why. This loss of an extremey emotionally shallow relatipnship really hits him, but not in the- wait I lost the Popular Pretty Girl who is the conquest I should own ego trope way a lot of his character types get. And this isn't a major noticable moment until you find out more about his family.

Adam's hoouse is shot like the 1950s, repression obviously. But if you notice, Adam kicks out looking for a response from his parents, his mother looks the other way and his father just pours increasing levels of dislike and disapointment on him. Note- at no point is this about homophobia or anything. Adam's dad is awkward like when trying to talk about sanitary pads, but at no point is he played as homophobic. He wants a trophy, not a son. This is brought to the front in the parallel with how he treats star student headboy and is later called out on by him ('It's not about my future it's about your sports funding' 'well, yes). So Adam tries to give him a trophy- the essay competition.

And notice throughout how the threat held over Adam is basically- give me a reason not to get rid of you bc I am being bery gracious in continuing to allow you to be my son. So, Adam gets thetrophy. And yes he cheated etc etc and it was never going to work but it backfires massively (however note how his dad still displays the trophy in a prominant position in his office-not for love of the son but almost as a-he could ar least give me this false trophy to show for his life).

Now, Adam and Eric's relationship is subtley complex and problematic, which it is meant to be. I don't think Adam is 'secretly gay' or repressing being queer. He was quite happy with Aimee, their issues where made a point of being based around his self esteem and confidence. But from ep 1 Adam has a fascination (not possitive) with Eric.

At the start Eric is the easy target. He is open, free, very much himself and unapologetic for it. Eric likes being able to have power over someone so comfortable with themselves. The basic feel powerless take power through violence thing.

However, as the show develops the moments the camera focusses on Adam's reaction to Eric are when Eric is being the most out and proud, so to speak. In Adam's eyes, the most provacative- and I mean that in Eric is crossing social boundaries and not being cowed by it, way. This is something Adam has been trying to do from the beginning. He's late, he's disrespectful. He's provocatively violent with the carving a table. Refusing to do work. Adam is provacatove and seeks a reaction and gets only ever derision and further disapointment. And throughout he sees Eric be provacative in a different way but still if Adam was doing it would be read as acting out by his father, and in response he recieves friendship, parental love.

Eric is something Adam is fascinated by less bc he desires him and more bc he desperately wants the freedom Eric seems to have to act however and find love in response. Now I'm not saying that is actually how Eric's life goes bc it isn't. But from Adam's point of view, and the moments the show draws attention to him seeing, it is.

And the turning point for Adam is the ball. Eric turns up the most provative he has looked yet, and his father follows. And instead of derision or disaointment Adam sees them communicate, understand each other, and respect each other and come closer in love. This is like watching an astrophysics lecture in a foreign language for Adam. He so desperately wants that and yet has no idea how it could even come to be. This boy has no emotional intimacy at all. Even his mother is simply emotionally absent if not actively abusive.

And he does what he does. He kicks out but you can see his heart isn't in it. And Eric does not give him a reaction- this moment is a very different moment from Eric's perspective btw. I'm focussing on Adam only bc I want to address how he complicates the apparent trope.

Adam has lost the only 'power' he had and he lashes out. He lashes out at Aimee's boyfriend and ultimately the confrontation with his dad is where their relationship finally breaks. It's over. I'd have to double check but I don't think we ever actually see them in a scene together again. Adam has finally abandoned ever getting that emotion from his dad.

Then comes that detention scene.

Now, this scene deliberately plays into the trope of the bully wanting the victim etc., but my personal reading is that it does so to play against it (the show is full of those moments, the aesthetic being a major one-borrowing an american visual film style and using that to play against later).

Adam sets up back as the bully. He makes Eric do the work etc. Then Eric calls him out on his relationship with his dad but also sympathises in a small but key moment with 'I couldn't imagine being scared of my own dad'. It's after this that Adam actually tries to reach out. Only Adam has 0 emotional skills so him reaching out is trying to take the music stand- i.e. offering to help- but it turning into a fight bc his act still reads as violence to Eric.

They scuffle and fight and end up on the floor. Now, if we were to follow this trope set up fully, the rolling around would be sexually based. That is usually the moment the bully gets the physical contact he's been craving, is over come by the sexual tension, and usually somewhat aggressive kissing breaks out as an explosion of this sexual tension.

But for Adam it is not sexual tension that is the issue, it's emotional. Eric spits at him and looks terrified. He expects aggressino in response. However, what is really interesting here is,the way Adam is holding Eric is not wholley aggressive. Not muscles strainging trying to contain physical violence. And his response is to spit back. Horrid and agressive in one way, but also the point he makes, asking how he likes it, is actually a moment that draws attention to the emotional harm of being spat at. It's a subtle writing clue but one that reakly struck me.

I, like probably everyone else watching that scene, was expecting the kiss. However, it being proceeded by that emotional emphasis, and also, the fact that Eric initiates got me. Usually in these scenes it is the bully's sexual frustration that comes to the fore and the trope is the victim expects violence and gets kissed instead, or they come together in an explosion of sort of violent physical frustration. But here it was Eric who lifted his head to initiate- though obviously still wary, and Adam responds tenderly.

In fact the tenderness Adam shows is overwhelming. This is the first bit of physical affection based on connection we've seen him have. And his response is to cradle Eric's face, to kiss his cheek and neck and down his body worshipfully. It is also one of the few sex scenes we don't see, we only see Eric's pleasure, bc in that scene, that is what Adam is focussed on.

Now I'm going to talk about possibly my favourite scene from a film perspective in the whole series new but I wanted to precede it by saying- I am not actually sure if Adam actually fancies Eric. I think he is fixated with him, but I think he craves being Eric more than Eric himself at this point. He wishes he could have that life- and I don't mean this in being out and proud, but in being able to explore and grow and be himself and be made stronger with love.

So, the biology lesson. Adam walks in, late, same bravado. They're made to sit next to each other and both do the overcompensating we're not friends nervous thing. And Eric hands Adam a pen. This is a caring move to Adam, and it's this moment when Adam seems to be just aching with want to reach out and be close to someone.

He inches his leg closer. He presses their arms nearer. And Eric doesn't resist but it's definitely Adam doing the reaching out. And then, he moves his little finger, and he moves it so slowly and the focus is making you feel how badly he wants to just touch, to hold hands, to connect. His want is communicated so well in the scene, and yet, their fingers never actually touch. The image feels such a perfect summary in a shot for Adam-bending and reaching towards connection he craves but still unable to touch it. The world hasn't changed.

Adam and Eric do not share another scene until the end. Adam's father sends someone to take him away and Eric sees it. Or rather, Adam looks at Eric and sees in him all he wants, and yet the world still being the same, it is made impossible for him to reach as he is detached forcibly from it.

Eric's storyline is about owning himself and being himself despite the fact he knows the world will hurt him for it- 'it'll be hard for me anyway is it not better to be myself'. Adam's storyline is about how he so badly wants to be able to grow and become more than he is, but how he is uncapable bc of his lack of emotional strength.

Note, Adam starts as a bully with a rubbish family, being threatened with being cut off entirely. Adam ends- still not really reformed, with a rubbish family, being cut off entirely. Adam doesn't develop, he's can't. His trajectory remains the same as at the  eginning of the story.

I don't think Adam plays into the repressive bully trope simply bc his relationship with Eric is not about his sexuality. Once Aimee is taken from him Eric is pretty much the only person Adam interracts with outside his family. It's not a good relationship. It's not a- oh kiss and all solved. It is problematic and meant to be so.

In the usual trope, Adam would be redeemed by admitting his sexuality and that would be what endeared him to the audience and made it possible for him to find a happy ending, either with the victim or elsewhere. In this story, Adam being cool kissing a guy isn't his millstone. Kissing Eric changes nothing for him, it only illustrates to us how desperately he wants connection just before he gets formally severed from any possibility of it by being taken away.

I fully get why some people have issue with Adam and especially his relationship with Eric. But if you look at it all the sex in the later episodes of the series are about emotional develpment. Aimee learns how to make sex pleasurable and finds the confidence to ditch her toxic friends. Alien girl whose name I have forgotten, discovered actually sex isn't what she wants right now. Sex goes from something done for the sake of itself in the early episodes to something that informs the character. Adam's first sex scene was him being unable to physically connect bc of his father. Adam's last sex scene was him wanting to emotionally connect, and ultimately being prevented from that by his father.

For Eric, his sex scene is much more- when you stop trying to be what people like an be yourself, you can find pleasure.

All the storylines in this show are problematic and this one pays against a problematic trope in queer media, however, in my opinion, it subverts it too. And I just wanted to ramble that all out just to put an differing opinion on Adam's ch out there.

[daughter-of-the-prophet]

Areida Hawke (TV Tropes)

Action Mom: By Inquisition, Areida and Anders have two sons. Three-year-old Karl and one-year-old Malcolm.

By Trespasser, they have a third child. A one-year-old daughter named Leandra.

Action Survivor: Along with her younger brother, Carver, Areida survived Ostagar and managed to outrun the darkspawn horde to Lothering. She also obviously survives the Blight, getting to Kirkwall, and thence the entire story.

Adaptational Badass: Played with. Areida is already a certified badass, but Varric is often found telling stories in the Hanged Man that exaggerate it to truly ridiculous levels. By Act 3, there are people claiming that Areida uses the Arishok's skull as a gravy boat and sleeps on a bed of dragon bones.

Adaptational Dye Job: In Universe example. Areida has brown hair while in Varric's book, her hair is black.

Adaptational Ugliness: Another In Universe example and more like adaptional plainness. In Varric's book, Tale of the Champion and the story's prologue, Areida's physical appearane is badass and tomboyish looking, complete with boyish short hair while in real life, Areida is much more prettier.

Varric likely change Areida’s physical appearance in order to protect her identity.

The only physical description of Areida that Varric kept in his book were her striking blue eyes.

All-Loving Hero: Areida is unfailingly kind and compassionate to those around her. However, one of the most tragic parts of the story is that, no matter how loving and heroic Areida is, she cannot prevent the deaths of her brother and her mother or prevent Thedas from collapsing into war. It's really not her fault at all, but she’s the one that history will blame.

Almighty Janitor: Before becoming Champion, Areida is just a citizen/noble of Kirkwall. She has no special titles or ranks nor is she interested in getting one. In fact, Aveline gives her a bit of a hard time for not petitioning for a title. Areida prefers to run things from the ground, as this gives her the freedom to act without going through political red-tape. By Act III, this is actually given as the reason why the nobles want Areida as the new Viscountess, because instead of political posturing, she is the only person who actually manages to get things done.

Ambadassador: The Arishok is willing to speak Areida and only Areida in Act II, mostly because the Arishok views her as the only one in the entire city of Kirkwall worth respecting.

In Act III, Areida mentions that she’s occasionally been called upon in her role as Champion to "rescue" visiting foreign heads of state from having to put up with Knight-Commander Meredith for too long.

Animal Motifs: Hawks, of course.

Her "Mantle of the Champion" armor has spurs and talons. Additionally, it has a beak-like hood and belt buckles shaped like hawk beaks/skulls.

Carried over in Inquisition, where Areida's tarot card is a hawk with the city of Kirkwall on its wings, weighing it down. 

Asskicking Equals Authority: Areida defeats the Arishok in single combat and is rewarded with the title of Champion...

Authority Equals Asskicking: ... And becomes even more badass as a result.

After becoming Champion of Kirkwall, it is implied that Areida has enough authority that the Templars purposefully choose to ignore Anders and Merrill, two of Areida's well-known Mage friends because of this. And if Meredith hadn't been able to seize power in the wake of the Viscount's assassination, Areida would likely have been declared Viscountess of Kirkwall, not merely Champion.

Audience Surrogate: Oddly enough, Areida fits this in Inquisition more than she did in her own story.

Badass Creed: When Tallis tells Areida that the Qun could give her a purpose.

                          Areida: "I have a purpose. I protect Kirkwall."

Badass Family: Both the Amells and the Hawkes are ridiculously badass.

Badass Normal: Along with Carver, Areida actually survived the fighting at Ostagar.

Compared to the other two protagonists, Areida is not a Grey Warden and has no magical mark, but she is simply a normal fighter.

Badass Unintentional: In the beginning of the story, Areida is just trying to protect her family. When she gets to Kirkwall... it doesn't go well.

Beauty, Brains and Brawn: In a trio with Bethany and Aveline, Areida is The Brains; She becomes the de facto leader of both the Hawke family and her Ragtag Bunch of Misfits in Kirkwall, making the major decisions and guiding the others.

Because Destiny Says So: Areida becoming Champion of Kirkwall. Invoked by Flemeth during the Destiny trailer:

                                 Flemeth: "There are men who struggle against destiny, and yet only achieve an early grave. There are men who flee destiny, only to have it swallow them whole. And then, there are men who embrace destiny... and do not show their fear. These are the ones that will change the world forever."

Belated Happy Ending: In Inquisition, after stopping the ritual at Adamant Fortress, Areida travels to Weisshaupt (having unrevealed issues at the time) to explain things. Trespasser reveals in the epilogue that Areida has indeed come back from Weisshaupt and returned home to Kirkwall, helping out the newly appointed Viscount Varric and getting to enjoy her Champion of Kirkwall title without the political turmoil of the Dragon Age II years. She's also living happily in the Hawke estate again with Anders, their three children, and her sister Bethany.

Benevolent Boss: Areida doubles the wages of the Fereldan workers in the Bone Pit along with protecting the workers from dangerous creatures that threaten the mine. It's also mentioned that Areida donates most of her earnings from the mine to help the Fereldan refugees and those orphaned by the Blight. She also lets Bodahn and Sandal stay at the Estate, despite insisting that Bodahn doesn't owe her anything for saving Sandal's life in the Deep Roads. Areida also frees Orana from slavery and offers her paid work as her maid, with it mentioned in Act 3 that she also encouraged Orana's musical talents and paid for her music lessons out of her own pocket. She also treats Bodahn, Sandal, and Orana like they are part of the family.

Berserk Button: Areida is diplomatic and kind most of the time but she will become agressive if anyone dares threaten to harm anyone in her family, especially her mother and younger sister.

The only other time Areida ever raises her voice in anger is when Meredith brings up the fact that her mother was murdered by a blood mage as they argue at the beginning of Act 3 about the fact that Meredith has become a tyrant towards the mages.

Beware the Nice Ones: Areida might attempt to be reasonable, but she's the Champion of Kirkwall for a reason.

Big Sister Instinct: Areida is protective of both of her siblings, but she's obviously more protective of Bethany.

The first thing Areida does when Ser Wesley identifies Bethany as an apostate is get right in his face with fire in her eyes.

Areida gains Feynriel’s trust by openly admitting that she's spent her entire life protecting her sister from the Templars.

It's heavily implied that Areida joined the army at Ostagar simply because she wanted to keep an eye on and protect Carver.

Big Good: Areida is this to the people of Kirkwall. As Varric's narration makes absolutely clear, she is the only person in Kirkwall actively trying to make the City of Chains a better place for everyone to live, and repeatedly puts her life on the line in order to go out of her way to help people.

Boyish Short Hair: She has straight boyish short black hair in the prologue and Varric's book about her. Her hair is actually brown, a little bit longer, and more wavy.

Break His Heart to Save Him: Averted. Areida does not break up with Anders but she doesn't bring him along when she goes to Skyhold either. Areida is not happy about leaving him behind, but she is not willing to take the risk that Corypheus will affect Anders' mind again.

Broken Ace: Despite being powerful and well-respected, Areida can't help but feel she is a Cosmic Plaything.

Taken even further in Inquisition, where she admits that she no longer uses the "Champion of Kirkwall" title, given her failure to stop any of the madness.

Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Increasingly, Areida becomes the Gentle Girl to Anders' Brooding Boy as time goes on.

Bullying a Dragon: Place this kindhearted, affable woman in front of enemies, and let them see that she's entirely capable of slicing them with her daggers. Next to no one seems able to get the hint that they should tread carefully to avoid trying to start a physical fight with Areida. 

Despite being well-known as the Champion of Kirkwall by Act III, the amount of people who try to murder the person who defeated the Arishok in single-combat is particularly baffling.

Calling the Old Man Out: Downplayed, as Areida never really yells or talks angrily at Leandra, but she points out that the Hawkes are only in Kirkwall because they fled the Blight, and therefore they're not entitled to have her family's wealth.

The Caretaker: As head of the household since Malcolm's death, Areida's primary motivation has been and continues to be looking after Leandra, Bethany and Carver. Unfortunately, as the story goes on, she fails to protect her brother and mother through no fault of her own. This extends to her companions as well. Her need to take on other people's problems is borderline unhealthy.

                   Hawke: "Your problems are my problems."

                   Fenris: "Unlucky you."

The Champion: Areida is this towards Bethany. When Ser Wesley realizes that Bethany is a mage, Areida's immediate reaction is to step in front of her sister and give a Death Glare to the Templar that informs him that he will have to go through her first.

For the entirety of Act 3, this is Areida's official title - Champion of Kirkwall - and she commands a high level of respect from almost everyone because of her devotion to protecting the populace. It's noted in supplemental material that "Champion" is a special title used only by the city-states in the Free Marches.

Characterization Marches On: In Inquisition, Areida has become very anti-blood magic. One could assume that the Mage/Templar war was the catalyst to make her despise blood magic between the second and third story.

Child of Forbidden Love: Areida's maternal grandparents disowned her mother for getting pregnant with the child of a mage and then running away to elope with the mage, making Areida this along with her younger siblings.

The Chosen One: Areida's actions ultimately change the face of Thedas forever. Word of God has even stated that because of this, Areida is one of the most important people in Thedas's entire history.

This trope is averted in-universe, however; as there is no Big Bad orchestrating everything behind the scenes, there's also no good counterpart to Save the World from the villain. Areida is just a Rags to Riches refugee who's sufficiently badass enough to gain a measure of political and financial clout - and even that can't stop the tide of unrest that consumes Kirkwall. Varric speculates to Cassandra on the complexities of whether Areida's presence was for better or for worse.

Cosmic Plaything: Sorry, Areida, but being The Chosen One doesn't preclude you from being Destiny's bitch.

Country Cousin: Rural Ferelden-born Areida is one to the noble Amell family.

Cruel Mercy: Played straight in Mark of the Assassin when Areida decides to spare Baron Arlange instead of having him killed. Areida had mopped the floor with Arlange after he attempted to murder her and her companions for having the audacity to kill the alpha wyvern first during the hunt. Despite Tallis pointing out that Areida is the "Champion of Kirkwall" and eats people like him for breakfast, Arlange still doesn't learn his lesson. The next time he tries to kill her, Areida isn't so merciful.

Deal with the Devil: Areida is forced to make one of these with Flemeth - help her with her Thanatos Gambit in exchange for getting the Hawke family and Aveline to safety. By the end of the story, there seem to be no negative consequences, at least for Areida. Considering Areida's Cosmic Plaything status, this could actually count as a minor Plot Twist.

Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?:

The reaction of pure shock on Meredith's face when she enters the room to find that Areida has defeated the Arishok. Cassandra even has this reaction of utter disbelief that Areida did so in single combat.

Cassandra reacts with similar disbelief in Legacy when Varric tells her the tale of Areida defeating one of the first darkspawn in existence - one of the Magisters who brought the Blight to Thedas in the first place. Admittedly, it's hard to blame her.

Flemeth invokes this during the Prologue, claiming Areida successfully piqued her interest by killing the Ogre.

The Dutiful Daughter: Areida's entire motivation in Act 1 is to simply provide for her mother and gain enough money to win back her mother's childhood home.

Earn Your Happy Ending: It's revealed in Trespasser that Areida eventually returns to Kirkwall as its Champion, and helps rebuild it with Varric as the new Viscount.

Even the Girls Want Her: A lot of female characters come on to Areida.

Eye Take: Areida's reaction to Aveline needing three goats and a sheaf of wheat.

Facial Markings: In the prologue and Tale of the Champion, Areida has a red blood smear on the bridge of her nose.

Failure Hero: Fails to prevent her brother’s death in the beginning of the story. Fails to prevent the Templars from taking her sister away to the circle. Fails to save her mother from a serial killer. Fails to stop the Qunari attack on Kirkwall. Fails to prevent the Mage/Templar War. Fails to properly kill Corypheus. Essentially, Areida tries to stand against massive wave after massive wave and most of what she achieves is getting soaked to the bone. Even her one unambiguous success (the Deep Roads expedition which makes her filthy rich) turns out to have disastrous effects in the long run thanks to her discovery of red lyrium. The best that can be said for Areida is that her actions at least prevented bad situations from becoming many times worse. In Inquisition, the Nightmare demon taunts Areida with the fact that nothing she did made a big difference and that she couldn't even succeed in saving Kirkwall.

Though the ending of Trespasser reveals that she eventually returned to Kirkwall as it's Champion and helped it rebuild. Her efforts did amount to something, it just took a long time to get there.

Family Eye Resemblance: Areida's striking blue eyes are her most notable physical feature that she inherited from her father, Malcolm. This may have been how the Catra from Legacy knew she was his daughter.

Field Promotion: When it becomes clear that Meredith's going to keep bickering with Orsino over who's leading the assault, Orsino suggests following Areida as a compromise.

Fighter, Mage, Thief: Areida is a rouge who specializes in fighting with a dagger in each hand.

Fight Magnet:

Areida can't even drop off a piece of mail without fighting more faceless, rooftop-hopping enemies with pointy weapons than most 80's action movie heroes did in their entire careers. Delivering a piece of mail? Mercenary horde! Meeting a contact late at night? Random assassin attack! Taking a talisman to an altar on a mountain? Legions of undead and giant spiders! Going for a stroll on the beach? Tal-Vashoth squads, raider groups, and packs of feral mabari hounds! And Areida can't go a week without running into one insane mage or another. This is lampshaded extensively, too. Bodahn comments that he's never had to clean up so many bloody footprints in someone's house before. 

Varric lampshades this in Legacy:

                      Varric: "The day you go to the beach is the day an armada of angry demon pirates show up." 

Folk Hero: Varric's exaggerations are the retelling of the Champion's story through the public's eyes.

Fluffy Tamer: Inverted. Mabari choose their owners and Maximus chose Areida.

Friend to All Children: Areida doesn’t react well when it comes to children being hurt. Discovering that a deranged serial killer has been targeting the elven children of Kirkwall, simply because they are "too beautiful," is enough to make the diplomatic Areida so utterly furious she vow to slit the man's throat.

After Areida becomes a Noble in Act 2, it's implied by Aveline that Areida has donated a large amount of her reclaimed family fortune, in order to help her fellow Fereldan refugees and the children orphaned by the Blight. She also gives money to a specific beggar in Darktown who asks for help in feeding her children.

From Nobody to Nightmare: From at least some people's perspectives after Dragon Age II.

Generation Xerox: Areida greatly resembles, and takes after, her father, Malcolm Hawke.

Like her mother, Leandra, she starts a romantic relationship with an apostate and goes on the run with him while pregnant with his child, though unlike her mother, Areida didn’t know about her pregnancy until one month after she left Kirkwall. 

Good Counterpart: To her Uncle Gamlen. Both are heads of the household and sole breadwinners, responsible for looking after their siblings and parents, as well as belonging to a family that has fallen on hard times. However, Gamlen blames others for his misfortune while attempting to bribe, cheat and swindle his way back into riches. By comparison, Areida immediately demonstrates that she is willing to roll up her sleeves, get her hands dirty and actually do some work in order to change her situation.

It should be noted that the latter is partially because Areida didn't really have much of a choice. She was perfectly willing to rely on Leandra's noble roots to house them in Kirkwall, but was forced to roll up her sleeves and work when it became clear that Gamlen's bungling and fraud had cost the Hawke family the option they thought they had. Still, we never hear Areida complain.

It's also worth noting that Uncle Gamlen can be something of a Jerkass at times, but he's not really evil, and he does love his family even if he's a bit incompetent. 

The Hero

Heroic BSoD: After her mother dies, Areida spends the next few cutscenes in a depression.

Heroic Self-Deprecation: When she shows up in Dragon Age: Inquisition, it's clear that Areida has been hit hard by her frequent failures. In their first meeting, Areida honestly doesn't understand why Inquisitor Rosabelle Trevelyan would even want her help.

Hero of Another Story: Despite being the protagonist, Areida oddly enough qualifies for this, due to the Framing Device being set in the present day and depicting Cassandra's attempt to glean the truth about Areida's tale from Varric's recollections.

Highly Visible Ninja: Areida’s “Mantle of the Champion” armor is a very practical armor, secured with a series of straps to her body without hampering her mobility.

Honorary Aunt: She becomes an honorary Aunt to Aveline and Donnic’s daughter, whom they named after her. She is known as “Aunt Reedy”. 

Hurting Hero: Just look at some of her TV Tropes entries. There are certain points in the story where Areida is depressed. The most notable example is when after her mother dies. This is upped considerably in Inquisition, where after four years of constantly being on the run, her failure to stop the Mage-Templar War and failing to kill Corypheus have done irreparable damage to Areida's self-esteem and left her lonelier than ever.

Hypercompetent Sidekick:

To Viscount Dumar in Act 2, routinely stepping in to deal with the Qunari on his behalf.

Likewise fulfills this role opposite Tallis in Mark of the Assassin, being mentioned as one of the reasons she chose to seek Areida out.

To Athenril's smugglers during her first year in Kirkwall. Athenril's group of smugglers went from a minor thieves' guild to rivaling both the Carta and the Coterie during the year they had Areida among them.

I Am Your Opponent:

Invokes this towards the Arishok, indicating that if he wants to take Kirkwall, he has to go through her first.

For his part, the Arishok consistently treats Areida as a Worthy Opponent and the greatest threat that exists in Kirkwall. During his attempted coup d'etat at the end of Act 2, he tries to eliminate her before anyone else. When that doesn't work, he challenges Areida outright, complimenting her with the title of basalit-an - an outsider worthy of respect.

I Was Never Here: Areida's apparent work ethic, typically taking jobs that involve acting beneath anyone's notice. Throughout the story, Aveline, the Viscount, the Templars, and even the Arishok all use her as a neutral third party agent so that if she get caught, she can claim plausible deniability in that she isn't doing anything officially sanctioned.

In Mark of the Assassin, Along with the fact the Areida is basalit-an, Tallis implies that one of the reasons she sought her out was because she can operate under the radar.

Iconic Outfit: Her "Mantle of the Champion" armor is an in-universe example. She’s still wearing it by the time of Inquisition. 

Indifferent Beauty: A lot of different characters comment on Areida's beauty, even Varric, who's already spoken for . Areida knows that she's considered attractive looking yet she doesn't seem to take any particular pride or interest in it. The only time she takes interest in her own beauty is when Anders comments on it.

It's All My Fault:

Areida thinks this after Carver is killed by an ogre. She even silently agrees with her mother when she lashes out at her in grief that it's her fault. Areida still blames herself for Carver's death even after her mother apologizes to her for lashing out at her for it.

She takes this attitude again after her mother is murder by a blood mage serial killer, believing that she could have prevented her mother’s death if she had watched over her more closely. 

And again in Inquisition when Corypheus returns. This is one of the reasons why she wanted to perform a Heroic Sacrifice in the Fade.

Knife Nut: Areida can practically dance with her daggers.

Lady of War: Areida is a soft-spoken, graceful, complete and utter badass.

Last-Name Basis: Practically everyone refers to Areida by her last name. More than once, Areida will introduce herself as such; apparently, she prefers being on a last name basis. However, in salutations of letters from family members, Areida is addressed by her given name.

This is actually a little amusing when you hear the party members refer to Bethany by her first name and then immediately after, in the same sentence, refer to Areida by her last name.

Even Anders always call her Hawke. The only ones who don't are the members of her own family, who instead use affectionate nicknames. For example, Bethany calls Areida "sis".

It's also a little weird when Areida has Bethany in the party and characters still say things like "So, you're Hawke." Bethany never mentions that she is also a Hawke. Of course, in many cultures, the eldest child and head of the household is addressed by their family name, so this makes some sense. 

Played with in Legacy. The Carta attempted to abduct both Areida and Bethany, hedging their bets that one of them has to be "The Hawke", since they were tasked with finding the blood of "The Hawke"... and they were a little unsure which Hawke was actually required?! Taken further when it is reveled that Areida and Bethany’s father, Malcolm, was also called "The Hawke", which leads to some conversations, where all three are known by this title, completely interchangeably. So in other words, Malcolm was "The Hawke", Areida is now "The Hawke", and Bethany could be "The Hawke"! should anything happen to her older sister.

This trope is averted by Orana, Areida's elven maid. As a former slave, she's been instilled with the unconscious urge to refer to someone in authority as "Mistress". This is despite Areida's insistence that she's not a slave anymore and is free to refer to her by her actual name.

Legacy Character:

In Legacy, the Carta frequently refer to both Areida and her late father, Malcolm, as being "the Hawke".

It becomes more confusing as Bethany is referred to by this title too.

Like a Son to Me: Areida invokes this towards Sandal. Bodahn worries in Act 3 that he's starting to get on in years and he doesn't know what will happen to Sandal after he is gone. Areida assures him that Sandal will always be welcomed in her home.

Like Mother, Like Daughter: Just like her mother, Areida starts a romantic relationship with an apostate and goes on the run with him while pregnant with his child, though unlike her mother, Areida didn’t know about her pregnancy until one month after she left Kirkwall. 

                        Gamlen: “I hear you moved that apostate boy into your home. You really are your mother’s daughter.”

Living Emotional Crutch: She serves as an emotional anchor for a significant number of her friends, either at certain points or throughout the entire story. This is especially pronounced with Anders, Merrill, and Fenris.

Lonely at the Top: Played with. Her friends mostly stick around, but Areida's family doesn't. As she gets closer to glory, Carver dies in Lothering, Bethany gets sent to the Circle, and her mother is kidnapped and murdered by a blood mage serial killer. Every step up the ladder Areida takes, she becomes steadily more alone. By Act 3, only Gamlen, Charade, Bodahn, and Sandal, and Orana are left. It makes Areida's offer for Anders to move in with her in Act 3 much more poignant.

Love Martyr: Even though Anders flat-out lied to Areida and the other companions and tricked her into helping him start the final battle in the first place, Areida commits to him before the final battle, even though this means being hunted as a fugitive along with the most wanted man in Thedas.

She also has this towards her Uncle Gamlen in a family type way. Despite the fact that he acts like a jerk towards her most of the time, Areida loves her uncle and is willing to protect him, as shown in Act 3.

Magnetic Hero: Arguably moreso than Ilona Cousland. While in the first story, the party is tied together by a common cause, this is not the case here. Although some companions develop friendships, it's their bond with Areida that keeps them working together as a group. Legacy reveals that Areida inherited this trait from her father.

Besides her regular companions, it's shown that Bodahn Feddic vowed complete Undying Loyalty after Areida rescued his adopted son, Sandal, in the Deep Roads, becoming her man-servant and official Team Dad of her estate, despite Areida's protests that it really wasn't necessary. Areida's elven maid, Orana, was a former slave that she rescued from an insane Tevinter Magister. Orana is naturally bewildered when Areida informs her she's now free, proceeds to offer her a job... and more astoundingly, is actually going to pay her for her service.

Meaningful Name: Both the Hawke and Amell family names derive from birds of prey. Flemeth lampshades this, telling Areida that when the time is right, she should not be afraid to leap, as it only then that she will learn how to fly!

Amell literally means "Power of an Eagle", which becomes very apropos considering her (former) high status in Kirkwall. Likewise, it also is very apt given the family's return to prominence through their scion, Hawke.

Memetic Badass: Areida is an in-universe example, at least through Varric's storytelling.

Modest Royalty:

Despite being acknowledged by the Viscount as the legitimate heir to the Amells, Areida turned down the title of "Lady Amell" because she wished to make the Hawke family name as respected and earn the title of "Lady Hawke".

Unlike her mother, who was born into wealth, Areida hates socialising with the aristocracy. After becoming Champion of Kirkwall, it's mentioned that she only attends formal banquets held in her honour because she has to. Truthfully, she'd rather be down at the Hanged Man with her friends.

Must Make Amends: For releasing Corypheus and failing to kill him. She joins the Inquisition because of it and it's one reason why she was willing to sacrifice herself later in the story.

My Greatest Failure: Areida's inability to prevent her brother from being killed by an Ogre, as well as prevent her mother's murder.

Nay-Theist: A variation. While Areida appears to believe in the Maker and Andraste, she often appear to be highly skeptical of the Chantry and affiliated organisations like the Templars.

Neutral Good: Invoked by Aveline, who expresses her annoyance that Areida has never sought any kind of position in Kirkwall society in all the years she's been in the city. Areida repeatedly states that her only concern is the welfare of her friends and family and that she'd rather stay out of Kirkwall politics, only becoming involved when she absolutely must.

Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!:

Several horrible events in the story are indirectly Areida's fault. In fact, Areida seems to know that she does this.

              Areida: "Summoned a horror. Of course. Why wouldn't I do that?"

In Legacy, Areida causes Corypheus to inhabit a nearby Grey Warden after defeating him, who then goes on to become the main villain of Inquisition. That particular screw-up hit her hard.

Areida's look when she realizes that she helped gather the ingredients needed for Anders to construct the bomb that blew up Kirkwall's Chantry, an act that kills off the only people who could have brokered peace between the Templars and the Circle mages in Kirkwall. Congratulations Areida, you just helped a terrorist murder innocent people in order to start a war.

Areida and company discover the Primeval Thaig, leading to the discovery of the cursed red lyrium idol. Because of the fact that the red lyrium idol has been brought to the surface, numbers of huge clusters of red lyrium had formed in different places by the time of Inquisition.

Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Of the three Hawke siblings, Areida is the Nice to Carver's Mean and Bethany's In Between.

Noble Fugitive: Played straight at the end of the story, where Areida is forced to leave Kirkwall after the outbreak of the Mage-Templar War.

Non-Idle Rich: Despite being independently wealthy by the end of Act 1, Areida seems content to make up for her lack of an actual job by doing pretty much every available odd job in the city.

Not So Different:

To the Qunari, which is lampshaded several times. The Saarebas "Ketojan," in Act 1, says that if Areida submitted to the Qun, her role wouldn't change; later, the Arishok claims that Areida is what the Qunari would be without the Qun.

Tallis later hints at this; Since the Arishok declared Areida as a "Basalit'an", all Qunari now know and respect Areida as an equal.

Tallis claims that the Qun could give Areida a role and purpose. Areida's response?

                         Areida: "I have a purpose. I protect Kirkwall."

Number Two: In a way; starting in Act 2, the Viscount relies on Areida more and more to keep the peace between Kirkwall and the Qunari. This is because the Arishok views Areida as the most "promising" individual in the city, while the only words he will deign to say to the Viscount is "Begone!". By Act 3, Areida is Kirkwall's Champion and the single most influential noble in the city.

Oblivious to Love: Areida is unaware of Fenris' feelings towards her and she never finds out about it.

Occult Detective: Only in Kirkwall could seemingly innocuous jobs frequently end with Areida battling Blood Mages, Demons, Walking Corpses, and all manner of "weird shit".

In Varric's personal quest in Act 3, Varric calls on Areida to help him investigate a haunting at Bartrand's mansion, because having grown up in a household full of magic users, she has a lot of experience with all kinds of "weird shit."

One-Man Army: When Kirkwall has a problem, they send Areida.

Being reduced to a guest character in Inquisition has done nothing to reduce Areida's status as one of these.

Only Sane Employee: Comes with the job of being Champion.

Only Sane Man: As with the first story. Given that the Dysfunction Junction is out in full force here, though, it's actually quite likely; Areida manages to come off as this to her companions at times.

Outlaw Couple: At the end of Dragon Age 2, Areida goes on the run with Anders who triggered the endgame and is now possibly the most wanted man in Thedas.

The Paragon: Areida is a selfless, caring person who always puts the needs of others first.

Pet the Dog: Areida interacts with her Mabari, Maximus, numerous times in the story, despite it having no bearing on the plot.

Phrase Catcher: The Hanged Man patrons cheer "HAWKE!" every time Areida subsequently enters the bar.

Platonic Life-Partners: With Varric. Areida's friendship with Varric in particular is arguably the closest one in the entire franchise.

Protectorate: Areida invokes this in Mark of the Assassin.

                                Areida: "I protect Kirkwall."

Prodigal Hero: Played with in that Areida wasn't the one who left Kirkwall years ago; her mother Leandra was. Yet, after Leandra and her kids return to her origin city, it's Areida who winds up becoming its Champion.

Properly Paranoid: Between II and Inquisition, Areida suspects Corypheus's involvement in the strange behavior of the Wardens despite believing him to be dead. Being romantically involved with Anders, Areida takes this as a cue to get him as far away as possible.

Rage Breaking Point: Despite her standard lines about not wanting to hurt anyone being uttered in a way that indicates that may not be her first instinct, when Leandra is kidnapped in Act 2 and Bethany is kidnapped in Act 3, Areida's whole demeanor changes and the amount of anger in her voice that still seeps through her Tranquil Fury indicates how fast you should be running away right now.

A good example is when Meredith drags the fact that Areida's mother was brutally murdered by a blood mage, into her incessant anti-mage crusade: "Leave my mother out of this." Knight-Commander or no, if there was one moment in the story when Meredith's stoic demeanor was a mere facade, that was it.

Rags to Riches: Over the course of the story, Areida goes from penniless refugee to noble to the Champion of Kirkwall.

Reasonable Authority Figure

Refusal of the Second Call: Qualifies as one In-Universe because things are pretty awful in Kirkwall, and eventually Areida disappears because she's had enough. The reason that Varric pretends not to know where Areida is during the second and third story is because he feels that his friend has been through enough. He only resorts to calling Areida in when it's absolutely unavoidable.

Rich Idiot with No Day Job: According to Aveline in Act 2, Areida refuses to actually get a position of authority.

Right Man in the Wrong Place: Areida became one of the most notable figures in Thedas history almost completely unintentionally. The plot of the story explains how she managed to find herself in these situations. This is stressed more than in the first story: the Framing Device consists of a borderline conspiracy theorist who thinks Areida planned almost everything from the start, and Varric, who was actually there and has to explain how much more complicated it was.

Royals Who Actually Do Something: After reclaiming her family estate and becoming a noble at the beginning of Act 2, it turns out that in the three-year interlude, Areida was helping improve life in the lower towns and coming to the aid of those in need, regardless of social standing. The Viscount even comments that that kind of attitude hasn't been seen in Kirkwall in a long time.

Seen It All: Varric reckons that having grown up in a house full of mages is the reason why Areida is unfazed by all the "weird shit" she witnesses on a regular basis.

Shrouded in Myth: The entire frame of the story is clearing up what happened and what didn't.

Varric intentionally spreads stories about Areida (with some embellishment) to create a mythic shroud. By the end of the Dragon Age II, people are cowering in awe from the woman who supposedly slew a dragon with a rusty spoon and uses the Arishok's skull as a gravy-boat. 

Equally subverted when some antagonists in the story don't believe the stories they've heard about Areida, only to realise that those are the ones that are actually true. 

Due to the tales about the Champion of Kirkwall growing with each retelling, Cassandra has been forced to seek out the source, Varric, in order to discern the fact behind the fiction, due to her believing that Areida worked to begin a Civil War between mages and templars that is beginning to engulf all of Thedas. Unfortunately for her, he turns out to be something of an Unreliable Expositor who feels he has no reason to trust her (and the most significant lie wouldn't be uncovered until well into the sequel).

Shrine to the Fallen: After Leandra's murder, Areida refuses to disturb anything in her mother's room, even after it’s been three years.

Spiders Are Scary: When the party in Inquisition finds themselves in the Fade, Areida is the only person other than the Rosabelle to see the demons as spiders.

Stupidity Is the Only Option: A surprising number of quests requires Areida to hold the Idiot Ball in order for things to play out the way the writers want.

When Areida learns that a serial killer is targeting Hightown women, Areida can't even try to warn Leandra... who then goes out for her weekly get-together with her brother and is promptly kidnapped by the killer, becoming his final victim.

During On the Loose, Huon's wife asks Areida for protection because she fears for her life. Areida notably says she'll come back for her after dark, and the player has to leave the alienage and come back in order for the quest to trigger. Lo and behold, leaving her alone for so long gives Huon ample opportunity to return and kill his wife, which Areida and her companions witness just as they walk through the alienage gates.

When Anders asks for Areida's help finding ingredients to a magic potion that he claims will split him and Justice, and the ingredients sound oddly similar to real-world bomb ingredients, Areida has no choice but to take Anders at his word and help him.

In Legacy, after Areida kills Corypheus, Larius acts obviously possessed, strongly implying that Corypheus body-hopped after Areida slew him, but she and her friends have no choice but to stand there and watch him go on his merry way. It makes Areida and Varric's insistence that they were sure Corypheus died in Inquisition sound more like they're trying to convince themselves.

Supporting Protagonist: In an interesting twist, although Varric is narrating Areida's story, over the course of the plot, it becomes apparent that Areida really wasn't the central figure or instigator of events, but just the Right Person in the Wrong Place. This is especially telling in the third act, when it's really about Anders causing the Mage/Templar war.

Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: While Areida gets along fine with Stroud at first in Inquisition, the revelations of what the Grey Wardens have done and are doing infuriates Areida, leading to a back and forth What the Hell, Hero? between the two of them, with Stroud responding by calling out Areida's part in the beginning of the Mage-Templar War.

Thousand-Yard Stare: Areida sports one after her mother's very gruesome death.

Übermensch: Areida's actions change Thedas forever. On the other hand, it's very clear that, in the end, Areida had very little actual effect on major events.

Uncertain Doom: In Dragon Age: Inquisition, she heads to Weisshaupt to inform the First Warden; the Epilogue mentions that the fortress has fallen silent.

Happily, as of Trespasser, the second part has been removed, as it is stated that Areida has returned to Kirkwall alive and well to help Varric run the place.

Uncle Pennybags: After Areida regains the family fortune, she uses it to help the poor and downtrodden in Kirkwall, double the wages for the miners in the Bone Pit (much to the chagrin of her business partner), fund their Lady of Adventure pursuits, and often pay for rounds of drinks down at the Hanged Man. See Benevolent Boss.

Unflinching Walk: Implied in Dragon Age Inquisition. She heads for the Grey Wardens' main fortress of Weisshaupt in the Anderfels to help sort some things out. When Rosabelle asks Varric about the whole affair during Trespasser, he reveals that he doesn't really know what's going on at Weisshaupt, but considering who they're talking about, he fully expects the place to blow up in a spectacular fashion rather sooner than later while Areida strolls out of the inferno without looking back.

Uptown Girl: Areida starts out as a refugee with nothing but the clothes and weapons on her back, but after becoming nobility by Act 2, Areida becomes this when she starts a romantic relationship with the apostate, Anders.

Warrior Princess: By Act 2, the asskicking Areida becomes part of the nobility of Kirkwall, and is thus rightfully entitled to be called Lady Hawke (in addition to Champion).

Warrior Therapist: Areida is this with her friends frequently. Particularly prominent with Fenris, where most of their interaction has Areida politely listening while Fenris talks about his life and why he has such utter hatred of magic. It practically is a therapy session.

What Beautiful Eyes!: Areida's striking blue eyes are considered to be her most attractive feature. So much so that they were the only physical description of her that Varric kept in his book about her. She inherited her eyes from her father.

What the Hell, Hero?: In Inquisition, Areida is enraged by the Wardens' actions, their use of blood magic, demon summoning, and the part they played in the death of Divine Justinia and lets Stroud know this very clearly.

World's Best Warrior: Though not without contention, Areida seems to fit this trope above any other character apart from maybe Ilona Cousland. Areida is renowned worldwide (thanks largely to Varric's Tale of the Champion book) as one of the greatest fighters alive and even with this renown, many people still express disbelief in some of the victories she won, particularly her defeat of the Qunari Arishok in single combat and an ancient Tevinter magister. Even her friends acknowledge her superiority in terms of battle prowess. Ilona Cousland and Rosabelle Trevelyan are both contestants for the title, but both of them had an additional edge (Ilona was the only person that could stop the Fifth Blight and Rosabelle was the only one that can fight the Breach). Areida is known solely because of her combat ability.

Worthy Opponent: In Act 2, the Arishok deems Areida "Basalit'an" - an outsider worthy of respect.

                   Arishok: (To Areida) "You alone are Basalit-an." (To the nobles) "This is what respect looks like bas! Some of you will never earn it!"

In Mark of the Assassin, Tallis tells Areida that this is how Areida is considered by all Qunari; she clarifies that they do not think of Areida as an enemy, but as an honourable outsider worthy enough to parley with or request assistance from.

You Are Better Than You Think You Are: She frequently invoke this.

You Can't Go Home Again: Areida's Doomed Hometown of Lothering is destroyed by the Darkspawn horde at the beginning of the story. It's eventually rebuilt at some point over the next seven years, but by that time Areida is pretty enmeshed in Kirkwall's problems and has begun to set in roots. However, her mother comments that Areida and Bethany "are Fereldan to your toes," and dialogue in one minor quest has Areida state that despite her role as Champion of Kirkwall, she will always consider Ferelden to be her home.

Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: This is Areida's response whenever she is complimented by a Qunari and is told that they're Not So Different.

[imagineshiratorizawa]

OHOHOHO THEN hcs for childhood rivals (is that a thing? children can have weird rivalries.... they fight over crayons....) to best friends to lovers trope for kawanishi and semi?

Taichi Kawanishi

ღIt all started when they were little. Their mom were friends and wanted their kids to be friends as well

ღA mistake because you were too loud for his tastes and he started ignoring you. That didn’t suit you well

ღYou fuking punched him and you started to fight, your moms had to come and separate you both lmao

ღAfter that well you both weren’t on good terms with each other

ღYou just couldn’t let it go and neither could him apparently

ღYou always, always had to fight aka one fight per year

ღAlso because you were always one-upping his scores and looking at him with a haughty look, (absolutely shameful)

ღAfter you graduated from middle school the fights cooled down a bit, honestly gave your mom a breather because you always came home with some sort of bruise on you courtesy of taichi (and taichi as well) and after the fights started lessening, your bruises did too

ღOn your last year of being middle schoolers you got paired up for a project (im just a walking cliche aren’t i?) and he dared you that you couldn’t get into shiratori because of that really fucking difficult exam

ღYou agreed to take it, if only to shut his mouth up (it wasn’t even your first school of choice you wanted to go to seijoh) (s/o wanted to be a seijoh whore)

ღYou both went on the same day to take the exam, glaring at each other thru it, it was a wonder how you both managed to complete it

ღThe next day taichi had volley tryouts and told you some kind of passive-agressive stuff like “sucks for you that you don’t get a chance to get in on a sports scholarship” idk maybe taichi thinks you won’t get in on grades and also doesn’t have the same chance to get in thru sports 

ღ Anyway he told ya he thought he did good and to wait until next week for the scores and letters

ღWhen next week came you trotted up to taichi with a grin, practically shoving the paper down his throat as you showed him the score. You had passed and it was almost close to a perfect score

ღTaichi was shocked (not that he’d tell you) and showed you his score, which quite high, but did not come near yours

ღYou then asked about the tryouts and he told you he was accepted, which was a relief because his mother had been bugging him about it

ღYou congratulated him and told him “we should have a fight on our first year there hm? Just like old times where i would beat your ass~~”

ღSavage reader-chan

ღHe was shocked because he thought you wanted to go to seijoh but you shrugged and shook your head; “nah i wanna at least see what school shira is. If i don’t like it i could always change schools”

ღafter that you made changes and started to treat each other amicably and you couldve called yourselves friends

ღthey did indeed fight on the first day there and that like cemented it lmao

ღYou still kept teasing him and beating his own scores (you both were in advanced classes)

ღOn your second year the teasing toned down a bit, and you spent more time with him, going to all of his practices, games and away games too when you could.

ღHe had come to care for you and what better way to ask you to be his than on the last tournament of the year, the Interhigh spring high or interhigh lol i dont remember either thanks anyway i’ll use that then~~

ღYou were already up with the school but taichi texted you to meet him before the first game started. You did and met him outside in the hall.

ღHe gave you his jacket, before asking you out. There was a slight waver to his voice from the nervousness

ღYou were shocked and couldnt believe, after everything but you accepted with a cocky smirk, pulling him down for a smooch

Semi Eita

ღYou did not get off to a great start with semi

ღYou may have stolen a ball he was playing with and refused to give it back

ღYour first fight ever and it was versus a guy for a freakin’ ball

ღFrom then on you fuckers tried to fight each other everytime you saw each other

ღYou were always trying something to rile him up, always teasing him with a grin

ღYou were driving him crazy and not in a good way

ღThis continued up to highschool

ღWas he practicing volleyball? Gotta have a snide comment thrown his way every now and then. His unfashionable clothes? Another comment too

ღAnd then satori had to give you material to tease him more honestly

ღHonestly each time you walked into a room and he was there it was a pissing contest and a huge amount unresolved (sexual-) tension

ღIn your second year you stumbled upon semi angrily serving a ball into the court, just it missed by a lot and almost took your head off if you hadn’t moved in the nick of time

ღHe looked at you, looked right thru you really and his eyes were red and he was breathing heavy, mumbling a rough sorry as he went to pick another ball to serve

ღYou whistled at him, positioning yourself on the other court to attempt to receive his serves

ღHe nodded, serving just as hard as before

ღThe first serve you couldn’t properly receive, cursing at the sting but looking at him to do it again

ღThe afternoon was passed away in a flurry of volleyballs, curses and feet running on the court

ღAfter he ran out of balls he walked up to you, panting and stretching his shoulders out. You rubbed the sting off your arms, plopping down on the floor. He sat in front of you, hunched over

ღ“What happened semi? I’ve never seen you so pissed off, and thats something because that’s my job” “you know shirabu?” “the new kid on the team? Yeah what about him?” “He’s taking my spot… on the team.” “WHAT? But semi-sem-” “-dont call me that-” “you’re better than him!!” “I know… thanks y/n. You helped… alot.” “even if i’m your sexy rival~?” “I’ll disagree on the sexy part.” “Rude! I’m sexy and you know it~!” “Maybe you’re not so bad after all y/n.” “could say the same of you eita.”

ღAfter that there was less teasing coming from you and you soon both became friends

ღ“Semi-semi~” “don’t” “pick me up” “Why should I?” “Why shouldnt you?” “..fine” “yay~” “happy now?” “oooh~ the great semi-semi is picking me up with his strong manly arms~” swoon

ღOf course being friends didnt stop you making things a contest every single time

ღYou passed more time with him, satori, the team and other classmates were asking if you were dating

ღY/n looked into the Camera like in the office

ღ“Satori pls” “i mean you’ve been spending so much time with him~” “cut it we’ve been rivals since we were little” “true”

ღAnyway it wasn’t until your third year that you were like “yeah. I like Semi-Semi. Unfortunately.”

ღIt was on the spring tournament, before the first game that he pulled aside when you gave him the good luck charm. He took your face in his hands and drew you in for a deep kiss, leaving you breathless. (There was faint shouting in the background courtesy of the third years yelling “get it Semi-Semi/eita”)

ღHe moved back, embarrassed, but he tightly held one of your hands, a bashful smile tugging at his lips.

ღ“didn’t know you had it in you Semi-Semi” “s-shut up /////” “I’ll be cheering you on when you serve eita~!” “Thanks… babe.” “:3c” “what’s with that face?” “Nothing~”

ღEvery time it was his turn to switch in for the serves he looked up at you, waving and mouthing ‘good luck’

ღWhen Shiratorizawa Lost against kara you stood stunned and quietly slipped out of the bleachers  To go stand near the exit.

ღSemi was one of the last to leave, spying you and lagging behind the others.

ღHe quickly took you in his arms, angry and frustrated, just like that day in your second year. You just held him saying nothing.

ღAfter a while hayato came looking for him since they had to leave, seeing both of you wrapped up.

ღ“You played great semi, and those service aces were spectacular.” “but we still couldn’t win” “but a team is of six people eita, you only couldn’t bring the team to victory and you know it.” “I know… you always know what to say” “I’ve known you my whole life eita of course I know.”

ღHe walked away, catching semi’s eyes and motion towards the bus.

ღEita nuzzled into your neck, pulling away and planting a smooch “after we get to school, get to the gym and wait outside. I’ll come get you because we have punishment to do” “what punishment?” “100 serves” “yikes” “yeah” “this is because of wakatoshi isn’t it?” “Yup” “whatever, I’ll be there, like always”

ღWhen he came and got you, he made you sit a little ways behind him on the serve line, with a lot of water bottles, his phone and jacket (which you wore.)

ღHe started, along with the others, to do the punishment, looking back at you every couple of serves.

ღWhen he was around the 50 mark he stopped and sat next to you, taking one of the bottles you offered and drinking from it.

ღYou moved and put your head on his shoulder, your hand squeezing his other hand.

[popcartoonkabala]

Power and the Princess problem

(Old speculations: https://carilynn27.wordpress.com/2010/12/11/indiana-jones-he-man-she-ra-and-biblical-symbolism/)

Happy holidays folks: the moment the winter really comes in is one of the few summits between the Solar and the Lunar in the Hebrew calendar. Dec. 4th is the day the rainprayer comes in earnest and so: the New season equinox. This is one of the great opportunities for bridging and healing hearth and internal process, so in that spirit-- She-Ra and The Princesses of Power tries to resolve an epic mythic moral quandary: the responsibility of the privileged.   She is classically, the first of the “woke” heroines, alerted to being a villain and switching sides to join the noble rebels, irony of ironies in light of the absurdity of a toy line just being marketed speaking to virtue or progressive righteousness. But this is part of the pop covenant: toys cannot e sold unless the buyer can feel good about them, rather than compromised or idolatrous. We began this Tumblr feed with the question of how a viciously anti-iconic religious fundamentalist narrative and tradition could make space for the place of heroes and characters with divine powers on All Our Kids Things. The simplest answer, traditionally going back to the prioritizing of “Teraphim” amongst the house of Rachel throughout the bible, even into the original Kingdom of Saul, whose daughter, Michal, the most humiliated of Biblical Princesses (as opposed to Queens, who suffer even worse humilations and indignities alas.) Recall: in order to legally be allowed to construct a children’s cartoon during prime kid watching hours, the original He-man cartoon had to have The Best Morals, eloquently and unmissably isolated and pointed to at the end of every episode... ... and thus had the full privilege of depicting beautiful muscular and hulking people in various states of archaic undress fighting an ongoing guerillla war against each other. Monsters equally erotic. covered in body hair and drooling, cackling, tho oft veiled and masked for added terror and confusion, the heroes are magnificent, affectionate, appreciative, and experienced as wholehearted stand ins for the children also experiencing themselves as whole hearted, wholey expressed bold moral-yet-playful adventurers, making the world safe for their lifeplay. Where the first series allowed to be this way. He-man, a synecretic Conan/Lovecraft by way of Star Wars and funneled through the holiest King Jack Kirby z”l was based in a World/universe/reality where the King was Good and ruled over a good Kingdom, in the aspect of Arthur or Dhul Karnayim, as well as Franz Josef in some modernity narratives, and even Rudolf II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_II,_Holy_Roman_Emperor In this universe, the monarchy was good and the rebels in the swamps and forest were straight up evil monsters, Skull face Litches and insect hungered,  animal savage or terrifyingly accented, these were easy villains to fear and resent, and feel good in the triumph against. And then school preschool games would turn violent, and a kid would feel self-righteous as He-man, standing up for the good order-- parents began to complain. The valorization of violent He-man, who’s actually the prince of the Kingdom and the spoiled son of the King Randor, who secretly was initiated into ancient cosmic mysteries, specifically of and in a Sword (lol). His twin sister has the second half of the sword, and it’s a little different in her universe, specifically a tikkun on the excesses and criticisms of He-man’s ostensible ethos: Here, the great Empire, The Evil Horde, is the ruling power and their drone army ruins everything nice and steals money from all villagers. SHE IS PART OF THIS ARMY, for sublime cosmic inversionary reasons, stolen by the Empire but soon/eventually to realize her true responsibility and identity as the protector of the good-- here is the beginning of the princess problem! Being trapped. In the good or in the bad, the main thing resented by the princess is the cage of privileged, especially when made aware of the horrors that her comfort depends on. This comes in great question and challenge in the most recent and enduring of Disney re-clarifications in Frozen: the unchecked princess, letting it go. Being all destructive and not worrying about consequence because she really doesn’t have to until her heart is melted by her sister, and not any other human consideration imposed. This idea of the Will of the Princess transcending morality or accountability has long been recognized as a theological/kabbalistic principle about the mystery of What Reality Is, where G-d is hidden, and what faith demands. I’ll try to explain briefly: Rabbi Nachman of Breslov gave up theology and began teaching only in the context of fairy tales he would tell (Tales of Ancient days). The first and last and middle most of these stories is about the Princess problem. That is, again: feeling trapped. By anything. The good or the bad. R’ Nachman’s cosmic supernal princess narrative as metaphor for the order of creation, and nature of The Problem Forever Until: Once upon a time there was a King                                                                       The Original and Fundamental He had six sons and one Daughter. He loved her so much but one day he got angry at her about something or another and he shouted “may the Evil One take you away” and in the morning she was gone and he was so sad The King had a Viceroy/Hero who volunteered to go and find her and eventually he will And a whole story goes from there, of effort, hope and occasional revelation followed by profound personal disappointment but the never ending will and hope to find her, that does lead to her being found, someday. The Princess has long been identified in kabbalistic metaphor as the True Purpose and the only revelable, experiential face of G-d. Wagner similarly enthrones Votan’s eldest daughter leader over the Valkyrie and both knower and expressor of the Original god’s true inexpressible will, tho he comes into full conflict with her (and thus, himself) over this issue. Malkhut, in Western Thelema, has a bit of a bad reputation, like the Vedic/Eastern “Maya”, reality as illusion for the mystic adept who would see beyond it. This has been the bias of western “sword” religion: the feminine intuitive/bias emotional discredited as untrustworthy since Gilgamesh and into all the legalistic, patristic monotheiae. The reclamation of the “Sword” by the feminine has been the core empowerment narrative since antiquity, Athena’s logic, strategy and clarity expressed even in the pragmatic biblical heroines like Judith and Jael, as well as Serach bat Asher, Tzipporah (emergency smashing glass to construct a blade to circumcise her son to rescue her husband Moses from “the snake”).

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b6/Giaele_e_Sisara.JPG/1024px-Giaele_e_Sisara.JPG Here, and for children watching a show, the transformation ritual is central to the gifting to children the Power window of actively expressed will. The commercials are hoping the children will express that will to invest into the company and concept by buying The Things with the Icons engraved, or miniatures of the Icons themselves. Contemplative iconography saved the life of King David, because his wife Princess Michal keeps them around the house, and uses one to distract guards from the escape of her beloved, in a sort of Biblical Ferris Bueller moment. The lifesized statue in the corner, of god-only-knows who (Tammuz?) https://popcartoonkabala.tumblr.com/search/tammuz This modern She-ra inverts this all. There is no image but for the Castle, and suddenly all the human impact of the terrible empire becomes clear, and a moment for self reflection, acknowledgement of priviledge, and a look at the larger, older traditions that True Freedom and Righteous Princessing depend on. Because signifigant in this version, heavily influenced by Adventure Time’s adaptation and update of the Princess concept. As Science explorers or decadent priviledged candy people, Adventure Time radically recovered the Fantasy Cartoon tropes into Post-modern accessibility. Princesses of Power does this too, agressively critiquing the alienation of The Princesses while sympathizing with their terror at a world of violence and Unstopable Empire. Check it out. More to say soon. But first, check this most profound of R Nachman’s Princess Narratives, and see what you can make of it: Page 35 is The Pirate Princess, followed by commentary: https://books.google.co.il/books?id=TiRjDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Palace+of+pearls&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj-_ubUz43fAhXP2qQKHeC-DGEQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q&f=false