#don't make yourself a villain

[girl-that-writes]

"I'm sorry, I have a question"

"Sorry to disturb you but can you explain this to me"

"I'm sorry but that's my seat"

You apologise for just existing because you think you don't deserve to.

What is so bad that you think you've done which countless people before you have not already?

You've made mistakes in the past but at some point it's time to let it all go.

We are humans, making mistakes, learning from them and trying to rectify them is our whole deal.

Then why do you do this to yourself?

[beanghostprincess]

i'm aware that due to luffy's more cheerful personality and looks, a lot of people might find it weird to picture him in sexual situations. especially since most of us see him as aroace (as if aroace people couldn't have sex or be in love but, y'know, that's for another time) and it's completely understandable to not feel comfortable around sexual stuff if you don't like it with this specific character. however, being uncomfortable around that type of content and infantilizing luffy's character to the point that you consider it problematic or wrong to put him in romantic/sexual situations is too much and you should let people enjoy characters however the fuck they want. if you don't like something just scroll and ignore it, but don't try to make everyone follow your own moral compass and likes because we're all different and luffy is just a fictional character.

people often forget he's the captain of a pirate crew. he's mature and has critical thinking and if seeing a cheerful/cute character instantly makes you assume he deserves to be "protected" from sex/romance, you are: infantilizing his personality (that may or may not be neurodivergent coded, but that's another story), villainizing sex and romance instead of just seeing those as something you don't personally enjoy but should let other people consume, and using being aroace as a shield from the real world and a stereotype instead of actually being inclusive and truly seeing him as aroaspec. friendly reminder that aroaspec people can have sex and be in romantic relationships because it's a spectrum. that's the whole thing about it. it's understandable to not be comfortable around sexual situations with a character you don't perceive as sexually active, but that doesn't mean it's wrong to write him that way. let people do whatever they want with their idea of luffy and have fun!

[antianakin]

I swear, I'm going to need to get "Obi-Wan put himself on probation in order to prove his commitment to the Jedi and take responsibility for the impact of his own choices" on my body somewhere at this point. Please, please, get this pervasive idea that the probation was FORCED upon Obi-Wan the fuck out of fandom, it ruins the ENTIRE POINT of the whole arc of the first seven books of that series. The choice to put himself on probation is literally the conclusion of Obi-Wan's growth and development. He takes responsibility for his own actions and the unintended harm they've caused, he chooses to accept the uncertainty of his own fate in a way he couldn't do before and this allows him to let go of his fear of that uncertainty that was holding him back in many ways and causing a lot of his issues with anger, and it proves his loyalty to the Jedi Order above all else as something he is choosing because he truly believes it is the right path for him and not just because it's all that he knows. The choice to put himself on probation is SO SO IMPORTANT to Obi-Wan's character arc in this series and EVERYONE MISSES IT TO MAKE HIM SOME UWU SAD BOY INSTEAD.

[sprout-fics]

Been having some thoughts

I think Makarov is an interesting villain. I would very much like to write him and explore him as a character. At the same time, I'm acutely aware of the circumstances regarding his motivations and fictional context that are mirrored by current world events like the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Makarov is an ultranationalist. In the previous games he nuked cities, massacred civilians, committed atrocities to achieve his goals. These things are inherent to his character, just as they are to Graves, who mirrors American troops committing war crimes against civilians in foreign operations, and Valeria, who represents the devastation of drug cartels.

However, that is not to say that these characters shouldn't be written for and explored. At the end of the day they are fictional characters, and this is fandom. I cannot stop anyone from writing whatever they want, I can only make them aware of the real world background of these characters, and ensure there is a distinction to be made from their fictional contexts to reality. Yes, I write for Graves and Valeria. Does that mean I support US sponsored war crimes? Or drug cartels? Of course not. In the same way that I write for Price, who is not above using women and children as coercive interrogation tactics, and refuse to respect his methods. All of the characters in CoD are complicit in violence, some more than others, and I think it's really important to remember that these games are in fact war propaganda.

Writing for these characters is absolutely acceptable, because they are fictional. However, being sensitive to how their contexts mirror real life, and not romanticizing their motivations or acts, is also key in exploring them. People will disagree with how you do this, and they have the right to their own opinions and interpretations. Providing your works with tags and filters allows them to avoid the content they don't want to see, and allows you to do the same. There are things I don't want to see for Makarov, just as there are things I don't want to see for Graves, Valeria, Price, or other characters. I know some people don't want to see things I write, and they are free not to read them. All I can do is remain respectful of the way I approach things, and remember that these games are based off real world events that have caused violence, because it is war propaganda. I'm here for the fictional setting because I think it is interesting purely within a fictional context, and writing for that does not mean I support those real world settings.

In short: write and let write, be aware and respectful of real world connotations, and provide ways for people to avoid your work is they don't want to see it.

[stairset]

I do think it’s kinda funny seeing Thrawn fans be like “they’re gonna ruin him by portraying him as a villain” like we are talking about this guy right

[chaika-jpeg-shitpost]

/spy x family movie hate (IM SORRY)

...what the fuck was that 😭

fym Handler wants to REPLACE FORGERS... her? handling the operation strix to someone else instead of TWILIGHT so randomly?? and he reacted so calmly?! what?? what??? whose idea was to write this?????

why are we back to the jealousy problem. we've solved it a long time ago. im tired

there were just... so many stupid details that i can't remember anymore. i'll write what i can recall in the tags

The movie was thoughtless entertainment. I could've watched two hours of stupid youtube videos instead and feel exactly the same afterwards.

"Oh it's just a kids movie, this is enough for them" — well don't kids deserve a good movie with a thought behind it? Doesn't sxf deserve it? Don't all the people involved in the production deserve it? The manga might not be a masterpiece of the century, but it's still a good story with a thought behind it...

I didn't expect (and didn't want) to see anything plot-altering, but I expected something on the level of cruise arc, with all the characters working in secret for each others' sake and for the sake of peace. Not this mishmash that unsuccessfully tried to satisfy both those who have and haven't seen the anime. They could've written a much, much better story but decided to go with this.

[saltwukong]

Bitches will literally tell you a story that they were the villain of.

[super-one-tax-evasion]

Hey so I somehow had a homophobic and transphobic super sentai blog follow me so reminder: Tokusatsu as a whole is for the LGBTQA+ actually. GENUINELY one of the most homoerotic genres I’ve seen. I’ll rant in the tags but.

[medicinemane]

And maybe you'll be like "but if you don't trust businesses, how can you trust welfare?"

I fucking don't. My mom trying to get on food stamps fucked me up because a lady I never met without my permission got my SSN from my mom and started editing my files. My heart still races to this very second whenever I think about it, it kinda messed me up bad and I'll never ever ever see any kind of recourse

And I'm terrified that I'm gonna lose my medicaid just cause I inherited some money from my grandpa

And I've never even applied for disability cause it kinda doesn't matter finding out if I'd qualify or not cause of my depression, when the rules are so restrictive I don't know if I've even be allowed to keep my house

I do not fucking trust these things on a personal level. I feel like out of a lot of people I have the most to fear from them cause I'm on the edge of having things work, and that gets you punished

...but I need medicaid in order to have insurance (and when you strip out the finance side of medicaid, I love medicaid... they're honestly incredible insurance... I just... I just... dental is like 90% of why medicaid is so important to me, ever since I found out this state pays for it I've actually been able to do cleanings which is important to me cause I can't always get myself to brush)

And I think things like disability and food stamps are pretty damn important on a personal level, and honestly are also good for the economy cause they get people spending... it's practically a free cash infusion into the economy, cause these are people who need to buy stuff

There's just so much important stuff welfare does that it's worth dealing with government

No, what I want is more accountability so if someone gets my SSN from a 3rd party like my mom they're held to HIPPA styles standards where that's not ok to access my files without my permission (She changed my fucking address and tried to get medicaid to investigate me for fraud! Never even met me)

Like have some accountability there and in every situation

Secondly I want less punitive focused rules. I'd frankly prefer bezos get on disability than smack down some poor sod cause they got $2000 in the bank or cause their friend lets them live with them for free

If there's gonna be a cut off on these programs, it needs to be a solid step above the poverty line, cause... by definition I assume poverty line denotes kinda the minimum expected income people can reasonably live off of, and if you take away benefits people are gonna lose a chunk of money to covering that stuff themself, so you need a buffer before you kick people off

I don't fucking trust the government for a second, I've actively been fucked by them and on a personal level I avoid everything but medicaid and only that cause everything but the money is pleasant to deal with and I kinda need it (honestly if I was rich I'm not even kidding that I'd rather give medicaid like $400 a month than some insurance company, I sincerely like them as insurance)

But I'd trust them a lot more if they were less punitive, less out to hunt me down and gut me cause someone handed me a fiver or cause I started to get on my feet, and if government employees had concrete rules they had to follow that were actually transparent and enforced

Like 90% of my problems with welfare go away if they're held accountable and there's less "catch the welfare cheats" mentality going around

I don't trust the government in the slightest, but sadly there some jobs it kinda has to do, so I'd just rather force it to be an open book where the public can keep an eye on it and if they step out of line there's consequences (sort of like I don't trust most mega corps but happen to sometimes need stuff from them... did you know literally every cell service provider has been illegally selling shit like your location data to random people like bounty hunters, and the FCC just slapped them with a fine that's 0.02% of their yearly incomes and debated even doing that? I even can offer a source on that)

...I don't trust much of any authority cause they constantly fail me and kinda screw me. Don't trust doctors either, but I still gotta go to them, you know? ...they're just... they're real bad at listening... so many systems need systemic change

(You know who I really don't trust is the cops. I could point to so many examples. My uncle doesn't trust cops either, and he's an ex Fire and SWAT paramedic, he worked with them and we still got into a long conversation where he basically tore into them far better than I can)

(I don't trust authority that's not accountable)

[snow-and-saltea]

finished yangtze river dolphin episode from extraordinary attorney woo and i think im near tears. i love this episode so much. a huge chunk of my media experience keeps telling me to be on edge, telling me that things are going to get dirty and dramatic and people are going to get antagonised for the sake of a good show, but it never goes there. the witness (? is that what you call them for civil cases?) temporarily snapping in court because everyone from the company is tired about the lawsuit, but after the court hearing ends, the plaintiffs end up hugging her and reassuring her that "it's okay, people have their own opinions, you're not a bad person, this is just how circumstances are and i wouldn't fault you for not picking the ‘moral high road’ for the sake of your own stability and comfort. i would've made the same decision in your shoes. these things shouldn't be blamed on you, but the way our patriarchal society has been set up even before we were born that forces us to choose between these two things. we will never fault you for not making the impossible perfect choice. no matter what happens in the end, we will never fault you for it."

and i'm just like. crying man. it's easy in shows involving law to easily spin a tale to villainise characters the main characters are disagreeing with, but like... this show goes beyond that and reveals something very simple and true, which is that humans are flawed, which means they can make flawed decisions, but that is not always a failure of morality or conscience.

and my god the critique of the mir life company was so good too. even when i thought i'd hate the hr guy, it turns out he's also just another cog in the machine they'd throw out. he's also been fed the same lies and sweet promises the others were, and i couldn't feel that familiar sense of "vindication!!!" i felt when villains got what they deserved. because it reminded me, once again, that he's not a villain; he's just another guy crushed under the weight of his imperfect decisions, becoming the scapegoat for all the targeted animosity when in reality he was discarded just as easily. it felt like his appearance was deliberately put so we'd have someone's face to hate, to throw the eggs on, but in reality the shitty choices are always made from people higher up than him, invisible and faceless but very much present in influencing the quality of thousands of people's livelihoods.

god. what a good show. between young-woo and su-yeon's friendship, i'm also loving the women solidarity in this episode. i love it so much. AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON RYU JAE-SOOK AND HER PHILOSOPHY ABOUT BEING AN ATTORNEY AND HER POEM SHE READ ON THE ROOFTOP. I'LL BURST INTO TEARS IF I REMEMBER IT

[friendhearts]

happy chaos is the test for if you are able to understand gg. If you watched xrd and upon watching strive, you think happy chaos is just a pretentious weirdo talking out of his ass and a bad character, then you failed the test

[blk-xniverse]

This year's just... yearing.

[theangrypomeranian]

me getting back on my bullshit about how the You TV show ruined everything about the story

[cocksuki2]

Hey I finished reading part one of chainsaw man and like I don’t understand why people call it a masterpiece. Like the first half was great and the revelation of makima was great but afterwards it became messy and the plot just disappeared.

Like really? Makima reasoning of fucking everything up is bc she’s a fan of OG chainsaw man? There’s zero background information about the OG chainsaw man other than what makima said in the manga. Characters with the exception of aki,power, angle, denji aren’t even fleshed out and they just died like that. There were no hints that denji power erased devils existence like NOTHING was fleshed out or informative. The ending was so bland ig, like I was expecting some explanation but no, I received nothing. Chainsaw man is only great when it comes to fights, artsyle, and making people uncomfortable, but the plot wasn’t going anywhere and completely erased itself from existence.

Like people was hyping up the manga so much and I agree the hype was worth it until after makima revelation. I’m the type of person who likes good written plots like attack on titan or cliche shouen plots but not boring like jujutsu kaisen. Of all shouen manga I read I feel like chainsaw man is the only one I don’t feel like continuing. I’m in part 2 now and I don’t feel like forcing myself reading it, waiting for something great to happen or waiting for the PLOT to come back.

Anyways I’m just wondering if you can convince me to continue it.

hmmmmmmmmm while i can see what you're saying, i kinda disagree.

chainsaw man part 1 is exactly that... part 1. im under the assumption that the things we're going to learn about denji and the og chainsaw man will continue to develop as the series goes on, but i can see what you're saying about it not feeling fleshed out. but it's also not over yet.

as for csm being a masterpiece, i personally think that that part comes in with the visual storytelling. fujimoto's art is fantastic at indicating tone and power through the positioning of his characters, as well as putting symbolism within the art itself. i think fujimoto's skill shines through in the way he demonstrates denji being manipulated by the people around him, as well as how he goes about telling denji's perception of love, sex, and human connection. it's a manga about manipulation, set in an alternate universe.

imo, chainsaw man really shines when you read between the lines of what's being presented to you at face value. if you're reading the manga at face value... then you're only seeing one aspect of it. it's really clear that fujimoto put a lot of thought into the interactions his characters have in the manga, as well as how he positions them in the frames themselves. i think this is actually ESPECIALLY true for makima and the way she's portrayed.

also, when it comes to fleshing out characters, i agree that some weren’t fully fleshed out but i also kind of look at it as like... some characters are present to push the narrative forward. sometimes they aren’t fleshed out and that’s totally fine. like while i love the violence fiend, i don’t feel like the plot suffered because we didn’t get his backstory or like... a full character arc for him. he’s a side character, sometimes they aren’t fleshed out. i wanted to see more about kobeni, but i think she’ll come back later and we’ll learn more. the story isn’t over yet, so more information about characters is going to keep coming. it makes sense to me that they haven’t laid everything out already... bc that’s the continuation of the plot lol

fact is though, if you didn't like it, then it's probably just not the manga for you and that's totally fine. you don't have to like the story the way i do or even agree with me that it's a masterpiece. it's media, everyone is going to read into it differently. i just happen to think it's worth looking at further than face value because when i read it that way, it completely changed the way i see the manga.

though i am going to say... if you don't like jujutsu kaisen... you probably will not like chainsaw man. they're very similar series and fall into a super similar genre. jjk functions the same way, with its characters and stories having more depth (imo) than just what's being presented at face value. i happen to find jjk to be very interesting and well-written (aside from the way it treats its female characters on occasion) and that's probably why i like chainsaw man as much as i do. i enjoy media analysis and those two series happen to be ones that benefit GREATLY from it and have a lot to unpack.

i think you and i just happen to have differing opinions about the series we enjoy bc while i love aot, i think both jjk and chainsaw man have more coherent plots (though neither of them are finished yet). that's not to say i don't like aot and think it's good, i just think that csm and jjk are better.

anyway, i don't think i can convince you to like or continue csm if you don't already like it 😭😭😭 especially if you don't like jjk (since they're p much the same genre)

[protect-namine]

the way I can trace every character dynamic that I like back to code geass... it really was. the blueprint. the imprint it has on my brain is still manifesting in other ways more than a decade later

[babytrapperdiaz]

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