#empowered heroine

[comicsart3]

Empowered is a comic book heroine conflicted in more ways than one. She inhabits a fictitious manga inspired meta universe based in an unnamed west coast city in the USA. This city is beset by super villains and Empowered, whose real name is Elissa Megan Powers, usually shortened to its initials EMP (leading to her vaguely feminist super heroine monicker), determines to join a Justice League style group, called the Superhomeys in order to fight crime following the death of her father. Empowered possesses significant super powers, principally the ability to fire bolts of energy from her hands and super strength, but these powers depend entirely on the ability of her skin tight super suit to hang together which, in combat, it rarely does, frequently tearing and leaving her helpless. At this point Elissa usually ends up being tied up by the baddies and having to be rescued by one of the Superhomeys. All this compounds poor Empowered’s self esteem issues, which are legion, as she frequently becomes a figure of fun in the super hero community.

However, despite her troubles, Empowered usually wins the day, Nancy Drew style, by virtue of her intelligence, detective skills and the extent to which the villains underestimate an opponent they view essentially as a bimbo. This panel is one such example whereby Empowered preys on the villain Tiger Shrimp’s existential fear of the mega villain Maidman, to distract him and then overpower him with an energy blast. Elissa apprehends the defeated and sullen bad guy, tying him up with metal cables, while gently mocking his credulity.

Empowered is written and illustrated by Adam Warren. The title first appeared in 2007 and is still going strong. It is usually published by Dark Horse comics. With thanks to Mats Karlsson for sharing this excellent page.

[joncronshawauthor]

The Heroines Who Wear the Crown: Princess Protagonists in Modern Fantasy

From magical kingdoms to epic quests, princess protagonists have long captivated readers of fantasy literature. While early fantasy works often portrayed princesses as damsels in distress or prizes to be won, modern takes on the archetype have brought nuance, depth and agency to these royal heroines.  Let’s explore some of the most influential princess protagonists in contemporary fantasy…

[kaosbeast]

The Women of Marvel: Paving the Way for Female Superheroes

Hello, Marvel Universe fans! Today we’re celebrating the powerful women who help shape the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). From Black Widow to Wanda Maximoff, let’s delve into the journeys of our favorite female superheroes. Black Widow: The Lethal Spy Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. Black Widow, is a former Russian spy who became a core member of the Avengers. With her unmatched combat skills,…

[idiosyncraticrednebula]

The more "empowered" Disney tries to write their heroines as, the less interesting and charismatic they become, ironically.

[knifebucket]

the tiktok millenials are trying to tell me that low rise jeans and skinny brows are coming back and everyone keeps throwing around "heroin chic" like it wasn't a disaster the first time around but as a naturally dense fat thick curvy woman idgaf because Lizzo is selling lingerie for big bodies and I see ads for plus size women to buy clothes they look cute in on any platform regardless of if I'm on my account or someone else's and I saw 10 very hot ladies on the apps this afternoon who confidently said bbw without trying to hide it and people who read tiger beat can suffer through low rise jeans and skintight camis if they want to but the rest of us are gonna be perfectly fine without trying to make ourselves suffer through that nonsense

[ecoterrorist-katara]

“Katara deserves a quiet life after the war, so becoming a healer (who made no contributions to the field) is actually a good arc!”

It is already bizarre to me that in ATLA, Katara is this confident & combative & ambitious girl who LOVED to fight and wanted nothing more than to help as many people as possible…then comics!Katara and TLOK!Katara showed neither her previous personality traits nor a career commensurate with those traits…

but it’s even more bizarre to me that ATLA fans would defend her trajectory as if it were some kind of progressive story of recovering from war trauma.

I’ve seen multiple takes like this. “Katara is not a YA heroine, she’s not a bloodthirsty girlboss who loves fighting so it’s actually a good thing that she doesn’t have to fight anymore” “after everything she’s been through she deserves a quiet life and a loving family”

For Katara, fighting in the war was actually empowering. It didn’t burn her out. It didn’t disillusion her. It didn’t take more out of her than she can give. Katara is not Katniss Everdeen, who needed to step back and discover her own agency and a sense of peace after fighting in a war she never chose to start. Katara’s war trauma largely happened before she took an active part in it. After she chose to be a part of the war, she became a waterbending master, made close friends, found her father again, got closure for her mother’s murder, defeated the Fire Lord, and met the love of her life. If Katara were a real person, maybe she’d be traumatized, but nowhere in the text of ATLA does she exhibit the sign that she’s tired of fighting on behalf of the world. If anything, she just got started.

If you take her post-ATLA arc at face value (vs as bad writing), it’s a tragedy of a woman who has learned to minimize her own relevance and her own power. In The Promise, she begins deferring serious decisions to Aang. She doesn’t even express a strong opinion about the fate of the entire colony of Yu Dao, or the fate of her friend Zuko. In North and South, she accepts Northern encroachment of the South in the name of progress. In TLOK we see her not as a politician or a chief, but rather as “the best healer” — albeit one who apparently never established a hospital, or trained acolytes of her own, or done anything to help people at scale, which she has always wanted to do. It’s even more egregious when you remember that in Jang Hui, she was not satisfied to simply heal the sick as the Painted Lady. She wanted to solve the root of the problem, so she cleaned the river and committed full-on ecoterrorism. Just because the war is over doesn’t mean she wants to stop helping people. In fact, the problem she addressed in Jang Hui is exactly the type of problem that would become more prevalent after the war ends, judging by the rapid industrialization between ATLA and LOK.

In the original ATLA, I think Katara is about as close to a power fantasy as you can get for a teenage girl, because she gets to be messy and goofy and powerful, even though she also had to perform a whole lot of emotional and domestic labour. But post-ATLA, she doesn’t get power and she doesn’t get to make a change. She gets love and a family. That’s it. And her grandkids don’t even remember her. Her friends and peers, on the other hand, were shown doing all sorts of super cool things like, you know, running the world they saved.

It’s not feminist to say that a female character deserves “rest” when she’s shown zero inclination that she wants a quiet life. Women who want a quiet life deserve to get it — I think Katniss’ arc is perfect — but women who want power deserve to get it too, especially when they’re motivated by compassion and a keen sense of justice. There’s nothing feminist about defending the early 2010s writing decisions of two men. Like just admit that they fucked up! It’s fine! Maybe they’ll do better in the future!

[typical-simplelove]

Third Time's the Charm (A. Svechnikov)

Author's Note: This is my submission for @wyattjohnston's 2024 Summer Fic exchange!! This is for @kurlyteuvo. So sorry that I didn't reach out as much to you and waited until the last day to post it; things have been crazy busy recently. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy this!!!

Word Count: 3.9k

Warnings: mostly proofread, but other than that, nothing that I can think of!!!

likes are appreciated, reblogs are better

Her friendship with Andrei started with a brief exchange in a coffee shop. Accidentally picking up her coffee order at the shop down the street from her apartment, he gave her a boyish grin, realizing it wasn’t his name on the cup. 

“Same order, eh?” he let out with a chuckle, a silly smile overtaking his face as he handed her the coffee. “We both like our coffee as light as we can get without getting judged.” 

“Something like that,” she replied, mesmerized by the twinkle in his eyes. With a few blinks and glances at this man, her periphery seemed to dim with Andrei glowing, almost as if he were stealing all the light in the coffee shop—no, the world. 

“For you,” Andrei says, not losing his smile. He holds the cup out to her; her name rolling off his tongue easily, too easy, in her opinion. “I read your name off the cup.” 

“I figured,” she answered, giving him an amused glance. 

Andrei didn’t have the chance to respond to her as the barista called out his name. He grabbed his order, giving the barista a quick thank you before turning back to the initial conversation. “Exactly the same. You can inspect the label, if you don’t believe me.” 

She let out a breathy laugh. “I believe you.” 

“Andrei,” he says, right before breathing out your name. When he said her name, it was as if it took no effort. Well, saying a word here or there didn’t evoke much effort from the majority of people, but the way Andrei so easily said her name made something deep in her stomach come alive once again. 

An aliveness she wasn’t in the mood to explore again. 

“I’ll be seeing you,” he replied, his smile growing wider. Is that possible when it has already reached his eyes? 

“See you,” she managed to get out at the last minute, but it sounded breathy as if she were flustered. Was she flustered? When was the last time someone had made her sound breathy and flustered? Using all these words makes her sound like a heroine in a Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte novel. 

Is that what she’s been reduced to? Is that what Andrei has reduced her to? A heroine from a Regency-era novel? 

But then as she watched Andrei leave the coffee shop and walk past the window, he gave her a small wave, and then maybe it was okay that he made her feel confused but also empowered. 

Over the next couple of weeks, she kept running into Andrei, but not just at that coffee shop. At the grocery store, at the bookstore, at the Target across town, at the park, everywhere she frequented, he happened to be there, too. 

It was all random coincidences, but it made her feel ticklish and warm whenever she ran into him. 

From these chance encounters, she learned about Andrei. He was from Russia, and he played professional hockey for the Carolina Hurricanes. He loved his family with his entire being, and he was an absolute ray of sunshine. 

And, Andrei was single. 

She wasn’t sure what to do with that information. Did he drop that information on purpose, or was it just something he said to say? 

At this point, she wasn’t actively looking for a relationship. Actually, she was pretty sure she was doing everything she could not to be looking for a relationship. After things hadn’t gone her way in the past, she wasn’t ready to undo all the chains and locks and bridges and doors blocking her heart from anyone new. 

So, she slowly put Andrei in the friend zone. That’s where he would remain, and if he had any qualms or issues with it, then that would be his problem. She wasn���t opening her heart up to anyone. 

Even for stupidly handsome Andrei. Who always had a smile on his face. Who always seemed to emit sunshine to the point that everything outside the bubble he put between the two of them seemed to darken. Who always had something good to say and lived by the code, “If you have nothing nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.” Who always made her laugh to the point that her stomach muscles were getting a workout and were sore the next day. 

Even for ridiculously hot Andrei. 

One night, after he spent a lot of time at these chance encounters convincing her, they had sat down for dinner at one of her favorite diners, hoping for a lowkey setting to fully shove Andrei into the proverbial friend zone. 

He sat across from her, however, a bright smile on his face, never wavering as he soaked in every word she said. She spoke about her family, work, education, and everything she could think of. 

But nothing could deter the eager but endearing look on his face as he got to know her further. 

“You seem to have a full life,” Andrei says in between bites of food. 

“Very,” she agrees. 

“Any romantic partners?” he asks, looking bashful at the prospect of asking her this question. 

She shakes her head. “Not right now, but who knows what the future has in store?” 

The minute the words left her mouth, she had no reason for why she said what she did. She went into this dinner fully ready to put Andrei in the friend zone, only wanting to be his friend (despite all his amazing qualities to be more than a friend). But she didn’t do that. She let Andrei believe that the chance for more was an ever-present thought. 

Well, now she’s getting ahead of herself. She was making the assumption that he was into her, and for all she knew, he just wanted to be her friend, right? 

This was what she decided to go with. Andrei wanted to be her friend, and assuming he wanted to be more than her friend was presumptuous. 

That settled it, then, she wasn’t going to lead him on because she didn’t want more, and who’s to say what he wanted? She couldn’t read his mind. 

However, as they said their goodbyes after finishing their evening together, promising to get together again soon, she couldn’t help the rosy warmth that spread through her body with their departure. 

She wouldn’t admit it, even internally, but deep down (super deep down), she knew that if anyone could open up her heart and life, it would likely be Andrei. 

There was something about him. 

Maybe Andrei was preparing to take her heart off the shelf. 

. . .

The local farmer’s market was one of her favorite places to spend her Saturday morning. Not only did they have amazing food and drinks vendors, but the assortment of flowers, crafts, clothes, and used-book vendors provided hours of entertainment and amusement that proceeded to spread into the week. 

And now, she was going with Andrei. 

Ever since that dinner at the diner, they’ve been texting non-stop. Throughout the day, Andrei was sneaking away from practice or training or media or whatever he had to do to text her back (not that she knew this), and she snuck her phone in between projects and meetings and phone calls and emails to text Andrei back, always giddy with excitement knowing she had an Andrei text to respond to and the anticipation of getting his response. 

After the work day ended, they continued conversing with each other, but this time there were no interruptions. Even when Andrei was on a road trip and in a different time zone, he always managed to find an hour or two to text her uninterrupted. 

That prioritization made her feel whimsical and flippant, but she chose to ignore what that could possibly mean. 

One Thursday, he asked how she was spending her weekend. He had no games that weekend and wanted to try to make plans with her. He didn’t tell her this; it was his intention behind the text. It took him fifteen minutes of agonizing to feel ready and confident to send the text nearly took him out; his cardiologist wouldn’t be happy with the spike in blood pressure. 

But he sent the text, and she responded, saying she was spending her morning at the farmer’s market. 

She didn’t offer for Andrei to go with her, but he was trying to find a nonchalant and non-creepy way to ask if he could join her. 

He didn’t have to stress about it, though, because she followed up the text with her plans with, “If you’re free, you could join me.” 

And that was the in he needed. 

He quickly typed out a reply, trying not to sound too eager, and said he’d be happy to join her. 

And with that, they settled on plans to meet on the upcoming Saturday, and Andrei went to bed that night happy and excited about what that day would entail. 

Standing by the marker point she mentioned in her text, Andrei was trying not to fidget. He had a few tote bags that he borrowed from a teammate’s wife in one hand, and his other was running up and down his shirt in an attempt to dry and wipe up the abundance of sweat forming. 

He was taking small, collected breaths to try to calm down. 

“Hey,” she said when she walked up to him, gently brushing his shoulder with her hand to alert him of her presence. 

“Hi,” he answers, all his nerves floating away. “It’s really good to see you.” 

“It’s really good to see you, too,” she answers, a bright smile beaming off her face. “Shall we head in?” 

“Yes, of course.”

Andrei’s nerves might have floated away, but her nerves definitely didn’t. If anything, they started to blossom and flounder in a way she never thought possible. 

When she asked Andrei to join her at the farmer’s market, she genuinely had no clue what she was doing. She planned on typing out a question, asking him what he was doing that weekend, but what ended up coming out was asking if he wanted to join her. 

As each second of the day got closer to the moment when she was going to meet him, her nerves continued to grow and build. She thought that at this point it would boil over and she’d reach maximum anxiety and stress about meeting him, but it never did. 

When she finally met up with him and saw him, the nerves didn’t plateau. Now, though, there were even more things to agonize and fear over. 

Why did her friend make her this anxious and nervous? After all, he’s only a friend. A friend!!!!

She didn’t want to address the nature and cause of her nervousness. As far as she chose to admit, she was going to conduct the rest of the day as if her subconsciousness weren’t waging a war with her consciousness, trying to get a vital message out. 

“Do you have a specific plan for today?” Andrei asks her, taking her out of her endless stream of never-ending thoughts. 

“I tackle food first so that I get the best picks and nothing is picked over,” she replied, appreciating his question because it set her at ease (or was it him?). 

“Sounds like a plan,” Andrei says, his natural and iconic wide smile overtaking his face. 

For the next couple of hours, Andrei followed her around like a puppy, offering brief questions and commentary about the choices she made, questions ranging from what she was buying to why she was purchasing things to why she selected certain options. He was nervous that he overwhelming her with too many questions, but with every question he asked and answer she provided, her eyes would twinkle—as if they were in a perpetual sparkle, twinkling to make sure watchers noticed the shine in them—and a soft but bright lined her facial features. 

This was when Andrei noticed just how beautiful she really was. He knew she was pretty; one would have to be legally blind to be unable to notice her beauty. At that farmer's market, however, that’s when he noticed that she wasn’t just pretty, but she was beautiful and stunning, a beauty that people fought wars over. 

This has made the situation more complicated for Andrei. He could tell she was holding back from him, especially in a romantic way, but he didn’t want to push her. He, also, didn’t want to be obvious about how he felt or what he wanted down the line. 

He needed something to distract him. Looking at her face was making it incredibly difficult not to pull her face towards him and kiss her. 

“Flowers?” is what he forces out. 

“I’m sorry?” she asked, befuddled by his response to her asking if he wanted coffee. 

“May I buy you flowers?” he asks. 

“Oh,” she answers, a different type of shock taking over her. “Um, yes, I’d like that a lot.” 

Andrei nods, walking towards the flower stand. By the time he found her again, she was standing off to the side, her bags of produce and baked goods and the likes slung over her shoulder, two iced coffees in her hands. In his hands, he had five different bouquets of flowers; he didn’t know her favorite flower and panicked. 

“For you,” he pushed out, almost like a grunt. 

She stifled her laugh but her features still contorted. “And I got you coffee.” 

He nods in thanks as they exchange coffee and flowers. She holds the various bouquets to her body as she thinks about how she wants to carry them around the rest of the market. 

“Here,” Andrei says, opening up one of the bags he brought, allowing her to place the bouquets in the bag. “I panicked.” 

“Huh?”

“The flowers. I panicked. I didn’t know your favorite flower.” 

“Oh,” she answers, her stomach filled with flutters. 

For the next few minutes, they walked in silence, briefly glancing at the various remaining vendors, too engrossed in their personal thoughts to pay much attention. 

She finally breaks the silence, saying, “Baby’s breath.” 

Now, it’s Andrei’s turn to be confused, and he follows up with a, “What?”

“My favorite flower. Baby’s breath. You know, for next time.” 

He nods, smiling. “Understood.” 

So, there would be a next time. 

The prospect of it excited Andrei and made him reconsider everything he knew about life, love, and the universe. 

Next time. 

Crazy that those two words were enough to tilt his entire universe on its axis. 

. . .

For some reason, there was an unspoken agreement between them that they wouldn’t hang out and meet at each other’s homes. 

It didn’t make sense to Andrei. He always felt the most comfortable in his home or on the ice, and because she couldn’t be on the ice with him during practice or games, he wanted her in his home. However, whenever he brought it up, he seemed to deflect or work around the topic. 

His home was his safe space, and he wanted to open it up to her. 

He felt more comfortable at home. 

He also felt that he could woo her and convince her to take a chance on him if he was as comfortable as possible. 

Alas, it hasn’t happened, and it didn’t seem like it would happen. 

For some reason, though, she agreed. 

He didn’t think she’d agree, but he thought he’d try one more time, so he said, “We could have a movie night at my place.” 

She responded as expected, replying, “Maybe, yeah.” 

He, in his head, decided to let it go, but then he blurted out, for some reason, “I have jello.” 

Her eyebrows, as expected, crinkled at his words. “Jello?” 

“Yeah, jello,” he continues, needing to stick to whatever story his subconscious was forcing on him. “It’s your Ken job.” 

Whenever Andrei went on a road trip, he asked for her movie, show, or book recs, and he’d pick one or two (depending on the length of the trip) to consume and discuss with her. One of her picks was last summer’s Barbie movie, and the discussion prompted what their Ken jobs would be. To be honest, Andrei had one of the most real-life Ken jobs in the world, but he managed to spit out his ideas. 

Her idea was jello. “It’s always soothing to stir the mix with hot water and cold water, and to make the various layers is fun. Jello would be my Ken job,” she said when they met up for drinks one night. 

“Are you going to make jello?” she asks, bringing Andrei’s mind back to the present. 

“I can,” he prompts. 

She nods. “This weekend work for you?” 

“What?” He was shocked, now. 

“For movies and jello, this weekend?” 

And that was how Andrei finally convinced her to go to his home. 

And all it took was jello. 

Andrei was spiraling for the next couple of days leading up to their get-together. He had to make sure everything was perfect. If anything appeared to be amiss, he wasn’t sure he could convince her to come back. He needed this to go as perfectly as possible. 

It was a must. 

“You have a cute place,” she says after Andrei gives her the grand tour, hoping she noticed all the little decor changes he made to cater to her interests and the deep cleaning he did. “It screams you.” 

“Thanks,” Andrei replies, ignoring the wave of warmth and emotion overtaking his body. 

Oh, if she knew the power she held over him. 

After the tour, Andrei told her to lounge on the couch and to relax as he grabbed the snacks and drinks. 

“And jello?” she jokes, his favorite smile of hers gracing his face. 

“And jello,” he agrees, matching her smile, his cheeks turning rosy. 

When he came back to his living room, a tray of food in his hand, he noticed her holding her body, running her hands up and down her arms. 

“Chilly?” he asks, concerned. He liked having his home a little cooler than the average individual may prefer. Internally, he’s smacking his head, wishing he had adjusted the thermostat to her preferred temperatures. 

“A little, yeah.” 

“I can change the temperature.”

She shook her head. “I can just use a blanket or something.” 

“Will a sweatshirt work?” he asks, running through his head the clean sweatshirts he has in his closet. 

“I think so, yeah.” 

“Let me grab you one,” Andrei lets you know, heading to his bedroom to grab a sweatshirt. He knows he has a clean (ish) one sitting on his bed. He doesn’t think about the insignia or the labels on the sweatshirt. The color doesn’t even strike him. It isn’t until she puts it on that he realizes just what he’s done. 

Well, it isn’t that he’s done something; it’s just that he has given her a sweatshirt in Cane’s red with his name and his number on it. 

Throughout the movie, Andrei tries his best not to think about how he feels about her wearing his name, number, and colors along her back and shoulders, but he can’t. 

He knows what it means and what it implies, but then he thinks about how firmly she’s placing him in the friend zone, and his heart shatters. 

In this relationship, he’s playing the long game, hoping to slowly convince her how much he likes her, but he can’t control his heart and emotions as he glances at her every now and then in his sweatshirt. 

At this point, Andrei doesn’t expect to or think he’s going to marry her, but all he can hear are wedding bells. The fact that he could be spending forever with someone who isn’t her. 

Andrei watches her as she eats the jello he made, and he makes a silent vow. 

He’s going to be patient, and he’s going to be kind. That’s his plan. 

Hopefully, that’s enough to convince her that he’s worth it. 

. . .

It had been a long day at work, every second dragging on. When the end of the day finally came, it felt like it couldn’t come fast enough. 

All she wanted to do was go home, take a shower, and lounge on the couch all night until it was time for bed. 

She had the intention of going home, but when she got to the street where turning right would lead her to her home and turning left would lead her to Andrei’s home, she turned left. It was an impulse decision, but she knew that it was the one thing she wanted. 

He would make her feel better. Just seeing his face would make her feel better. 

Since that movie night a few months ago, she’s started to become more open and willing maybe more with Andrei. She couldn’t deny it; she was hopelessly in love with him. But, she just didn’t know how to bring it up with him. For so long, she’s implied and pushed him into the friend zone, and she didn’t want to assume that he liked her. If she were put in the friend zone, she would do her best to get over said person, so she didn’t want to assume that Andrei had feelings for her. 

But, she sure hoped he did. 

She cast these thoughts to the side as she pulled into Andrei’s driveway. It was as if he knew she was showing up because, within seconds of her pulling into his driveway, he walked out of his front door, ready to pull her into his arms. 

“Bad day?” he whispers into her hairline, holding her close to his chest. 

“Kind of, yeah,” she whispers, feeling his heart beat against her cheek. “Okay if I hang out here for a little bit?”

“Of course. My home is always open to you.” 

With his words, she pulls her head back to look up at him, a soft smile overtaking her face. He returns the smile, and within seconds, he takes her hand in his and leads her inside. 

This wasn’t the first time that she had shown up unannounced to his home after a bad day at work, and he appeared to fully know her after-work routine as he led her to his bathroom, giving her towels and clothes to shower and relax. 

When she gets out of the shower, warm and comfortable in a pair of his sweats and hoodie, she finds him on the couch and instantly folds her body into his lap and arms. Without question, his arms wrap around her, holding her close and relishing in the warmth of her body. 

It doesn’t take very long for her eyes to go heavy, and she tries her best to stay awake. 

It’s always in her moments right before she falls asleep where she has her greatest realizations about Andrei. 

As she starts to succumb to sleep in his arms, she thinks about her friendship with Andrei, just how much she loves him, and how safe he makes her feel. 

When she finally closes her eyes, she makes the decision that she’s going to tell him the next morning just how much she loves him. She needs him to know, and if he doesn’t feel the same way, then she’ll figure it out. 

But she needs to tell him. 

And as he laces his hand into hers and kisses her temple, that’s when she realizes and knows that he’s been waiting for her, too. 

He never lost faith in her. 

And it will all turn out okay. 

As she’s lying in his arms, she’s hoping and praying that third time’s the charm.

[silvermoon424]

Twisted Tropes: An Examination of How Magical Girl Tropes are Subverted in Puella Magi Madoka Magica

(this is a long one, clocking in at over 1600 words. Enjoy!)

Madoka Magica has often been called a “deconstruction” of the magical girl genre, and while many fans refute that claim, it’s clear that it at least offers a darker twist on many of the tropes beloved and well-known in the genre. These tropes include the transformation trinket, the cuddly mascot, the monster of the week, magical girls having a secret double life, magical girls themselves being child heroines, and even the concept of why magical girls fight in the first place.

One of the biggest examples of these tropes being twisted is the magical girl transformation trinket, which in this series are Soul Gems. In more conventional magical girl series, transformation items are pretty, flashy items that enable the girl to transform from her civilian form to her magical girl form- and to be frank, serve the double purpose of selling toys and merchandise in the real world.

In PMMM, Soul Gems are beautiful Faberge egg-like items that serve the same purpose. It turns out though, that their name is very literal; they are gems that serve as containers for the magical girl’s soul (or may even be her crystallized soul, it’s not really made clear). Soul Gems are formed when magical girls make a contract with Kyubey and are the source of their powers. Moreover, because her soul has been ripped out of a magical girl’s body, her body cannot function unless her Soul Gem is within a few hundred feet of what is now her soulless husk.

In more traditional magical girl shows, transformation trinkets sometimes get stolen, misplaced, etc with no ill effect for their users except for an inability to transform. In PMMM, this is a literal death sentence unless the Soul Gem can be recovered (as displayed in episode 6, when Madoka tosses away Sayaka’s Soul Gem in an attempt to prevent her and Kyoko from fighting). The consequences of this are actually explored in one of the routes of the Madoka Magica PSP game; Sayaka is separated from her Soul Gem in a Witch’s barrier, and it takes Kyoko days to find it. In that amount of time, her body began to literally rot.

The next concept I want to explore is that of the cuddly mascot. Magical girl mascots are a common feature in many shows, from the Moon Cats in Sailor Moon to Cerberus in Cardcaptor Sakura to the many, many mascots in the Precure franchise. In all of these series, the mascots act as friends and often mentors to their magical girl companions; in most series, they are also responsible for empowering/awakening their magical girls.

In PMMM, Kyubey initially seems to be much the same. He is a cute, cuddly creature who is responsible for creating and guiding magical girls. Pretty soon however, it becomes clear that Kyubey is a sinister figure. His contracts don’t seem very benevolent; they seem exploitative, taking advantage of girls when they’re at their lowest point. And unlike the Senshi in Sailor Moon or the Cures in Precure, it quickly becomes apparent that the magical girls in PMMM are dealing with much higher stakes- at least, when it comes to their own wellbeing.

PMMM almost seems to ask the question: what kind of creature would give superpowers to children and send them to fight monsters that could very easily kill them? Even Kyubey’s appearance is highly implied to be a carefully calculated façade meant to lure teenage girls into a false sense of security and make them feel drawn to him. For example, Kyubey uses this to his advantage when he plays up his helplessness to Madoka in episode 1 when he’s being hunted down by Homura. In reality, the Incubator’s true appearance- as seen in Rebellion- are implied to be mechanical structures with giant eyes in the middle; a very alien appearance suiting their alien origins and psychology.

Speaking of child heroines, PMMM also addresses the magical girl tropes of the child heroine and the double life. In most magical girl shows, being a teenaged (or even child/preteen) magical girl is portrayed as an exciting, glamorous, heroic position. The role of magical girl is often contrasted against the mundane, yet still charming and school and civilian life. Magical girls often work hard to maintain the secret of their alter egos from their (non-magical girl) friends and family, although in some series the secret does come to light. However, the girls are usually able to enjoy a healthy balance between their personas.

In PMMM, magical girls seem more like child soldiers than glamorous heroines. Being young girls and not hardened adults, many magical girls face severe psychological trauma from the life they’re thrust into- much life real-life child soldiers. Most magical girls made their contracts without truly getting to think about their wish or the consequences of being a magical girl for the rest of their lives. And because getting enough Grief Seeds is literally life-or-death, they must spend most of their free time patrolling for Witches.

We get a good look at the toll being a magical girl takes on one’s social life through Mami’s character; supplementary materials reveal that she was once a popular girl who had a lot of friends, but after she was forced to contract in the same accident that killed her parents, she slowly lost all her friends because she had no time to do anything else but train, hunt Witches, fight Witches, etc in her free time. In episode 3, when Madoka talks about how she wants to be a magical girl, Mami outright tells her that the life of a magical girl is a lonely one and Madoka will no longer have time for things like boys or hanging out with her friends after school. Even in Magia Record- an alternate timeline that offers a much more positive look at the PMMM-verse- most magical girls are only friends with each other.

Another major example of a trope being twisted is that of the “monster of the week.” Most magical girl series have the girls fight monsters, and in many of those series the monsters are created from human beings. Sailor Moon and the Precure franchise are two standout examples of this. For example, in the fifth season of the 90s anime adaptation of Sailor Moon, people who don’t have “true” Star Seeds will turn into monsters called Phages if their Star Seeds (ie, souls) are ripped out. A similar phenomenon happens in Heartcatch Precure, with the added bonus of the victim’s consciousness eternally reliving the same state of despair that made them vulnerable in the first place. In all of these series, however, the magical girls are able to heal the victims and restore them to their former selves. Sometimes, if the monster/victim is a loved one or someone else known to them, they can even do a “I know you’re in there somewhere” plea to help them to break free.

PMMM takes the true horror of this concept up to eleven. Moreover, the victims aren’t regular people- they’re the magical girls themselves, and this fate is inevitable. Every magical girl, if she doesn’t die in battle against a Witch, will become a Witch herself who spreads despair and kills innocent people until the day she is put out of her misery by another magical girl. And she will be in misery; the Rebellion movie shows that Witches relive the worst moments of their lives over and over again and are psychologically tortured. A lot of Witches also seem to be in ironic hells. For example, Charlotte can create any dessert she wants except for cheese or cheesecakes, which is her favorite food. Roberta is surrounded by lascivious men (her familiars) who annoy her. And of course, every Witch was once a magical girl who once spread hope and saved people and now does the opposite.

It’s also made abundantly clear that once the Witch transformation happens, it’s over. There’s no saving someone. The only person in canon who is able to actually get results is Madoka- aka an actual goddess with huge karmic potential- and it comes with caveats (in one, later timeline she brings Sayaka back from the dead after she became Oktavia, and in Rebellion she is able to reverse Homura’s transformation into Homulilly- although afterwards Homura still needs to be brought into the Law of Cycles like any other magical girl about to become a Witch). In episode 9, when Kyoko and Madoka try to reach out to Sayaka’s inner self when Kyoko fights Oktavia, it ends in Kyoko’s death because nothing of Sayaka remains.

In most magical girl shows, the monsters of the week are just ineffectual mooks who are fodder for the evil organization opposing the magical girls. But in PMMM, they are mirrors of the magical girls themselves, agents of chaos and despair who present a very real threat to the magical girl’s lives- not to mention the lives of any unfortunate people who stumble across them.

Finally, I want to examine the topic of why magical girls fight in the first place. In most series, there is a group of villains who pose a threat to humanity/the Earth/etc and magical girls must oppose them. There is a very real external threat being faced.

In PMMM however, the beings that empower/perpetuate magical girls and are ultimately the threat are one and the same. Because the tragedy of PMMM is that magical girls are fighting against a self-perpetuating cycle; magical girls form contracts, magical girls become Witches, more magical girls form contracts and fight the Witches, and on and on it goes. Magical girls are their own enemy, in a sense.

I’m sure there are lots of tropes I’m forgetting, but this essay is already over 1,600 words long, lol. I might make a part 2 at some point, so give me your ideas!

[orangepeelshortbreadcookies]

You know there is a compelling commentary in Bridgerton with Penelope about how addiction can be intertwined with creative forces, how LW turned from Penelope's crutch to her personal heroin, as others pay so she could feed her addiction. And working in tandem with that process, exploiting that vulnerability is a superficial, oppressive society salivating after each other's privacy and humilation, especially those of women and the lower classes, rewarding, enabling and empowering such destructive addictive behaviour if the output is entertaining enough is detrimental to individual growth, isolating them in echo chambers that exacerbates their biases of the world as they go on exploiting and dehumanising others. It's in there. Somewhere. I'm screaming with my whole chest that Penelope is an addict and Lady Whistledown needs to die a violent death so Pen herself can heal and grow. The writers just need to be gutsy enough to find it.

[lesbianabril]

My S6 BTVS rewrite

I know this season has a lot of haters but I actually love season 6, I don't mind the depressing parts (meaning: most of the season) because I think it all makes sense for where the characters are at, and I think that after fighting a literal God having a season where the villain is Life really works storytelling-wise.

Having said that, though, I think that a lot of things could have been handled better and since all I have are correct opinions I'm gonna tell you what those are.

1. Willow's magic addiction

Basically I think they went too far when the magic became drugs in the most basic sense, when they start acting like she's "taking a hit" every time she uses it.

I think all of the important plot points could have been kept while making willow's addiction to magic about her need to be in control of everything (and everyone). Up to Tabula Rasa I wouldn't change anything, her use of magic is wrong because she starts using it to bend the world at her will, empowered by having successfully brought Buffy back to life.

After Tara leaves her she starts using even more magic while being reckless with it, she injures Dawn and she commits to stop using it because she realizes it wasn't healthy for her or for the people she loves.

I would eliminate Rack and his stupid crack house hide out, and everything that has to do with the physical withdrawal of going "cold turkey".

I think this also makes Willow responsible for her actions, while making magic = literal heroin absolves her of the blame, in the end. The fallout of having to deal with her dependence of it would also be way more compelling.

2. Spike's attempted r4pe

I would keep their toxic relationship and everything that led up to that god-awful bathroom scene, my only change is that I would make it so Spike is trying to turn her instead.

Hear me out. It would make a lot of narrative sense because all through the season he's trying to convince her she's a dark being just like him, he wants them to be equals because he doesn't think himself worthy of her so he's trying to lower her to his level. So, after Buffy rejects him again he's not thinking clearly and, in his desperation, tries the only thing he swore himself he wouldn't do since he loves Buffy because of her goodness.

After it happens, Buffy feels betrayed, Spike leaves and decides to try to get to her level, to truly change himself instead of trying to change her.

This is a minor thing too but in this rewrite after Spike leaves we don't know where he went and we don't see him again until the start of s7 when he already has his soul. I know this couldn't be done because of James Marsters' contract but in my dream s6 we don't know what happened to him so when we see him again everything about his sudden disappearence and current mental state is a mystery and we find out along with Buffy.

3. Xander dies instead of Tara

Ok maybe this one is based on my dislike of Xander and my love of Tara but I think this would work really well:

Willow and Tara haven't gotten together yet, Willow is working on her more controlling tendencies and they're just friends right now. When Warren shows up Buffy is in the garden with Dawn and Xander went up to Willow's room to talk to her, so both Buffy and Xander get shot, Dawn takes Buffy to the hospital and dark Willow is born after she's not able to revive Xander.

After that things are mostly the same, only this time we get a grieving Buffy trying to deal with the sudden loss of both of her best friends. She's devastated and a part of her says that yes, Warren deserves to die.

After everything happens and Willow is close to destroying the world, Tara is the one who shows up, she appeals to Willow's humanity and, through her love and compassion, saves the world.

[princesssarisa]

Some people say that Cinderella has been adapted too many times, but personally, I'm glad that so many different versions exist.

I've just been reading some of Tumblr's debates (mainly centered around Disney's 2015 film) about whether it's right or wrong for Cinderella to forgive her stepfamily in the end. Predictably, it's a controversial subject. This is one of the main reasons why I'm glad there are many adaptations of Cinderella. Each has its own unique tone and emphasizes different themes, which lead to different outcomes for the stepfamily in the end. So there's no single way that the story of Cinderella encourages real-world abuse victims to relate to their former abusers. From a wide array of different valid interpretations of the tale, we can choose the ones that we personally find the most resonant.

Here are just a few of the best examples:

Disney's 2015 live action Cinderella centers on Ella's resolve to "have courage and be kind," despite all the hardships she goes through. It's about staying true to your values against all odds. Lady Tremaine's own past suffering has made her bitter, selfish, and spiteful, and she would love to see Ella change in the same way, but Ella refuses. Hence her forgiveness of Lady Tremaine in the end serves as an empowering act; it's the ultimate loyalty to her value of kindness, and the ultimate proof that she'll never be like her stepmother.

Rossini's 1817 opera La Cenerentola likewise revolves around "the triumph of goodness," although the emphasis is less on Angelina's choice to stay kind against all odds, and more on social commentary: i.e. that kindness and virtue matter more than social status, wealth, or power. So again, it's important that even after she rises to royalty and has the power to punish her stepfamily, Angelina stays true to her compassionate nature, forgives them, and saves them from the financial ruin they've brought on themselves.

Disney's 1950 animated classic, on the other hand, is less about staying true to your values than about hope in the face of adversity. While Cinderella's kindness is still important, the bigger emphasis is on her persistent faith in her dreams of happiness, and despite all of Lady Tremaine's efforts to crush it, her optimism wins. In a story that's first and foremost about faith and hope, it doesn't matter whether the villains are forgiven or punished. Hence the stepfamily is simply absent from the happy ending.

The 1997 remake of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, on the other hand, has its Cinderella learn to do more than just dream of a better life, and learn that she deserves to be loved and has no obligation to her abusers just because they're her "family." Hence the climax where she finally resolves to run away, which leads to the Prince discovering her outside just in time, and the ending where the castle gates are slammed in the stepfamily's faces.

The original 1957 version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical has a similar arc for Cinderella, culminating in her running away. But the script's tone is more playful and satirical as a whole. So in the end, the stepfamily is allowed to attend the wedding, fawning obsequiously over Cinderella now that she's a princess, and it seems that they'll always be a part of the royal family's lives as annoying yet harmless in-laws, much like Jane Austen antagonists.

1955's The Glass Slipper, which averts the traditional gentle and kind Cinderella and instead lets Ella be an angry, unsociable rebel, isn't about any of the above themes. Instead it's the tale of an emotionally scarred, self-hating outcast who finally finds love and acceptance and who learns to open her heart to it. The stepfamily's role in this version is understated, so seeing them reluctantly curtsey to Ella near the end is all the closure we need for them.

1998's Ever After has its heroine come into her own as a strong, clever, idealistic woman who will be an excellent future queen, and teach her prince to be a better future king too. Hence her settling her stepfamily's fate in a way that combines regal diplomacy and mercy with justice: reducing their sentence from deportation to the tit-for-tat punishment of being reduced to servants. The fact that Baroness Rodmilla not only abused her, but sold her into slavery to a lascivious man, makes it all the more appropriate that Danielle doesn't forgive her: an act like that crosses a certain line.

All of these different twists are valid. Each adaptation's different themes suit the story well, and each different ending for the stepfamily fits the tone and themes of the adaptation. None should be taken as the ultimate message of how to deal with abusers. But I'm glad that they all exist and offer different perspectives to explore and choose from.

[comicsart3]

Empowered takes down another bad guy with a full-timer super punch. I think this page comes from a story after Emp’s elevation to full-member status of the Superhomeys. I’m not sure who the defeated villain is, ignominiously bound in cables by the diminutive super heroine after she has kayoed him, but I rather like the meta-human camaraderie between them despite the fact the villain is now presumably on his way to prison.

With thanks to Mats Karlsson for letting me have this page from his impressive collection.

[asksythe]

Imprisoned-Fairy-King-of-the-Nameless-Woods Oberon x Magic Victorian Sheltered Maiden Riri! Commed art. Artist: 婕珍

Why does not only my husband but also my fellow shipper in the VN FGO fandom think Smolberon is hugging her boobage??!!! I swear it's a cute, innocent piece! 😥

Well, I guess if they are having fun and enjoying the artwork, that's fine.

In any case, I love Ritsuka in this blue dress. She looks so ladylike, so soft, tender, and sweet. Blue really suits her. Canon Ritsuka has to endure so much that it makes me want to give her the sweetest, most magical things. Haha! I tell you, this is what it's like to be a mama fan!

I want to write a 90s classic Shojo manga Cursed Fairy King Oberon x Victorian Noble Maiden Riri romance story!

Sheltered maiden Riri of the Chaldea noble lineage is born and reared her entire life in her parent's estate, never once allowed to step foot outside. On her 16th birthday, just a year before she debuts before high society, her parents allow her to leave the estate for the first time to go on a picnic in the prairie right outside the Nameless Woods. It is here that the Fairy King of the Nameless Woods sees her and becomes enchanted with the young girl. Deciding to pursue this beautiful mirage, the Fairy King disguises himself in a tiny form and flies through the girl's window, making fast friends with her.

In the classical 90s and early 2000s shojo manga traditions, this plot line marries elements of magical reality with everyday life and is a hybrid romance and a coming-into-oneself tale.

Fairy King Oberon's first impression of the girl in blue sitting in a field of yellow flowers is like seeing a young firebird in a gilded cage. Her impeccable wings have never taken to the skies. He is inexorably drawn to her and wants to see if she will take to the skies or fall into the mud and drown.

I also want to see how Ritsuka will develop in this kind of world and upbringing. Like classical shojo manga heroines, she will go through a lot of personal growth, stepping out of the pretty cage that defines her early life, weathering adversaries, maturing brilliantly and taking flight. That sort of incredibly empowering and magical 90s plotline!

In other words, it's a story of demure Victorian Ritsuka finding the strength of Canon Ritsuka and growing closer to her in another world.

@erimies asked: what about Oberon's role in the story? Is he going to be Tuxedo Mask?

Hahahahahahaha!!! No... I'm not about to waste such a wonderfully complex character in such simple, limited narrative roles.

I'm thinking, Oberon is probably the final big bad that Victorian Maiden Riri has to overcome. The Fairy King imprisoned in the Nameless Woods, whose terrible secret lies beneath a dreamlike fantasy. So, instead of Tuxedo Mask, he would be a forbidden love interest archetype, serving as the catalyst of the heroine's growth, the friend and confidante by her side, the betrayer that breaks her heart, and the final villain that she must overcome. Their love story would be a hybrid transitioning from sweet magic to heartbreak to falling love with the villain and then overcoming the villain.

Yes, very 90s Shojo!!! Also very Jareth and Sarah from Labyrinth! Much heart! Much ham! Magic, beautiful gowns, dances in the woods and in glittering ballrooms, heroine's journey, so on and so forth!!

Haaa... I really wish I knew Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, so I can write all these story ideas I have.

[docgold13]

Heroes & Villains The DC Animated Universe - Paper Cut-Out Portraits and Profiles

Elseworlds Addendum - Power Girl

Kara Zor-L was the Earth-Two counterpart of Supergirl. As a refugee of Kryptonian heritage, Kara was empowered by earth’s yellow sun and possessed incredible super powers.  This included super strength, flight, and invulnerability.  

Under the alias of ‘Power Girl,’ Kara took her cousin's place in the Justice Society of America after Superman entered into semi-retirement to focus on his personal life. She was one of the few denizens of Earth 2 to survive the Crisis on Infinite Earths and become a member of the amalgamated primary reality of the DC Universe.  Although she and Supergirl are essentially the same being, the two possessed slightly different physical appearances and abilities as well as significantly different personalities.  

Power Girl has served as a member of The Justice Society on both Earth One and Two, as well as The Justice League and The Birds of Prey.  The heroine first appeared in the pages of All-Star Comics Vol. 1 #58 (1976).  

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

On the matter of the Miraculous as not just a magic tool but a jewel where “a magic being fuses with you and you become one”, what is your take on the powers the Miraculous give and how it plays into the whole abstract concept idea the kwamis personify? I’m a bit curious.

I know this may seem like an odd question, but really looking into the idea of “a human being is chosen by a mystic secret society because THEY in particular are the one who best embodies and upholds this concept at the forefront of their lives” as the basis of your magic system, it becomes apparent that Miraculous has a really barebones and literal approach to the idea.

One concept, one power (if you ignore the main heroine and villain lol) and it’s the most literal expression of the idea possible. Well, it is until it isn’t. I’m looking at you, ROOSTER. Dragon, you’re on thin ice because you’re technically able to spin the idea of your power being a play on the phrase “perfect storm” but I know that’s just wishful thinking on my part.

I understand why they chose to do it the way they did for their target audience (aka children). But I also find that using ABSTRACT concepts in the most literal and straight forward way possible is also a MASSIVE wasted opportunity from both a lore perspective and a storytelling one.

What about more symbolic or metaphorical means of showing those concepts and how they can play and be used in our everyday, mundane lives? What about using those concepts to help showcase their “moral lesson of the week” and letting it act as the lesson kids takes away from the episode because the show was made for kids?

Like for example, Marinette sees two friends get into an argument and are no longer on speaking terms. After hearing both of their stories however, she comes to learn that the argument stemmed from good but mishandled and misunderstood intention. From her desire to help those friends make up and reveal that good intention, she can use the power of Creation to create a magic bond between the two friends and connect their hearts to help them communicate more honestly and freely. Despite being a superpower, it acts as a lesson to show the need for mediation skills and promotes honest communication in friendships.

Another could be Adrien finding someone that is plagued with doubt and fear over wanting to do something they truly want to do but are too afraid to go through with it. Paralyzed by this fear, they choose to turn away from something they truly want to do and make themselves miserable due to it. Chat Noir then could use the power of Destruction to quash that fear holding them back and empower them, but also act as a lesson in the importance of encouraging others and the need for strong support networks in your life.

I absolutely love the idea of using those abstract concepts the kwamis embody to help guide the choices the Miraculous holders make and not only be used to showcase and promote growth in themselves but in others and the world itself. I think by leaning heavily into this idea, it could tremendously expand on the importance and gravity of the power of the kwami, the bond a Miraculous holder shares with their kwami, and just what wielding that Miraculous entails.

I know you’ve talked about how you feel as if the Black Cat should have the ability to purify and not the Ladybug because purification is the act of destroying or removing taint or corruption, so this ask is very much built off of this idea and I want to know how far you would willingly push this idea of what it means to wield the power of Creation, Destruction, Illusion, Transmission, and so forth.

Sorry for kinda the long ask, but I wanted to try and explain my question in the most easy to understand way possible lol.

I think I get what you're asking and it's an interesting idea. The first show I thought of after reading this was Winx club because that franchise does a lot of things with abstract concepts like belief and harmony leading to magic powers, but the concept is far from unique to Winx. A lot of magical girl shows lean into more abstract ways of granting magical powers because magical girl shows tend to lean hard on the whole Power of Friendship thing and friendship is an abstract concept, so it makes sense to pair it with other abstract things.

I personally wouldn't go this abstract route for Miraculous simply because it's such a massive deviation from canon and - when I'm coming up with ideas on here or writing fanfic - I do try to be as canon loyal as I can so that my stuff feels like an adaptation of canon and not a whole new show. Adaptation is an art, not a science, so there are no hard rules here, but my general approach is to try to make a bunch of little tweaks instead of big, massive shifts like you proposed. Those tweaks add up to massive shifts, but it's more of a gradual over time thing than a glaring, right from the start change. Or, at least, that's what I hope I'm doing!

That doesn't make your idea bad! Far from it. It would be a way to fix the wonky lore around the Kwamis because you are absolutely right to say that the powers they grant are often far too rigid for how abstract some of the associated concepts are. Perfection being a play on a perfect storm is one of the worst offenders in my book because sure it's fun and all, but when you try to match it with the very clear powers granted from concepts like Destruction it's feels weird and off. It's almost as if the writers are mixing a soft magic system with a hard magic system.

In case you don't know those terms, here's a real quick primer:

Soft magic systems are systems where the magic isn't clearly defined. They work best in stories where the specifics of how and why the magic works don't matter. Think Cinderella, where it doesn't really matter why the fairy godmother can do what she does because the magic is just an excuse to get Cinderella to the ball.

Hard magic systems are systems where the magic is clearly defined and basically works like a science. These types of systems work best in stories where the main characters are actively wielding magic and the way they wield that magic matters because it's how the writers establish narrative stakes. This is what Miraculous is theoretically doing with things like its five minute timers and single use powers. The problem is that the writers often ignore their established rules for the sake of plot and that's a terrible way to tell a story. It leads to all kinds of nonsense like the aforementioned mismatch between the kwamis and their associated Forces.

The way that I'd fix the Kwami issue is to just change what Force each Kwami is tied to. Abstract concepts are out, hard concepts are in and really always were because Creation and Destruction may have a broad range, but they work as hard concepts. I'd then do some relatively minor tweaks to the powers that each kwami grants in order to make everything align. (My peacock and dragon are arguably pretty different from canon, but generally speaking, my tweaks are more along the lines of the purification example you brought up in your ask).

But that's all about trying to fix canon and canon is a broken mess, so I don't blame you if you say, "Nah, I'd rather explore this fun idea I had to drastically overhaul the magic system and the way akuma fights work." And yes, this magic system change would also require making some pretty big changes to how fights work since akumas aren't well suited to the idea in their current form. You'd want to move away from the breaking the item path that canon favors and make it so that every akuma fight ended in a person rejecting their akuma. Which canon does do, but it's weird and I don't like it. When we first saw it, it was a big deal special event, but since then they've cheapened it by having way too many people be able to do it, so having it be the standard path instead of this overused deviation would be a good way to fix that. It would also allow for an easier lesson of the day if that's your kind of thing.

There's one other thing this could fix: the character bloat. You may have actually brought up one of the only ways to make a team of 18 heroes work. If we have each hero be chosen for their unique tie to an abstract force, then you can get some really niche problems that only they can solve. I'm not sure how well the abstract forces chosen by canon work for that idea, but the general concept is the core of plenty of successful properties.

I already mentioned Winx, but the 2010 version of My Little Pony also played with this idea by having each of the six main heroes be tied to an abstract concept (generosity, honesty, laughter, kindness, loyalty, magic). If you did something like that where the core team had broadly applicable powers while the side heroes had really niche ones, then I think the temp heroes could have actually been something great! Right now, most of their powers are too broadly applicable to the point where it's weird that they're not called on more and it would be nice to see that fixed. (Luka should be at every fight and you cannot change my mind on this. It's ridiculous that Marinette somehow magically knows which fights will have them fail and is able to always call him in at the right time, but that's a rant for another day.)

In summary, I like this idea and would watch a show with it/read a fic with it, but I think it's too deviant from canon to fall into the "fix-it" category. Feel free to (kindly) chime in if you disagree!

[thisismisogynoir]

No, but can we talk about how, despite allegedly being a "feminist" movie, Barbie 2023 actually mocks the idea of a female fantasy and Barbie being an inspirational role model for young girls?

It's so upsetting that not enough people bring this up, even the other haters of Barbie, but it needs to be addressed. Barbie was meant to provide an empowering fantasy for young girls. A lot of people have differing opinions on whether Barbie is feminist or not and what she represents. But at the end of the day, Barbie was designed to give girls a role model to see themselves in, to show them that they could pursue any career, that they can be the heroines of their own story, and reach their fullest potential. She was meant to tell girls that anything is possible. And the movie not only shits all over that, it makes that feminist message out to be something unrealistic and bad, and even worse, portrays it as something that oppresses men and makes THEM victims, because everything needs to be about men. And it's fucking disgusting. Allow me to explain how.

(spoilers for the Barbie movie below...I mean, if you even care, lol.)

We start out at the beginning of the movie with an introduction to the magical world of Barbieland that our well-known and universally familiar dolls live in. Barbieland is a feminist utopia, one that many women would be eager to live in. Women have all the power, are well-respected, can and do pursue any career, and support and uplift each other rather than tear each other down over their differences(aside from Weird Barbie, who they do apologize to in the end). They are happy and free in their female-empowering land, they don't fear the leers and catcalls from men as they walk down the streets, they dance together happily late at night, and they are confident in their bodies. There is diversity in the Barbieland. There is a plus-sized Barbie, a transfem Barbie, a wheelchair Barbie, and plenty of Barbies of color. The President of Barbieland is a Black woman. And none of these differences hold the Barbies back from being able to have power and they are not treated any differently from the other Barbies.

Femininity isn't seen as a weakness. Neither is expressing emotion, and in fact the fat Barbie even has a miniature speech about how she can balance her emotion with her logic and this makes her a smarter person, which the other Barbies support. It's a world where women are empowered and have unlimited potential to achieve their dreams and live freely without fear of their oppressors. Stereotypical Barbie isn't even afraid to reject Beach Ken's advances, she doesn't fear being stalked, raped, or killed by him for saying no. She just turns him down, and not only that, but she turns him down in favor of having girls' night, showing that in this world, girls support each other and value their female friendships over heterosexual relationships with guys(I'll touch on this point again later). I don't know about you, but that sure as hell does sound like a world that I dream of living in. Minus the fact that all the food and drinks are fake.

But the story doesn't frame this matriarchy as empowering, like they should. It portrays it instead as something ridiculous and far-fetched, something that the audience is meant to laugh at rather than support, which becomes more blatant as the movie progresses.

And then we get to the "real" world. Where men instead rule over women in a patriarchy, and we see Barbie experience misogyny for the first time. And this was the moment I started fully hating the movie, and realized it for the sloppy, anti-feminist mess that it is. The first part of the movie set in Barbieland was campy and fun and happy and feel-good, providing the exact type of feel that Barbie brings. But the moment she steps into the real world, everything becomes sad and hopeless and cynical.

And I get that the patriarchy does exist and women are oppressed by it every day, but the way the movie executed this was really overexaggerated and cringeworthy. They made it seem as if women are constantly and completely powerless in every aspect of life, like seriously they didn't even show ANY women in positions of power and the only women we did see with jobs besides a female doctor, were Gloria who works an office job at Mattel and Ruth who is already dead and is for all extents and purposes relegated to the fucking kitchen. They made the world out to be a complete and total dystopia where women aren't capable of achieving anything and the only two women of importance who are from the real world are Sasha and her mother Gloria, the former is portrayed as bitter, cynical, and constantly angry, the latter is portrayed as stressed-out, depressed, and somewhat suicidal with her thoughts about death. Is this all that the Barbie movie thinks that women can achieve in our world? Being miserable and frustrated with no hope of achieving our dreams and desires? With no power or satisfaction in our day to day lives? Is this all that this shithole movie thinks that women can amount to?

And the worst part is how Barbie is derided and mocked for thinking that she has provided a female role model for women and girls. The start of the movie mocks Barbie for thinking that it solved all women's problems and completely advanced women's rights/feminism, even though Barbie/Mattel has never claimed that. Yes, she was meant to be a role model. But she was never portrayed as the be-all, end-all of feminism. Even people who look up to Barbie and were encouraged by her aren't naive enough to think that a twelve-inch tall plastic doll is enough to smash the patriarchy. The movie makes this up solely so they can tear down Barbie for something that it never claimed to do in the first place. When our main Barbie leaves to go to the real world, the other Barbies encourage her(as Barbies tend to do) by saying that they bet all the women in the real world will thank her for giving them rights. Which is obviously meant to be an overexaggerated and satirical jab at Barbie once again, for thinking that it has created feminism or whatever, and that sexism is over solely thanks to the Barbie franchise. Cute. Too bad no version of the Barbie brand has ever claimed that in the first place. Again, it's a ridiculous and false claim that only exists to further unnecessarily jab at Barbie and propel this backwards-thinking message.

And then when she gets to the human world she is mocked even more. Sasha and her friends laugh at her when she claims to be Barbie and asks them to thank you for inspiring them, and then when she says she loves and wants to help women, Sasha aggressively informs her that EVERYONE hates women. This movie actually has a pretty nihilistic view of womanhood, when you think about it. The Barbie world is portrayed as an empowering world where women can achieve anything that they set their minds to, and aren't held back by sexism, causing them to have full power, reflecting the female fantasy that Barbie was always supposed to represent. But that's just a fantasy land, and is portrayed as cheesy and superficial. When Barbie gets to the real world, she is confronted with the supposed "reality" of being a woman, and comes to realize that it's not actually about empowerment and being smart and capable after all, but about suffering and never having your voice respected, and never having any power and freedom but instead losing your idealism and optimism as you age, causing her to break down in tears upon realizing how stressful it is to be a woman and that she never actually empowered them like she hoped. Seriously, whose idea was it to make Barbie constantly crying and miserable and incapable of doing anything on her own? Is this the Barbie I know? No, it's a pathetic, nonsensical knockoff. I'm telling you, they were TRYING to tear Barbie down.

This is especially true when Gloria gives her entire speech to Barbie about how contradictory and painful being a woman is, ending it with "not only are you doing everything wrong, but also, everything is your fault!" Come on! What is this? It's such a painful and harsh message to try to send through BARBIE of all things, that the essence of being a woman is just pain, pain, pain and guess what else? More pain! How being a woman sucks because all you do is get hated by everyone and treated as an object worthy of scorn and ridicule. It's just so unnecessarily cruel, how they violently ripped away any feminist empowerment Barbie was meant to possess in favor of forcing her into a depressive world where women have no rights or value, and had the nerve to portray this as "realistic", because obviously more negative automatically means more realistic, right?

Rather than provide a middle ground where women face hardships and adversity but are still capable of rising above their struggles and finding the strength within them to make their voices heard and get what they want in society, they opt instead for a stupid false dichotomy: the world is either a stupid frivolous Amazon utopia wrapped in pink and glitter with girl power up the wazoo or a bleak, heartless, and grey dystopia where nothing good ever happens to a woman and only men can do anything important. And it portrays the second one as clearly more realistic and the "better" option. Which, in doing so, sends the message that a world where women rule and are respected and have power and are encouraged to have ambition and pursue any goal they want in life...is unrealistic and impossible, if not outright deserving of scorn. It's so miserable and aggravating. When Barbie said "the cognitive dissonance required to be a woman under the patriarchy" I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes. THAT'S how badly the movie annoyed me with its nihilistic and negative preaching. I watched the movie in two days and when I stopped watching it on the first day I felt such a frustrated, hollow feeling in my stomach. I felt so unsatisfied. Like, is this it? Is this all I can dream of having as a woman? All that praise this shitty capitalist crapfest received for being so feminist and eye-opening, ultimately led up to this? For real? So disappointing.

But that's not even the worst part. The worst part is when the movie introduces the KENdom, aka, when Ken brings about the patriarchy...and if the movie hadn't already been hot stinkin' ASS, this is when it would've REALLY started to drag, and where it REALLY reinforces the idea that women can never have any actual power and authority and must instead constantly suffer under the patriarchal status quo.

Ken comes back to Barbieland and introduces the other Kens and Barbies to the patriarchy and horses(ig no one told him that horses are a matriarchal animal, but whatevs), and within hours, revamps the world into a patriarchal hell, just like the real world(except it's portrayed as very childish and simplistic because the witers don't actually take the patriarchy seriously and think it's just "boys think girls have cooties".). And the other dolls instantly buy into it? First of all, am I really expected to believe that the Barbies, who have been established as champions of strength, power and dominance, and who have always ruled the Barbie world, would instantly and easily give in to Ken's brainwashing and allow all of their power to be ripped out of their hands, becoming the happy devoted sexy slaves of the Kens? You think they would casually be like "I for one, welcome our new male overlords!" and let the Kens have all the power? Am I really supposed to accept that shit? And am I also supposed to accept that the other Kens in Kenland, including the Asian one who competes with the white Ken over Barbie, would easily leap at the chance to oppress their female counterparts, rather than laugh at Ken for being silly and tell him to sit his ass down somewhere? Really? Don't piss me off.

The only way you could accept this series of unfortunate events as plausible is if you accept the fact that we're supposed to laugh at Barbieland for being a girl power feminist matriarchy in the first place. If we're meant to laugh at the women for being in power and at this imagined society for being so gynocentric and girl-positive, then of COURSE we're meant to laugh at them for getting their power ripped away that easily, as women could never hold power for so long realistically! Eventually the men would realize their true potential and make society work in favor of them! It's natural and inevitable! The Barbie movie said so!!! And so we watch as the intended "humorous" scenes go on and on, of the men happily running around, flaunting their muscles, and chugging down beers like it's going out of style, while the women happily submit to this newfound male authority, massaging men's feet and serving them drinks. Because obviously a matriarchy could never last long, women are so weak and fragile that any sense of power that they think they possess could easily be ripped away from them within a moment's notice. Peak feminism, everybody.

But it's cool, because eventually the Barbies prove me wrong. They DO get their power back, and establish their rights again. But how do they do it? Do they stage a coup and violently and angrily fight the Kens? Do they march for their rights, as real life feminists have done? Do they balance logic and emotion, as fat Barbie praised herself for doing in the beginning of the movie, and reason with the Kens that oppressing the Barbies is not the right thing to do? No, no, they...put on sexy skimpy outfits and pretend to be dumb bimbos so as to lull the Kens into a false sense of security and think that THEY are in control. And later on they let the Kens sing to them a song about how they want to control women, before turning them against each other by pretending to be in love with different Kens than the ones they were originally listening to. Are you kidding me? This is supposed to be a feminist revolution! But instead of actually using their genuine power to put the men back in their place, they instead use their feminine wiles and dumb themselves down so that the men can feel strong. It is literally leaning into the sexist trope that the only weapon women have, especially against men, is their sexuality, and that this is the only way that women can get their way. Despite this going against EVERYTHING that Barbie stands for! She is supposed to be a strong, smart, and capable woman who can do it all and look glamorous while doing it! She is NOT supposed to be a fucking femme fatale, vamp, or sex object!

So not only do they have their matriarchy easily ripped away from them, but they also are forced to abandon their actual female empowerment and instead conform to the patriarchal status quo to get ahead. By using their bodies, stroking men's egos, and allowing men to mansplain to them. Because the only weapons women are capable of using are the ones men gave us. Because women are just bodies. And this is portrayed as a GOOD thing. Seriously, two of the Barbies even high five each other as they trade Kens at the fireplace, as if to say, "go girl, you are doing it!" Like, seriously, are we supposed to see this as a girlboss moment? Because I sure don't. It's giving "weaponized femininity". It's giving "eyeliner so sharp it could kill a man". It's giving "men are visual creatures." It's giving "kill me with a chainsaw right fucking now because I'm done with this shit." Oh, and don't even get me STARTED on how the Kens have a violent manly war, while the women only get to flutter their eyelashes and use their sex appeal. Because men are strong, women are pretty. Of course.

And then the worst part in the entire movie, the part that really infuriated me and let me know that this movie was the antithesis of feminism, arrives...the Barbies get their matriarchy back and are in power again, and everybody cheers and is happy, except for Beach Ken, who runs away to go sulk. And then...Barbie...fucking apologizes to him. She apologizes to him for casting him aside and making him feel unwanted and unvalued, and even says outright, "not every night has to be a girl's night." Why the fuck, movie? Do you remember earlier in this post when I mentioned how Barbie blows off Ken to hang out with her female friends, because it's girls' night, and female friends matter more than a guy? Sisters before misters, and all that jazz? Well, fuck that. Near the end of the movie, Barbie ends up apologizing to Ken for having a girl's night all the time, as if she was a bad person for not seeing how much she owed him and not hanging out with him all the time when she simply didn't want to. Here we have a woman apologizing for putting her girl friends over a man. The man doesn't apologize for making women his and his brethren's personal slaves. The woman apologizes for making him feel the need to go there by not catering to him, by being too focused on herself to the point where she ignores him, by being so empowered and strong that she makes him feel overshadowed, dare I say, emasculated, and thus need to reassert his fragile, threatened masculinity.

Because this isn't a feminist movie, not really. This is an MRA movie. This is a movie that, rather than focus specifically on the women and their problems, brushes their problems under the rug so as to remind the audience that "men matter too" "men have issues too" "men also suffer under the patriarchy!" And other such claptrap. I don't understand why the fuck cishet Reddit incels/conservatives/right-wingers/other such reactionary groups hate this movie and think that it's anti-men when actually it is pro-men and aligns fucking PERFECTLY with their bullshit line of thinking. That feminism oppresses and victimizes men, that men are the REAL victims of sexism/oppression, that women being granted rights is ultimately more harmful to MEN, that women need to be nicer to and pacify men and apologize for having too much power, that we all need to be quiet and listen to MEN and their experiences more. And I FUCKING HATE that. MEN have been listened to ENOUGH. And I am SICK of being forced to include them and their viewpoints more. How about instead of centering the Kens, we focus more on the Barbies and exploring THEIR issues, and using THEM as templates to convey issues about misogyny? Instead of focusing on Ken and his issues and his unrequited love for Barbie??? Instead, it was made all about the Kens and how oppressed they feel because the women are at the top of the hierarchy, to the point where THEY got the fun little dance number near the climax, RATHER than the actual fucking BARBIES that this movie was NAMED after. Because last time I checked, this WAS the BARBIE movie. NOT THE KEN MOVIE!!!

Oh, and don't even get me STARTED on that shitty ass parallel the movie tries to pull between the Barbieland matriarchy and the real world patriarchy. The movie tries to make the claim that the Barbies being dominant and the most powerful in the Barbie world is just the same as men being dominant and the most powerful in the real world, because the Barbies oppressed Kens just like men oppress women in our world. It also tries to raise the point that the Kens felt insecure and overshadowed by the Barbies and were treated as second-class citizens, thus they installed the Kendom. AND I FUCKING HATE THAT comparison for two reasons. The first is that the Barbies never oppressed the Kens or treated them as inferior in any way. They were simply more important because...it's the BARBIE company. Not the KEN company. Barbies are toys meant to be sold to little girls to inspire THEM. So of course the women are going to be the ones in charge! Why is that such a bad thing?

And the second reason is because I haaaaate the dumb fucking trope of "matriarchy bad because woman oppressing man is just as bad as man oppressing woman!" that this movie and countless, endless other pieces of media also try to push. Like, do you know why female-dominated societies(particularly utopias/positively portrayed ones) are so often represented in media??? Because the world we live in is so heavily male-dominated in almost every society and culture, and has been this way for centuries!!! Sure, there are and have been a few matriarchal cultures in society, but they are few and far between. The overwhelming majority of the world is run by men! Sad but true! And this allegedly feminist movie is for real gonna sit down and tell me "okay, but we can't allow ourselves to dream of a world where women are the ones with positions of power and men are not the privileged ones"? Hell no, fuck that. This movie is giving multiple people, both men and women alike, the opportunity to argue that sexism against men is "just as bad".

But women should be allowed to dream of our matriarchy. We should be allowed to fantasize about a world where we are in charge. We should be allowed to dream about a world where we are protected, respected, and catered to, and can live freely and without fear and oppression, without being told to "think of the men." It doesn't mean that men should be abused, mistreated, or oppressed just like women are and have been. But then again, the Barbies didn't even do that either, like I said. This movie, in its shallow attempts to "critique" the matriarchy(lol) ends up reinforcing exactly why the two aren't comparable in the first place. When the Barbies were in charge, they didn't oppress the Kens or treat them as second-class citizens. They simply lived their lives, going about their day and having fun while pursuing awesome careers.

The Kens, on the other hand, actively oppressed Barbies when they were in charge. The second they were given power, they leaped at the chance to treat Barbies like garbage, the same way that they somehow believed that they had always been treated. They treated the Barbies worse than the Barbies ever actually treated them, to be quite honest. They were the real oppressors, not Barbies. It ironically enough sends the accidental message that the world actually IS better off with women in charge. Can you really blame the Barbies for taking their matriarchy back again(I certainly was happy when they did!)? But no. Instead, the movie expects us to sympathize with the Kens, after everything they've done, and tries to portray the idea of a matriarchy as "just as bad" as a patriarchy. And if that's not an EXCELLENT example of a false equivalence, then man, I don't know what is. Don't even get me started on the audacious slap in the face that was "the Kens will one day have as much power as women do in the real world." As if women got rights and seats in high office because they asked the men kindly? Barf.

And then at the end of the movie, Barbie of course leaves the false, silly matriarchal utopia to live as a boring ass regular human in the "real" world. She no longer gets to live in a world where she is fully liberated and empowered and not relegated to a lesser human being with lower status. She now must live in the "real" world, the hopeless, bleak, and oppressing real world where she will be faced with relentless misogyny and looked down upon by men and society. The movie could have had her form a bridge between the Barbie world and the human world, trying to mend the problems in both worlds while still staying true to who she is at her core. But instead, she is forced to say goodbye to her past life, abandon all her female friends and her old home, in favor of living in a world where she is denigrated to a second-class status in society. Because the female empowerment Barbieland trumped? Is a lie. Nothing short of a sweet, comforting lie designed to shield girls from the bleak and cynical realities that womanhood actually entails. Real womanhood is adorned with thorns at every corner.

But it's all right, because at least she gets to see the gynecologist! That's her ultimate ending. Not actually improving life for others and herself and making the world a more equitable place for women with the help of the other Barbies, as well as Gloria and Sasha. It's going to the gynecologist. Because having a vagina makes you a woman. Yay! Some people have tried to reclaim this as a trans metaphor, but I highly doubt a movie as shallow and lacking in intersectionality as this was aiming for anything near close to that. And it's a crying shame that this is what the movie thinks is an empowering and satisfying ending to Barbie's arc. How pitiful, sad, and pathetic.

It's such a shame, as well, because the Barbie movie could have actually had genuine critiques of the patriarchy and how it affects women without making everything out to be pessimistic and dreary, and without trying to center the Kens and coddle their male fragility. It could have discussed beauty standards and the expectations to always be conventionally attractive and perfectly presentable to a tee for women(something that Barbie has oft been criticized for, and with good reason, and has also been brought up in the movie too, but of course got dropped and barely mentioned again). It could have tackled gender norms and compulsory femininity, and showed Barbies who subvert or have complex/unique relationships with femininity(esp women of color and queer Barbies, who have different relationships to femininity than white and/or cishet women), even include some masculine/tomboyish/butch Barbies who aren't portrayed by the narrative as the butt of the joke. It could have used Weird Barbie to portray both of these messages and given her a more complex arc and concrete role in the narrative besides being just a comic relief character who gets called ugly all the time(by both other Barbies and herself, which is just sad, self-deprecation much?) and then at the end of the movie gets an apology thrown at her by President Barbie(and also, who was she before she became Weird Barbie? The movie doesn't say, and that is such a let-down, that we never get to know who she was before.).

They could have showed lesbian and sapphic and aroace Barbies, whose characters could be used to challenge amato/heteronormativity and compulsory heterosexuality. They could have explored what Barbie meant for women of color, trans women, fat women, disabled women, and mayyybe not? Cast a conventionally attractive white cis thin blonde woman as the main/regular Barbie? Especially if they were going to make that joke about how a woman who looks like that shouldn't be casted for a character who cries that she's ugly(which raises unfortunate implications as to what type of woman would be correct to cast in that role...but like every other genuine aspect of feminism in this movie, it gets forgotten about and erased as soon as it's brought up.) But they didn't do any of that. Because this is a white "feminist" movie written by a white woman and created in partnership with a capitalist company for one specific purpose: To sell toys.

Which wouldn't be as much of a problem if they didn't try to slap a feminist message on top of that, and then fail at delivering their message, hard, so hard in fact that they sideways-shuffle all the way into (trans)misogyny. For all the hype this movie gained(from the same people who will then turn around and silence genuine critique of the movie's shallow portrayal of feminism with "it's not that deep, it's just comedy, you shouldn't have expected Barbie to ACTUALLY be introspective and profound despite everyone claiming that it was!"), the actual contents therein gave us NOTHING to chew on. Just an empty parody of feminism that was more about the Kens than the actual Barbies, and portrayed suffering in silence and manipulating men with your looks as the ultimate pinnacle of womanhood.

I can't say I'm surprised. I'm just disappointed.