#especially the themes of generational cycles of abuse

[our-blood-is-our-ink]

I WANT COUP AU AND ALSO goddess!agatha x eve because I know basically nothing about it and INTRIGUE

Alright this is a long one, so it'll be under the cut.

Fair warning for all the folks who are unaware: Coup AU is a fic I'm writing entirely for myself, and it follows a very alternative universe's Evanora Harkness.

That will not be everyone's cup of tea, but if you do choose to read, please keep in mind that you are greatly missing a lot of the background and characterization.

The Goddess!Agatha x Eve excerpt does not require any warnings.

For the Coup AU I decided to go with the earlier excerpt.

If you want the later one, I suppose you'll just have to ask again 😈

When the infant draws breath to cry, Evanora covers her newly born daughter’s mouth to muffle the sound, and whispers her name into existence.

Astra Harkness.

Astra, meaning star, for Lance had nearly exclusively called Agatha his little star, and Evanora is certain he would have called this daughter his little star as well.

Astra, meaning star, for Agatha had been a bright, shining light in her life, a gift to see her daughter growing up happy and healthy and surrounded by love and laughter, a sun by all means, but Astra will be raised far away from her mother, while her sister and father are dead, six feet under in the cruelest form of punishment her cousin could conceive of.

Astra, a distant light, a distant hope.

Hope is all Evanora has.

—»•«—

Goddess!Agatha x Eve was spun off of an idea I had for Goddess!Agatha x Reader, mostly because Agatha got all pouty about me never having written her with Eve before now.

Let me tell you, I really really love the very few hundred words I have written for them so far.

Gods walked amongst mortals.

This is simply a fact, like how the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, or how the Earth is round.

Eve has never been one to pay much attention to all the excitement and worship surrounding them.

She had seen little point, growing up somewhere that was never going to attract a god to their streets.

And besides, who would want to meet one of these higher beings when they so frequently take the lives of those they converse with?

The gods are cold-hearted and cruel, and Eve much prefers those with warmth and kindness.

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

there are a lot of reasons i think pericles is really slept on as one of the most tragic characters in sdmi, and they start with how easy it is to connect the dots that he took a mind-destroying curse full to the face as an infant. one that breaks adult humans and renders them unrecognizable, when pericles was not only a baby but is from a species that is explicitly much more vulnerable to it. right from the beginning of his life the entity obliterated his sense of self so thoroughly that there's not even a version of him who shows up in the Sitting Room.

fuck, man.

[hamliet]

the notion that bnha is pro authoritarianism or social hierarchies is nonsensical not to mention acting like being pro cop is bad

Err... BNHA is pretty pro-authoritarian. I actually find it pretty disturbing. And that's even if the story turns out with the League alive at the end.

As for being pro-cop--cops are human individuals, yes. But people have in recent years in multiple countries (including Japan, by the way) protested against cops being used as tools to maintain social hierarchies wherein people who are not part of that hierarchy suffer for daring to want to be treated as human beings. When I say I'm anti-cop, I'm not saying I hate anyone on the basis of being a cop. But I am saying that the ways in which the police force are used in many countries does societal harm. Critical thinking, yo.

Honestly I feel like this whole story (BNHA) and fans reactions throughout (especially when compared to other stories) demonstrate how people are not using critical thinking. And that can have real world consequences, though it doesn't have to.

I just find it weird that people are okay with a story where the ruling class is always right and always wins. Like... how have they not? I mean, even stories that end up suggesting the ruling class isn't entirely wrong or show flaws in rebellions generally don't go hard on the authoritarianism. But Horikoshi... is doing this.

The whole thing is so weird to me personally, too, because Horikoshi's wishy-washy framing and switches in coding generally seem to be the result of him caring, deeply, what his audience thinks and feels. Too much, really, but it also seems like he genuinely doesn't want to hurt people. Except this ending--even if Tenko does reappear as New Character and saves the League--is the exact opposite. (If Tenko doesn't reappear, then everything I'm about to say is multiplied by a thousand.)

It's catering to mean-spiritedness, and while I do understand fiction isn't reality, the side he's catering to now is making the argument that fictional crimes are real crimes and thus must meet real penalties.

I can play this game too.

If people are gonna make those arguments, I'm going to say they're the problem and the reason we have wars, genocides, assaults, and more.

If you ever want a cycle of violence/abuse to stop, someone has to accept that they've taken the last punch. Not keep going until the other side is WIPED OUT.

If you equate justice with equalizing losses, then you are enacting Dazai from BSD's statement on justice: justice is a weapon. You can never heal by it.

If you want to heal, you have to stop fighting and bandage wounds. And maybe you are too injured to do the bandaging. That's okay. But someone else can, and if you try to stop them on the premise of "but no one bandaged my wounds" you're a bitter person who makes the world a worser place.

If you say a tragedy is the story, sure. But you have to set up tragedies from the start. See, Attack on Titan, which's ending I love. It began with someone crying and an ominous message to the future. You don't set up your first chapter with "this is the story of how I become the greatest hero!" spend 200+ chapters criticizing hero society and have the hero fail at the goal he'd been repeating for 200 chapters in the end and join hero society and still think you wrote a story that delivered in what you promised. You failed.

Either you wrote a tragedy and are trying to pass it off as a happy story (see how well that works usually) or your understanding of a happy story is pretty much just fascist propaganda. And yes, BNHA does have fascist themes at this point. Way more than AoT ever did. But they have smiles and cute frog girls so it's not nearly as dangerous, right? (sarcastic).

The thing is, this is where the lack of critical thinking comes in. While I've seen people talk a bit about how BNHA seems like copaganda, it's taking things much, much further than other stories usually do and into territory where I'm frankly disturbed.

Yes, BNHA started out as a clever critique of hero society and of the very idea it's now seeming to uphold: that the human instinct (which is universal in real life to) to idolize people leads to a lack of humanity for those who do not have those traits we idolize, whether their fault or not, and for people to become villains in response. But not only has it failed to deliver on this premise by upholding society (hey, Naruto and to a degree Tokyo Ghoul also failed to completely change society), it's gone so far as to endorse what it previously criticized.

It's more akin to Game of Thrones Season 8 upholding racism, sexism, and classism, than it is to Naruto or Tokyo Ghoul. GoT ended with a joke about prioritizing brothels being open, as if the misogyny was actually a good thing and not what caused a lot of the problems. There's no critical lens here. It's just like "hey, there was no point in struggling. Monarchies that abuse women, rah rah, let's go!"

BNHA seems to be going a similar route. Deku's murder of Shigaraki, Ochaco's crying over Toga, the way Shouto reaches out to Touya--it's sad, but not framed as something the audience should see as a wrong done on behalf of heroes. In fact, the heroes are not criticized at all. Frickin' Edgeshot, whom no one cares about, is fine. All of them are fine. Their statuses are generally fine, too, except maybe Enji's and even then he's not like going to face the fate of the League and die alone. His family still supports him. Hawks is completely fine and framed positively. His regret over Twice is pure lipservice. Deku really did just need to kill Shigaraki, and all his "I want to save" spiel, much like Ochaco's, is for naught. He just needed to learn to grow up and get in line.

Even if Tenko comes back, and even if Deku like... somehow knew this would happen via vestiges or whatnot (let's be real, he will if this is the case), and the message is just that society isn't ready to move forward, but at least they can live, then... I don't know, y'all. That's still depressing. I don't see how Deku is a hero for that, much less the greatest number one hero. He decided to be a hero at the cost of his own integrity, and if this was a gritty story about the realistic struggle of living in a capitalistic society where ethics are always compromised that would make sense, but... it's not. Even until the final battle, the characters were endorsing idealism.

At the very least, Horikoshi didn't deliver on his promise in the first chapter. At the very worst, he's endorsing fascist ideals.

Like, I'm sorry, but "kill this person for the good of society," the violent upholding of oppressive societal hierarchies, the importance of being a cop hero and the way the military hero brutalities are worshipped, the way heroes are lauded and everyone who doesn't get in line with this is punished, went from being criticized to being endorsed. Those are all central elements of fascism.

The little guy deserves to lose, but, but Deku is the little guy, so it can't be! Except it can be. Because it's actually pretty common irl even to trot out examples of people like Candace Owens to be like "hey, you can't possibly say Republicans are racist!"

And don't you dare say "but Japanese culture makes it unreasonable to expect a non retributive justice!" The Japanese people are not a monolith. Not to mention... Naruto, Bungou Stray Dogs, Monster, Hunter x Hunter, Yu Yu Hakusho, Mawaru Penguindrum, Oshi no Ko, Dragon Ball, Attack on Titan, and Tokyo Ghoul all say hi.

I hated the TG ending, and still hate it, but I'm not going to say that it upheld the CCG as right all along because it didn't. BNHA thus far is doing that with hero society. And even if the answer is for the League be revived and to leave society or whatever, then how can we be happy Deku is a part of this society? How can we root for him, or his classmates? Is he going to work from the inside to change it? Why wasn't that emphasized beforehand as a theme or struggle?

tl;dr Horikoshi has cooked his story no matter what he does now, and I don't think it's salvageable. Either way it has themes that are disturbing especially considering real world events across the globe, and that people should be more aware of instead of focusing solely on stories that have fascism and monsters in them but don't uphold it.

[sokkastyles]

Wait

Back the truck up

You mean the actual context for that scene where Ozai is all smiles for Azula firebending and Ursa is scared and worried is that Azula lit a toy on fire?

Remember when I said that Azula stans like to deliberately misrepresent things from the comics?

Like

Aside from the context of abuse and Ursa obviously being worried for how excited Ozai is about how powerful his daughter is and the subtle threat Ozai delivers if Ursa doesn't praise Azula in exactly the right ways...

Of COURSE Ursa is worried when Ozai's response to Azula destroying a toy is "wow look how awesome and powerful she is!!!"

I'd have to read the comic myself to know whether Azula burned the toy on accident or on purpose - and this is not to blame Azula even if she did do it on purpose, because she is a small child here. But even if it was an accident, Ozai's response is not appropriate and shows that he is more concerned about how powerful his daughter is vs guiding her in the way an adult should. Even if it was an accident, there should be some teaching about how we need to be careful with our toys, especially since Azula now knows that she has this great power with the potential for destruction.

Like, we see over and over again the theme in this series of how firebending is this immense responsibility, with the power to both create and destroy, and how Sozin's legacy created generations of irresponsible firebenders without a care for the destruction they caused. Ozai being so excited at his daughter's power in that context, when we know who Ozai is and that he only cares about Azula in so far as her capacity to do violence, is absolutely chilling.

Firebending is often used as a metaphor for the cycle of violence both in the Fire Nation in general and within the FN royal family. Ignoring that context and trying to argue that Ursa is at fault for not raising her daughter the correct way, when it's Ozai who is responsible for neglecting to teach Azula right from wrong - and here also policing Ursa's attempts to do so - is just vastly stupid.

[they-them-van]

one of the themes of yellowjackets that i haven’t been able to stop thinking about is cycles of violence, which i think we particularly see in two ways: inter-generational trauma, and this idea of violence as a tool of forgiveness.

starting with inter-generational trauma, i love what yj has done with this. there are so many different examples: van’s relationship with her mom, which liv hewson has said impacts the way they play the character (in particular her relationship with tai), and which i think is especially important given that van’s mom was an alcoholic and now we’ve seen this suggestion that van may or may not have some kind of addiction problem herself. tai’s trauma which manifests itself in sleepwalking, which she never fully dealt with, and now has directly passed onto her child - arguably largely because she refuses to face it. shauna’s relationship with callie, the way she’s treated her child as accomplice, distant yet also expecting callie to fill in the role jackie might have had if everything had happened differently; still processing the trauma of her wilderness birth which leaves her unable to be fully present for callie. lottie’s relationship with her parents, natalie’s experience with abuse, there’s so much i could go into with this.

but in particular, i think one of the most interesting ways this manifests is in the way lottie passes her beliefs and practices - shaped by this unspeakable trauma, shaped by her experience in a mental hospital in a foreign country, shaped by the ways she’s failed and how nobody has taken her seriously - onto the members of her “community”. dozens of people living their lives on a foundation lottie has built out of her pain.

and this is also the clearest place we’ve seen lottie express this belief in violence as a way to achieve forgiveness. when she tells lisa to stab natalie, to take her anger out on the cause, just as she offered herself up as a sacrifice to shauna 25 years ago. i certainly agree with others that lottie can be manipulative, but i think in this regard she’s genuine - she believes that she’s found a solution, but she blinds herself to the fact that she’s caught in her own cycle, that intentionally or not the people around her have been caught in this same cycle. misty couldn’t save crystal/kristen, so she lets javi die to save another friend. nat can’t save javi, so she saves lisa at the cost of herself - but misty can’t save natalie this time, and the cycle continues, because the cost of using violence to find forgiveness is that somebody will end up harmed, somebody won’t be able to stop it, and the burden of guilt is simply passed on.

to me this is such a fascinating idea that i’ve never really seen explored before, and on some level i know that it will only get so much worse as more shit goes down and more people can’t be saved. if this is the principle the yellowjackets are living by, they’re all accruing a lot of fucking guilt. and i most certainly see how constantly trying to outrun this guilt, caught in a trap of committing more violence and acquiring more guilt to escape what you’re already carrying, could bury a person.

[bracketsoffear]

The Fates (Hadestown) "The Fates from Mythology act as a Greek Chorus and an inner conscious to Orpheus, Eurydice, and even to Hades himself. Lonely Avatars often target those predisposed to loneliness and both Orpheus and Eurydice fit that description to a tea. Orpheus's mother abandoned him young, and the world seemed to abandon Eurydice at every single turn.

They actively cause misfortune towards Eurydice. They are the wind who blows out her matches, the wind that takes her coat. They take her only sources of warmth and security, manipulating her desires and convincing her that it's her against the world. Her only choice is to go to Hadestown. Once she arrives, they are the ones to tell her the awful truth and emphasize how alone she really is while way down under the ground. Aside from the inherent Buried-ness of Hadestown, it has some properties of the House Domain from MAG 170. Eventually, you will forget everything about your past, especially the things that gave you comfort - only focusing on the work you have to do and the building of Hadestown's wall.

They taunt Orpheus both when he enters and leaves Hadestown, asking who he thinks he is for entering without permission. "Who are you?", they ask, "Where do you think you're going?/Why are you all alone?/Who are you to walk a road that no one ever walked before?" They are the reason Orpheus doubts that Eurydice is behind him - that he's all alone and Hades went back on his deal. Well, Orpheus always had those doubts; they just brought them to life.

So he turns around, eternally separating the two lovers."

Slugpelt (Pinepaw and the Forgotten World) "she is lonely--her mother was cruel, favoring her brother rainhaze whilst treating her like shit, and the group where she lives is very isolated. also her boyfriend left her to raise her kids alone

she spreads loneliness--while she is less of an antagonist and more of a tragic hero in her own right (and she's at least trying to get better), she does somewhat pass her loneliness down to her kids, being... rather neglectful and barely connecting with them (generational cycles of abuse are somewhat of a. theme in patfw). the comic's author, Raz, is also a big tma fan and has explicitly described her as Lonely-aligned."

[athenaluciscaelum]

//MINORS DO NOT INTERACT//

Pairing: DMC3 Dante x Fem!Reader

Rated: Mature

Words: 3736 word

Warning: Dark theme, unhealthy obession, over protective behaviours, non-concensual, unprotected sex, fingering, penetration, breeding, forced impregnation

Disclaimer: Content you're about to consume is mature, dark content and has non consensual part. I do not condone such acts, infact, I'm just writing it out of imagination, it is figment of imagination and should be treated as such. Any hate speech won't be accepted or entertained. You are responsible for your own content consumption. Not ypur cup of tea? Scroll.....

I want to be protected

(PART 1 OF 2)

You were celebrating your eighteenth birthday alone, you still got dressed up in a pretty little lilac birthday dress, put on makeup and baked cake for yourself. Pitiful, right? In your mind, to make it more pitiful. You got up and walked to a club. You were eighteen, after all. Even if you are kicked out of an orphanage and live in a shitty apartment with money you saved up from your tons of odd jobs after high school ended. You saved up enough by taking a one-year gap from studies to prepare to apply for a full-paid scholarship and get into a good university. It was all going well. Currently, you are preparing for your entrance into a university in Capulet City. It was a good one. You want to study history there and go into research/academic. And the best part, you were not homeless like your warden in orphanages said you would be, if you did not figure out something soon.

But for now, you were in a bar alone, past midnight. Not a care in the world, even about your safety, to be alone in a club was not a good idea, right? Your only friend ditched you, not because she is bad or anything, she has got her own family problem with her strict parents. You both understand each other. But it didn't dull the pain.

As you were sitting in the bar. Your eyes scan the area, you were not looking for someone in particular, so far you never dated or even entertained the idea of love…Why? Simple, you were an orphan, vulnerable, you did not want to be someone's play thing, you saw the worst of humanity and men. As soon as they get to know you have no one to protect or stand for you. Protect, right, one thing you crave the most, to be protected, someone to hold you and say sleep tight, it will be all right. But this is not your life. It was wrong to see everyone, especially men with the same gaze. Of course, not all of them are creeps. But you were too afraid to take a risk, when a mistake in your life meant never ending poverty or a cycle of abuse or homelessness or all. You sighed, drinking an expansive mocktail, it's your birthday. Why not treat yourself... It's when a man approaches you. He was brunet, tall, muscular and kind, you smiled, you wanted to be friendly, even though you would be so happy to be left alone at your self-pity party.

The man looked at the bartender, "A drink for the lady, please...whatever she is drinking right now." You were afraid of taking anything, the last thing you wanted to be labeled as was 'gold digger'. Let's agree that you were afraid of people in general. You denied it, but it was the reality. You shook your head, "Umm...no, I don't drink more than one. That's it for my today's calorie intake." You smiled. The man chuckled and sighed, "What a world do we live in, can't buy a pretty girl a drink? Are you old enough to be here?" You felt a little fear. "Well, I am eighteen. And I don't drink alcohol, so I think I am good." Man smiled, "I am Marcus... Marcus Servus..." You nodded in acknowledgment, "I am Y/N...." Man thought" Y/N and....?" You let out a nervous laugh, "No last name...just Y/N!"

You felt too uncomfortable, thought Marcus did nothing wrong, you felt your heart beating loudly in your chest...you put on a smile, "Okay, Marcus, good to see you, but I have to go..." Marcus smiled, a smile that was crooked and evil...." But it's your birthday...you are eighteen, I don't have to care about you being underage....now...just let me show you how good I am..."

Your eyes were wide, you fumbled on your seat and stood up..." Who are you?" Marcus smiled, "Aw... don't be scared Y/N! We are meant to be.." You quickly started to get through the crowd to the exit door. A bad decision. You were in the back alley now, 'shit, it was the back door!' You internally cursed yourself. Marcus stood there laughing and smiling, "You smell so sweet! I can't wait to make you mine. It's hard to find a virgin these days" You frowned and as soon as you ran, the man turned into an Angelo and you cried out as he sized you in his arms to take you toward a portal. You were thrashing and crying. But Marcus hardly cares, you really thought your life was done for, you made a mistake. It's when Marcus dropped you, and you saw a sword penetrating from his back to his chest. Your eyes were wide as you were looking at a man who did it- handsome face, icy blue eyes, clad in red, tall, this man was the epitome of beauty. You never felt this way. You should be afraid. This man is capable of impaling a demon just like that, but he protected you! Someone protected you!

The man in red turned to leave, when you got up and your reflex, held the sleeve of his red coat. You spoke nervous, "wait! Thank you...you saved me. I'm Y/N." Man turned sighing, putting his sword back, "You got money to pay me, babe?" You looked at your feet and nodded, "No...but anything else?" Man smirked scanned you up and down, he said jokingly, "You look pretty hot, babe...are you on menu" You laughed, "Sadly no .but please I insist ...." Dante thought," Buy me dinner..." You nodded, "Sure, let's go in.?" Dante and you nodded, he asks you to buy Pizza and you did. Dante was no gentleman, but he found you sweet and kind, he walked you back to your apartment. "So... don't get in more trouble, okay, babe?" You nodded, "Thanks again, I got cake inside, want to come in to get some cake?" Dante leaned in, raising an eyebrow, "Are you trying to get some action? You can ask me directly babe.." You understood his flirty nature by now and poked his cheek, "No... it's my birthday, I'm eighteen today..so you want cake or not?" Dante thought,"What flavor?" You sang, "Strawba-ba-baba-berry-shortcake!" A sing you remember from cartoon, Strawberry Shortcake, he smiled, "I love strawberries..."

That night, Dante tried his best to get into your bed, but you shut him down, you were not going to sleep with a man you don't know. He was not pushy or anything, just trying. From that day, Dante and you were friends. You visited his shop after a bad day at work, and he visited yours for good food or baked goods. You knew the clandestine part of the job. But you wouldn't mind hanging out with him. It was fun playing pool at his shop, playful banter, he showed you how to shoot guns, of course getting too close playfully, but you were quick to swat his hand away, giggling. You knew it was all fun and he respected your boundaries. Dante shop was newly bought. One of his agents, Enzo, got Dante a cheap deal. But for a deal, he pressed him to do jobs even when Dante didn't like him.

Enzo once even tried to flirt with you, and you were quick to shut him down... One day, you come back from shitty day at work. Dante was behind his desk reading one of the porno magazines. It irritated you more, you just sighed and dropped on the couch he stole from a shady apartment. You gave him an earful, and he promised not to steal again. Dante was busy when you took the magazine away from it. He snapped, "Hey! I was reading that!" You gave him a broken look, he was quick at his feet, he spoke trying to act cool, "What!? Jealous, huh?" You put your head on his chest literally crying and wailing, Dante didn't know what to do, he wasn't one for that. He instinctively wrapped his arms around your little delicate frame, he spoke,"What happened?" You clung onto his coat, his skin felt so nice and soothing. You spoke in a broken voice," Dante, tighter, hug me tighter.." Dante tightened his grip just a little. You gulped, "More..." Dante was now literally squishing you against him, "More!" Dante chuckled a little sad, "I am going to crush your bones, silly girl." He tapped your forehead playfully...your eyes gleaming, he could get lost in it... Dante held your face in his gloved hand and leaned down to kiss your lips softly and pull back to gauge your reaction. Your heartbeat was quick and your body hot, your face flushed and lips quivering. Dante caressed your cheek with his thumb, "first kiss?" You nodded, and your fingers were in his soft silver hair and pulled him back, tilting your head for kiss. At first, it was lil pecks on your lips, then licking your bottom lips. When you were overwhelmed and didn't get the cue. Dante sat you on the desk standing between your legs, pulling away. His gloved hands cupping your face, you were both panting, "open your mouth for me, okay?" You were nervous but nodded, as he kissed you. This time you part your lips, his tongue snakes in to explore your mouth, you feel something in your core. But your legs were spread by Dante standing in between them. You smush his head closer to yours, deepen the kiss, your tongue nervously touches his, he coaxes it to play more, and then they swirl, you moan in a kiss and pull away. You were flustered and embarrassed, you touched your lips, they were wet, testament that it all happened and wasn't a dream. You spoke softly, "Dante...." You pressed your forehead to his. He was out of breath too, "Yeah." Your hands pull down his coat to let it fall, and one by one takes off his gloves, you take his hand in yours and kissing each knuckle with love, giving his thumb a little licking and then sucking it. The sight of you sucking on his thumb, letting all hell loose, not like he had any intention of keeping any restrain. He was quick to unzip your dress from your back and pull it down to reveal your plush breast and delicate skin. You were blushing. He was in awe and fondled your lacy black bra-clad breast. You moaned, his thumb spilling out of your lips.

Tagged: @marshmallows-and-champagne

[the-grand-gemini]

Big obsessed with all of the BG3 villains. The themes of the cycle of abuse/trauma in all of the main cast makes me feral over how the villains unfortunately do not/did not get the opportunity to be "saved" by Tav (if doing a good playthrough) and by experiencing the heros journey.

I could talk about Ketheric and Orin, but after reading @bearhugsandshrugs fic it got me deep diving into Gortash's character. It's amazing and everyone should read it especially if you're weak for Tav/Gortash like I am 👀💦

Trigger warning for abuse mentions below the cut.

Let me start with stating this is NOT an Enver Gortash apologist post, he's evil and he's done terrible things. This is just me yelling into the void about character foils.

Childhood abuse:

In game we really only get to know his history through background information that we can scrape together if you search through the city and the House of Hope.

We don't get any details on what exactly Enver went through as a child. We can assume neglect/possible violence from his parents given his mother's words and the fact they sold him. We get to know that he was beaten when living in the House of Hope, but not what other possible horrors he could have experienced there (not including just the trauma of witnessing the other debtors and Hope), what age he was, or for how long (if anyone knows more timeline wise I'd love to know) he lived there before he escaped. We don't know how he escaped either, if he had help or did so on his own.

I'm no child psychologist, but abuse has lasting effects as we can see through all of the main party. Victims of abuse tend to have difficulty moving past certain emotional stages in their life. Aka a person abused in their childhood may have issues maturing emotionally without therapy, etc (again I'm not a psychologist). There is a strong possibility that "Child" Enver is still probably holding the reins emotionally while adult Enver isn't even aware of how his past affects every action and reaction he has at all times.

I can't imagine how living with Raphael during ones formative years being healthy in anyway, but we can definitely see some of the learned behaviours he's picked up from the Cambion. A focus on possing/presentation, a suave persona, torturing/using people for his own gain, a general lack of empathy, deal making, similar attire with devil motifs...

Unhealthy coping mechanisms:

Speaking of attire, Enver's coat not allowing Fear to be cast on him speaks volumes to me. Imagine the absolute horror of moving from one situation of abuse to another much worse one in the hells as a child/teen and probably being in a state of fear/anxiety at all times. Enver wearing a coat that doesn't allow him to feel fear gives me three main thoughts:

1. He is doing everything in his power to avoid that specific emotion and therefore prevents himself from thinking about that period of his life. Meaning he is not confronting his trauma the same way the main party is forced to throughout the game.

2. Narratively does the coat prevent him from feeling any fear at all? Or do we just go with the game mechanic that ensures he cannot be made afraid by the fear spell? If it prevents him from feeling fear at all (which I think is narratively more interesting and you can take this headcanon out of my cold dead hands) how does this effect his every day decisions? Fear prevents risky decisions all the time, it's one of the emotions that actively keeps people alive. Psychopaths usually don't experience fear the same way an average person would. Given his many horrific actions (the Iron Throne being a key example) I wonder how much his forceful removal of fear has done to his perception of rational thought. If you aren't afraid of consequences what's to stop you from doing anything at all? Selling a loyal body guard to the hells, torturing an entire faction of people in order to manufacturer your own personal army, stealing from an immensely powerful devil aka mother fucking MEPHISTOPHELES??? He presents himself as calm and collected in conversation. He appears as if he's the most rational of all three villains when he's really just as awful when we look into what he's actually been up to vs seeing Orin and Ketheric kill people on screen.

3. Where did he get the coat? Did he make it himself or was it a boon from Bane? A promise to a devout worshiper that he would never be made to feel afraid or beneath anyone again?

Another abuser - Bane:

Speaking of Bane... Another user (please tag if anyone can find the original post!) mentioned a line Astarion says where he states that he prayed to all the gods, but none answered. OP wondered if Enver, trapped in the hells and desperate for salvation, called out the same way... only for Bane to be the only god to answer. I'd die to know specifically when he was introduced to Bane and made to be his chosen.

We know Bane is considered an evil god and we even find that if we kill Enver and then use speak with dead that Bane is torturing him in the afterlife for failing him.

Given this abusive relationship is Enver a foil for Gale, a man groomed from a young age by a goddess and left with the consequences when his actions did not meet her expectations?

Is he like Shadowheart, someone who was given no alternative and made to believe they willingly chose their god only to learn they were deceived and never had any other options?

Like Wyll he's cast out by his father (or in his case both parents).

Like Lae'zel he's worshipping a deity with false promises, how can he believe he'll rule the entire world like a god himself when Bane the god of TYRANNY would see no other at the top but himself (Was he secretly planning to use the crown like Gale to usurp Bane or just pandering to us)?

We know he and Karlach are absolutely foils for each other given that he is her abuser and like himself Karlach was forged by her times in the hells only to survive on her own merits.

Those are my thoughts! Would love to know anyone else's on the walking red flag that is Lord Enver Gortash.

If Enver lost his memories like the Dark Urge would he be given a chance to redeem himself through his actions? Could he with his knowledge of infernal engines fix Karlach's heart

Would Enver have ever become Lord Gortash if not for Bane...?

Anyways if anyone wants to yell at me about Enver, Orin, or Ketheric please feel free to do so! I love characters who fell through the cracks because they had no one there to help them only to crawl out themselves and burn the world.

[total-drama-brainrot]

What do you think about Emma (reboot) total drama?

And what would you change in the reboot (it can be as many changes as you like, from season one to two)

I think Emma's one of the many characters who would've benefitted a lot from a character arc that the show simply didn't have enough time to give her.

Of course, in the reboot especially, this isn't exactly uncommon. A lot of the episodes will focus more on the challenge itself and whatever conflict/"villainous" plot is happening over letting the characters grow, and there's just not enough time left between all of that to have individual character developlent happen.

Emma, in particular, is hit with this the most; she starts s1 as Chase's ex, goes a whole season being Chase's ex, gets back with Chase and then restarts the same cycle for s2 (minus the getting back with him part). Her "character arc" is a loop, and her personality within varies wildly between episodes, depending on how angry the writers want/need her to be.

But from what we do see of her personality, I'd say Emma's actually one of the most relatable and realistic people in the cast. She's got just the right balance of positive and negative characteristics that balances her out as a Good Character - her innate kindness is tempered by her need for social validation, her grit and determination stems from untapped anger issues, her perpetual need to be liked/loved keeps her open to advances from Chase despite her better judgement. Ect ect.

If she were a main character she'd be great, because her personality is just tumultuous enough to generate drama without making her innately unlikable. Like Priya, but without the overarching themes of parental abuse.

Also I think she's really good BPD rep.

As for what I'd change? The answer is and always has been the same, you'll be able to see on my blog.

[sammygender]

okay. tags for THEMES. have just gone through tons of my posts and started tagging appropriately but here we go. this is just for fun and ease of organisation for me <3. i’ll add more later

sam & purity & food: scrub it clean

sam & (metaphorical/literal) rape/csa: she walked in on us

sam & victim blaming: you wanted it

sam & dean & gender: bitch jerk

girl coded sam: favourite daughter

catch all for fucked up winchester family dynamics, especially precanon or early seasons: poison in the water

dean as abuser/patriarch/john stand-in, especially later seasons: the poison drips through

precanon sam: second child

precanon dean: loaded gun

sam & entrapment/cycles/dean’s hashtag battered wife/late seasons sam in general ig: heart shaped box

precanon sam and dean: would you rather

sam and powers: final girl

sam & liminality/dissociation/mental illness: ?? will return to this

[fatheriimaginedyoutaller]

(SCRIPT PREVIEW)

Hey ya'll. Hope you're all having a great afternoon! I'm here to bring you a little update about this post.

After watching some video essays for inspiration, I began developing a draft for a script about Robin: Son of Batman (2015). Analyzing the story implications, themes and motifs! :)

And because ya'll been so supportive of my nerdy endeavours, you guys are getting a special preview of the aforementioned draft! (criticisms accepted of course!)

Part of the script avaliable under cut

tagging in: @fancyfade @fluffykitty149 @cleoeatsit

The first issue of the comic run starts with Damiam returning some sort of cultural artifacts to their rightful owners; an order of monks in mainland China.  So, immediately, we got this Tomb Raider/Indiana Jones kind of plot point.  

(Man I sure hope it doesn’t get abandoned halfway through and pivots to portraying  the replacement of an autocracy with another autocracy where the head of state its not even from the country as a good thing)

ahem…

He gets interrupted by League of Assassins members which he fights off with the help of his pet, Goliath the Bat-dragon. He wins said fight and is lavished for returning the sacred object by the locals

All while a masked figure is observing the scene while saying: 

“(...) there cannot be redemption for the year of the blood”

This introduction to the comic is interesting because it highlights the main narrative theme and framing device of the whole story: The Quest for Redemption.

Before we even know exactly what Damian is doing and why he's doing it. We know he's looking to mend a rift. To make a past wrongdoing right. And then we find out someone wants to stop him…

This forms an interesting parallel with real life survivors of schoolyard abuse aka bullying.

Now, hear me out…

 Many kids (especially those with conditions such as autism) are manipulated by their bullies into doing bad things to other children. They generally do this by preying on their loneliness and desire to be accepted by their peers. And so said kids carry out acts of hazing to other children, perpetuating a cycle of harm.

A cycle which is hard to escape from. Because if you hurt someone, regardless of if you were manipulated or not, that person will probably not trust you after the fact. And if you add into account the environment of a school, where rumors spread like wildfires, there's a high chance you develop a bad reputation. Cause other people have no way of knowing you did it while being threatened into being a social pariah. It's a no win situation.

Damian's story is simile to this. Sure, the acts he carried out were far more extreme and he was not manipulated by an outsider but by his own grandfather, Ra’s Al Ghul.  But the effects of his psyche, development and public perception are all the same.

Think about it: His claims to being either the Blood Son or the Grandson of the Demon  are basically him trying to justify his existence  to a family that, for all he knows, could abuse him again. Which leads him to having a thought process where he has to be the best of the best in the room, cause the only other alternative is death. and for that he’s punished. Even though no one ever bothered to teach him the normal social protocols for a boy his age. 

So when you make that reading of Damian, and put into the context of a story where he, by his own volition, decides he’s gonna try and reverse all the harm he caused while being essentially groomed. You get something really powerful.

Well…kind of…

There’s a few things that stuck out with the framing of this arc. The most glaring one being: this arc takes place after he comes back from the dead. After being trapped in hell for the better part of a year after being killed by his own clone.

By making Damian’s journey for redemption take place after he’s been through literal Hell, there’s the subtle implication that he’s not doing it out of his own free will, but to avoid some sort of celestial punishment.

And that’s not a bad idea per se, if the comic acknowledged that implication. Because it does put an interesting question into the table. “Does it matter why we do good things? As long as we do them?” Does it matter if Damian doesn’t kill anymore because of “selfish” reasons. After all, why would an orphan he saves from a fire care if he used to be bad or not? Should that matter to anyone?

That last part is a testament, I think, to how much better executed some ideas that writers at DC have would be if they played them straight. If they acknowledged the implications of their writing instead of just doing something because they thought it would be cool or dramatic. 

[lockandkeyhyena]

Hi! Just wanted to say you're a huge inspiration of mine, I absolutely love the way you deconstruct/dissect complicated (and often uncomfortable) concepts/topics, if that makes sense,, and I'm especially invested in the development of your Hell story :3

Intersectionality has always been fascinating to me, and I really appreciate your portrayal of both male and female abusers.

That being said, I would be really interested in hearing your answers to a couple of questions, if you don't mind:

Will Anne be presented as a "redeemable" (as in "able to improve herself") character, similarly to her son?

Would you consider her a "worse" person than Alvin? Or rather, will she be presented as a "worse" person than Alvin in the story? tbh (to an extent) can actions like this even have a measure of better-worse? im not certain

Will Anne have a backstory? If so, will it be "sad", similar to Alvin's?

What was Alvin's father like?

And on a much lighter note, I would love to hear some fun facts about Wendy :3 wonderful amazing fish lady

Sorry if i phrased any of this poorly aaaa

thank you sooo much that means a lot!! this story is very important to me, it’s one i’ve wanted to tell for a while.

answers to your questions!

all characters have the possibility to be redeemed in my mind, that’s generally the whole idea of the story. however, the thing is that characters need to *want* to be redeemed and anne is a character who fundamentally will never see what she did as wrong, at least in the context of this story. i’m certain you could manufacture circumstances to redeem her (i’m of the mindset that everyone can better themselves given enough time) but for the context of alvin’s story, she simply doesn’t view herself as in any way in the wrong, and thus can never change.

when it comes to csa or sa in general i’m extremely cautious as labelling anything as ‘worse’ or ‘better’. such actions are so monstrously inhumane that it’s hard to view them in any way as comparable, especially considering the effect they have on real people. i think that’s a question i would leave up to the audience. all i’ll leave you with is that anne abused alvin while he was younger than ethan, so if age is something you take into account in regards to abuse being ‘worse’ or ‘better’ that might be relevant.

i haven’t decided if anne will have a backstory yet! we’re viewing her solely through alvin’s perspective and she comes across as something not human to him. not *monstrous*, per say but moreso *alien* and *incomprehensible*. that being said she likely does have a ‘sad’ backstory given the themes of the cycle of abuse present in the story.

alvin’s father was your stereotypical stoic sixties-era dad. very emotionally absent and distant.

wendy!! wendy my love wendy my life. she’s simon’s mother and pretty much acts as an adopted parent for ethan after the abuse comes to light. she’s a single mother and excels at it. she does have a bad case of ‘cool mum syndrome’ in that she’s the sort of parent to go ‘okay you can smoke weed but only in the house because i’d rather you do it here than somewhere unsafe’ and have nicknames for all your friends. she’s pretty young and got pregnant when she was nineteen but genuinely loves being a mum even though it’s exhausting.

[caliumcyanide]

"Why is it that everyone who has a supernatural ability has a twisted heart to go with it?.."

A haphazardly put together and incomplete Analysis of Dazai and Mori's differences and similarities in relation to their peculiar obsessions.

So, I recently stumbled across Taxidermia, (a 2006 Hungarian surrealist horror movie) and since everything else occupying the RAM in my brain is BSD right now, I subconsciously and later, consciously related the two together.

At this point we're all aware of the themes such as "cycle of abuse" and "the chain of salvation" that are present throughout the whole of BSD. The story isn't a horror, and is not meant so much as a warning, but a conversation with the reader/viewer. Then how can this film possibly relate to any of this? Well...

“By the way, who’s the person you said I reminded you of?” he asked.

Mori smiled faintly. Then with a hint of melancholy in his expression, he gave his answer:

...

So, in this movie, the story is told by means of three generations of Hungarian men; 3 characters with one specific trait, quirk, obsession, if you will. In simple terms: one is a pervert, the other is a speed-eater, and the third one is a dedicated to his craft taxidermist. I guess, by now, you see where this is going, right?

Now, I'd argue the situation relayed in BSD is quite ambiguous. What is a skill? What does it truly represent? (I wanted to look into the play with Tokio Murakami in the UO to figure this out, but maybe later) There's seems to be no definitive answer to this, but as always, there is an ongoing subtextual debate on the nature of human beings (not just the skill users, because even if they are their own category they still belong to the human race, don't they?) the formation and evolution of their identity throughout the years, what influences them to act a certain way, all to ask a bunch of simple questions: "Is there a correct, right way to live your life?", "If nothing I do can change the past, then should I be defined by said past?", "Why is it that everyone who has a supernatural ability has a twisted heart to go with it?", ad infinitum. That last one, eh? It's introducing a sort of deterministic element to the nature of the ability users. Which is curious, to say the least.

Now, back to Dazai and Mori's exchange. Right out of the gate it could be argued that Mori, in spite of his claim, is admitting to both Dazai and us, the audience, that he doesn't, in fact truly grasp what this teenager's dysthymia was born from.

“Dazai,” Mori began while still pondering that question. “I may not be able to comprehend your answer, but I nonetheless want to know: Why do you want to die?”

Especially when we trace their relationship to the Dark Era, where he might've used his general understanding of the human nature to force Dazai out of the Mafia, because he knew of his connection to Odasaku, but the way he argued with Dazai, the way the latter had a hard time articulating his irrational feelings and justifying them as beneficial to the Mafia (we all know how concerned Mori is with being rational.) made me question whether Mori ever understood Dazai even just a little bit.

“It’s a win-win situation. So why are you so angry?"

Dazai didn’t say a word. That was just about the first time he’d ever been unable to articulate his feelings.

“I…”

—“There is nothing worth pursuing at the cost of prolonging a life of suffering.”

—“Awaken me from this oxidizing world of a dream.”

“I just…” His voice came out strained. “I just don’t get it.”

Don't worry, Dazai, I don't think Mori gets it either.

“I have just one thing I’d like to ask: What’s wrong with that?” “……”

“My answer is the same, Dazai. I will do anything for the benefit of the organization. Besides, we are the Port Mafia. We have always brought darkness, violence and cruelty to this city. “Why is that a problem now?”

Dazai knew. He knew Ougai’s calculations, his mentality, and the rationale behind the plan. That was just the kind of organization the Port Mafia was. Logically speaking, Ougai was right, and Dazai was wrong. “But…” He turned on his heel, then began walking toward the door.”

Did Mori's plan succeed? Yes.

Did he correctly predict Dazai's actions? That's right.

Did he come to understand Dazai after having him as a subordinate for all these years? No. Not one bit. Because, there is this fascinating thing about humans, where they fear what they can't comprehend. Why again did Mori want Dazai out of the Mafia so badly?

"You were afraid of me, weren't you? Afraid that I would aspire to take your position, that one day, I'd run a knife across your throat. Just like you did to your predecessor."

Then, once again, why the comparison?

Well, there's always a possibility of him just lying to Dazai plain and simple, though I can explain why it can be easily discarded as "not worth the effort". Mori doesn't need to lie to get Dazai to do things for him, he doesn't even need to be particularly discreet about it, like this example from Storm bringer:

“My reasoning is extremely simple.” Mori smiled. “If that monster kills you, nobody will be able to save Chuuya, and he will die as well. In other words, you will finally get the death you have always yearned for but with Chuuya by your side.”

A full ten seconds of silence went by until Dazai broke it.

“Hwaaah.”

“Was that a yawn I just heard?”

“Look, I know what you’re trying to do, and it’s not gonna work. You can’t manipulate me. Good-bye.”

The radio then cut off. Mori held his radio with a faint smirk.”

Hehe, the infamous double suicide argument.

Mori seems to have a general grasp at how Dazai works, but that doesn't seem to be enough. Because there's this:

"No single word or phrase could accurately describe their relationship. The closest approximation would be bound by a common destiny."

And this:

"And yet no one trusted him. Because the darkness lurking within his eyes was deeper than the ink black nights that hung over the dumping ground he inhabited."

And this:

"Miscalculation.

"You misjudged the situation." He told himself. You failed to pick the optimal solution. You shouldn't have chosen this child to help you. Dazai is unpredictable. He can be sharp, but in a dark, twisted way. He's observant. He's cold and calculating with no equivalent even in the Mafia, where the most evil reside."

Honestly, the mention of "darkness" in various descriptions of Dazai by different characters deserves its own fully-fledged analysis. Even if all my examples would consist of excerpts from Oda's internal monologue, it'd still be a treasure trove of information and food for thought.

Back to Mori. I believe this "I'm just like you" moment serves a bunch of purposes all at once. "If you are like me, and I am the head of the Port Mafia, then, by extension, this is the only place that can give you purpose too, because this is where individuals like us thrive." It makes so much more sense to follow somebody else's example, if they really are as similar to you as they claim, and if they truly did find what Dazai is desperately searching for.

The other purpose it might serve can look a bit more sinister: "There is darkness in you, there is something very wrong with you and what I can help you do is put it to good use. I know, because I was the same. I can help you use it for the greater good."

What's funny about BSD is that it's not just that there is the lack of transparently defined right and wrong, (which I believe should be a standard in any media, because otherwise art is reduced to nothing but a slightly subtler version of propaganda) but the lack of a clear winner in these types of existential mental confrontations. Dazai did fail to pick up on Mori's real motives behind the Mimic incident in time, yet his observation of Ougai's lingering fear and paranoia towards him is pretty spot on. Mori did succeed in many aspects of using Dazai as a tool and even going so far as to conduct a plan to dispose of him properly, yet he remains as apprehensive of Dazai as he was from the beginning. To this day, he is still able to predict Dazai's actions, but because of what Mori defines as: "common destiny", "flashes of brilliance" and the "bizarre, meaningless fascination with suicide", he most of the time fails to see him an an autonomous individual, capable of having a purpose different from Mori's own.

Ultimately, does any of it even matter? I'm sure Mori would have been fascinated to know why is Dazai the way he is, just like he would inquire Oda about his guns in the future, but not then, because what he wanted from Dazai when he was in the Mafia is to be a polished diamond scalpel he can use for combating anything threatening the organization. And scalpels aren't known to possess any free will. It didn't matter at all what Dazai went through to reach this point, but what was important from Mori's point of view is that they do, in fact, have similar "steel trap" minds as well as certain obsessions.

"bizarre, meaningless fascination with suicide"

"Are you still lusting after little girls?"

...has a twisted heart to go with it...

I'd argue what Mori expresses here can be described as a very flawed form of cognitive empathy. It isn't full comprehension, by all means, which is why other people in their analyses usually point out the harm it can bring to project onto someone to such a degree, without acknowledging the possibility of even a single difference between the two of you, to force them to be a carbon copy of you for the sake of nothing but blind self-indulgence.

What, in my opinion is a first clear symptom of Mori's pathological misconception... is using the word "meaningless" to describe Dazai's supposed obsession with suicide. For someone of such caliber to be fooled by Dazai's facade so easily is a crazy feat to accomplish. Congratulations on your incomprehensibility once again, Dazai!

Like I mentioned before, BSD takes a more ambiguous approach to all of its themes, characters, et cetera, so it's definitely curious that Odasaku's quiet emotional empathy (as opposed to cognitive, which Oda also expresses, but much later, as a means of deepening his understanding) is, in fact, what reaches him, and in contrast to the narration or Mori's words, Oda doesn't describe him as the "darkness itself", but akin to a person, suffering from a chronic illness.

"I could see a thorn the size of a harpoon wedged deeply into his life."

A child who is surrounded by the darkness and hurt by it, even seemingly bleeds it, yet remains at his core a lonely, abandoned, sobbing child.

“He was too smart for his own good. That was why he was always alone. The reason why Ango and I were able to be by his side was that we understood the solitude that surrounded him, and we never stepped inside it no matter how close we stood.”

Speaking of contradictions and complexity:

“Ougai stared at the scattered reports on his desk. The organization had received an item of great value, something that more than made up for the total pecuniary damage and loss of talented subordinates. That included Dazai’s disappearance as well. Logically speaking, the results couldn’t have been better. Everything was going according to plan.

Ougai folded the document into a misshapen paper airplane. Then, with his chin still resting on his hand, he threw it. The deformed plane almost immediately crashed into the floor.

“Things sure are going to get boring around here…”

First and foremost, was that plane some sort of Guild-related foreshadowing? (that scene with Dazai's brainstorming session with Ranpo came to mind.) I shouldn't be too surprised though. I guess he didn't think Dazai would get involved, because with the only kind of leverage Mori had - gone, the former mafia executive just disappeared into thin air overnight. Little did he know...

What was that, Mori? You've won, you've driven him out of the Mafia for good, then why are you still unsatisfied?

Oh, GOD How I love the Dark era.

How I love Beast AU.

Ok, fine, I admit it. I love everything that comes out of Asagiri's head. I want to pick his brain, dissect it, put it back together and eat it with some soy sau-

...

To be entirely honest, I haven't even watched "Taxidermia" to the end. So, I don't think any of these tidbits of comparison should qualify as a correct interpretation of the themes or the overall message of the movie. What I've seen just sort of inspired me to feed some of the ideas I had to a vast collection of BSD analyses stashed in my notes.

Someday, I really should find patience to organize and post those.

...

Oh, now I remember! Why I wanted to write something related to both Dazai and the embalmer character from the movie.

It's that... (spoilers)

I was just wondering what would Dazai think of this character's method of suicide? There's anesthesia involved, so it's certainly painless, though arguably not "clean" and "beautiful" the way he would have wanted.

What a weird note to end an essay on, huh. Oh, well. I guess the one who had the twisted heart was me all along, eh?

[yugiohz]

every time I read battle shonen I'm always like. okay. I've been reading shonen for 12 years. I know better than to get my hopes up that battle shonen mangakas will ever satisfyingly critique cycles of abuse, nationalism, the status quo, etc & I just need to lose myself in the epic fights, etc etc and then I binge the manga while keeping that in mind and it's a great time and YET I still find myself sitting there after an epilogue drops with an odd sense of disappointment realizing I actually never took the clown shoes off lmaoo. bnha's epilogue is especially Man Loses Last Additional Bit of Hope He Didn't Know He Had because horikoshi was so much more explicit about the themes of generational trauma and abuse than many other popular battle shonen so I thought there would be at least something more than what we've got. well we'll always have bakugou

WE WILL ALWAYS HAVE BAKUGO!!!!!!!!!! yeah we're stupid for falling for the same shit again and again but idk battle shonen is so fun for the most part lsdfkjadsnkln

[deardarlingdevil]

I'm happy that BG3 received the Best Community award in the Golden Joystick Awards! At the same time, from experience, while the corner I found in the fandom is a great community, there's still a lot of toxicity and issues in the fandom that I want more people to acknowledge. So once again I am bringing up the moralistic double standards I see in the fandom. I think I touched upon this in a separate analysis about romance options but I want to make a separate post for the fandom issues.

Astarion will be my prime example and his Ascended route in particular. With female characters such as Lae'Zel, Shadowheart, and Minthara, you don't see as much policing from the fandom when players make them take the darker routes to their story arcs. I never saw people shaming other players for encouraging Shadowheart to become a Dark Justiciar, so on and so forth.

Meanwhile, people, particularly cishet men, shit on women and queers simply for liking Astarion. The same unwashed assholes who talk about how SH is their edgy Sharran waifu or how Minthara is dommy mommy are the same folks who will deride Astarion girlies (gender neutral) and intentionally try to provoke them by saying things like "oh I killed him on sight hurr durr" or claiming that "females" have no "morals" because of their choice of videogame men.

Sadly, it's not the cishet men who do this too. I've seen unhinged opinions from folks who use the semblance of social justice to bully other fans for enjoying "problematic" content. I've seen queer folks say things like "women who enjoy Astarion's ascended route should be euthanized". I don't like the Ascended romance route either but that's a personal preference and I'll just simply live and let live + curate my space if such content manages to come across my social media feeds instead of making batshit takes. Like, chill, please.

And speaking of the Ascended route, people automatically assume that the player is romancing him while taking the Ascended route and assuming that the players are reducing him to a sexual object. It's almost as if players can choose not to romance him and still let him ascend for other reasons. What's worse is even one of the writers expressed a similar sentiment, which I admittedly agreed with until I read other players' thoughts about the Ascended route and how they do acknowledge that Astarion gaining such power does perpetrate a cycle of abuse for the character, but can be cathartic to the players who experienced something similar but cannot or will not act on in real life.

Of course, I have to bring up Raphael too. I've seen people thirsting for femme fiends like Mizora and fem!Haarlep and no one bats an eye. But with people thirsting for Raphael, there will always be that one cishet man who will take Haarlep's, a character who hates Raphael because he essentially uses him/her/them as a fleshlight, words at face value to point out his inadequacies and oddities in the bedroom, as if that will make the character less attractive to his fans. On the other side of the spectrum, there is sadly a small but vocal corner of the queer BG3 community who are biphobic and would shame women and other queers, especially femmes, because they exclusively want to ship Raphael with Haarlep's male form.

Once again, I'm not throwing my fellow sapphics under the bus, but the amount of vitriol femmes and queers receive for wanting to explore darker themes with male characters is disproportionate compared to fans who took the darker route with the female characters.

Yes, the BG3 community is a great community in general, but misogyny and biphobia is still alive and well in certain pockets of the fandom. Sigh.

[black-rose-writings]

I've had this idea about how the show would have been massively improved by making one little change.

The show, especially it's second season, feels boring, pointless. The only driving point of the whole season 2 is to yell "Darkling Bad". They obviously don't care about established characters, the worldbuilding or lore. Definitelly not about Grisha oppression.

So, what small change would give even the slightest hint of a point and theme to it all, a theme that transcends the creators' need to shit on their most popular character?

Make Alina Aleksander's daughter.

Narratives about cycles of abuse and generational trauma are really popular these days, so instead of making it a story about shitting on the Darkling, make it a story about how Ilya being a shitty father and a mad scientist literally fucked over the rest of the world. Instead of making the show a story about destruction of Morozova's legacy, make it a story about it's redemption.

(Again, my ideal version of the story would be one that works with the themes, characters and plots of the original books and expands on them in a way LB was too much of an american lib to do, but this is "how to make the show better with as few changes as possible")

First, some tweaks to Alina's backstory to account for this change (well, giving her a backstory pre-Keramzin):

There was a more open conflict with Shu Han like 25 years ago, that required Aleksander's presence. During his stay, he spent a few nights with a local woman (possibly anonymously initially, but she did end up finding out who he was, this is important) of Shu descent (though she considered herself Ravkan). The conflict ends and much of the Dva Stolba valley falls under Shu control, giving more explanation for the tension and racism Alina experiences later. Alina's mother stays in Ravkan territory, because, again, despite her ethnicity, she considers herself to be Ravkan, and a few months after the end of that conflict, she gives birth to Alina. She does attempt to contact Aleksander, wanting him to claim the child, but he initially doesn't, both because it's impractical and because he doesn't really believe he is her father, though he does arrange for her to recieve some money.

A few years pass and Alina starts showing signs of Grisha powers, and her mother attempts to contact Aleksander again, telling him of this. She is unable to explain Alina's powers, because she knows relatively little about Grisha and has no idea how Sun Summoning would present. Aleksander does respond this time and urges Alina's mother to take her to be tested and that it would be safest for Alina to keep her parentage a secret (he still doesn't fully believe Alina is his daughter). Before Alina can be tested, however, the family gets caught in the middle of a Shu raid and Alina's mother (and maybe stepfather) are killed, and she ends up in Keramzin, now having an extra trauma reason to hide her powers (taking some inspiration from Alina's cut pre-Keramzin backstory from season 1).

Now, for the changes in season 1, those would be largely in the form of Aleksander's flashbacks and slow realisation of who Alina is. You can still keep the make-out scene/"romance" bits if you really want, because GSI (genetic sexual attraction, a syndrome/phenomenon where closely related people who have been separated for the vast majority of their life, like through adoption, deadbeat/cheating parents etc. upon meeting as adults develop an attraction to each other) is a real thing, incest in media is also unfortunately popular, of course this fucking family would do it, and antis will enjoy getting even more reason to hate Aleksander.

If we go the non-ew route, there would be some changes to the tent scene (to account for Alina being a living amplifier) and perhaps expanding/adding scenes to the journey to Os Alta, giving room to vocalize some of these differences (like explaining the living amplifier thing earlier). Maybe having Alina saying something that prompts Aleksander to be reminded of her mother, and being confused as to why at first.

Their interractions in season 1 would need to be reframed through the father-daughter lens, but it wouldn't be all that dificult, because it already has mentor-mentee undertones. Ideally, there would be a point somewhere before the Winter Fete, possibly as a catalyst for Alina's breakthrough with her powers, when he tells her who she is. It would give Alina a personal stake in the story, because she clearly doesn't give a fuck about her duties/responsibilities as a Sun Summoner in either version. She doesn't have to destroy the Fold because she's a Sun Summoner, but because she's the descendant of the Black Heretic. She's not just the savior of a country she doesn't give two shits about, but the redemption of her family.

If we want to go the "shit on Aleksander" route, nothing about his interractions with Alina would change all that much and the reveal of her parentage, at least to Alina, would come through Baghra, giving Alina more obvious emotional reason to run away and feel betrayed (especially if the almost-sex-on-the-big-map still happens, because "ew, I almost fucked my dad, who know we're related" would be infinitely more understandable of a reason to run away than what Baghra actually tells her).

Either way, the information that she isn't just a distant descendant of the Black Heretic, but his actual child, that she has a grandmother he didn't bother telling her about, that he told her they were going to redeem their family, when he only planned on continuing his work and using her for it, hits Alina like a truck. Alina going though StuffTM emotionally makes her decision to run away make a lot more sense.

Anyway, there would be very little change plotwise, just some dialogue adjustments, maybe mentioning how the Stag is her legacy, her heritage.

It would reframe Alina's fear of becoming like Aleksander, that permeates the second season, have some basis. It would give a reason for the "fuck Ilya and everything he touched and made" narrative Baghra is spinning. Baghra telling both Mal and Alina the story of her family, of why she believes now that it all much be destroyed, how her father's greed drove him to create abominations, to twist the world in unnatural ways, and she looks pointedly at the two as she says it.

Make Alina's stand against Aleksander her way of saying "the cycle of abuse in this family ends with me. I will make our family better.". Make her and Nikolai's political marriage a symbol of a new begining for Ravka in more ways than one - redemption of the Morozov(a) and Lantsov families. And bonding over "I can't tell anyone who my real dad is because it would cause trouble."

But of course, at the end, it fails, because both of them misunderstood the fundamental reason why things became as bad as they did.

IDK, I just think that changing Alina to Aleksander's daughter would improve their dynamic and a lot of the surrounding narratives massively. Even in variations other than the show.