#he has all the makings of a tumblr woobie

[happywithdrawal]

had grossology been a more mainstream show i guarantee you kid rot/chester would've been a fan favorite on tumblr

[scoobydoodean]

I have 2 spn accounts, a Deancentric blog that ships Destiel and another account that unintentionally follows a lot of Samgirl blogs. So one blog follows majority Deangirl blogs and the other incidentally follows a lot of Samgirl blogs. And here's the major difference I've noticed on the different dashboards.

Deangirl dashboard: Great meta analysis. Beautiful art. Level 1 and 2 headcanons (largely based in canon). Pro-Dean. Stumble across reblogs of Deancrit. Bitter Deangirl blogging. Generally fair portrayal and discussion of the positive and negative traits and actions of Dean, Sam and Cas. Deanhater anons.

Samgirl dashboard: An entirely different pool of beautiful art. Whole lotta woobie!Sam art where Dean is his abuser. Deancrit about Dean being an abuser. Bitter Samgirl blogging about how people will find any excuse to hate Sam. "How can anyone be Samcrit he has done nothing wrong ever." Level 5 headcanons (you literally ignored canon to make that up). More about how Dean is Sam's abuser. So many posts about how awful Samcrit is. "Do Deangirls really think that Dean cries himself to sleep at night thinking that ppl thinks he doesn't know how to read." I have yet to see any actual Samcrit posts (not even links or reblogs from Sam defenders), not even after literally searching the Samcrit tag for it. The Samcrit tag is full of Samgirls crying about Samcrit and no actual Samcrit. "Samgirls are feral, but we need to be bc of the hate ppl throw Sam's way."

I literally have to block so many people on the incidentally Samgirl dashboard bc I'm not on Tumblr to randomly stumble across a post on how Dean is a toxic stalker who abused Sam by changing Amelia's number in his cellphone. Do you have any idea on why Samgirls seem to feel so attacked all the time even though I literally only ever see *them* attacking Dean?

If you dig deep enough into any fandom, you will encounter people who fetishize "helpless victimhood". Some fandoms attract more people with those particular proclivities than others. Supernatural and Sam in particular attracts people who hold those sorts of aesthetic interests because of his relationship toward accountability versus Dean's.

Dean is a character with an overactive sense of responsibility. He blames himself for the Lindbergh baby and unemployment and every child murdered by a shrtiga from 1990 to 2005 because he went to play an arcade game when he was 10. He also blames himself for things like Jessica dying and Sam not being in school. Other characters pile on this blame frequently. John blames Dean for Sam getting hurt (1.18). Ruby tells him (and Sam) that Sam is a weak baby who won't psychologically survive without Dean there to protect him (3.11). Meg alleges that Dean is "dragging Sam everywhere" (1.16). Sam rewrites reality from 1.05 to 1.21 to make Dean responsible for his burning desire for revenge. Cas and Zachariah and Gabriel blame Dean when Sam breaks the last seal because he didn't stop Sam in time. Sam blames Dean for him drinking demon blood first because Dean wasn't there to protect him and then—in a complete 180—because Dean is smothering (4.04, 5.05). Dean generally absorbs blame when it is piled at his feet because he has been blamed for things he couldn't control for most of his life and thus he feels guilty and responsible for things even when him being responsible makes no logical sense. He's never a victim of anything—everything is always on him.

Sam, on the other hand, tends to eventually deflect blame because he can't handle the gnawing bite of it for long. It reminds him too deeply of being left isolated and alone as a child and the feelings of otherness and wrongness he developed through that neglect. When his actions ultimately have consequences he didn't foresee and/or that he finds undesirable, it makes him feel ugly and unaccepted and he can't face it so he eventually finds a way to make what happened someone else's fault—usually Dean's fault. Nothing is ever on him. He's always at least a little bit of a victim and Dean always carries at least partial responsibility for his decisions (1.21, 1.08, 4.04, 5.05, 8.23, 11.01)

In other words, Sam has an under-active sense of responsibility and Dean has an overactive responsibility and that dynamic—driven by their childhood experiences—places them into a vicious cycle of blame being cast onto Dean for Sam's decisions and Dean absorbing it. Dean absorbing it reinforcing the narrative for samgirls with a victimhood fetish that Dean deserves blame and that Sam truly is a helpless baby. They never watch what actually happens on the show to see whether this narrative that Dean is responsible for everything and Sam is a helpless baby lines up with the actual events that occurred onscreen because why would they? That would ruin their enjoyment. Sam isn't interesting to them outside of his capacity to be mourned as some sort of helpless martyr. And yes—they will cry and moan about how horrible and unfair Sam's suffering is, but it isn't because they're having a bad time. They're having a great time. They love thinking about Sam that way. They wouldn't be here blogging about it day in and day out for the last 20 years if they didn't actually want to see exactly what they're seeing.

Related tags of note:

#sams motivations

#taurus sam in the flesh

#In which Sam is not a helpless little waif with his hands cast over his eyes being carried along by the tides of the immutable sea

#sam the hunter

#sams follower/leader false dichotomy

#parentification

[favcharacterpoll]

ROUND 4 MATCH 32: IANTO VS. NICO

Ianto Jones from Torchwood faces Nico di Angelo from the Riordanverse. Who do you like more?

Ianto Propaganda:

"He is just the sweetest man and he sacrificed himself for the good of the world"

"VOTE IANTO I actually don’t agree with his propaganda it really belittles his character makes his death seem more intentional than it was no he was a complex character who died tragically attempting to save the world he’s not that sweet and he wasn’t trying to be a martyr very woobie!Ianto wording there but yes he is a very beloved character because he’s a bitch and drives cars into bodies of water"

"ianto literally has a physical shrine in cardiff that's been there for so long it's a landmark on google maps"

"He looks good in a suit and makes FANTASTIC coffee"

Nico Propaganda:

"autism"

"YOU KNOW WHAT. if autism isn't enough to compel you to VOTE NICO then i will write this.

ok so he's gay & european (like the legally blonde song) and also a goth. we love our goths here on tumblr right?!

first i need to provide you a visual. please imagine a small italian boy. now imagine that small italian boy going through a time machine hotel casino in vegas, some wack crazy traumatic incidents, becoming an alt/emo kid and being so fucking powerful that even gods show a little more respect to him than others...

nico has gone through literal hell TWICE !! one time it was VOLUNTARY !! and all the while he was probably experiencing said hell in its most terrifying form. this shows us his mental resilience and selflessness are incredibly strong traits of his and that maybe he should stop being a reckless bitch but whatever !!!!!!

tumblrinas listen up... nico was the first canon lgbt+ character created by rick riordan in the chb chronicles (i am not counting all the other gods, goddesses, minor deities and other figures of greco-roman myth). he was the trailblazer. his story didn't end in tragedy, but he found friendship and love and family, which in this age of upsetting "bury your gays" media is still quite hopeful to read!!

nico has a sunshine bf who would literally walk through hell with him!! i'm not kidding. this actually happened. i'm sure he's definitely cheering from the sidelines somewhere... please do not let will solace down!!

did i mention nico's the son of hades, god of the underworld?? this means his powers include, but are not limited to, being able to communicate with spirits via mcdonalds happy meals, wielding a sword that rends souls asunder, turning people into ghosts, re-animating skeletons, shadow traveling and being able to read other people's death auras.

these powers and his terrifyingly grumpy personality (in earlier books) have created a reputation famous among the demigods and deities. also he literally summons an entire skeleton army and rises from the fucking underworld with his father, stepmother and step-grandmother (all gods) (how does this work) in tow, inspiring FEAR and PANIC among the enemy lines.

and if that's not enough, he's friends with lizard people, his signature items of clothing are a BIG AVIATOR JACKET + SKULL RING = VERY GOOD CHARACTER DESIGN and his hair canonically smells like rain on stone. just so you know

VOTE NICO VOTE NICO VOTE NICO !!!!!!!!!!!"

[dootznbootz]

Is there an opinion about greek myth someone might have that would make you not follow them? I am not necessarily talking about a super serious opinion, it could simply be a disagreement of opinion... It doesn't have to be a case of blocking, simply not following is okay...

Ohhh this is a super fun question!!! Thank you, dear anon! :D

It's also a very complex one for me :'D

As, well, I follow people who have some opinions that I vehemently disagree with :'D Some are friends and/or lovely people, and it's nice that tumblr allows blocking of TAGS so then I don't have to see content that I do NOT enjoy :D

As idk. Fandoms should be more about making friends than fighting about opinions. :) Plus, while we may disagree about certain stuff, doesn't mean we disagree about them all.

Saying this, if anyone I follow and/or are friends with see something I say is something I do not like and you DO like, don't take this to heart or think you have to change.

Anyways! :D

Things I do not like/hate but am fine with someone else enjoying and/or creating works with:

1.) OdyDio. I have the tag blocked and I don't read/look for stuff with them. I just really do not like that ship. (I have my reasons. Leave me alone.) BUT! I have friends who enjoy it BUT who also enjoy other things that we can chatter about! :D (If a blog ONLY does OdyDio then I will not follow.)

2.) "Astyanax lives" or anything that has Odysseus take him with him. I just...Don't think that poor lil baby should be with Odysseus :') Even if it is sad he dies, at least he's with Hector, his ACTUAL father who loves him so much. Also, I think it's really fucked that Andromache is still alive as Pyrrhus' concubine but her baby is going through the horrors of the Odyssey with some stranger. If Astyanax DOES live, he should be with his STILL alive MOTHER.

For him to be alive and to LIVE through the Odyssey, aka: Monsters, Odysseus being SA'd mULTIPLE times, starvation, etc. isn't "better" imo. Also it goes against the most profound part that is the Odyssey: "Odysseus is all alone. He's the only one left. He has lost all his friends. Yet, the thing that kept him going in the first place is still the reason why he persevered: His family. Getting back to them and holding them in his arms again."

3.) I prefer when folks have characters be nuanced, but it's not the end of the world if characters are a lil wooby. I would rather have characters woobified than demonized.

Things that are "unforgivable":

1.) Odysseus/Helen are cheaters who don't love their spouses at all. You're incredibly stupid if you read the Iliad and the Odyssey and thought that. Or honestly, if you have Odysseus a womanizer and/or Helen a "whore" then yeah, blocked.

2.) In general, if you're a "hater" of my faves then yeah, you'll probably be blocked. Cater your online experience :D

3.) In general, if you refuse to see the nuance of characters and/or not even see them as what they are for the MYTH. If you genuinely hate Zeus, not even seeing the other sides of him, then yeah, that's annoying as fuck. Don't go into Mythology if you can't handle characters/figures sucking sometimes. Some characters are supposed to be a lesson.

4.) if you're "girlbossing" Circe or Calypso? like making them out like they're not the complex goddesses they are? then yeah, no thank.

5.) The Tele-GONE-y. It was lost for a reason and I hate it and I won't have anything to do with it >:( (Except for fellow Trashcat.)

6.) honestly? If they're mean about things. :') like arrogance and/or just refusing to discuss things in a kind manner.

Idk, I get annoyed easily and I AM a trashcat about it but I also don't like ruining fun for other people. :P So I just block to make sure I'm not getting mad and they can have their fun :D

[lady-of-the-spirit]

Hannah I choose violence 3, 6, 12, 13, and 25!

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

not a screenshot but a copy&paste of the worst possible take on anything. it's about Scrooge: A Christmas Carol, the 2022 animated netflix movie.

Ok I watched Netflix’s Scrooge and somehow the story doesn’t make me go oh, what a happy ending. I don’t think Scrooge deserved all that

He ain’t a charity, he lends money. People know upfront they have to pay him back. It’s business. I get it when they want a day or two but that bold toy shop mf that had the audacity to dance on his coffin?? He asks for an entire week. I bet many of them already got extra time.

Then his employee. Was it fair of Scrooge to charge so much for the ink? No, but that guy can’t blame him for his boys demise. Like, he has child after child and struggles to take care of them all. Maybe don’t have that many kids if you can’t provide for them? I know these are different times but man, he even gives half of his earnings to charity instead of using it to buy food or medicine and then they blame Scrooge? What?

like. girl. what? how the fuck do you miss the point that badly????

6. which ship fans are the most annoying?

Destiel, no doubt about it. Shut the fuck up. why is everything about you. I hate this stupid ship and how much it takes over the fandom so much don't get me started.

oh, also tenrose shippers. same thing. not everything is about you. (and this is worse because I actually watched tenrose's season and they annoyed me so much.)

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

Sersi 💚 she's such a warm, sweet character!! she loves her friends a lot and is just trying to do her best, but she doesn't know what to do, but she keeps trying because she can't let everyone die. she's literally the heart of the movie and of the eternals themselves like if she wasn't there they'd fall to infighting immediately because like fuck would they be listening to Ikaris about anything if Ajak wasn't there.

13. worst blorboficiation

Dean Winchester. I'm a known hater. especially when people try to make him out to be like, the woobiest saddest little baby of all time. I'm sorry but I do not.

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

ngl I had to take a minute to think about this but... for the Ted Lasso fandom, I'm sick of hearing about the whole "Nate bullies Colin" stuff. Because it literally only happened that one time and Nate apologized!! And Colin accepted his apology! In front of the whole team! Meanwhile Nate never got apologized to by Colin (or the rest of the team) for his bullying of Nate. People like to blow it out of proportion to make Colin some sad woobie and like, he is, but not really about that, because that was one bully moment.

choose violence: fandom asks

[tavina-writes]

well now I'm curious about your beefs with till the end of the moon lol

Nonny, where do I even begin. Okay I'll begin with saying that @autumnslantern has probably written about this with more eloquence than I ever have and ever will, here, because Lantern is good at essay analyzing and I just shriek my frustrations like "cactus plant shrieks at clouds" into the void of my tumblr blog.

But I think the primary issue for me about TTEOTM isn't even the plot inconsistencies or the "fans of a thing that is not very good do not acknowledge that it's not very good" because neither of those two things bother me. Neither plot nor "it's not very good objectively" have ever deterred me from my love of a thing. I have watched some supremely badly created cdramas and come away feeling completely fulfilled in an iddy way and I grew up watching 80s cdramas so it doesn't matter to me if a show is camp or pretty or however.

BUT I think the reason I get bothered by TTEOTM is because I, okay, one I think I hyped it up for myself too much by going on spring planting back home when it was coming out so I was like "I WILL SAVE THIS, TO SAVOR IT ALL IN ONE GO! when I get back!!! :DDD" and also I consistently feel like I'm Charlie Brown and the Lucy-esque show writers will never let me kick the football.

My id can neither be fulfilled by the sad woobie meow meow who snaps and does murder, nor can it be fulfilled by the tragically burdened correct but suffering about it hero because this drama flip flops back and forth between these two things in a way that is just. really difficult for me to enjoy personally. Adding this to the plot and pacing difficulties as well as some of the ????? decisions in the editing room makes this very difficult for me to like.

Either TTJ is "suffers more than Jesus and is correct and good about it" or he's "tragically deranged and learns to love the world through the power of a principled bae" both of which are things I I adore and would eat with a spoon but this particular combination of "he suffers more than Jesus and is correct and good about it BUT he's also a deranged murder man who does very few actual murders and has to learn what love and goodness is through the....bae who never really expresses a lot of feelings about the world tbqh" kind of leaves me a bit twisting in the wind of "but. why though." and if I stop to ask "but why though" in a xianxia drama that's just not a good sign! I personally just didn't vibe with it.

I mean I vibed with some parts of it. I really wish there were more parts of it I vibed with. I really WANTED to vibe with more of it. But some part of me still feels like Charlie Brown being denied the ability to kick the football you know.

[cloudinterlude]

thanks for answering my ask! i actually love tony and i'm glad to see people also recognizing how wrong he's done in fanfic lol woobie tony (and woobie bucky too...) and mean steve (and mean sam...) makes me feel like I'm being gaslit 😭 like what movies did these people watch?? and then i remember they probably saw it once when it came out and only remember fanfic characterization and meta with no basis! anyway sorry for the rant lol 💜

Thank YOU for asking! I love chatting with people about the MCU (and other marvel projects). Its always nice to have some company especially since I'm relatively new on Tumblr and haven't had a chance to connect with anyone yet!

I also love Tony! He's such an interesting (and often agonizing) character to ponder about.

Slightly off topic before I continue: It's sometimes hard to find people who are the same as me in the fandom when it comes to having Steve as a fav, loving Tony, having them as MCU OTP, Team Cap CW, thinks the writers lost the plot during EG, some general character interpretations...ect ect. I probably need to branch out more but I think a lot of people with the same thoughts ditched the fandom after CW lmao! I get it. The discourse drives me crazy years later.

But yeah, woobie Tony, not my fav. I think it's the way people who write him that way also tend to fully demonize other characters in order to prop him. I think Tony has the potential to stand well without that aspect but many disagree apparently. Most popular fanon interpretations aren't my cup of tea. Canon isn't perfect at all, but I much prefer working with canon rather than tossing it (with a few distinct exceptions lol). I actually don't know much about how people write or talk about Bucky. I'm fairly neutral on him actually. I think he's interesting, I think he has a lot of potential to captivate me, but I haven't connected with him yet. But even with this, I can see how he's perfect woobie material. I think I'd go insane being a Bucky stan tbh.

Sam and Steve being written as demons straight from Hell always confuse me. People do this with Nat as well which breaks my heart. But the stuff people just make up drives me crazy! Especially when you got everyone and they mama pretending that it's canon. I feel completely blindsided 😭 You are so right with that.

No need to apologize for ranting in my asks! I love ranting, complaining, discussing, etc. It's fun and cathartic imo 🤷🏿‍♀️ And I love hearing other people's thoughts ♡

[rallamajoop]

Obsessed with you Dracula beauty and the beast au! Who are your top 5 favorite dracula characters?

Thank you very much, kind anon (and many apologies for all the months I've kept you waiting for a real answer). We still have stuff planned for that AU, but Em has been hella busy lately running conventions and recovering from covid and all that, and so things end up on the backburner longer than they really should.

Now, if you're asking me for my favourite characters in any version of Dracula, the top spot can only go to Peter Cushing's Van Helsing(s) from the Hammer Dracula films (a quick glance at my Peter Cushing tag will make this pretty hard to deny). But if we're talking Stoker's original Dracula novel, then VH is not even going to make the top 5.

So, without further ado:

1. Mina Murray/Harker Dracula is an ensemble novel, and Mina is neither the first nor the most vocal of our narrators, but there are ways in which it feels more like her story than any other single character's ‒ and I love Mina. Aggressively sensible and practical even in the face of horror, but still human enough to take the reader through a full roller coaster of emotional whammies, Mina is the kind of heroine you just don't get in gothic novels of the era ‒ or even most of the following century, sad to say. Even if the other characters' little Mina-appreciation-society thing gets a bit OTT towards the end of the book, it's not like they're wrong to appreciate her ‒ and I can only dream there might someday be a single adaptation of Dracula that really does her justice.

That said, there is a damn good Mina in the bizarre-by-excellent 2002 silent-film-ballet adaptation, Pages from a Virgin's Diary, played by CindyMarie Small. But my favourite 'Mina' from any adaptation would have to be Kate Nelligan from Universal's (WOEFULLY under-appreciated) 1979 Dracula, which is ironic for a number of reasons, not least of which that this is one of those adaptation which have swapped the names and spend the film calling her 'Lucy'. Getting back to the list, though, it probably won't surprise you to find that the two other characters who love Mina best take out spots 2 and 3.

2. Jonathan Harker Jonathan's the kind of character who could only have come out of the Victorian era, yet there's so much about his arc that feels subversive even today (and it's been so great to see tumblr take to him).

It's so easy to dismiss poor Jonathan as a coward, a weakling, a fool (plenty have) ‒ but then, people still just aren't comfortable seeing a male character so disempowered and traumatised by a predator like Dracula. It's all very well to do that sort of thing to Mina and Lucy, but to a man? Let alone a man who survives the experience, is "forgiven" by his pre-existing love-interest, recovers through the support and validation of friends and professionals, and goes on to get a happy ending. Nor does Jonathan get nearly enough credit for the way he evolves into a grim, knife-wielding badass towards the end of the novel, the first to throw himself into the fray with his old tormentor ‒ even the one to slice open Dracula's throat in the final moments of the book. He even manages to use his boring solicitor's-clerk skills to help bring Dracula down!

Now, I'm fully aware my opinion on Jonathan has been biased by seeing so many others express these same ideas (from Cleolinda's old posts to FFA's distinctive JONATHAN HARKER WOULD NEVER-anon, whose points I found so convincing I wound up kind of writing fic about it). But I don't just love Jonathan in spite of his detractors ‒ I love him because he's a heck of an endearing woobie-survivor all in his own right. Also, he and Mina are adorable, and goddamn do they earn that happy ending.

The only adaptation I've seen to come close to Getting Jonathan Harker Right would be Michael Pink's Dracula ballet (NOT to be confused with Pages from a Virgin's Diary, based on a completely different Dracula ballet ‒ seriously, there are so many), and even that refuses to give me any really good Jonathan-reference shots. So I'll just use this one again, which does at least tie into why so many mainstream audiences might find Jonathan's story (ahem) uncomfortable.

3. Lucy Westenra ‒ and she is so close behind Jonathan I could really just declare a tie. Here's the thing ‒ there's a 'Lucy' in every Victoran Gothic novel I've read* (because if the monster doesn't victimise some truly pure, sweet, innocent young soul, how will we know how monstrous he is?) She's always someone's love interest, and she usually dies tragically. It's the kind of role you could pretty much fill with a demure lamp ‒ so it says a lot that of all those Lucies, this is one one who feels like a real character to me.

Lucy may be sweet and fragile and sheltered, but she still gets to do things. She expresses herself as eloquently as any other narrator, she turns down two proposals because she knows her own heart too well to lead anyone else on ‒ and even in the wake of her weeks of illness and own mother's death, she has the presence of mind to take charge, calm the servants, and write down a record of events she knows she might not live to tell. In a book with three proposals, two engagements, and one wedding, I will still argue that easily the best-developed relationship is the one between Lucy and Mina ‒ some of the most memorable chapters of Dracula are just the two of them, exchanging correspondence and spending time together. In other words, I can buy Lucy as a person, not just an ideal ‒ and that only makes her death all the more tragic.

It's one thing to tell me how lovable a character is supposed to be ‒ it's another to actually make me love them, and Stoker actually pulls that off.

It seems to take a ballet to really get Lucy right, so have another pic from Pages from a Virgin's Diary (Michael Pink's Lucy is also great, as is Krzysztof Pastor's ‒ did I mention there are SO MANY?). And let's throw in that great Disney-Lucy concept from Joseph Szekeres again, while we're at it.

4. Quincey Morris Quincey's an odd one: a character who was obviously supposed to be much more important in Stoker's early concepts, but whose role in the finished book is mostly limited to bringing the tally of Lucy's suitors up to a round 3. But whenever he's actually on page, he's just such a breath of fresh air! In a novel packed with long-winded, very-British characters (and Van Helsing, who's only worse), Quincey will reliably cut to the heart of the matter in a handful of words. In a world where Jonathan takes a week to figure out he's dealing with a vampire, Van Helsing won't say a word without being allotted time to prepare the equivalent of a full powerpoint presentation, and Seward never even comes up with a theory as to where all Lucy's blood is even going, Quincey shows up in the morning and has figured out that this sure does look like a vampire problem before lunch. And while everyone else is busy having an extremely-long-winded strategy meeting, Quincey's the only one to notice a suspiciously-large bat hanging out over the window and go for his sidearm. Arthur really couldn't have had a better, er 'friend' to 'comfort' him after Lucy's death (if you know what I mean). Quincey's great.

I can't even really complain that Quincey's so ignored in most Dracula-adaptations ‒ it's a long book, and you've got to cut something. But he does at least appear in Michael Pink's ballet, so have a pick of him and Arthur having a threesome er, dancing with Lucy.

5. Dracula. Look, you can't do a top-X-Dracula-characters and not find space for Dracula himself. What do you think this book is about? For a figure who's been adapted, reinvented, and flanderised to the point of absurdity over the last century, there is something rather charming about going all the way to back in the Stoker's novel, and discovering that even the original Dracula was simultaneously utterly terrifying, and kind of ridiculous. He brings living babies home in sacks to feed his wives! (He meets Jonathan on the road in what has to be a fake beard.) He arrives in Britain aboard a ghost ship in the midst of a storm! (He prepares for the journey by amassing a teaboo-level 'research library', and tries to blend in by wearing a straw-boater hat.) He delivers an extended, gloating speech about the futility of his enemies' crusade against him, when he's already claimed both their women! (Then he turns tail and flees before they can catch up with him.) I will never know if Stoker meant all this stuff to be as funny as it is to me, but I love it all regardless. On some level, even the OG Count Dracula was as human as any of us.

Obviously, I had to include Christopher Lee's Dracula here, but I am also inordinately fond of Johnny Chang's Dracula from Pages from a Virgin's Diary,

* The others would be Elizabeth from Frankenstein, Flora from Varney the Vampire, and Sybil from Dorian Grey, if you want to know.

So, in conclusion... well, there's a lot to love about Stoker's characters and his novel that you won't find in any adaptation ‒ but some of the ballet versions come pretty close. What can I say, apparently some gothic novels just call for OTT musical adaptation.

...and on that note, I really should poke Em a bit about how that next Harker-and-the-Beast bit is coming along. *g*

[syn0vial]

3, 8, 13, 16, & 24 (if that's not too many at once !!)

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

honestly, whenever i see a bad take, i endeavor to forget it as soon as possible so it can no longer make me mad. so, whatever is the worst take i've seen, i've certainly already scrubbed it from my mind. sorry, i'm boring

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

dave filoni and jon favreau are often touted as the saviors of star wars, but everything i've seen from them has been pretty mid tbh

13. worst blorbofication

gavin reed from DBH. i don't even go here and even i'm baffled by the amount of fangirls who portray him as some poor, misunderstood woobie even though his role in the story is to be the unrepentent personfication of violent racism.

also, on a related note, in my one playthrough of DBH, i avoided gavin like the plague bc he annoyed me so much, so connor's only major interaction with him was when gavin tried to stop him from getting into the evidence locker and connor immediately decked him in the face. man wanted so badly to be my connor's nemesis and all he got was ignored and unceremoniously punched out. more like gavin left-on-read am i right

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

i'd say boba fett's characterization in TBoBF but tbh i haven't met many people who actually like it :,D

other than that… i can think of many characterizations, tropes, and headcanons that i disagree with, but none where i can't understand the appeal at all. for example, characterizations of boba where he's super suave and charismatic may as well not be boba fett at all as far as i'm concerned, but i understand that some people enjoy having him play that role for shippy purposes. it's not my thing, but i Get it.

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

idk about topics (any topic can elicit rancid discourse if the person talking about it is unhinged enough), but any take from an under-20 tumblr user who opens their post by angrily decrying huge portions of the fandom as "freaks" is bound to be insufferable

[icharchivist]

You are so right

It would be easy to say Lucilius was a poor little woobie who did nothing wrong and was right to lash out at God and his own creation because they were mean to him :( But it would be boring

Similarly, knowing Belial has free will and used that free will to ironically dig his heels into his purpose and ignore his free will is tons more interesting than if he really were just a machine following programming

Knowing that he made those choices, to double down and be horrible and petty and murderous, is the reason why I want to put him under the microscope and watch him so much

Same with Lucilius

They are so interesting because they are so fucked up. That's a feature, not a bug

People who insist their blorbo never did anything wrong are boring and also have very poor media literacy, because it's the flaws that make a character interesting

I had a friend who was neutral on Belial and his sluttiness and only started getting invested when I explained what else he's got going on besides his cheese grater abs

Anyway

I guess we really are lucky that those people wouldn't touch this little corner of tumblr with a ten foot pole so we can keep putting cat ears on everyone and having drama free fun

Lucilius would be adorable with cat ears btw

I'm so glad we agree there, so so much

And yeah exactly!!! exactly exactly, they're just fucked up little dudes. They have reasons that make them sympathetics but that doesn't change the horrors. and it's INTERESTING.

idk for me it is ultimately a major disservice to the characters to just brush off the amount of responsabilities they have or guilt and stuff like that.

I remember i got in an argument about it on a vastly more unproblematic fav, when talking about Seox, because i disliked seeing people say Seox has nothing to feel guilty about because he "did nothing wrong", unrelated to even just the drug (though the drug was an added argument), but because the people he killed deserved it, and i remember being upset at it because even if Seox had no agency in it (and that's a BIG DEAL), he still killed people, and innocent ones too. The fact Seox had no agency, the fact there were his abusers in the middle, of course means Seox should be easier on himself, of course it means Seox is a victim in all of this. But i think it's doing a disservice to both him and Nehan to say he "did nothing wrong". He did wrong. He had no choice but to do wrong. And this is a guilt that he will forever carry because instead of thinking he can just chose to do the right thing, he has to be held down by the fear that losing control will make him do wrong.

And it's why those characters are interesting, and it always baffles me when trying to paint them as doing nothing wrong, or that actually the end justifies the means, or any type like that.

Like i swear it is much more fun to accept a character with their flaws and downside, and especially the ugly sides of them, than to pretend it's not there.

Anyway. yeah. I'm just glad those people probably won't touch my blog ever lmao. And now that i have a Belial disclaimer in my bio, i feel like if they interreact with me, they just ignored my biggest red flag smh.

AND NOW WE'RE TALKING

Nyacilius.

[justmenoworries]

I saw you reblogged an alphabet based ask meme so do you mind answering

J U S T M E O W R I N

Sorry but your url repeated some letters haha

J - Name a fandom you didn’t think about until you saw it all over Tumblr. (You don’t have to care about it or follow it; it just has to be something that Tumblr made you aware of.)

What We Do in the Shadows. Honestly, I still don't know much about it. From what I've gatjered it's a parody reality show with vampires instead of normal humans.

And one of the characters shares a name with my favorite director, is a vampire hunter but also dates one of the vampires, I think?

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

Soundwave from Transformers. Because he's cool and his bond with his little cassetes is adorable when it's done right. Even Evil has Loved Ones at its finest.

Shadow the Hedgehog from the Sonic franchise. He's cute and I love him and he's my blorpo and Sega hasn't treated him right since Sonic 06. Fingers crossed for the third Sonic movie.

Undyne from Undertale. Cool knight-fishlady who gets overshadowed by funny bone man a lot of the time. She's a badass, I wish the fandom would treat her as more than a one-off joke. Justice for the Murder Mermaid.

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged)

Ummm, my personal headcanon is that Pokémon can communicate verbally with their trainers and their trainers will be able to understand them just fine.

This isn't based on anything, I just write my Pokémon ocs that way because it's easier than playing Lassie-pantomimes in-story.

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending?

Not really.

All of my headcanons are pretty malleable.

(M was already answered in a previous ask.)

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom? If so, what?

Not that I know of.

O - Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of?

I Really Want Go to Stay At Your House by Rosa Walton

Reminds me of White Tiger, an OC ship of mine.

W - A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.

Easily Forgiven.

I hate snapshot redemptions with all my heart.

Let redeemed villains face consequences for their actions instead of portraying them as misunderstood woobies who just need to have a good cry to make the heroes forget all the orphanages they burned down.

R - Which friendship/platonic relationship is your favorite in fandom?

Papyrus/Undyne.

They're both dorks, but one is also a jock. It's a really underrated dynamic.

I - Has Tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why?

The Klancers (Keith x Lance shippers) really soured Voltron: Legendaty Defender for me.

They made practically everything about their ship and harassed anybody wo just didn't see it.

I'm glad Allurance got canonized.

Reading the dozens of salty Klancers crying about it was funny. Which is probably the only positive impact those people will ever have on my life.

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

I'm picking the Undertale fandom, just because.

I'd like more AUs that revolve around characters other than the skelebros. I've recently come across Undying Determination, an AU where Undyne in her Undying form goes up against a genocidal human after Sans dies and I loved reading it so far. More of that, please.

I want people to stop demonising Toriel. She's not perfect by any means, but she really doesn't deserve the hate she seems to getfrom the majority of the fandom nowadays. People seem to forget that at the end of the day she is a traumatized mother trying her best. She's not some heartless harpy out to ruin Asgore's life and I wish people would sop portraying her as such.

Also, I wish people wouldn't use Undyne solely to prop up other characters. Whenever she shows up in AUs you can bet it's only to get upstaged. Mostly by Sans, because even five years later the fandom is just obsessed with him. Undyne is a badass in her own right, stop reducing her to the hypeman or the character who gets beaten up to establish the severity of the threat. My girl didn't whoop the players' asses with nothing but her own determination in the genocide run to be disrespected like this.

[sdwolfpup]

I posted 3,593 times in 2022

87 posts created (2%)

3,506 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@it-may-be-dull-but-im-determined

@scoundrels-in-love

@mikkeneko

@favorite-ginger

@twelvemonkeyswere

I tagged 3,589 of my posts in 2022

#gif set - 429 posts

#video - 365 posts

#lol - 283 posts

#jaime x brienne - 259 posts

#fanart - 232 posts

#lmao - 230 posts

#f1 - 180 posts

#sebastian vettel - 151 posts

#tumblr life - 137 posts

#asoiaf - 133 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#and to every otw volunteer who works hard through a lot of shit on a regular day to bring us something i now cannot imagine fandom without

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I think a lot about "morally gray Brienne" and what George's intention is with her arc, about the fandom's tendency to believe that what she has to learn is what they think Jaime will teach her, which is that she's going to have to compromise her morals and become less "pure" because that's the way the world works. That he's going to make her more cynical as a sign of growth.

I've never liked that possibility, myself. But I've never been able to actively articulate what it is I do hope Brienne learns; how I hope she'll change in George's arc without losing her innate hope and belief.

I realized today while scrolling my dash that this tumblr post is what I do actually want her growth to be. That Jaime will tell her the equivalent of this, from that post (bolded parts from the post, but relevant):

There’s something bad about everything if you dig deep enough. As long as we live in flawed human societies we’ve got to make the best of what they offer us. If you have the choice and means, please, do support those who do good, but also, don’t beat yourself up over not living up to an unattainable ideal.

No one can. You’ll just make yourself so miserable, you either burn up and stop fighting entirely or you’ll make yourself a non-productive, depressed heap just out of a bleeding heart left unchecked. You can’t make a change to this world if you refuse to engage in it.

I don't think Brienne refuses to engage in their world right now, but I do see her -- especially after whatever happens with Lady Stoneheart -- potentially shutting down because of the horror of what she feels she's forced to do, the fact that sometimes there is no good option; that sometimes the good option is doing what it takes to keep yourself going and that's okay.

I think Jaime's power is that he understands that deeply, he's just gotten so sunk in the choices he's made in multiple bad situations that he thinks there's never a good choice, and I think that's where they can meet in the middle and help each other become the best versions of themselves: she can give him the hope to fight and he can give her the strength to.

130 notes - Posted October 29, 2022

#4

So am I to understand --

that this is Dracula:

247 notes - Posted May 15, 2022

#3

All of Dracula was worth it for this one, sarcastic line:

I have always thought that a wild animal never looks so well as when some obstacle of pronounced durability is between us

Perfect, no notes, continue onward with great joy, Mr. Pall Mall Gazette Reporter.

412 notes - Posted September 18, 2022

#2

Something something the parallels between Dracula and his three women and Lucy and her three men, all bound by the blood they've given/had taken, send post.

845 notes - Posted September 18, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

My favorite thing about Dracula Daily Tumblr Edition is that we have all gone from "look at our good friend adorable woobie Jonathan Harker discovering spices" to "RIP HIS THROAT OUT, J-HARK, YOU'VE GOT THIS."

4,583 notes - Posted October 17, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[asksoldieron]

SO-3: Don't You "Sugar" Me!

If there's a lot of engagement on this, this post is liable to get real long, beware before you expand.

I'll edit in the real art once I make some!

Welcome to the Engagement Lounge, for The Teapot Om (SO-3) an instalment! (I can't resist a reprehensible pun. Best you find that out now!) Short comments can go in the replies, but there's a 475 character limit. Longer ones will need a reblog. Remember to @asksoldieron if you're reblogging someone else's reblog, so I can see it too!

I wrote part of this instalment almost five years ago and managed to use most of it! With minor continuity corrections, of course😉. My timeline notes for this actually say "The Teapot Om (am I gonna keep that?)" I did!

The spouse and I were having a chat over ciders about Tumblr sexymen. We agreed on David, right away. If anyone noticed him, David would be there right away. We thought Milo and Erik might get there eventually. I asked him if he hadn't considered Seth and John. He surprised me with "No way."

He's been Tumblring longer than I have, so maybe he has a better feel for it. His first criteria that they failed me meet, "Some kind of dom energy." I pointed out "Seth is canonically [SPOILER, REDACTED] and John is doing kidnapping and mind control!" "Yeah, but they don't enjoy it."

Second criteria: "They need to be willing to sing 'How Bad Can I Be?'" Oh, no! That's a blast from Tumblr's embarrassing past! But maybe he's not wrong? Bill Cipher and Sans and He Who Shall Not Be Named and Alastor all have that in spades. There are others who don't, but he would classify them as "woobies" or "wet little meow-meows." That's where Seth and John belong!

"What if they'd sing 'Biggering'?" I asked. That's the original, darker cut of "How Bad" with more metal. I could definitely see Seth and Erik getting sucked into that. Try-Hard People-Pleaser to Force of Destruction is a vibe for both of them, at different times (and once at the same time!).

"Nah, that won't do it," he decided.

John may have escaped being drawn as a sexy white anime boy just because he's sad and conflicted! Or because he's obscure and nobody's looking and they never will! Ha, I'm a curdled idealist, so that means I'm a cynic. I can't always tamp it down, I'm sorry. I'm trying to have more compassion for myself. Really. It's a process.

John hides in the bathroom with the fan on and the shower going full blast when he's having a freakout. That will be important later!

[Back to the Site?]

[olderthannetfic]

I don't like the trend of labelling fandom doing common fandom things as racist the moment a property with characters who aren't white gets popular. I remember when Encanto came out I, even before seeing the movie, knew there would be a shit ton of incest shipping and tons of "the big mean family doesn't understand poor woobie Mirabel and might even be abusive" fic with the mysterious rat man already a fan favourite and commonly paired with her in a (mostly) platonic kindred spirit way. The shapeshifter is gonna get a lot of genderqueer headcanons too obviously.

And guess what? I was right! Of course I was fucking right. Because certain tropes and archetypes often inspire similar fandom responses. Incest is obvious, the main focus is a large blood family and their relationships. Even before the lack of named or significant characters outside the family, incest was inevitable. The Loud House, which is another family friendly cartoon focusing on a large family, is basically all incest.

Mirabel is the oddball who, while not truly neglected, is sidelined by her family on accident due to them being wonderfully flawed characters, so of course fandom exaggerates that for drama sometimes to outright abuse. Mirabel then gets to call them all out or show them up or whatever for that sweet catharsis, or it's used to focus on Mirabel bonding with The One Person (usually fellow outcast Bruno) Who Understands and Validates Her.

And I'm pretty sure the internet wanted to either fuck or hug Bruno from the moment they saw his sad face. Instant Tumblr sexyman. He can do not wrong and anyone who hurt him even accidentally is evil.

Honestly the Encanto fandom (and similar) has been relatively less those things as well compared to other (whiter) fandoms with the same general archetypes and plot-type. More restrained. Which im not complaining personally, I don't like incest, but also I think if you want media starring POC to be popular people need to suck up the fact that fandom will do as fandom does. And I don't mean the actual racist stuff, of which there is a lot but is still less yelled about compared to to the stuff I just talked about despite being obviously more important, there is a problem of people being racist even when they focus on POC characters or double-standards compared to white characters. I just mean stuff that might make people uncomfortable or not focused on the meaningful themes or even a popular fandom trend that happens to align with a shitty stereotype but is legitimately just a thing fandom likes even with white characters.

I've also noticed a lot of pedestal-placing for POC characters which annoys me because I liked those flawed characters but fuck me for enjoying nuanced writing and characters I guess. At least bashers usually label their shit when they decide to make them abusive or evil or incompetent. They're not perfect that's why I like them. STOP MAKING THEM PERFECT!!! It's boring as hell and you can tell the fans overcompensating which feels weird.

--

I haven't seen this movie, but Bruno is super hot.

[scorpionyx9621]

Do you think Jason Todd fandom is kinda toxic? Because it seems like NO MATTER what DC do, there'll always be complains. Forget the bad adaptation like Titans. Even Judd Winick cannot escape the criticism with how he potrayed Robin!Jason. They just never satisfied.

SORRY, IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO RESPOND TO THIS. I just moved from Washington D.C. to Seattle, which, for my non-American friends, that's 4442km away. And I DROVE THERE ALL BY MYSELF. And now I'm trying to find new work in a new city and trying to stay mentally healthy and positive. Life is exciting but hard and scary.

*sighs*

As someone who was a fandom elder with V*ltr*n. I've seen some of the worst when it comes to fandom behavior. I'm talking people baking food with shaving razors and trying to give them to the showrunners. I'm talking leaking major plot details and refusing to take it down unless they make their ship canon (I am looking at you, Kl*nce stans) For the most part, DC Comics has had a decades-long reputation of treating their fans like trash and not caring what they think so from what I've seen, we all just grumble and complain in our corners of the internet about how we don't like how X comic portrays Jason Todd.

The challenge with Jason Todd is that he's your clinical anti-hero, the batfamily's Draco in Leather Pants, he's a jerkass woobie, and on top of all of that, he's a Tumblr sexyman. It's a perfect storm for a very fun but frustrating character to be a fan of. It doesn't help that every writer decides to re-invent the wheel every time Jason comes up so his canon lore is confusing at best and inconsistent as a standard.

I guess starting with a general brief on who Jason is and what is uniform about him with every instance he's appeared in comics/media.

Grew up in a poor family in Gotham with a dad who was a petty-mid-level criminal, and a mother who dies of a drug overdose.

Survives on the street on his own by committing petty crimes and potentially even engaging in sexual acts to keep himself alive.

Is cornered by Batman and taken in after Dick Grayson quits/is fired

Becomes the second Robin, but is known for being the harsher, more brutal Robin.

Is killed by Joker after being tortured, but somehow comes back to life and regains senses through the Lazarus Pit

Resolves himself to be better than Batman by basically being Batman but kills people.

Where there has been a lot of conflict in the fandom is the fact that Jason Todd is not a character that is written consistently. DC Comics loves to go with the narrative that Jason was "bad from the start" and was the "bad robin" when, yes, he has trouble controlling his anger, but he also still is just as invested in seeing the best of Gotham City and trying to be a positive change for the world as any other DC Comics hero.

Where I get frustrated with the fandom is its ability to knit-pick every detail of a comic they don't like while completely disregarding everything that makes the comics great and worth it to read. My example being Urban Legends. To which most people had pretty mixed reactions to. I was critical of the comic at first but as it went along I ended up really liking it. I have a feeling DC Comics went to Chip Zdarsky and told him he had 6 issues to bring Jason back into the Bat Family, and honestly he didn't do a bad job. Did it feel rushed? Absolutely. I wish there was more development of Jason and Bruce's characters and their dynamic as a whole. However, where I see a lot of people being angry and upset with Urban Legends is that they feel Zdarsky needlessly wrote Jason as an incompetent fool who needs Bruce to save him.

Whether or not that was the intention of Zdarsky is up to debate. However, and this may be controversial, but I don't think he wrote Jason Todd out of character at all. For as fearsome, intimidating, and awesome as Red Hood is. Jason is a character who is absolutely driven by his emotions. Why do you think he donned the role of Red Hood? As a response to his anger towards The Joker for killing him, and towards Bruce for not taking action against The Joker and for seemingly replacing him so quickly after he died. Jason didn't care about being the murderous Robin Hood or for being the bloody hammer of justice against N*zi's and P*d*ph*les. He only cared originally about making The Joker and Bruce pay. It wasn't until he trained under the best assassins in the world and realized most of them were horrific criminals who trafficked children and were p*dos that Talia began to realize that the teachers that she sent Jason to train under started dying horrific and painful deaths.

The entire story of the Cheer story in Batman Urban Legends was started because it finally forced some consequences upon Jason. Tyler, aka Blue Hood's father was a drug dealer who gave his supply to his wife and kids. And when Tyler's father admitted he gave the drugs to Tyler, it immediately made him fall within the self-imposed philosophical kill-list of Jason Todd. And Jason, well, he proceeds to kill Tyler's father. When this happens, Jason is in shock. Tyler's dad fit the bill to easily and justifiably be killed by Jason. We've never seen Jason having to deal with the consequences of being a murderous vigilante on a micro-level. When Jason realizes what he's done in that he's murdered Tyler's dad, he's shocked. He tells Babs the truth. He does a rational thing because he's in shock. He doesn't know what to do, he never has had to face the consequences of his actions as Red Hood and now the gravity of befriending a child as a vigilante hero who kills people just set in when he killed the father of the same child he was just introduced to.

(Oh here's a little aside because it had to be said, Jason would not have been a good father or a good mentor to Tyler and absolutely should not have been his new Robin. Jason is a man who is in his early 20's (not saying men in their early 20's can't be good fathers at all) who is a brutal serial killer using the guise of a vigilante anti-hero to let him escape most of the law. the complications of having the man who murdered your father adopt you and make you his sidekick are way too numerous for me to explain in a long-winded already heavy Tumblr essay post. There's a reason why we don't advocate for a story where Joe Chill adopted Bruce Wayne or one where Tony Zucco took in Dick Grayson.)

The next biggest argument is that they feel that Jason is giving up his guns as a means to just be invited back into the Bat-Family. To which I will tell anyone who has that argument to go actually read Urban Legends. Already have and still have that argument? Please re-read it. Don't want to? That's okay, I will paste the images from the comic where Jason specifically says that he doesn't want to give up his weapons for Bruce and his real reasoning down below since the comic isn't exactly readily accessible.

Jason gave up the guns because he felt the gravity of what he had done and knows how it'll effect Tyler. Thankfully his mom is alive and in recovery. But Tyler doesn't have a father anymore. And Jason killed Tyler's father. It may have been in accordance to Jason's philosophy, but it was a case where it blurred the lines. Jason Todd isn't a black and white character, just very dark gray. He doesn't kill aimlessly like the Joker. If you are on Jason's list you probably have done something pretty horrific, and also just in general, being in his way or being a threat to him. Mind you, in early days of Red Hood and the Outlaws (Image below) Jason almost killed 10 innocent civilians in a town in Colorado all because they saw him kill a monster. That being said, Jason isn't aimless in his kills.

(Also can we just take a moment to appreciate Kenneth Rocafort's art? DC Comics said we need to rehabilitate Jason Todd's image and Kenneth Rocafort said hold my beer: It's so SO GOOD)

That being said, the key emphasis in the story of Cheer asides from trying to introduce Jason Todd back into the Bat Family and give an actual purpose for him being there, other than him just kind of being there ala Bowser every time he shows up for Go Kart racing, Tennis, Golf, Soccer, and the Olympic games when Mario invites him, is that Jason and Bruce ultimately both want the same thing. Jason wants to be welcomed back into the family and to be loved and appreciated. Bruce want's Jason back as his son and wants to love and protect Jason. Both of these visions are shown in the last chapter of Cheer while under the effect of the Cheer Gas. It's ultimately this love and appreciation they both have for each other that helps them overcome their challenge and win.

Jason Todd is a character who, just like Bruce, has been through so much pain and so much hate in his life. The two are meant to parallel each other. While Bruce chose to see the best in everyone, giving every rogue in his gallery the option to be helped and give them a second chance, hence why he never kills, Jason has a similar view on wanting to protect the public, but he understands that some crimes are so heinous they cannot be forgiven, or that some habitual criminals are due to stay habitual criminals, and need to be put down. But at the end of the day, the two of them both try to protect people in their own ways.

I am aware that through the writings of various DC Comics authors such as Scott Lobdell and Judd Winick, the two have had a very tumultuous relationship. And rightfully so, I am by no means saying that Scott Lobdell writing an arc where Bruce literally beats Jason to within an inch of his life in Red Hood and the Outlaws, nor Judd Winick's interpretation of Under the Red Hood where Bruce throws the Batarang at Jason's neck, slicing his throat and leaving him ambiguously for dead at the end of the comic is appropriate considering DC Comics seems to be trying everything they can to integrate Jason back into the family. That being said, a lot of these writings have shaped the narrative of Jason and Bruce's relationship and have an integral effect on the way the fandom views the two. It doesn't help that Zdarsky acknowledged Lobdell's life-beating of Jason by Bruce at the very end of Cheer by having Bruce give Jason his old outfit back as a means of mending the fence between the two of them. That does complicate a lot of things in terms of how they are viewed by the fandom and helps to cause an even greater divide between the two.

Regardless, I want to emphasize the fact that Jason Todd is a part of the family of his own accord. Yes, he's quite snarky and deadpan in almost every encounter. However, Jason is absolutely a part of the family and has been for a while of his own will. There's a great moment in Detective Comics that emphasizes this. Jason cares about his family because it is his found family. Yes, they may be warry about him and use him as a punching back and/or heckle him. At the end of the day, we're debating the family dynamics of a fictional playboy billionaire vigilante whose kleptomania took the form of adopting troubled children and turning them into vigilante heroes. Jason Todd wants a family that will love and support him. This is a key definition of his character at its most basic. This was proven during the events of Cheer and is being reenforced by DC Comics every time they get the opportunity to do so.

Now, none of this is to say that I hate Judd Winick. I do not, I don't like the fact that in all of his writings of Jason, he just writes him as a dangerous psychopath, and Winick himself admits to seeing Jason as nothing much more than a psychopath. Yet Winick is the one who the majority of the fandom clings to as the one true good writer of Jason Todd because 'Jason was competent, dangerous, smart' Listen, friends, Jason is all of that and I will never deny it. However, what I love about Jason isn't that he's dangerously smart of that writers either write him as angsty angry Tumblr sexyman bait or that they write him as an infantile man child with a gun. There's a large contention of this fandom that has an obsession with Jason Todd being this vigilante gunman who is hot and sexy and while I definitely get the appeal. It is very creepy and downright disturbing that all of you hyperfixate on his use of guns and ability to be a murderer. It is creepy and I'm not necessarily here for it.

What I love about Jason Todd is that despite all of the pain, all of the heartache, all of the betrayal, and bullying, and death, and anguish. Jason Todd is one of the most loving and supportive characters in all of DC Comics. Jason has been through so much in his life, but he still chooses to love. He still chooses to see the bright side in people. Yes, he takes a utilitarian approach and chooses to kill certain villains, but at the end of the day he wants to see a better world, and he wants to be loved. It takes so much courage and so much heart to learn to love again after one has been abused or traumatized. I would not blame Jason at all if he said fuck it and just went full solo and vigilante evil. He has every right to, but he still chooses to be with the Bat Family of his own accord. That's something that I see a lot of in myself. I have been through a lot of trauma and yet I try to be a better person myself in any way that I can. It is extremely admirable of Jason to allow love back into his heart when he really doesn't need to. He kills and he protects because he has this love of society. It may have been shaped by anger and hatred, but Jason has found his place amongst people who love him and value him. I think Ducra, from Red Hood and the Outlaws put it best in the image given below.

To end this tangent, I love Jason Todd and all of his sexy dangerousness, but it's far more than that. As much as Jason may be dangerous and snarky, he loves his family without a shadow of a doubt. I look up to Jason Todd because despite all of his pain and all of his trauma, he still choses to love. Jason Todd is a character who is someone I love because despite all of his flaws and having a very toxic fandom, he still serves as a character filled with so much heart and so much passion. I wish more writers would understand that. But for now I will live with what I have. Even though the fandom may be vocal about it's hatred for his characterization, I choose to love Jason regardless because he is a character who chooses love and acceptance regardless of his pain. Jason Todd is by no means a good person in any sense of the word. He has easily killed upwards of 100 people by now. He is a character who is flawed and complex but ultimately is one who powers forwards and finds love and heart in a place from so much pain and anguish. That is what I love about Jason Todd. After all, to quote a famous undead robot superhero, "What is grief, if not love persevering?" Jason Todd chooses to love despite all of the trauma and pain and grief. Yes, he is hardened in his exterior, but inside there is a man with a lot of love to give and someone who deserves the world in my eyes.

[arcane-ish]

Talking Ships: Viktor/Jayce (JayVik)

I probably like JayVik a lot less than most people. That said, when it comes to their League interpretation, I find it interesting that when it comes to enemy couples ala Superman and Lex Luthor, that is unusual here is that Jayce is just a vain ass. When usually most of those antagonist couples have the “good” guy be morally unyielding on some level. So this strikes me as a bit of an interesting twist. That said, friends to enemies has never been a big kink of mine. 

When it comes to their show incarnation, I think the problem is that I just can see them as onesided at the most. Like I can buy Viktor as gay pining, I can buy him as homoromantic asexual, I can buy him as just not interested, but I guess I just fundamentally don’t buy that Jayce loves him enough. 

Like, on an intellectual level I get the Viktor is a woobie to people and they want somebody to love and cherish him, but I just do not buy Jayce in that role. I don’t really see what Jayce has ahead of let’s say Bob the non-existing janitor. Or that Sky girl. Or Mel. 

And then it comes to science, what he has ahead of Heimer or Jinx and Ekko. Like,I find it easier to imagine Viktor and Ekko as happy science boyfriends (think about it, Ekko is the Zaunite smart guy who didn’t get picked up by the academy, while Viktor did (at the very least that would lead to really interesting conversations), Ekko despite being a tinkerer is all emotion and social while Viktor is just the opposite). Or to imagine what hilarious interactions Viktor would have with chaotic tinker genius Jinx. 

But then again, my problem is that generally I don’t think they have done a great job of really portraying the science, so far. It’s funny, for all the time we are told Viktor and Jayce spend in the lab, it’s Jinx’s tinkering that feels more real to me.. Jayce’s road into science is just so magic based and I just genuinely don’t really buy him as being really excited by tinkering  (of course that might change in Act 3, this is just my feeling as of Act 2).   

Anyway I get the attachment to their previous incarnation and I get that this is a really cool moment/sequence of events: 

And ships have been launched on a lot less, but for me personally 

Let’s talk Viktor

I get why Viktor triggers the woobie bones of people like crazy (nerd with health issues and problems talking to people seems perfect for tumblr folk to project on). Considering Viktor’s reluctance to interact with others in other situation it almost seems a bit how he approached Jayce. Like I get it, he saw something in Jayce’s writings and he probably thinks the politics of the council are a waste of time. Still, I feel like there could have been a bit more oomph? Like maybe cut the scene with Heimer and instead have Viktor have a bigger reaction to Jayce’s trial. But this is a bit of mirror to what I said about Vi and Cait, that the episode in question was very Jayce centered (ie giving him that scene with Cait and her mom and with his own mom). 

Anyway, I read somebody’s meta on the introduction of Viktor’s sickness. I tend to agree, particularly in how that story isolated Viktor and kind of robbed us of the chance of seeing Viktor make new connections and interact with other characters and get the chance to be funny or snarky or interesting. It’s possible that Viktor is supposed to be one track mind and focused (though he displays some humor and personality in Act 1), but this storyline basically forced him to be. 

An unfortunate side effect is that his Viktor’s concern for the people imo comes off as pretty hollow in the show, we never see him interact with Zaunites, we never see him interacting with any of the people who would actually use his gadgets. Me mostly have Viktor’s speech in Act 1 and we can infer and theorize that some of the situations in his life arise from discrimination, but we don’t actually see this get acted out. Ie when he doesn’t want to go on stage we don’t know if this is from his insecurity or because people wouldn’t want him there. Same in how much Jayce’s rise to person whose face is on billboards is because Viktor has social anxiety or no interest in those things and how much of it is people not like people from Zaun. We also don’t know how much of his potential social anxiety is because of the rejection of Zaunites, again because we only get his tale of it, but it is not visualized in a visceral way for us, it’s tell don’t show. (and it is even stated pretty laconically, compared to the the seething resentment we get from Silco when he talks about the topside) 

If anything what they actually show is almost the opposite, it shows Viktor feeling like a loner and being identified as a loner even among Zaunites as a child. And it shows a person later in adulthood trying to make a connection with him and him turning it down, again, instead of showing us scene where Viktor is excluded and rejected. 

All of this sadly made Viktor a bit boring and one note in Act 2. IMO the show really missed out on giving us scenes of Viktor interacting with people he gives tech to. 

Let’s talk Jayce

So when i try to encapsulate what vibe Jayce in Arcane gives me then I guess it would be ... scatterbrained. Easily distracted. And now just because he sleeps with Mel, then runs out on her, then runs back to her. It even predates Mel. 

Jayce wants science stuff, but he also wants Heimer’s approval. Her wants Heimer’s approval, but he also wants his science stuff, so he kicks Heimer off the council. He makes a big show of wanting to fight corruption and then almost immediately loses interest and completely changes his tune on the subject. (and a dark version, how quickly he goes from and against potential suicide?)

And then there is the scene with the mage. Jayce strikes me as a guy who is still searching and that by definition means that whatever he is searching for, Viktor is not that to him. (and I think that is another problem, I’m not sure I buy that Viktor and Jayce really share the same Hextech dream, that they are seeing and imagining the same thing when they talk about it [and not just because Jayce is all “stars in your eyes” about magic while Viktor sees visions of the creepy void], no matter how much they might say they want the same things)

BTW, when he goes back to Mel and sort of pours his heart out to her, to me that is another variation of that, Jayce is still seeking. 

So please, when I say I kind of don’t buy that Jayce loves Viktor, that doesn’t really have anything to do with “but Jayce loves Mel” (I don’t think he does) or that Jayce can’t be gay or bi (like if that mage from his childhood walked into the door today, I bet Jayce would fall to his knees and hero worship him like crazy). It’s just that he doesn’t give me the impression, because again, too easily distracted away from Viktor, too much dicking around in a variety of different places and causes, I don’t get a feeling of deep loyalty from Jayce (not that I think Jayce is without morals or inherently disloyal, I think he tries (we see that too in how he (poorly) tries to be helpful to Caitlyn) and means well, he is just, well, easily distracted. 

Don’t get me wrong, his concern for Viktor once he does realize that Viktor is ill is touching and I actually don’t tink that Jayce is a bad dude, but to me it doesn’t really read as romantic or OTP potential. 

Overall: 

When I look at a ship I fundamentally try to look at two questions: 

1.) Do I think that they do/did they fuck? 2.) Do I think that they could be happy together? *

For the first one, I have a hard time buying it, because I just don’t get the desire. Maybe right in the beginning, when Jayce as at his lowest? But in my eyes his attention begins strying rather quickly and I don’t find it hard to imagine a version of events where it never happened. 

And for the second one, everytime I picture their future together, I just picture Jayce as still roving, searching and that just not being satisfying for either of them on the long run. 

Final Grade: C (I don’t dislike them, they have some good moments, but I personally don’t buy them as a couple)

Disclaimer: these are my feelings as of the end of Act 2 of Arcane, my rating might go up or down drastically based on what happens in Act 3.

* I should probably note, there is nothing wrong with a ship having flaws (like X doesn’t love Y as much as Y loves X, or X can’t bring themselves to open their heart or X will always care about their cause Z more than about their own happiness). In fact, I think most rabid shipping is likely to happen if there are some fundamental flaws that the fans feel like they have to fix via fanfic or fanart. “They would be so perfect together if only they were canon” or “they would be so perfect together except their familities hate each other” or “they would be so perfect together if he/she hadn’t lied”. Fans will have very different thresholds on what makes a good obstacle, this is just my personal take on why in this case I don’t see it/it doesn’t feel worth it.