#he made shitty decisions in a shitty situation but was ultimately a victim

[lord-squiggletits]

Something else that makes me sympathetic to Pharma's situation is like. Idk if there's an actual term for this or if someone smarter and more academic wrote it about some real life context that actually matters.

But, so we've already established among Pharma stans that the circumstances at Delphi were blackmail/torture with no real way out that wouldn't involve Pharma being responsible for people getting killed (either killing patients for the deal or having everyone die bc he failed his end of the deal).

And I feel like while "he's still in the wrong because he killed people" is part of it, another sort of implicit part is the idea that Pharma should've been willing to take more personal risk, maybe even risk dying? I mean, Ratchet does ask "why didn't you just detonate it near the DJD" (to which Pharma responds that he did try to get Sonic and Boom to do it, but they refused) so like

Idk I feel like we do have this social notion of martyrs as a very romantic ideal, people you can praise for being so brave and strong and righteous that they ended their own lives for their cause, while you can also coo about how sad and tragic it is that dying is what it took for them to do the right thing. But at the same time I feel like in reality, having an expectation that people become martyrs is kind of a toxic social norm bc like. It's very easy to demand that others sacrifice their lives for some Ultimate Moral Good when you yourself aren't experiencing the same hardships as they are. And ultimately it is kind of fucked up to tell someone "the moral thing you should've done was risk your life/kill yourself" because asking someone to pay their life to do the right thing is no small request. And sure, the typical response would be to call them a "coward" for caring more about saving their own skin instead of doing the right thing... but again, death is a really scary thing and self-preservation is a really strong instinct, so it kind of feels like having this binary view of "you're either a Brave Hero who sacrifices your life for everyone else or a Dirty Coward who's too scared of dying to do what's right" is kind of fucked up?

I guess the best way to describe it is that if someone willingly gives up their life as a sacrifice to others, it can be a noble thing because it's a choice they made willingly, but if it becomes a Moral Standard that in order to be a Good Person you have to be unafraid of throwing your life away and if you aren't willing to die you're a Cowardly Bad Person, that's when it becomes toxic.

Idk, I guess how this ties back to Pharma is that he was never in a position where he expected to make these kinds of moral decisions/ultimatums. He's a doctor who doesn't even get into combat, his job is to heal and not to kill, he's behind the front lines in a hospital that's supposed to be a safe, neutral place for him to heal people. So in the face of suddenly having a "murder people on behalf of me, or I murder everyone you swore to protect" ultimatum thrust upon him, I understand why Pharma wasn't """"""""""brave enough"""""""""" to "do the right thing" (whatever that would've been in the case of Delphi). You could argue that maybe a frontliner soldier accepted the burden of possibly dying for their cause and they've become used to it as someone who lives that reality every single day, but I feel like for Pharma, who's a doctor and a protected non-combatant (from what we can tell), that sort of risking of his life/living with the fact his life could be snuffed out any day isn't something he would've been prepared for at all.

And for me personally, from an outsider's perspective, it strikes me as kind of unethical to go "oh well he should've just detonated the bomb himself even if it killed him" bc again, there's a difference between witnessing a moral conundrum as a bystander versus being the person living with it and being under time pressure where it's do-or-die. Just as part of my personal standards, I feel like death is such a huge consequence/burden of someone's actions (literally you are no longer alive, any potential you had left is cut short, you cease to exist on this plane) that it feels rather callous to go "Well you should've just been willing to die for your beliefs if you really cared that much!!!"

[misrepresentedmorallygrey]

PROPAGANDA

Goro Akechi

have you seen this man. the fandom doesn't seem to grasp that he can have a "good" goal but still go about it absolutely the wrong way. he's not baby but he's not evil incarnate either, he's just 18. being 18 is just like that

People who are like "he's an irredeemable psychopath who became a serial killer just because he has daddy issues" piss me off. People who are like "he's the only person who ACTUALLY cares about the Protagonist and all of the Protagonist's other friends are fakes and users" piss me off even more. He's a foil for the entire main cast. He has faced all of their traumas with none of the support. He believes that he's responsible for his mother's suicide, and that he's unlovable. He was abandoned by everyone. He made some bad decisions when he was like 14, and his abusive father manipulated him into being a hitman. He lies all the damn time, so you can't really tell when he's being genuine or not. He's a double agent who befriends you and then tries to kill you, believes that he's succeeded, and shows absolutely no remorse. He dies to save your life (and then gets sorta resurrected and then dies again to literally save the world). It's complicated! He's complicated!

Gwen Cooper

God forbid women do anything. Gwen Cooper is a classic victim of fandom misogyny, a complicated kinda fucked up female character who is ultimately a hero, and people act like she’s the antichrist because she’s about as fucked up as every other man in the cast. Gwen’s main crimes are cheating on her then-boyfriend (with another male lead character who weirdly does NOT get any hate for participating in this affair) and having a very emotionally intimate and sexually tense (but never actually sexual) relationship with Jack Harkness, who also has a boyfriend in Torchwood (this is the classic “she’s getting in the way of our ship!!!! Situation, despite the fact that Gwen and Jack literally never do anything together and Gwen is never anything but supportive of Jack’s relationship); perhaps Gwen’s most morally grey action is confessing adultery to her boyfriend and then erasing his memory when he reacts poorly, but I must stress that this is about on the par of the shitty things other men in the show have done (hide dangerous aliens in the secret base, sacrifice children to dangerous aliens, use alien cologne that makes people want to fuck you in a way that is at best DUBIOUSLY consensual, etc). Meanwhile, Gwen also gets hate for things that are NOT morally grey, namely, being an outspoken woman with a strong moral center. She is the HEART of her secret organization, she is the MORAL CORE, and because that means she has the AUDACITY to criticize her male coworkers, she’s a bitch. There are over 100 works on ao3 tagged “gwen cooper bashing,” and even more untagged that bash, demean, belittle, or simply ignore the existence of THE MAIN CHARACTER OF THE SHOW!! Gwen bestie you’re so fucked up and I love you and I need more people to appreciate that.

Gwen is a paranormal investigator who accidentally joined the worst polycule on Earth. The Torchwood fanbase (especially the one at the time) really hates/hated her, despite the fact that her coworkers were equally as bad if not much worse than her. Maybe she did a bit of cheating and maybe she’s kind of mean but have you considered: she’s the most beautiful girl in the world, she’s a bad bitch, and I love her? God forbid women do anything

[nell-pointer]

/rp

c!tommy may not be the main character of the dream smp but he sure thinks he is.

most of tommys flaws are a result of his ever apparent main character syndrome. he very much believes that everything that happens in that server is about him in some way, this is a sentiment he has echoed throughout the lore. He is incapable of understanding that sometimes he isn't the most important person in the room and even more than that hes incapable of understanding that he isn't always the victim.

its why he didn't understand why his action hurt l'manburg

its why he didnt understand that betraying techno made techno feel.... well betrayed

its why he didnt understand that being shitty to his friends led them grow resentful of him

he thinks hes the leader (but hes not a team player)

hes a total mess (but he thinks he should be in charge)

In the final few acts of the lore this behavior is a lot less prevalent. But it ultimately is still there (as shown by the conversation he had with tubbo before heading off to the prison in the finale)

Which is why i actually find the resolution with dream pretty interesting. I dont really have a lot of strong feeling about the decision to "redeem" dream in the final act (i dont really care at all tbh) BUT I DO find it very interesting to have that core character of tommy (that everything is about him) be challenged like that in the finale.

for just a little bit, hes forced to look at the world through someone elses lenses, SPECIFICALLY hes forced to look at the world through DREAMS perspective, the person who hurt him more than anything, and doing so totally changes his perspective on the situation.

and i find that to be a VERY interesting conclusion to such a self centered character.

[cosmicclownboy]

hi- why don't you like Maria?

Oh lord.

Where do I even begin with Maria.

Season 1

Makes a joke about Alex's secret relationship being with Wyatt and finding it funny- (Wyatt who is an abusive racist dude who commits hate crimes and bear in mind she knows Alex was abused for being gay) IT'S GROSS.

Speaks about Alex's secret relationship guy being his home to Alex and literally feels his hopefulness because it is part of her alien ability and continues to pursue Michael in s2.

Maria (straight) outs Michael to Liz. That's not okay on any level.

When Liz tells Maria to speak to Alex before doing anything she ignores the advice and does what she wants.

She's really smug about Michael picking/pursuing her like she won.

Season 2

Pursues Michael at a funeral in front of Alex without talking to him.

Makes Michael's loved ones husband funeral about a relationship status

Slut shames a random woman who makes out with Michael when they were never exclusive

Enters a relationship with Michael where he has to be exclusive but she doesn't because she doesn't believe he could be faithful. That's reeks of harmful biphobia stereotypes.

Ignores Alex the whole time UNTIL she needs something.

When she appears at Alex's door she says they are even. AKA comparing Alex not telling her a secret that wasn't his to share to her pursuing the love of his life in front of him without any empathy and ignoring the whole time.

Bitches to Alex about Liz and wanting fuck all to do with her. Alex has to remind her Liz has a dead boyfriend and is struggling cause Maria only has Maria vision and lacks empathy for her 'best friends'.

Uses her mom's laptop to get the scope on Alex/Michael's relationship which reads 100% manipulative. She even says Michael is pushing you away and then proceeds to encourage the narrative where Michael pushes Alex away because she suddenly wants Michael. And of course Alex is supportive she recognises he lacks self worth and rolls over him.

Beginning of 2x06 she tries to set up Forlex to get Alex away from Michael. Once again manipulative.

Tries to make Alex feel guilty for being gay in 206 because when she was a kid she idealised being with him and had to come up with a whole new plan. He grew up in an abusive household you know that....It's not okay to say that. You know how much internalised homophobia he has.

When saying he's had good relationships provides only examples of relationships with women......................HE IS GAY.

Asks him if he would change being gay.......jfc.

Alex tearfully saying he dissociates with women because he clearly forced himself to out of internalised phobia, Maria takes it to mean she has a chance. She thinks she's the exception since a touch starved abuse victim liked to be touched by her in high school. That doesn't = consent.

When Alex, a whole ass Airforce Captain tells her it's unsafe to stay at the creepo's place she acts all I am feminist about it and this results in Alex being stabbed and Michael getting whacked on the head.

Earlier in the episode she whinges to Alex about Michael kissing another woman in front of her and how cruel it was and then proceeds to kiss Michael in front of Alex KNOWING how he feels for Michael.

In THAT scene it's clear she notices Michael's emotions towards Alex and is insecure about it. She uses Malex's feelings for each other to her advantage. She's chasing the fantasy of getting with Alex. These are two highly traumatised queer men who struggle to say no because they spent their lives in abusive environments.

Neither Michael or Alex were in a position to consent to sex that night Michael is concussed from a whack on the head . Alex has lost a lot of blood and is completely out of it. And neither would ever initiate that situation. Not to mention the assumption Michael would be down because he's bi is so harmful as a stereotype.

"I think she’s cool with her decision. She wanted some answers, so subconsciously there was an emotional comfort she needed. But she also had a little bit of an agenda. She needed some decisions made about the status of their relationships, so she thought, “Let’s throw everything against the wall and see where it lands.” I think she was just wondering if they made any progress on that front. She said it was OK for their feelings to be out in the open, but let’s just voice them for what they are. As we saw, Michael stepped up and was like, “No, I still love you and I’m with you.” Secretly, that’s what Maria was hoping for. By suggesting a threesome, she’s was basically telling Michael, “Make your choice… and I hope it’s me.” this is what Heather said about the scene. So not only was it coercive and such but she used her best friend like that with no care or empathy whatsoever. It's disgraceful.

The next day both Michael and Alex are confused by what the fuck happened. Alex due to his C-PTSD completely dissociates from the situation and Michael attempts to laugh it off despite him being hella confused. The only person who isn't confused is Maria who is listening to them from inside.

When Michael comes in she turns on the tears just in case he does want Alex afterwards. Bear in mind she is a psychic who can feel everything and she assumed Michael was going to go after Alex. Doesn't that say it all. SHE KNOWS MICHAEL IS IN LOVE WITH ALEX AND VICE VERSA. She does not care, because at the end of the day this is what she wants. She wants to win. She wants to treat Michael like this trophy that she can show off to people I got the great Michael Guerin not a relationship guy to date me.

When Michael wants to have emotional conversations she shuts it down for sex. The entirety of the relationship it has to be her way or the high way. She also recognises fairly on his abandonment issues and plays upon it, reads manipulative.

When Michael who has lost his mom and brother in the span of a few months asks Maria to be more careful about her abilities she doesn't listen. And ultimately breaks up with Michael when she can't get what she wants from him which is a yes man who will do what she says and isn't the idealised Michael she wants.

Season 3

Shits on Michael any chance she gets. She's so mean to him and he goes out of his way to look out for her.

Is dismissive of her own health despite the fact that everybody goes out of their way to help her. Liz is in California working on a way to help her. Kyle is risking his job.etc

Is fine with Liz, her best friend losing the love of her life to get a vision to prevent a murder. A vision she's only invested in because apparently in it she blames herself.

Is fine with Max or Kyle dealing with the guilt of her death had Michael not saved her.

Shoves Michael and belittles him because he's stronger then her. Infers he just sits on his ass and does nothing therefore does not care about anything....rude. There's also a weird superiority complex that her power is more important then Michaels or any of pod squad for that matter.

Creates a situation that is so bad that Kyle risks his doctors licence to give her adrenaline. Just take an ice bath or something there are a 1000 ways to give yourself adrenaline without risking your life and risking others.

Doesn't thank or acknowledge what Liz is doing for her honey has spent a FULL YEAR of her life trying to help and your just like yeah I'll let her soulmate die for my visions.

Emotionally guilts Isobel for not hanging out with her despite the fact she's hated her for two seasons and now has just randomly decided she wants to know......okay

This idea that Maria is suddenly lonely when she's the second of the main cast (first being Kyle) to have scenes with all the mains by Monday. Literally everyone is there at her beck and call but Maria is lonely??? IT DOESN'T ADD UP. Everyone's up her arse 9/10 how is she lonely everyone expresses concern and care for her ALL THE DAMN TIME. She's also narratively never had scenes that give the connotation that she is lonely. Michael has scenes that connotate he is lonely. Max and Alex do too. Maria has yet to have scenes that give the connotation of feeling lonely or depressed.

Maria comparing the alien siblings to her and feeling left out when she acts superior to them and they are literally siblings. Literally every character is somewhat left out with Pod Squad they've lived their lives assuming it's just them three against the world it's not a personal attack.

Maria is 1/8 alien at best so diluted genetically it doesn't show up and somehow she believes she has the capability of the aliens who are 100%. Say you have French DNA you don't expect to speak French suddenly.

This whole Maria never does wrong narrative and it's empowering that she's doing all of this just feels like a crock of shit tbh.

She reads like a 2000's movie mean girl.

All of my bullet points are why I don't like h Maria and it's not biased because I'm a so and so fan. Narratively she just wins up doing shitty things to Michael and Alex the most.

[bisexualemmettcullen]

Why do you think Edward is worse than Jacob? Genuine question

ok first of all id like to state an obvious disclaimer: both edward and jacob have done shitty things. That's a given. However I am in no way defending them. I would also like to restate that the question is "why is edward WORSE than jacob", not "why is jacob BETTER than edward". ok buckle your seatbelts kiddos because i have a LOT of Thoughts.

Edward has been mentally and emotionally abusive to Bella from the very beginning, starting with the van fiasco. The way that Edward tries to make Bella think that she's crazy, and didn't see what she knew she did (that he had been standing next to her instead of across the lot) is, by definition, gas lighting. It is a very common technique emotional abusers use to gain control of their victim by making it seem like the victim is overreacting or making stuff up that is actually true. In Edward's case, at first, it's pretty easily played off as "he's just trying to protect Bella and the integrity of his own family", which is what makes Edward's worsening abusive character progression more subtle. Once Bella has established with herself what Edward was, he attempted to physically intimidate her on several occasions.

Edward also lied to Bella. A lot. He lied about stalking her. He didn't admit to literally sneaking into her room at night to watch her sleep for like. over a month. He took the engine out of her car to prevent her from going somewhere. And Edward did all these things under the guise that he was "protecting her", although he never blatantly states what he is protecting her FROM. (Just overall, not in specific situations like the trackers)

Of course, this isn't to say that Jacob is without flaws. He definitely overstepped his boundaries multiple times and was possessive/ acted entitled to Bella on several occasions. However, Jacob was protective in an entirely different way. Bella had so much more autonomy with him, and for the most part she wasnt being controlled; especially not in minute, sometimes unnoticeable ways like Edward did. Jacob had always been a proponent of Bella making her own decisions vs Edward who only granted the illusion of choice. Even when Edward had been gone physically, he was always watching. Jacob didn't indirectly cut Bella off from her human friends. Edward did. With Jacob, the supernatural would not have taken up every aspect of her life, and she could still lead a relatively normal one as Edward claims to have wanted for her.

Another thing that bothers me tremendously is that there was no way Edward would have stayed with Bella forever if she hadn't been changed (which was, of course, ultimately against Edward's wishes). His only choice would have been to stay with her until their visual age gap was no longer appropriate. If Edward had it his way, there was no long term solution for them to stay together as a couple.

Additionally, Edward was also a guilt tripper. His explanation for him not wanting to change Bella was that he was worried about her soul. Every time Bella brought it up, he gave her the same spiel and made her feel terrible for even suggesting it.

Jacob had at least been more honest, and objectively approached the subject of the supernatural WAY better than Edward. He told Bella the histories of the tribe in a way that she could better mentally grasp and digest the situation. She was able to use what he had told her to do her own research. Edward had literally told her nothing about vampires until he was actually forced to after Bella figured it out, from the information that JACOB gave her. Edward, again, just pawned his potential vampirism off as Bella seeing things/ making unreasonable conclusions as to Edward's own existence.

Ultimately, in my opinion, Jacob is an actual protector. He fits the bill quite to a tee; only interfering when there is danger whose origins were out of his control. Edward is not a protector. Edward is a manipulator. He creates unnecessary danger (generally not on purpose, though); passively guilts Bella into thinking its somehow HER fault by self-pitying himself extensively; and then tries to distance himself from her, even when he knows that will only make things worse and cause Bella more pain.

TLDR; Edward is an asshole and an abusive prick.

[ravenousgf]

COI/HP PARALLELS

You know what I just realised? I was rereading COI in math class as one does, and one scene in particular gave me some deja vu.

coi page 72

“...for that matter it could've been Alastair.” (Matthew talking about who could be the murderer) 

“Matthew,” Cordelia said furiously, “must we keep bringing up my brother? Alastair may be many things but he is not a murderer.” 

“I just like to blame him for things,” Matthew said a bit sheepishly.

ootp chapter 28, snape's worst memory

“Leave (Snape) alone,” Lily repeated. She was looking at James with every sign of great dislike. “What's he done to you?” “Well,” said James, appearing to deliberate the point, “it's more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean...”

THE PARALLELS!!

both matthew and james (potter), the popular, well-liked teenagers in their social circles, publicly insult the lesser-liked, abused boys of their year and are callous and arrogant when called out on it, preferring instead to indirectly sift the blame onto the victim.

now, I do not like snape. I think redeeming him was definitely not the right decision for the story, but the point is, everybody agrees that what james potter said in this situation was fucked up, including the girl he wants to impress. The book ootp makes it very clear that this is a huge character flaw that james had to overcome in order to even hope to secure her affections, but more importantly, in order to be deserving of any respect as a good person.

It's even said that this was the worst memory/incident, and that usually, snape gave as good as he got, or even sometimes gave before he got. but alastair is polite with matthew, owns up to his mistakes, apologizes and tries to be better, and this is how he's treated for it? Even given their usual enemity, we still all recognise that what james potter did to snape was shitty.

but that's far from the case with matthew (and his parabatai). the book sympathizes with him for his behaviour towards alastair and marks it off as a valid treatment of a guy he barely even knows. even cordelia isn't made to stand up for him beyond a few passing remarks.

after watching this scene play out, those very lines his father says come back to haunt harry as he wonders if he got everything wrong about him. if james' actions had been painted as alright, then he would be getting so much more hate than he already is, and rightly so.

why, then, is matthew's (and his parabatai's) similar behaviour viewed so differently?

tl;dr: ik the book paints matthew's words as well-meaning, a little rude, but ultimately harmless but perhaps we should step back from that and reconsider how truly and unendingly terrible his treatment of alastair is.

[keyofjetwolf]

We’re All Just Guys

Well it took the entire fucking season, but I FINALLY get the purpose for Henry Fondle: Sex Robot. And while the entire episode (and season, honestly) has been tremendous, that this ridiculous fucking punchline was the vehicle to deliver the overarching point with a solid knockout punch of meaning AND pathos? Absolutely floored. That BoJack Horseman can be (and often is) brilliant isn’t a surprise, but the ways is keeps proving it often are.

So “The Stopped Show”, a tale of accountability and responsibility and how we’re all just guys.

Each of our main characters closes out this season alone (sort of), in assorted stages of realizing the main themes, or completely failing to. I find Diane’s arc the hardest for me to make a decision on, which isn’t surprising, as I think in many ways, Diane’s the most complicated character in the show. She delivers, directly and succinctly, one of the major points of not just this season but the entire show, but how does it relate to her? I’M NOT COMPLETELY SURE. I think part of the problem with (and for) Diane is that she knows better. She’s the most insightful character, she has a fantastic head on her shoulders, but only for everyone else. She’s this fucked up little disaster prophet, her vision clear and her message concise, unable to ever apply her gifts to fix herself.

Diane is just as trapped as BoJack, but in a fun twist, is now lagging behind him in trying to do something about it. Nearly every single scene with Diane this season has been in this sad little room of her sad little apartment with all her sad little unpacked boxes, and no matter how much truth and wisdom she spits out, HERE SHE STILL IS, failing to correctly assemble IKEA furniture with names like Bȧcksleid. She already feels like shit for sleeping with Mr. Peanutbutter, so what does she do? THE SAME FUCKING THING. To which I groan and roll my eyes, while simultaneously being proud of her for directly and immediately setting him straight about not getting back together. Diane rides this constant line where she gets it but also doesn’t, which is so interesting to me in the level of additional frustration this makes me feel. BoJack is so self-absorbed you don’t really expect any better of him, which has the flip side of your expectations being so low that even the whiff of progress feels exceptional. Diane doesn’t come with any of that though, she knows better, you KNOW she knows better, and the consequence of this for the audience is that she winds up being more unlikeable than the guy who literally last episode nearly strangled his girlfriend and co-star in the middle of a paranoid drug-induced frenzy.

Which is fucked up! It’s intensely fucked up! And also, I think, the point! We expect more of Diane, and so feel more disappointed when she doesn’t deliver. Is that fair of us?

But there’s more here, as we pivot to the accountability portion of this episode/season. From the beginning of the show, it’s been incredibly upfront about how everything is unfair. We come back to this time and again. Privilege rules the day in the world of Hollywoo. Fame, money, charisma, gender, power. BoJack has been an asshole from pretty much the moment he set foot in the spotlight (possibly before?), and the only thing ever even attempting to hold him back has been the moments his guilt manages to scream loud enough to be heard over his internal narrative. Whatever he does, however he fucks up, he always stumbles back to his feet, and NEVER with any (broad scale) consequences. Meanwhile, here’s Diane, in her sad shitty apartment. Consequences haunt Diane, even if she’s the one doing the haunting. The crap things she’s done and the shitty choices she’s made cling to her.

There’s no fairness in that either, no justice. But Hollywoo (and the entire world around it) (and our world too oh yes) has that privilege carved into its bones, and Diane bears none of its marks. Her situation is very different from but parallel to Gina, who is just so fucked over, it keeps legitimately making me angry for her.

Gina, of course, brought none of this on herself. She made the mistake of caring about BoJack and trying to help him. OOPS YOU WERE A GENEROUS PERSON WITH AN OPEN HEART FUCK YOU LADY. For her trouble, Gina has been assaulted and traumatized, AND she is in very real danger of her career being over when it’s only just finally beginning. And she KNOWS THIS. That’s the part that I keep coming back to. All this should be an aberration, an anomaly, and while that may be true of the specifics, conceptually, it’s so commonplace that Gina already knows how it’s going to play. She’ll stop being Gina and become The Woman Nearly Strangled To Death By BoJack Horseman. Even if she’s able to keep working, this is what she’ll be asked about in every interview forever. Even if she convinced people to genuinely listen to her, BoJack would, at worst, get a slap on the wrist as he stumbles back to his feet. We know that, WE ALL KNOW THAT, because it happens all. the. fucking. time. Gina did nothing wrong, but this would still define her for the rest of her life, while for BoJack, it would maybe become a footnote on his Wikipedia page.

Nothing about that is FAIR. Nothing about it is JUST. Gina’s choices shouldn’t have to be “this becomes my entire life” or “swallow this down and pretend it never happened”. But it is, as it has been in perpetuity for the victims of the privileged.

So then what can we do about it? Well that’s really the question, isn’t it? This episode answers it in an assortment of ways (I think the entire SHOW is very much about this, really, but this episode is for sure coming with guns blazing), while also showing us why none of those answers can work. It’s funny and sad and awful and true, but also, ultimately, the most hopeful answer because it’s the only one you can actually affect: It’s you. It’s me. It’s each and every one of us, individually, making a choice to be better.

And believe it or not, we embody this with Henry Fondle: Sex Robot.

I thought the whole thing was so unbelievably stupid. Half the season, we’ve had this goddamn multi-dildo’d juvenile frat boy joke running around with its stupid ass Speak-and-Say voice, doing the same shtick over and over, and I’m like, “okay this is just the shit I have to put up with to get the clever stuff, I guess.” BUT THAT’S EXACTLY THE POINT I’M SITTING THERE LIVING THE ENTIRE GODDAMN POINT AND MISSING IT. Henry Fondle: Sex Robot is seventeen shades of overt horribleness, AND WE ALL JUST GIVE IT A PASS. It’s just the way it is, the way the world works, the price of doing business. When the whole time -- THE ENTIRE FUCKING TIME -- all it took was one person to say no. One person who could see the game we all are playing and was willing to give up everything to stop it.

Hilariously, Henry Fondle IS a metaphor, sort of, but of the saddest kind. He is literally a robot, he can’t possibly change. What’s more, media fervor will never affect him, fallout will never touch him, and the powerful will always rally around themselves to retain their power. It takes Todd, the head of the company, the creator of Henry Fondle, and the one person who would benefit most from the unending efforts of the rest of the world bending over backwards to avoid the truth, to put a stop to it. In doing so, he immediately returns to his old, homeless, destitute self, but doesn’t once hesitate or look back.

It’s Todd, and only Todd, that stops that madness, because while individual people are a problem, the world at large is too. Stefani makes a great point that Diane holds herself and everyone else to impossible standards and a little forgiveness and grace wouldn’t go amiss, but when Diane suggests they apply that philosophy to their clickbait gossipy shit on their website, it’s just

Which again, is beautifully cynical and depressing, but not untrue. Fostering a more forgiving culture isn’t in stopping websites from posting clickbaity takedown articles, it’s each person deciding not to take the clickbait. We can absolutely have a conversation about the people creating their world or the world creating its people, but when you boil it down, only one of those things can you yourself absolutely and directly change, and it’s not the entire world.

A THING DIANE GETS BUT SIMULTANEOUSLY ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT.

I can’t take myself away from this Diane thing, I know, but only because she’s the fucking CORE of each and every one of us struggling with this idea. She’s the simplicity of it and the complication all in one. Not BoJack, which is NOT where I thought we’d be when we started this journey. BoJack is more an action on the people around him at this point in the story, he IS the world you cannot change. He’s pointed to rehab, and off he goes -- or doesn’t! I don’t think it’s coincidence that we stay with Diane and watch her watching him.

Oh, Diane, indeed. As she tells her story of her friend Abby, who threw her over for the cool kids, who turned every confidence into a scar. Who Diane still helped anyway, because Abby needed her. Did Abby learn from that, did she get better? We don’t know; we stay with Diane and watch her watching Abby. Diane, who can so completely understand about personal responsibility while failing to recognize her own enabling for the shitty things that keep happening to her.

You can control yourself. That’s it. That’s the only playground with a guarantee.

Will BoJack go off to learn that? Will Diane stay and figure it out?

THAT’S WHAT NEXT SEASON IS FOR

Something I was toying with including in this, but ultimately decided against for a variety of reasons, was the contrast between BoJack’s take on personal responsibility independent of external response, and The Good Place’s argument that people need external support for personal growth. An idea I may not have even considered contrasting save that Doc’s talked before about these two Jewish creators with what are clearly very different philosophies, and basically, if she were ever able to manage a discussion between them on this, I’d love to be in the room. I’ll be very quiet and not get in the way, I promise.

[mareebird]

In regards to it being a Disney film, I think it's more of the uneven power dynamics and background threat of being melted that would me surprised if it was confirmed as canon. Thanks.

First, let me say tw: rape and tw: non-con, before I get started

So what you’re saying is that you think it might amount to rape?  With that, I disagree, but rape encompasses certain things to someone and other things to someone else.  Everyone’s opinions and experiences are deeply personal and I am going forward with the utmost sensitivity at heart.

I don’t think an uneven power dynamic automatically means rape.  The truth is, many people are willing and happy to, for example, cozy up to their bosses for personal gain.  Is it still icky?  Sure.  And I have very negative feelings about it myself, but it’s not rape.  It’s just not the same thing, because it’s consensual, even if the party with less power might not be otherwise sexually interested.  And in the case of the GM, there’s no indication that Loki was threatened by any melt sticks until Thor vanished with Bruce.  I think Loki read the room, put on that tight outfit, worked the angles, and lived a comfortable live for those few weeks before Thor showed up.

Here’s the thing.  Loki isn’t pure.  Loki often operates in a mucky, moral gray.  Now, do I think he’s a sexual libertine?  No.  In fact, I’m on record saying I hc him as being sexually repressed and not all that experienced for someone who’s 1000 years old.  But is he fully willing to boff the GM for gain?  All signs point to that being highly probable, although I don’t personally hc that he ultimately did.  I also don’t think Loki was into the GM.  I do, however, think he was more than willing to use the GM’s interest in him to his advantage.

The bottom line for me is that I don’t think Loki was ever a victim of the GM.  People read into moments and say he’s afraid of the GM but I just don’t see it.  I think it’s another case of fandom antis poisoning the water hole with regard to Ragnarok, telling us that it’s degrading for Loki to even allow the GM to look at him.  Loki is totally in control of his situation in Sakaar until he has to choose between Thor and his own comfort, and he chooses Thor.  That’s the takeaway from his relationship with the GM.

ALSO, I would be remiss if I didn’t say that I think a lot of people are offended by the GM/Loki dynamic because they think it makes Loki appear more feminine than in the other films, and usually they claim that it’s degrading for that reason alone.  >.> After a decade of an MCU with a Loki who displays almost no sexuality at all -- because it had no purpose in the plot -- suddenly he’s being found sexually desirable by a man and it might feel a little out of nowhere.  The GM is the pursuer and Loki is the perused, and that can read as very male/female.  On one hand, I do think that if Loki was a woman, than yes, then the situation would read as a little more threatening.  But on the other hand, I say my argument holds up, because if nothing but Loki’s gender changes, then we might be infantilizing women who can full well make their own decisions.

I am not condoning any of this, btw.  If Loki did boff the GM to secure his station or as a bargaining chip, it would be a shitty moment in his life.  I don’t think people are made to use sex as currency, full stop.  I mean, I’m openly Catholic on here.  Haha.  But I’m just talking about Ragnarok right now.  My personal opinions on what is moral are far stronger.

But I love Loki either way.

[quirkycombatants]

🔥

Alright. So... Let’s just jump right into this. 

I really don’t like how the fandom handles Endeavor and Shouto and the Todorokis. 

Bit of backstory. I grew up in an abusive household. I grew up in a household much like Shouto’s, where we were terrified of my father, where my father was single mindedly obsessed with success, where he basically went out of his way to pit us against each other and make us miserable. I grew up in a world where my father convinced me that what I loved I hated, and what I hated I loved, and I literally knew nothing but shame for anything I might show interest in. 

Nor was the whole Toya thing strange to my family either. My uncle died of HIV during the AIDS crisis in the late 1980′s before I was born, and my dad’s family basically made him disappear. You know that burnt mark on that family tree in Harry Potter where they erased Sirius? Yeah that was my uncle for my dad’s family. Supposedly this was to keep us from asking my grandmother and upsetting her, but this persists to this day. My father’s family were ashamed of his sexuality, and made him disappear essentially. Which transferred to him being super paranoid about my sexuality, and trying to force me to be manly. He’s a super a-type personality, very much someone who needs to be seen as the alpha male. I am not. But that conflict very much exists in my family. I was a lot like Shouto, in that I am a passive, rather intellectual sort, whereas my father is more like Endeavor, all about image and appearances. 

I say all this, because I hate the ‘never forgive endeavor’ chorus. 

Don’t get me wrong. There are people who have been abused who cannot forgive an abuser, nor should they be forced to. Everyone has different coping and healing paths. We all decide things on our own. There are people who have been abused, who will never forgive their abusers, and that’s okay. 

But. 

There are a lot of people, who have never been abused, who use Shouto as a way to virtue signal their dislike of abuse in the most absurd, out of character way. They don’t care about how abuse effects people, they don’t care about the complex feelings that an abuse victim feels towards their abuser, especially when they’re younger, all they care about is completely erasing Shouto and Enji’s characters in order to signal how much they dislike abuse.

These are the kind of people who are like ‘well if I was in that situation’ and acting like they’re morally in the right, and that any sympathy or understanding must naturally come from a place where you’re a bad person. It’s the ‘well I would say no to drugs and peer pressure so you’re a bad person for not doing so!’ crowd.

In that world, they strip away all emotional nuance and trauma and weight, and turn the relationship into a morality play where you have to show how much you hate something because any attempt to grasp the difficult emotions that come from trauma and abuse is seen as enabling or apologizing the behavior. 

One of the reasons I like BNHA is because the Todoroki family is so well written. It feels real. From a father who abused his kids coming to terms with the fact that what he did was wrong and accepting that he is not entitled to forgiveness, to Shouto struggling with his feelings towards his father and going from hatred to being able to forgive him so he can move on, to Fuyumi who just wants her family to get along because she feels and felt powerless... it feels real. It feels like how it actually is. And I know that, because I lived it. 

Which is why the virtue signaling and turning Shouto into another character to fit this narrative of what they feel he should act like is so infuriating. What you have is perhaps one of the best depictions of abuse and dealing with it in a family in a major publication, and people want to erase all of the detail and emotions so it can be a good vs. bad PSA. 

Like, it’s one thing if someone has been abused and says ‘I can’t forgive Enji for the same reason I can’t forgive the person who abused me.’ It’s also fine if they say ‘I can’t really relate to Shouto because I can’t forgive the person who hurt me.’ 

It’s another thing entirely to be like ‘well I wouldn’t be acting like Shouto if I was in that situation, and showing any kind of hesitation about the feelings towards one’s abuser is somehow being encouraging towards that behavior, so I’m going to entirely whitewash his entire character to make him a pure character in my eyes.’ 

It’s the same with people who take Enji and turn him into a complete villain with no good points, trying to make some weird moral argument that bad people can’t have likable parts or good parts to them. In fact, most shitty people are well liked. That’s what makes it so hard to deal with them, as anyone who has been abused knows, because so many people struggle to accept what you tell them. They don’t see person x as being a bad person, so how could what you’re saying be true? I’ve been there. I’ve dealt with that. 

One of the things that I really like about Shouto’s development that people who don’t understand abuse erase is the importance of when Midoriya says that it’s his quirk. If you’ve never been in the situation that Shouto is, where a person strips you of all your individuality and makes you think that you are an extension of them and not your own person, you can’t understand the weight of that statement. 

Shouto realizing that his quirk is his and not his father’s is the start of him becoming his own person, deciding what he wants to be and realizing that his destiny is not just to be a tool for his father’s satisfaction. Again, having been born and raised to exist for my own father’s satisfaction, I understand this journey, because I’ve walked it myself. 

That’s why Shouto considering forgiving his father is so powerful. It’s the moment where he decides that ‘i am my own person, and you, my abuser, do not get to decide whether or not I forgive you.’ Because Enji might seek forgiveness, but Shouto realizes that he is the one who ultimately has the power to grant it. And then he has to deal with the question of whether refusing to forgive means that he is still being controlled by who his father was. Because you can be a slave to your trauma as I was for years. And at some point you have to ask if who you were and what happened to you is what defines you, or if you can choose to define yourself. 

And thus Shouto struggles with these feelings, asking himself whether or not he should forgive his abuser and move forward, knowing that there is no right answer to that question. There is only what is best for him. 

Which is why people who remove all of this and make it simply fire man bad are so insulting to me, especially when they make it all about some moral argument. Because it erases his development. It erases the trauma and the struggle that he and other abuse victims go through. And most of all, it removes Shouto’s agency, his ability to decide for himself what he believes. 

And you can’t understand that unless you step out of a moral framework and actually internalize the often contradictory feelings that come with abuse and trauma. 

Which is why I hate so much of the fandom that seeks to erase both Shouto but also Endeavor’s development. 

Endeavor too, is someone who has real growth, but also is someone who understands that he doesn’t get to decide if he’s forgiven. One of the most important parts of this is him saying that he wants Rei to come back and live with his kids, but that he himself won’t live with them, understanding that the one who should decide that is Rei herself. 

Enji, a controlling, angry individual, is forcing himself to relinquish that control, and allow his family to make their own decisions. He’s accepting that what he did was wrong, that he is the one who must atone, but also that his atonement is not in his own hands. The ones who decide this are the people who he hurt. And his acceptance of this is what makes him grow as a person and as a character, and something I’ve seen with my own father. Again, having lived it, I would say so if I thought what was being written was wrong or offensive. 

But again, there are lots of other people who have been through abuse and have dealt with this sort of thing who may had different opinions. And that’s okay. Because they can bring the sort of emotional nuance forward that informs this sort of difficult topic.

But people who try to turn the Todoroki’s into this morality play infuriate me, especially when they try to tar and feather people who like what is being shown as being part of the problem. 

[dabistits]

1) Reading some of your meta on the Todorokis made me finally watch The Handmaiden for which I’m forever grateful so I hope you don’t mind me adding my thoughts. See, I agree on Horikoshi sucking at abuse/power imbalance narratives (to the point of living in fear of Dabi’s villainy being used to further “humanize” the Dumpster Fire) and Rei and Fuyumi’s forgiveness being particularly foul but from a Watsonian point their reaction makes a sad sad amount of sense because of a sad sad truth: no one

(cut for length and tw for discussion about fictional domestic violence)

2) ever believes the victims. Even before her hospitalization Endeavour had to have been the Number Two Hero for a long-ass time, meanwhile Rei was basically sold to him by her own family (of whom we never hear again even tho their only canon interaction is her begging them for help before her breakdown). But afterwards she was “that crazy woman who permanently scarred her son”. She literally has no other option that resigned acceptance and not rocking the boat yet. Meanwhile, the kids had lost

3) their mother, Natsuo was an understandably pissed child, Touya “died”, Enji continued to be neglectful to everyone but Shouto and Fuyumi was the oldest. Even tho they apparently had a butler madame too that’s a position that requires serving the head of the house or being fired and being no help anyway. It’s not hard to see Fuyumi trying to step up Katara-style to fill the hole their mother left; given the asshole’s indifference to their children I doubt he’d care enough to force her to live

4) with them, meaning she’s only doing it to stay close to Shouto. So of course after their mother starts feeling well enough to be part of their lives again she’d see it as a positive thing and support her. Nothing will give them back their childhoods but at least this would give her a chance to live for herself a little more. So yeah, they are narratively stuck on a shitty position and while Natsuo definitely has a point his outbursts aren’t of any real help to them.

heya anon! first i’m glad you watched the handmaiden it is a fantastic movie and it deserves to be on the lesbian movies canon forever.

second, i don’t disagree with you at all! of course abuse victims have complex reactions to their abuse and complex relationships to their abusers, which can be even further complicated by their material circumstances. my criticism of this as a narrative decision is two-fold: one is the fairly basic criticism that it’s more indication of horikoshi’s misogyny that he isn’t capable of writing women outside of merciful and nurturing roles (it’s not a coincidence that the tdrks who choose to forgive are the women, while the men seem to have—at the very least—complicated feelings), and the second is that while we may very much want to believe that rei and fuyumi have complex and fully fleshed-out reasons for feeling as they do towards their abuser, we simply don’t know because horikoshi has not shown us!

i get on hori’s case a lot for not showing, particularly in regard to the world-building, but in the case of writing abuse narratives i think it’s absolutely a matter of doing justice to show the complexity of emotions that come with the experience of abuse. without taking the time to show that complexity, especially if you want to write a non-resentful victim (but even if you want to write a resentful one tbh), the narrative very easily skews towards “forgiveness is the right way to deal with someone who wronged you” as a moral, rather than “abuse is often fraught and complicated and sometimes victims make decisions for their own sake that may involve reconciliation and forgiveness or may involve never forgiving.” i’m not the biggest fan of narratives that only choose to explore forgiveness+reconciliation, because i do believe that path is valorized undoubtedly because it’s more comfortable to abusers and their allies, but i can accept it as long as it’s well done and it prioritizes the feelings and motivations of the abuse victim without cutting the abuser any slack.

the problem with horikoshi is that… he doesn’t do any of the work that would make for a fully fleshed-out abuse narrative. as much as we might want to make up headcanons to explain it, the fact of the matter is that we don’t know why rei forgives her abuser. we don’t know why fuyumi wants to reconcile with him. the pro hero arc was all about centering the abuser and what he thought about his crimes and what he feels about them, inserting us into his perspective in order to stir up the reader’s sympathies for him. just because a character’s reaction to abuse makes sense and may mirror real peoples’ reactions to their abuse doesn’t mean that it’s written with good intentions.

we should always question why a narrative is written a certain way and whose purpose it ultimately serves. rei’s forgiveness was not written for her sake. it’s not for the sake of abuse survivors out there (who are surely salivating for yet another character who forgives their abuser for no apparent reason). hell, shouto’s breakdown while watching his abuser fight on television was not for his sake, because those scenes were shown in the context of the narrative trying to stir up sympathy for his abuser and showing him as heroic. that doesn’t mean shouto’s reaction wasn’t realistic; it means we should question why it was shown at that time, and why it was shown outside of the context of his abuse. couldn’t a better statement about abuse be achieved if we saw that scene from shouto’s perspective, coupled with his flashbacks of his childhood?

so anon, i totally understand the watsonian explanation for why rei and fuyumi are like that. i think it works as a fine explanation for people who want to flesh out those characters for their own sake, or who want to write about them in their fanfiction and needs those motivations. my concern and much of my criticism, however, lies at the doylist level, because i don’t believe in using my headcanons to do hori’s work for him. that’s why i very rarely involve headcanons in my meta and try to stick purely to what’s been presented to us in-text. i don’t want to end up in the situation where i say “rei and fuyumi’s characters are badly written and are basically there to advance abuse apologism, but it’s realistic!” because whether or not it’s realistic is sort of beside the point. the question for me is, as always, what purpose does it serve and why did the author put it there?

in this case, the answer to those questions doesn’t reflect well on horikoshi.

[avenger-hawk]

What would Itachi be like on Curse-of-Hatred mode?

The curse of hatred is bullshit invented by Konoha to discriminate the Uchiha. 

(antiKonoha, antikishimoto under the cut. Also anti-martyr/submissive Itachi and heavily and fiercely pro-Sasuke)

It’s a shitty double standard according to which Uchiha people love so much that their love turns to hatred, thus making them crazy, and this is called curse of hatred, as if other characters from other clans were immune from feeling hatred and wanting revenge. So much that not only Shikamaru’s revenge is fully supported by the village (even though he was quite out of it after Asuma died, isolated and all, and he only got better once he killed those who killed Asuma), but even Nagato, a villain who wanted everyone to feel his pain because Konoha and its allies had killed his family, isn’t considered as victim of something like a curse of hatred, just because he isn’t Uchiha.

I don’t acknowledge a plot device whose purpose is to force Sasuke into a villain-ish position, when his actions were caused by desperation and anger for the loss of his most precious person, his family and clan, his dreams and future, since as he himself said, his dreams are in the past only, and his very identity, since he only saw himself as an avenger, no longer a person who can have a life and bonds, because he’s just a tool for revenge. When he ALWAYS sought justice, whether it was for his parents/clan against Itachi, or for Itachi/his family and clan against Konoha, and ultimately, for all the past, present and future oppressed by a faulty system that he intended to change so that no one would be oppressed anymore.

I don’t acknowledge anything that puts Sasuke into a faulty position, compared to Konoha and its representatives or supporters (take Gaara who used to kill people for fun), but also compared to Itachi or anyone else, so I don’t support a good Uchiha (Itachi, Shisui) vs bad Uchiha (Sasuke, Madara) distinction, because they’re all different people with different lives, in a different context, despite parallels and obvious similarities.

Itachi’s situation and Sasuke’s are different. Itachi was manipulated and blackmailed, and he suffered immensely, but he knew the truth about everything and he made his own choice. Sasuke didn’t know the truth and he never had a single choice but to react to what life threw at him, which means Konoha’s oppression and his brother’s decisions. So I don’t care about kishi’s retcon in order to make N*ruto appear the good guy because he forgave Nagato for Jiraiya, and Obito for his parents, it doesn’t make Sasuke less innocent, in fact it only makes him more human and real. 

Besides, I don’t see Itachi as a pro-Konoha martyr, as it’s pretty clear that he acted out of love for Sasuke first, and that he threatened Danzo to spill Konoha’s secrets if he harmed Sasuke. Such scenario would unleash him, or the so-called curse of hatred.

To reply to your ask, Itachi showed a glimpse of what he’d do if Sasuke died or was badly harmed. In the Itachi Shinden books he uses Amaterasu on the guy who poisoned Shisui, a slow painful death, during which he told him coolly that it was for Shisui. If this isn’t enough, as books aren’t exactly canon, he threatened Danzo after the massacre and he returned to the village after Hiruzen’s death, to remind him of that threat. When Orochimaru came out of Sasuke’s curse mark in order to take him over, even though he was weakened and dying, he became scary and took him down. Another detail not included in the manga but fitting for him is that his hand is shown supporting Sasuke’s final chidori against N*ruto, meaning that he supports Sasuke in all his choices, which kinda parallels his last words of love and total support. All this makes me think that he would be a scary enemy, a powerful one, a genius who’d be so many steps ahead of his opponents that there would be no way of contrasting him. He’d read his opponents, and he knows them all already -he knows everything after all- and he’d find their weaknesses in no time, and he’d use them to manipulate and weaken them. He would be really scary and he would win.

[rorykillmore]

maeve, bernard, aaand while dc stuff is Tempting, how about One megatron or optimus!

maeve

How I feel about this character: there is something incredibly powerful about maeve’s empathy and compassion. i mean seeing a character who reacts primarily through anger and retaliatory violence, like dolores, can be very empowering too when it comes from someone who was formerly a victim, but maeve just... idk she really reaches me with that. i think part of it must be that, as she says herself, she’s literally PROGRAMMED to be a selfish survivalist so seeing her extend herself so far beyond that is really... moving??? idk she’s just such a great character overall, she’s driven by so much (sometimes ruthless) ferocity but also love

All the people I ship romantically with this character: i didn’t really care about her and hector as a ship that much in season 1, but this season their devotion to each other has really been growing on me. also... is it okay to ship maeve and akane... it’s okay right... god, what a powerful connection they already have

My non-romantic OTP for this character: maeve and her entire squad, honestly. maeve and her daughter, although i realize we have... no idea what that’s ultimately gonna look like when she does find her, but it’s probably gonna be upsetting.  and i’ll reiterate that i’m really interested in her and dolores having a dynamic!!

My unpopular opinion about this character: people who complain that maeve’s character “isn’t that deep” because she’s “reduced to her connection to motherhood” like.... are you even... watching the show... like literally. but reddit will find a way to nitpick any female character’s arc, so there you go.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:  much like dolores, i’m really not sure i have any complaints at all so far. i’ll be interesting to see when her narrative collides more with the revolution one, though!! and of course i want her to have a happy reunion with her daughter, but what are the chances of THAT, westworld,

bernard

How I feel about this character: is it even possible to like... not enjoy bernard or find him really compelling as a character? i mean the “[human character] realizes he’s a robot” twist isn’t really uncommon in this genre but westworld does it so well and makes him so sympathetic and real!!! i love it, i really feel for him but at the same time i think it’s so interesting that he’s in the situation he’s in now, in the middle of a revolution he kinda helped create without realizing it. i have no idea what direction they’re gonna take him in, he’s probably one of the most confusing characters rn, but i’m rooting for him.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:  idk if i really “ship” him with anyone, but i do appreciate his connection to theresa for what it was and i think ford is an absolute fuck for. well. “messing it up” seems like way too tame a phrase, honestly.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: i’m really loving the stuff he’s getting with elsie this season!!! i’m looking forward to seeing that continue, though i’m also kind of holding my breath because there’s clearly... an undercurrent of someone else’s agenda through all of that. i also hope bernard gets more stuff with dolores because i love seeing his connection to arnold explored and i think there’s a lot to be said about how they both feel about that. and how bernard’s feelings re: whether he’s more host or human tie into that dynamic.

My unpopular opinion about this character: i literally have no idea what kind of discourse surrounds bernard, actually. that’s basically like the one thing even reddit isn’t shitty about. everyone wants bernard to be happy!

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: mmm.... the only thing i can think of is that i would have loved to see him be able to have some kind of more firm confrontation with ford that takes place after he’s really processed things and come into himself more and made some decisions about where he stands. but i’m not sure that’ll ever happen, for obvious reasons... plus who even knows what’s going on with bernard this season

idw megatron

How I feel about this character:  honestly... taking one of the most iconic and well-known villains and have him switch factions and pursue redemption is gutsy as fuck, tbh. i remember being intrigued by that even before i knew much about transformers. this is hands down the most fascinating and nuanced iteration of megatron that i’ve seen and most definitely one of the things i enjoyed most when i was reading mtmte. scenes like the conversation he had with ravage really got to me.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: i mean... i guess there’s still optimus... does anyone who loves these characters ever truly escape that ship?? not really in a way where i think they’ll end up together, i just REALLY love their dynamic and think there’s so much intense and complicated emotion between them and i love any time it’s explored.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: megatron and ravage.... whose fault is tHAT,,  but i also love all the complicated history and hurt between megs and soundwave, and a lot of the decepticons tbh. and some of the bonds he forged with some of the autobots, like how interesting his and rodimus’ dynamic became

My unpopular opinion about this character: sorting out transformers discourse and which side of it i’m on and what’s more popular to think is too much of a headache for me to sort out, tbh

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: i don’t keep up with the current comics At All tbh but last i heard about megatron he got an ending that, understandably, a lot of people didn’t find satisfying?? but that a lot of OTHER people contended was part of some bigger twist?? idk if that ever resolved itself or whatever but i hope it did, his redemption arc was so powerful and ambitious that it deserves an ending suited to that.

[holdontohopelove]

Devastated.

Wow, I've written more personal stuff on this site in two days than I have in 7.5 years.

I feel like I need to get this out because I don't want to carry this around forever and I also don't want it to be apparent to my family, friends, and coworkers how absolutely messed up I am by a fictional TV show. This is a haul so read at your own risk.

I started watching The Closer in 2007, so this is my 10 year anniversary with this franchise. I inhaled it the summer before I went away to college and continued to hang on tight to it as I grew up, got a degree, graduated, got a Master's, and started working as a full-blown professional. The Closer, and then Major Crimes, was safe. It was home. Brenda was and will always be my "person" in this series, but Sharon was a close second. Sharon was what Brenda wasn't and if I had to pick, I hope to blend the best of both in my personal and professional lives. These women defined strong women on television. They gave young college students and young professionals like me something to believe in. 

As I went on to work in the field of victims services, I applauded Major Crimes for how they told stories about sexual abuse and rape. As much as his storylines sometimes annoyed me, I loved everything Rusty Beck stood for. If the kids I work with are able to overcome adversity half as well as Rusty, it would be a success. Rusty is the outcome I pray for for my kids. Sharon was the foster parent I pray for for my kids. To see it on screen was beautiful and heartbreaking...and that kept me hooked and committed week in and week out. Plus Sharon and Andy? Love after heartbreak? Finding that kind of love in your later years? God what a message. How does that NOT give you hope?

I always knew that losing this show would be hard. I also knew instinctively that it would mark the major shift in my life between kid and adult, no matter how many years I have logged in my career, degrees on my wall, numbers in my bank account, or capabilities I had to handle my own life. This was truly going to be the moment of leaving something that I started in my late teens - as I was transitioning into the adult world- behind. I just didn't expect that losing it would come at the cost of losing a character that I love, adore, and admire. 

My job is not easy. My life is not easy. No one's is. That's why I watch television and movies. That's why we ALL watch television and movies - to be entertained and to escape, for a little while, to a better world. Fiction doesn't have to mean sunshine and rainbows, but I also don't appreciate when it causes unnecessary angst. That's not what I came here for. I remember when The Mentalist ended in 2015. They were given a surprise final season and made no secret about how the final season was about "giving the fans what they want." They did justice to the characters and the stories while ultimately leaving everyone happy. They could have orchestrated a huge, dramatic, emotional final mess in which people died and Jane continued to suffer, but they didn't. They chose the fans. They chose the characters. They gave them the happy endings we long for in real life, but don't always get.

I've spent time reading the interviews from Mary and James about the decision to kill Sharon off. "It's a metaphor for the end of the show." "It was a way to release Mary from the show so she could pursue other work because we were inevitably getting cancelled." "It was a powerful moment." "I supported this." It goes on and on with the justification. For me, there is no justification for this and for what the viewers were put through. This was senseless, needless tragedy, and a rare tragedy at that, as in "most people die with cardiomyopathy, not from it". I'd even go as far as to say a "manufactured" tragedy...we've all discussed how Sharon basically set up her own demise and chose her own destiny, resulting in her loved ones losing her sooner than was necessary and not having any time to process or say goodbye. That is not the selfless, family-centered, faithful woman I know from this series. The choices that Sharon made do her character and the entire series a complete disservice. Not to mention it put loyal fans who devoted themselves to this show for years and years through absolute hell.

I wanted to be able to look back on this franchise fondly. I wanted to be able to say...this show meant so much to me and guided me through some of the toughest transitions and hardest moments of my life. I wanted to be able to say...this show is over, just as my childhood and "baby adult" years are, but it's a part of me. It made me who I am. But I struggle to say that now. I struggle because I don't want to remember the pain that I now associate with this show after the last 24 hours. I slept for 3 hours last night. I have been nauseous since I woke up this morning. My anxiety, never stellar to start with, is off the charts. I look like a raccoon on acid. This show used to build me up and make me feel like I could own the world and kick ass and overcome adversity. Now it's just reinforcing the  depressingly real world idea that all good things can be taken away and terrible things can happen to good people. That a kid who finally gained a good mother could lose her when he's barely an adult. That a man who literally waited his whole life for a love like theirs could lose his wife within weeks of their wedding. That her other kids never had a chance to say goodbye and process how dire the situation with their mom actually was. That a room full of people could watch a loved one literally up and die in front of them and not be able to save her. Don't get me wrong...I KNOW this shit happens every day. I work with this shit every day. I specialize in trauma, for Christ's sake. I didn't need to see it dramatized on my television with people that I've literally spent ten years watching each week.

I cannot fathom why someone would choose this path to walk knowing that this was likely the final season of the show. Most of us LIKE open-ended finales even if there's no chance of anyone renewing the series or carrying it to another platform. It lives on in our hearts. In our headcanon. In our fanfiction. In our memories. We can think back and believe that there was a happy ending, a long life, a sense of contentment. You don't need to kill off our beloved main character to reinforce the idea that "the show is dead" and that "it's never coming back to life." We get it. But couldn't it have lived on for us, for your loyal fans? It's like, not only did my favorite show end, but every good feeling, daydream, storyline, or wish I'd have for those characters and that world is dead, too. This is the whole TLJ "Let the past die, kill it if you have to" thinking on an entirely insane fucking level. I am not here for this. I did not spend 10 years here for this.

I'm really struggling right now. It's five days before Christmas and life should be grand, but I feel like a part of me has died. I feel like I'm grieving something I can't put into words with the people who are physically in my life because it's going to sound insane. I get that writers want their audiences to feel something, but literally all I feel is dead inside and that nothing in these next four episodes will ever make this better. I feel like I spent ten years on something I considered precious only to have it smashed before my eyes. My memories are tainted. My heart is so heavy. This show broke me in the worst possible way with no conceivable benefit. There is nothing about Sharon Raydor's death that added to this series and nothing that can happen in the final episodes that will fix this or make me feel better about this.  All it did was remind me, once again, though off the clock this time, that the world is often shitty, good people can suffer terrible fates, and love does not conquer all. This is the legacy that was left for us. This is what I got out of the TV show that I had used to keep my faith when sometimes my own world was dark. 

I didn’t need this final season to be fluffy bullshit with all kisses and no strife, but I needed this final season to be the light in darkness. I needed this final season to help me feel ready to move on. I needed this season to emphasize that these characters matter, that the fans matter, that the last 13 years of this franchise matter. I needed this final season to prove that good can triumph, love can move mountains, and that even those who struggle can have a bright future ahead. 

I think that’s all I can say without repeating myself further. Now, we have to take of ourselves and each other as we all struggle through this. There’s no way to make sense of this. You can’t make sense of insanity or find logic in grief and tragedy. But putting this out there helped me a little bit, so if you took time to read this, thank you. That’s all for now.

[ultimatescenarios]

Hi I heard mastermind aus can I get a s/o mastermind who brainwashed Kokichi to help her out (sorry someone gave me the idea and it stuck in the back of my mind)

Mastermind S/O who brainwashed Ouma into helping her out!

Jesus Christ I have to say that I ruined this one up at the end and I’m hella sorry? I’m definitely unsatisfied with how things went in this imagine and so please forgive me for that! But that aside, a tiny bit of me still hopes you’ll be able to enjoy it nonetheless!

Also! This imagine contains heavy spoilers for the NDRV3 ending!

Ouma Kokichi

Ouma never trusted anyone easily.

That’s why it took a lot of time for him to actually open up to you in this horrid situation.

Of course, being the one pulling the strings behind the scenes had its perks, and knowing you were the one who modified his memories and ‘created’ the Ouma Kokichi the audience loved so much as the so-called antagonist of this Killing Game made your job of getting under his skin easier.

Naturally, you wouldn’t even bother to bat an eye at him if it weren’t for the fact that things are slipping through your fingers and he was the cause of that.

Hiding your true nature was problem even for you in this case, he was immensely suspicious of everyone and knowing how obnoxious the purple haired male can get, you were countlessly trying your best not to show you were utterly outraged.

What a troublesome character.

Whether he noticed your behaviour or not, he seemed to ignore it, at least that’s what it looked like.

You thought everything was going according by your plan, but through your overly cocky and arrogant attitude you haven’t even noticed all your preparations crumbling right under your nose.

Ouma wasn’t any ordinary fool, after all.

Just when you were getting confident you had him wrapped around your finger, he put all the pieces together.

Realizing you had no back-up plan for this outcome, you reacted on a whim.

It was a bothersome process, although you already anticipated him to be persistent, his beliefs and utter disgust for the Killing Game as a whole surprised you to an extent, seeing some parts of his true personality were unknown even to you.

He fought against the brainwashing with every ounce of both his mental and physical strength, nearly to the point you were starting to doubt it’d succeed.

However, he hadn’t overcome it even with his determination.

It’s a fact that everything has got out of hand, but this result didn’t disappoint you either.

Ouma will be quite an useful puppet, you’re assured.

The rest of the survivors already found him suspicious enough, someone they couldn’t trust and as someone full of malice.

Naturally, the original Ouma’s intentions were crystal clear only to himself, wanting nothing more than just to stop this horrible game once for all through double as cruel methods.

With the Supreme Leader’s analytical calculations and strategies, your position as the Mastermind was laughably easy, never had you thought everything would go according to your plans so effortlessly.

Even with the Killing Game at its climax, the shota pipsqueak was as useful to you as ever, and although you’d simply be ecstatic that it went so smoothly, you couldn’t help but to feel the littlest portion of overwhelming guilt, not as the Mastermind of the 53rd Killing Game but as a person working for the Team Danganronpa.

Of course, even if the remaining sanity inside of you was begging to stop, you’re already so far in the mess you created you can’t simply back down now, you wouldn’t be a proper Junko Enoshima copycat if that was the case.

While your original pre-written plot twist was to reveal yourself as the ringleader, causing everyone to fall into despair due to discovering the cruel full truth, and finally when those fools find a new source of hope, force them to pick two of the remaining students as a sacrifice in the name of it, but seemingly the tables have switched and so have your plans.

You were more than ready to exploit Kokichi’s condition into your favor, manipulating everyone into thinking the one behind this game was him, and of course, knowing his past actions they fell for it quite easily.

With no other options in mind, everyone has made their decision to vote for him, including choosing two more victims for the Ultimate Punishment, unconsciously sealing their fate for the future Killing Game.

With the audience yelling in delight for this ‘hope’ inducing ending, your work here is done, all of your fake smiles and friendly conversations are over, you’re finished.

With a final pat on Ouma’s head, you waved off as his execution has begun, being full of anticipation for despair Junko would simply love to experience.

But only then you realized what kind of consequences your actions had as the Mastermind and the hidden Junko Enoshima 53rd, deep down aware that you yourself grew accustomed to the purple haired boy and regretted everything, knowing you were the one responsible for his outcome in this killing game.

And as much as you were looking forward towards this despair,

It didn’t feel pleasant at all.

god i literally wanna forget about writing this crap holy hell this was so shitty i wanna cry

[animentality]

Ways Death Note could have been good.

-listen. you don’t have to be true to the source material. you don’t. they already made a movie that kind of was, at least in spirit if not canon matters. 

-but if you’re going to make a Death Note remake...there are several ways you could’ve gone about it without it being awful. 

-Make Light a privileged white boy? Check. Make L a black man? Ok, good, check. But not make any social commentary about justice, about how African Americans are more likely to be victims of and perpetrators of crime due to economic susceptibility to conditions that result in crime? No. 

-see you didn’t have to stick with the source material. you could’ve taken the idea and made it American.

-specifically? gun violence. domestic violence. terrorism. there are so many things you could’ve done if you wanted to put an American spin on death note.

-lots of people were angry about the whitewashing, and yes, i don’t dig it either. BUT if you were going to make it American, then why...why would you make it a pasty white boy’s romantic killing spree with his girlfriend?

-Light Turner looks like a school shooter. I’m sure plenty of white shooters are going to say they went on a shooting rampage cuz a god of death told them too. 

-Light Turner ALSO just looks like an idiot who got in over his head and was ultimately a “good” guy who just misjudged and mishandled his notebook. 

-like make Light a MAD GENIUS Who goes ALL OUT in killing people. Don’t make him some wuss who can’t handle the pressure, whose girlfriend was the crazy, extremist one all along? like seriously? 

-I say that because there is no fucking message when you have Light Turner be the poor helpless victim. There’s no brooding philosophy about being a judge, jury, and executioner. There’s no ideas about whether it’s morally right to kill criminals, to decide whether someone deserves to live or die on your own. All you get to see is this pissbaby cry and have to dig himself out of his own mess, which he abandons the second it gets tough. The original Light Yagami would’ve killed his own father to get away with being Kira. He would’ve killed Misa if it suited his purposes. He was NOT SCARED OF RYUK.

-speaking of Ryuk, they pinned everything on him. WHY. Let Ryuk be an observer. Let HUMANS be the villains. It says something about US. The series explores our sense of right and wrong, of who has the power to decide the fates of others. HAVING AN EVIL DEMON THREATENING A TEENAGER COMPLETELY DERAILS THE IDEA THAT HUMANS HAD CONTROL OF THE SITUATION AND HAD TO MAKE THEIR OWN DECISIONS.

-The romance subplot was so stupid. Misa being love crazy? Fine. But Misa being the main orchestrator and actually being the “real” bad guy? With Ryuk? That’s so fucking weak. Once again, we’re supposed to like Light.

-But we NEEDED a villain protagonist, just like in the original. You didn’t have to stick to the source material, you could’ve given a death note to a different character, to someone with different motivations, written an entirely different story.

-and maybe it would’ve sucked, but at least you wrote something different. But if you’re going to stick to ANYTHING from the original death note, then why would it be a shitty version of the original? Why would it water down every character, make Misa sharper, dumb down Light, and make L an emotional, angry detective who takes revenge in the end? Why? Just write an entirely different story if you’re going to pervert them that much. 

-The gore was so uncalled for. Like there was gore in the original, yes. But it had a place. It was part of the death note’s function. it wasn’t meant to be scarier, just intriguing. Part of the suspense. It raised the thrill, like, who’s going to die and how, to further the plot? Who has a hold of the death notes? Who’s being controlled by one? But in the movie, they just utilized gore for shock factor. To make Ryuk look evil. To make the death note look like some menacing source of paranormal malevolence. 

-Light’s father was an idiot who over-reacted a lot instead of a sensible and just police man who just wanted to do his job and take down a killer. No superstitions, no waffling, and while he didn’t believe his son was Kira, he didn’t refuse to entertain the very notion. He was practical. This guy...was an asshole. 

-Also I found the high school setting insulting. Please god, no fucking “bullies are everywhere” bullshit? Set Death Note in college, you assholes. Make Light be a disillusioned college student with college debt or some shit.

-OR a privileged kid with a scholarship, who has everything he wants but is “bored” because he’s never had to struggle a day in his life.

-Death Note could’ve been about white privilege and race politics. I mean come on, it’s a concept based on CRIME an about whether or not people “deserve” to be punished. 

-It could’ve been good. It could’ve been RESPECTABLE at least. Tried to tell an American story, one that reflects our distrust of the militarized police, the beaten protesters, the movements to end inequality. 

-SOMETHING.

-But instead they went for horror movie...for indie teen romance...and “betrayed” hearts.

-They almost had something with  L...and then they ruined it. 

-I’m still tilted, it’s 3am. 

[loudlytransparenttrash]

Feminist fathers

So you’ve decided to ignore my advice about dating feminist men and you are okay with shitty, tamed, nervous sex where he has to ask for your consent before any time he touches you or kisses you. And you’ve decided you really like the whole no accountability and no consequences deal? Well now you must be wondering if perhaps your feminist boyfriend might make a pretty terrific feminist husband and feminist father to your children while you work 40 hours like a total badass. I’m all for baby makin so don’t let his feminist ways stop you from reproducing, but here are nine things to expect from a feminist father:

1. He will worry if you have a boy, he could be raising a future rapist

We all know that the only way to prevent rape is to teach these barbaric urges out of little boys before it’s too late. He will teach your son from the time he’s still shitting diapers that no one is entitled to sex and that he must see girls as human, not as a slab of meat. He will see your son as a possible perpetrator so he must have words scarred into his brain such as rape culture, gender-based violence, sexual assault, the male gaze and exploitation before he even learns the alphabet. Here’s an example of a feminist dad’s guide to teaching sons how not to grow up to be a rapist. If you mix hockey into the discussion, telling him not to rape people becomes so cool and relatable! My favorite part is when the son says, ‘Innocent until proven guilty, dad’ and the dad replies, ‘So you think she's lying!?’ 

2. He will worry if you have a girl, she will be disadvantaged in our society

It isn’t so bad, the feminist dad will provide your infant daughter with every advantage it is possible to give her from birth, more food, better food, toys, more soothing, more coddling, more of everything to ameliorate the disadvantages she will soon face in an educational system, labor market and governance structure designed to oppress her. He will teach her to evaluate her environment carefully and find the sexist reasons that are to blame for her failures and she will be protected from ever thinking her own actions might have contributed to any negative outcomes. “There, there sweetie. That swing hit you in the face because of gravity, which is a patriarchal construct designed to hold you down.” 

3. He will be horrified when your son acts like a normal boy

The feminist dad will fret endlessly when your son turns sticks into guns and insists on issuing his gender neutral, realistically proportioned dolls. He will fret even more when your son turns his Fischer Price Kitchen into a meth lab where he makes poisonous concoctions and strategizes about how to defeat the bad guys. Your son will happily make Play-doh flowers with his Sitting Pretty Gardening set and then have his T-Rex dolls gleefully tear their heads off. When the teacher notices that your son seems overly interested in engaging with the world in a physical, exploratory, hands-on way, your feminist husband will agree this can only lead to bad outcomes and will insist on drugging him with handfuls of Ritalin so he can develop conformity, obedience and docility.

4. He will be horrified when your daughter acts like a normal girl

The feminist father will reassure your daughter that experiencing difficulties with math or science homework, or experiencing a lack of interest in these subjects is the result of the patriarchy refusing to acknowledge or support women in these traditionally masculine pursuits. He will spend a considerable amount of time going through the vast number of publicly financed programs and courses designed to engage girls with STEM when she just wants to play with her dolls, and he will remove all things pink, sparkly and pretty as that reinforces her submissive gender role which was created by the patriarchy. He will replace all her favorite Disney movies with the latest Ghostbusters movie while she turns all the toy dump trucks he has bought her into comfy beds for her unicorn collection.

5. He will be happy when your daughter starts dressing like a slut

Eventually your daughter will morph from frilly princess dresses into push up bras, thongs, tiny tight dresses and skirts and the sooner this happens, the more satisfied the feminist father will be. He will be proud when perfect strangers stammer “She’s how old? My god..” in the grocery store and he will encourage her to explore her sexuality so she can discover her very own gender. He will take her on slut walks and teach her that anyone who even turns their head at her “I <3 Cock” crop top is just a gross pedophilic misogynist who hates women and should be denounced publicly as such. He will happily make the denouncement for her.

6. He will teach your son humiliation is good for the male psyche

When your son buys the same shirt he saw the astrophysicist on TV wearing, the feminist dad will lecture him that he does not understand how clothing choices can have an impact, often severe, on those around him. He will want to punish your son by refusing to take him to the “Walk A Mile In Her Shoes” event, thereby denying him the opportunity to understand how patriarchal beauty standards negatively affect women and effectively cripple them by forcing them to choose to wear heels. The feminist father will ultimately decide that it is important for your son to experience the humiliation and disabling effects of patriarchy, but not before forcing your son to burn his beloved shirt and repeat “I must not make women uncomfortable with my clothing choices” one thousand times.

7. He will teach your daughter that regret can be called rape

The feminist dad will become visibly upset when your daughter asks to be enrolled in mixed martial arts classes so she can deal with asshats, both male and female, who might threaten her with harm or actively attempt to harm her. He will patiently explain to her that self-defence contributes to rape culture and victim-blaming and that she must never even think that risk management behaviors are appropriate or intelligent. He will reassure her that all sexual choices are contingent upon how she feels at any particular moment before, during or after said choices are made, and that she does not need any way to back up her decisions and should simply demand compliance, although this request for compliance does not need to be stated or indicated in any way. Your daughter will learn that it is the responsibility of her sexual partners to determine how she feels or may come to feel about any given situation and she is not to blame for any adverse outcomes that may arise.

8. If your son succeeds, he will be told to check his privilege

If your son is white and heterosexual, your feminist husband will convey to your son at every opportunity that he is privileged over all women everywhere in all circumstances and he must take steps to address his privilege and apologize and never question those less privileged than himself. He will be taken to view homeless men living in a city park and be given real world examples of how men participate in street harassment by creating mildly annoying conditions for some women. Your son will be instructed in how to blame himself and all his fellow straight white males for all irritations that cause women the slightest degree of discomfort. He will learn that his accomplishments are not the result of hard work, effort, intelligence and perseverance, but the result of the patriarchy producing unearned benefits for people who work hard and persevere in the face of obstacles.

9. He will teach your son that violence is only a male thing

Your feminist husband will teach your son that he must never, ever hit a woman under any circumstances and even if he ends up with a black eye or a hatchet in the head or a beer glass embedded in his face, he must always ask what he did to deserve it and resolve to be a better person. He will be taught “bystander intervention” and he will learn that he is expected to physically and forcefully intervene without concern for risk to his own safety whenever he sees a woman being subjected to anything that might be considered unpleasant or exasperating. Your feminist husband will be confident in his approach to raising children as he’s the ideal, non-threatening feminist ally, the only type of man worth keeping around in a feminist world, that’s all that matters, right? Even if it does make your children miserable, guilt and anxiety ridden trainwrecks.