#he’s my fave saw character I don’t know how you could dislike him! he’s so fun! and he has the best traps too!

[gatogotica]

it’s so sad to me so many saw fans don’t like hoffman….i truly don’t get why, he’s so much fun

[dangermousie]

Here is a list of cdrama actors who I used to avoid watching at all costs that I changed my mind about after watching them be good in something - an incomplete list since I am sure I am forgetting people. (I won’t make a kdrama one because I only had like three MLs on it in terms of working actors and no FLs and two of MLs come off it by now)

Hu Yitian - the most wooden block to ever block thought I. And then saw the 1930s pilot epic Defying the Storm.

Ju Jingyi - never thought she was capable of any impression until Chinese Paladin 4

Dylan Wang - probably the biggest example on this list. I remember mocking whoever was insane enough to cast him in LBFAD. And then I had to eat all of those words.

Zhang Jingyi - I was so appalled by her acting in Fall in Love that I decided to skip anything she was ever in from then on. And then I watched L&P because I had the first ep downloaded on my phone and nothing else available and went aaaaa!!! I adore her now.

Deng Wei - he was background noise in so many dramas; it’s not that I disliked him per se, he just didn’t register. And then I watched LYF1 and he ended up being so good and playing arguably my favorite male cdrama character of the year.

Yang Zi - before all the howls start, yes she’s a huge A-list star in a ton of beloved dramas. And I adored her so much in Battle of Changsha (which is a masterpiece btw, go watch!) The problem is I didn’t enjoy her in anything since and Changsha was in 2013. To me it felt she was just coasting and then…LYF1 - my fave female character of the year hands down and she was soooo good! In fact, an OTP portrayed by her and Deng Wei, were my OTP of the year and if someone told me that before summer, I’d have checked them for concussion.

Joseph Zeng - I thought he couldn’t act much but in retrospect nobody could have performed well in the horrifying dramas I first saw him in (that one with Li Landi is guaranteed to induce a stroke in anyone) and then I saw Heroes and went bzuuuuhhhh and everything I’ve seen him in since he was good.

Zhang Zhehan - until Word of Honor. And then we all know how that went.

Wu Lei - ok this is an odd duck on the list because even when I didn’t like him, I couldn’t deny he was a solid actor. I just loathed his miscasting in TLB so much - he was visually all wrong and there was zero chemistry with DD and honestly he was so boring to watch on screen. So after that drama I went I guess he’s growing into a bad actor, huh? And then came LLTG and it turned that TLB was an aberration not a trend.

Then there are a couple of actors where I admit they are wooden as hell but I find them so good to look at I don’t care - Yukee Chen and Alan Yu. Some actors who I used to love but who I shudder when I see cast now (Peng Xiaoran is a great example), and of course the remaining Hall of You Are a Pretty Tree Plant Yourself Far From Me - Cheng Xiao, Yang Chaoye, Fan Cheng Cheng, Gulinazha, Yang Yang, the no longer working Zheng Shuang, Neo Hu, Ao Ruipeng, Wang Churan, Chen Duling (tho I have some small hope for Wang Churan and ARP if they get a good enough director and YCY was watchable in Heroes so if she gets a miracle director like Li Muge you never know. And CDL is an odd duck where I don’t think she has much range or is likable as a heroine but she mostly picks roles where she’s 90% rbf and it works so keep trucking!)

[cyanichexanthine]

Tagged by @scarstarved to list 9 favourite characters (thank you for the tag 🥲💕💞🫠)

It’s under a read more bc it’s kinda a big post lmao, also not particularly ordered because my brain combusted just trying to think of 9 (ended up with 8 but why not it’s my favourite number) and a bit on why they’re there bc it was a fun revisit tbh.

Oh this is going to be a great getting to know me exercise 🥲

1. Rick Prime (Rick and Morty)

The current favourite little goblin. Could never explain why he was a fave but after unmortricken and the subtext threaded throughout s7 I think it's finally coming together especially when I think of other faves in this post (I have a bad habit with faves with seeing them for 0.5 seconds and deciding they're a fave and only later realising why as more about their character is revealed)

To avoid sharing more of my thoughts about his character (and clowning harder than I've already let slip and bc it's mostly interpretation and hc) Let's just say I think there's so much about Prime that is not fully understood yet and I can't wait to see how they address it (also pour one out for another victim of the curse of many of my faves dying in horrible brutal ways with unresolved emotional conflict)

2. Tartaglia/Childe/Ajax (Genshin impact)

Can’t explain this one too much either yet tbh. Another on sight fave. Precious little goblin who cares immensely for his family and seems to want to have friends/an adventurous life but is distanced by how he's wrapped up in conflict and chaos ever since he fell into the abyss as a child.

"You shall ever be the eye of the storm,"

"And the clashing of steel shall ever accompany you."

He has a constant desire for battle and proving himself (likely because it’s how he learned to survive/possibly because it keeps him occupied and it is a horrible cycle). He’s likely also addicted to the thrill of winning/surviving/overcoming due to this as well.

I constantly worry he's going to die. Pleasantly surprised that he hasn't so far. I want to see him develop. I want to see him peel away from the Fatui (bc he’s clearly unhappy and he dislikes a majority of the other harbingers but they’re a means of both keeping his family supported and seeking challenging battle). I want to see him do well and realise he's more than just “a weapon” to serve the tsaritsa’s purpose but the whole abyss thing is a LOT of unresolved trauma that he has never properly been addressed. And boy oh boy does he have a lot of death flags.

3. Amanda Young (Saw)

Ohhh Mandy. She's so, disaster. She has this depth of compassion and raging conflict inside her. Following John just because he gave her a hint of purpose while still regretting what she's become to some extent (secretly continuing harm/trying to kill Adam/wanting to help the fellow addict and being visibly distressed when they died etc) and making unwinnable traps as she thinks they didn’t deserve a second chance.

Likely because she harbors the fact she both doesn't feel worthy of a second chance herself and knows what this "second chance" has made her become, she doesn’t feel that purpose, doesn’t feel like she is grateful for living as John claims. The whole scene where she’s pointing the gun at Lynn and the “nobody fucking changes, it’s all bullshit, it’s all a fucking lie and I’m just a pawn in your stupid game. I don’t mean anything to you.” “So help me. Fix me. Fix me motherfucker, I’m standing right here.” Haunts me a little. Ahhh mandy 😭 I cry every time at that fucking scene.

It hurts to see her devotion to John (and he refuses to give up on her to the point of his death, he believed in her most of all, because she was the example of his ideology) while also seeing her so fundamentally disagree with his principles through her own struggles. She's just pain, pain, agony. Pain. (Another victim of the unresolved emotional conflict deaths 👏)

4. Danny “Jed Olsen” Johnson (Dead by Daylight Ghostface)

Idk why but the dbd ghostface is just so so good. Like I love the Scream movies sure but Danny is a special case. (Also I was a ghostface/stealth killer main back in my dbd days lmao) Danny's story and persona is great, from the Roseville murders, to how he writes/visualises the crimes before they happen, the way he wears certain perfumes during special kills. He’s just so interesting as a ghostface. He seems obsessed with the horror; the unexpected, the atmosphere, the anticipation, the thrill, the reverence of his stories and legacy. He seems to almost feed off of the human response, the fear and resulting chaos when people read his stories in the paper after each kill.

The local police were confounded: the murders were carried with fury akin to a crime of passion yet coldly premeditated.

The scarier the story, the more he appreciated his life. The truth of the stories made them far more potent.

He’s so in love with making a carefully constructed, terrifying story come to life. Yet he’s still impulsive and hot headed when something in his design falls apart. Ah reminds me on the days I’d write paragraphs on analysing his character based on the small background we had before the archive tome 🥰

And I will always adore how well his gameplay in dbd lines up with him as a character.

5. Gintoki Sakata (Gintama)

Listen I have such a soft spot for Gintama and by extension Gintoki himself. He acts lazy, aloof/sarcastic, unattached and a bit "not my problem, don't care, glhf with that"/selfish but he always has a good heart in the end. Often putting himself in danger to help others and going the extra mile for them when they're at the end of their rope. Notably from memory for broken families and people desperate for reconciliation/a second chance.

This anime had so many emotional beats for how silly it looks on the surface. I remember crying from emotional impact into crying from laughter in the same episode when I first watched the series. Also a lot of heartfelt moments of advice and commentary on the human condition. He’s so adorable. Parfait king.

6. Kokichi Oma (DRV3)

Here we go. Not my proudest one (was honestly a little scared to mention him because of the fandom/character perception etc but DR series was a huge part of my teen years along with RPG horrors so rip) but man does this kid mess me up. It hurts so much how he was just trying to investigate and end the killing game in his own way (trust issues so he refused to openly team up). And the way he spirals so hard in the trial after getting Gonta (who, I think he did consider a friend) killed as self defence against Miu is just 💔

The way he considered them all friends and in an attempt to end the killing game, he died slowly and painfully, while knowing they all hated him.💔 Yes his means/the way he went about it were fucked, yes I understand why people hate him. But jesus christ does understanding his motives and his emotions during the game fucking hurt. (another unresolved emotional conflict death let’s gooo)

7. Tiffany Valentine (Child's play series/chucky tv show)

Oh I love her so much. She gets two gifs bc I can’t choose. She was like the highlight of s2 especially. I love her energy, her swings, her endless obsession with/pursuit of knowing true, all consuming love; the way she will not be devoid of all humanity and loves her kids and will realise some things Chucky does are awful while still conversely doing absolutely abhorrent things herself (the Nica incident perhaps?). Will never argue with seeing more of her. I'm so glad the show delivers. (I still need to catch up on s3 though). I would honestly love a little more of her formative story, how she became Valentine.

8. Michael Myers (Halloween)

Another showing my love of horror here but this big guy is a classic. Actually what got me into horror so intensely tbh. I love his little arts and crafts. The way he'll string up a whole scene just to get the most screams and fear. The way he panics when his mask is removed. I do always wonder about him. I mean we're told he's evil in human form but I can't help but feel Loomis gave up on him. Everyone did. I don't doubt it's as basic as him being the shape of evil and that's fine but I like how ambiguous it has always been. There is no clear cut answer on why Michael is what or who he is and I love it.

Wow love the recurring themes here. I’m sure I probably forgot a few older faves too but oh well. Time to not analyse those and go sleep.

Tagging @potetosaradas @dayglomasochism @lara60 @drawmanations @zanukavat if any of you want to share your faves. 🥰

[jamiesfootball]

for the ask game thing, J, A, M, I, E, S, F, O, T, B, L, because i'm cheeky

You are darling

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

Most things my god. Critical Role. The Magnus Archive. Riverdale. Welcome to Night Vale. Bridgerton. Six of Crows. The Owl House. I could go on.

A - Ships that you currently like a lot. (They don’t have to be OTPs because not everyone has OTPs.) Friendships, pairings, threesomes, etc. are allowed.

Jamie Tartt / general happiness. If there is a person who kind of breathed on him nice one time, I want to hear about it. Jamie and the rest of the team I am particularly interested in, because while Ted Lasso as a whole is a good show, it did not often give us ensemble-hangs-out plotlines, and I love a good ensemble.

M - Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend.

Higgins!

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

MCU. After a while I got tired of seeing the characters I liked from the comics getting watered down, and it drove me crazy to see how much fandom liked the watered down versions.

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

It's probably the cat thing, isn't it? Though I'm quite proud of my Richmond injury list

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

I just posted a very long one about Jamie and Isaac, but the long and short of it is that they send each other selfies of their outfits for the day every morning.

F - What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom?

The first fandom I was in was Dragon Ball Z. As I am still ingesting fan content for it, I would say I am still in the fandom. So that's about 25 years.

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

This was vaguely rigged because of how often I've been listening to my character playlists. The song that came on is 'Passing through a Screen Door' by The Wonder Years, Little Kruta. It's not only from my Jamie Tartt playlist, but some of the lyrics are chapter titles in one of my fics.

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

Answered the big one already, but for a minor stupid headcanon that I'll put up in a place of prominence: after Wembley, Higgins was informed of what happened. He was distraught for the role he unknowingly played. He delicately put word to security to let him know if any complaints were filed or needed to be filed to keep Jamie's dad off the premises. And when no complaints were filed...

...look, he's a middle manager at heart. He's used to doing what needs done without people telling him to do it or even knowing he took care of it. Unbeknownst to anyone outside of the Directors of Beboperations (plus a few favors called in),Jamie's dad is banned from a number of stadiums across the country (12 and counting).

B - A pairing–platonic, romantic or sexual–that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind.

Richard and Jan Maas. They're asshole 4 asshole. I get it.

L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. (Characters you’re neutral about are fair game, as are characters you merely dislike. Characters that you absolutely loathe with the fire of ten thousand suns are exempt, as there is no point in giving yourself an aneurysm over a character that you hate.)

For someone whose purpose is narrative villain, I find the character of Rupert interesting. He's charming, he's determined, he's relentless, he's socially gifted - all positive traits that double as flaws. You see why Rebecca fell for him as easily as you see why she loathes him.

[romanticnoir]

Call it Love - Kdrama Discourse

No one asked but here is everything I have to say~ spoilers ahead **

I’ll start with I loved this drama. This drama is in the romance genre they should say instead drama because it’s really more that. But we get the main leads two ppl who are hurt for different reasons. And find love and comfort in each other.

Male lead had a neglectful mother who for some reason kept switching partners as easy as changing your clothes . As much as I wanted to hate her if I’m honest I just really couldn’t I’m sorry I enjoyed her character and her bf like she was so overly dramatic and legit thought she was the shit like it was both hilarious and infuriating to watch,,, this lady was an awful mother and human being. If anything if I had been the directors I would’ve given her way less screen time those last two episodes I don’t want to feel bad for her. She deserved so much Dongjin telling her that he was thankful he didn’t take after her and how unhappy she made his entire being. She deserves everything that’s coming. if there is a pet peeve of mines is the light punishment for ppl who commit actual crimes in drama’s because why do they always get away with it she committed FRAUD AND hid the will like common now… she should be in jail.

Our male lead not only has a shitty mother but his long time girlfriend CHEATS ON HIM not only did girly cheat on him but brakes up with him in his favorite spot in the world his camping place like he knew she cheated on him but he still decided to ignore it I just ugh I cried tbh I also repeated that scenes so many times when he told her not to brake up with him there because then he will never be able to come back and enjoy prob his only fucking hobby and she went and ruined it like a heartless pos it hurt so good I’m sorry dongjin but this type of angst just does things with my heart I love it.

Dongjin GREENEST OF THE GREENEST FLAG A MALE LEAD CAN BE! All ml should learn from him. His soft spoken and even after everything his gone through he is still the kindest person (and yes it may be his trauma response from his mother) but it doesn’t take away from him just being such a good person. The only time I saw him angry was that one time he told woojoo off. Even so he wasn’t a fucking ass like we see often with other mls. Even when finding out the truth and saying that he understands why she did why she did. And the fact that he does not hate her omg. that is ladies and gents PEAK MALE LEAD CHARACTER. He didn’t hate her because as he said “the love that she gave him was so much more than the pain she caused” I think he was definitely my fave character.

Woojoo : the actress just conveys the angst her character was feeling so well like you can see it every time although she wanted to spend time with him even though she was happy to be with him she always felt that guilt and that sadness of betraying her family and dongjin but also wanting him to be happy because she knows he isn’t a bad person.

And if there’s anything that I disliked from the drama is that they didn’t give us any moments of them actually being happy together after the reunion I think the writers could’ve done better for the last episode they gave us unnecessary details about side characters. Like yes I’m glad the sister had nice friends but do I really care she’s getting married absolutely not[the friend getting married info ]… we could have gotten the proposal with Jun saying everything he told her about loving seeing her in his home. Instead of that luncheon we could’ve gotten more jigu doing street concerts or him following his dreams I think I would’ve appreciated that more since I feel like his character was the only one that always kind off got swept off. They would give us a story line and then forget he exists and have him do random appearances. Besides all that… how could they leave the reunion for the last two minutes that’s actual criminal.

Everything besides the last two episodes (yes two because I feel like they gave us wayyy too much of the mother ep 15 much more than we should have cared about. And then the last cuz we didn’t even get to see anything beyond the reunion. I feel cheated out of an actual happy ending.

Fave scenes: I honestly wouldn’t even had minded if it had ended here in that walk they had.

“I was so scared that’d I’d be hated if I revealed who I was but I was grateful you didn’t hate me “

I couldn’t hate you because the love you gave me was so much bigger , than the pain you gave me “

“[support, consolation, love] you gave me everything”

Anyway~ needless to say I loved this drama it was great all the actors did a fantastic job I really want to watch more stuff with their faces

Is it obvious dongjin is my fave character ? Lol this isn’t all I have to say. But I will probably make another post about the side couple.

Bestie I just saw your message so here I am tagging you @soytujoy thank you so much for recommending me this drama you were so right about everything! It is great ♥️

UPDATE: no wait there was another time where dongjin was angry and it was when woojoo got hurt by that guy. YALL HE WAS ACTUALLY SO COOL THERE IM NOT SORRY.

[sho-minamimoto]

Bunch of scattered/unorganized Yellowjackets thoughts (spoilers)

- could not choose between shauna and misty as my faves throughout season 1 but Lottie and Nat really got me in season 2 as well… there’s so many good characters auugghg

- i have NO clue what the heck’s going on with taissa and where her characters going im absolutely stumped. The heck’s up with that man with no eyes I wanna know!!! It feels like they’re building up to something really slowly and taking their time with it

- finding out the woman who directed Jennifer’s Body is an executive producer on the show was really funny that makes so much sense.

- is van going to miraculously survive her cancer bc of how Lottie said the wilderness is pleased with their sacrifice (of nat) and implied how it’s going to reward them?? Since they had a close up of vans reaction to Lottie saying that I feel like that might be a thing that could happen but not sure what else

- Travis is fucking insufferable in season one (thankfully eased up in ssn 2) but I still couldn’t fully hate him bc of his siblingisms with Javi I’m so simple when it comes to siblings LOL… his reaction to seeing Javi’s frozen corpse absolutely wrecked me. And him taking a bite out of his raw heart my god I was FLOORED

- I get why people dislike Misty’s thing with Walter but I can’t bring myself to hate it I want misty to have nice things and a happy freak4freak relationship truly is what she deserves. The perfect ending though would be if both of them find out they’re gay and become wlw/mlm Reddit true crime solidarity. But I can also see them getting split pretty quickly bc of misty dealing with accidentally killing nat

- I absolutely adore the misdirection with some plot threads for example the whole mystery with Travis in season 1 felt like it was building up to a reveal of sorts like who really killed him and why?? What did they want?? Only to find out super early on in season 2 that his death was an accident (but in essence Kind of a suicide) and when Lottie recounts it nat calls bullshit and I called bullshit too bc I thought there was more going on but the more the 96 plotline plays out the clearer it becomes that that really was what happened… like we don’t know the full story of what happened in the wilderness but you can broadly fill in gaps. But it’s still a different thing entirely seeing what actually happened and it recontextualizing everything in the adult timeline you’ve seen prior… there’s no conspiracy Travis wasn’t murdered and all these characters are just haunted to such an extent that becomes clearer and clearer as the show continues

- Did Not care for Kevyn Tan idc that he used to be a goth kid in love with nat he revoked that card when he became a cop and didn’t do anything to stop jay/whatever the fuck that guys name was from preying on Callie… I laughed so hard when he suddenly died completely unceremoniously not gonna lie. I loved it. Wish they killed off that other cop too though

- love coach Scott’s fuck em kids move at the end I was not seeing that coming at all but I was delighted. Gay trying to do the mass burying

- I hope Mari isn’t pit girl simply because she’s so funny she’s such a fucking hater I love her

- am really curious how the rest of the show’s going to pan out over its projected 5 seasons I think the story is a slow burn overall but with a 5 season plan that feels really purposeful… like so far only 2 people have been Eated, one simply by circumstance and the other left to die in a passive way and we’ve yet to reach a point where they actively murder someone With Intent to kill and eat and the escalation to it has been very gradual

- I saw a lot of people complain about season 2s pacing but I felt like it was. Fine? I only started watching the show a few days after the season finale ended so I didn’t wait a week between episodes so it might be one of those things where the pacing issues are lessened when watched back to back but idk

- Doesn’t taissa have senator duties to attend to or something girl has so much to answer to when she gets home from the Lottie cult misadventures

- Also her assistants car is still just kind of out there ?? Left on the side of a ditch?? Girl

- I read in an interview that originally Nat’s dream realm scene in the plane while she’s dying was going to have javi and young nat laughing mockingly to adult nat while she breaks down crying THATS FUCKING INSANE????? GOOD LORD. it didn’t make the cut and part of me wishes it did but also I’m kind of glad it didn’t bc that would’ve been. A Lot. But holy fuck

- I know the likelihood of coach Scott getting hunted and eaten is extremely high but I hope he can last another season at least. He’ll probably be hiding for dear life from the girls who Definitely want him dead now for that stunt he pulled (if they figure out it was his doing to begin with)

- I want to give Lottie a hug

- Jeff is so fucking funny I love a good wife guy. He’s so ride or die for shauna it rules. I want to see more interactions of him and Callie also I found the scene where he tells her abt the wilderness baby heartbreaking but also really sweet…

- It’s wild how much time left there still is before they get rescued how in the hell are these girls going to stay warm for the rest of the winter?? Though now that I think about it since nat knows about it there might be a more active effort to find Javi’s shelter. Or maybe find others similar to it? The impression I got from the pit girl scene was that they split up into smaller groups in different directions (bc of the different symbols hung on different trees) but I may be wrong on that one

- When spring/summer rolls back around and game starts showing up again are they going to be like “ok cool we can go back to being normal humans let’s just never talk about our winter activities again ok.”

- More Caligula next season please

[drdelphinecormigay]

greys worst couples? rank em

Omg lol hope I don’t start anything with this answer haha! Also this was surprisingly hard bc I have like a general dislike for a lot of couples lol and I hate them all for very different reasons

(This is best of the worst to worst of the worst so like 11 is my least fave)

1. Arizona and Eliza. This is funny bc it also ranked quite highly in the ‘rank the non-calzona calzona ships’ list. It’s a confusing one for me bc Arizona was hot as shit in this pairing. Like damn. But, I also hated Eliza, she was a bad character and she was also kinda badly acted. And I hated the whole ‘Arizona is going for this person despite the fact that everyone hates her and she is literally the worst just because like, she told her she was hot?’ thing. Idk it was just a bad couple. But the best of the worst bc Arizona’s vibes in that elevator scene? Top notch

2. Addison and Derek. This may be controversial as I know a lot of people like them. And it’s not that I dislike them that much bc they had quite a fun dynamic if you discount all of the shit. The issue is, all of the shit (lol). Derek was just such a twat to Addison stringing her along when he clearly wanted to because with Meredith. It was just such a dick move bc he just like had some weird moral high horse that he had to sit on for no goddamn reason. And he took it out on both Addison and Meredith and that was just gross. Big no. Of course also the fact that Addison cheated on him in the first place is pretty bad news so like, you know how it is. But like, we didn’t see that on the show really. All we saw was him and his damn moral high horse making her feel like shit. So, yano.

3. Amelia and Owen. I dislike all of Owen’s relationships because I dislike him intensely. This one was probably the least worst bc they were both pretty shitty to each other throughout it, so it like half cancelled each other out. Still sucked though. Not a vibe. I don’t hate them as friends though like it’s eh whatever.

4. Cristina and Burke. I didn’t really dislike either of them as characters - I love Cristina and Burke was annoyingly up himself but I didn’t hate him that much. However, their relationship sucked ass. It was just them both projecting their ideal partner onto each other when neither of them were actually vaguely near what that ideal partner was. They were just so fundamentally bad for each other, it just didn’t work. And because of that it was really annoying to watch.

5. Callie and George. Fucking George man. I could write an essay on this but I won’t, I’ll keep it short. Callie just wanted to be loved, so bad she was chasing someone who would never love her the way she deserved. George was just so insecure he let Callie love him for his own ego and was never strong enough to tell her that he didn’t feel the same. It was just so sad to watch bc I want to wrap poor Callie up in a blanket and tell her it’ll be fine. Also the show did Callie so dirty in this era god. I’ll forever be salty about that (but again I won’t go into detail here)

6. Jackson and Maggie. God they just made me so uncomfy? Like, even without the fact that they were step siblings (which just made the whole vibe weird af), they just did not go well together at all. I can’t even properly explain it. I just remember really deeply disliking it.

7. Cristina and Owen. Second worse Owen relationship. They were ok at times, but they were also just quite shit for each other. He needed someone that would care for him, and she wasn’t ever gonna be that person. Also the fucking baby plotline god I hated it with every ounce of my soul. The way Owen acted towards Cristina for not wanting kids like she was some kind of monster made me mad. The only way it could have been worse was if she’d caved (but that would have been so ooc). I just hate the whole miscommunication thing, it’s such an overused plot point in greys. Just have your characters speak to each other, please!

8. Izzie and George. Just the idea of them together makes me cringe so hard. It was just so gross and awkward and ew. And that’s without the fact that George cheated on Callie in this situation. Again, could write an essay but won’t, I’ll just leave it at big ew vibes nasty nasty

9. Callie and Penny. Ok these last three are tied last ngl. I ranked them like this bc I suppose if I had to I would, but I hate them all for very different reasons so it’s hard to pick one. Callie and Penny I just hated mostly bc the chemistry between them was so fucking shit. I’ve gone into loads of detail on this before so I won’t elaborate but I did not enjoy it. Then is the fact that Callie is going around rubbing how in love she is in Arizona’s face is just ew. Of course I’m always gonna hate the relationship that comes after calzona, but this one was particularly bad.

10. Teddy and Owen. I didn’t even watch much of them being together, but god I hated it. I just hated the way Teddy spent the whole show pining over him. Like, that could have been a usable plot point sure, if a) it wasn’t strung out and then kinda ditched and then brought up again and then ditched and then brought up again etc etc and b) Owen wasn’t such a fucking rat. Also just the notion that ‘it’s always been Owen’ even after Henry existed made me fundamentally angry bc Teddy and Henry were so cute together. Teddy just deserved infinitely better than endlessly pining over damn Owen. Also when Teddy came back to greys she was kinda weird idk it wasn’t a vibe. I didn’t watch enough of it to have an opinion but for me the real Teddy is the OG Teddy and her best romance was Henry.

11. Arizona and Leah. It feels a bit dramatic of me to put this at the bottom idk. And they don’t really even count as a couple. But the way watching their fling play out made me feel was by far the worst. At least with Penny it was like, this makes sense and also is a logical point in calzona’s messy relationship thst she’d exist. Whilst I do understand why Arizona went for Leah at the time (she wanted to be wanted so bad and went for someone the opposite of Callie and also self sabotages - I’ve talked about this before), I really really didn’t like it. All of the sexual harassment stuff whilst valid from Leah’s side was just so uncomfy to watch. I just hated it so so so much. Big big bad vibes. Ugh.

Ok that’s my ranking. I hope I haven’t offended anyone too much! Please share your thoughts!!

(Also whilst researching greys couples for this to see if I forgot any I saw an article claim that calzona are only the 17th best couple on the show out of like 30!!! Like hello how rude!!)

[oopsiedaiseyy]

OWL HOUSE SEASON 1 REVIEW

Scroll down for actual review

Just realized that I never did any updates on watching The Owl House!

I’m already nearly done with season 2 but…

Here’s my review of season 1!

But… first I wanna talk about how I came to watch the show.

Anyway I actually never heard of the owl house much before watching it and I used to think it was annoying and badly written (even though I hadn’t watched it yet, honestly I don’t know why I hated on it. I didn’t ever say anything online but when my sister talked about it I would say that I didn’t like it) the first time I saw it was back in 2020, I was in the hospital my mom turned on the TV in the room and The Owl House was playing. I kinda knew what it was but not really. I only saw the end on an episode. The one where King writes a book. The episode ended but I was just amazed.I thought it was cool because I had never seen a Mexican in a cartoon before, at least not one like me. I’m Mexican but I’ve always thought that I was weird. The only “representation” I ever got was that show Maya as Miguel. Which I didn’t get to watch much ether. And when I was younger I was souped into anime and fantasy so seeing a Mexican Girl. My age acting like me On screen was pretty big for me. I never watched any more then that. That one snippet

I had other things on my mind then watching that show, my medical condition

Then

Earlier this year I found out about Tangled the series, I watched it because of Varian, as most people did. I knew I was like to the fandom and thought the fandom was dead tbh.

UNTILL I found out there is a fandom alive and kicking on TikTok a lot of people make TTS edits and are all mutuals. Of course I join the group and made lots of Moots. Thing is when your moots are editors you get more then just one kind of edit.

Thus I saw a lot of The Owl House edits and…saw Hunter same as when I became obsessed with Varian.

I only started watching the other day and already got through season one. And I liked it a lot more then I thought I would!

Read here for actually review

To put it simply i like it. ANYWAY ONTO REVIEW

Ok first I really like Gus and Willow specifically Gus is my fave character (hunter is tied with him currently)

The first episode was kind a turn off for me. It just doesn’t set up for how the show progresses. Maybe that’s just me but it plays out as if it’s from a totally different show.

I feel like the introduction to each character was also done well. One thing this show is good at is make you question your own judgement

I would meet a character and like them at first and the dislike them when the revel how they actually act.

But not in the typical Disney twist villain way, in a good way. Like you could kinda tell as your get to know them but… you didn’t question it at first till it was to late.

Heh kind like reall life. And they do the same with character i originally didn’t like. What’s his name. The one who presented to be a human expert? Yeah they managed to make me like him after be deliberately saying that I hated him. Props to the writers on that.

I am pretty good at realizing when stuff is going to happen in a show I’m sure most people can relate. You see the gun on the wall and know it’s going to be used later in the episode.But even though I realized this stuff the realization is just as surprising as if they revealed it in the show.

The plot is in my opinion really good. And I don’t cry over shows. But… It did get a few tears out of me when Luz Started to cry when she got home after losing Eda to Lily. What made it wors was king asking where she was. It upsets me a lot

I like amity and Luz’s blossoming relationship but I’m disappointed we didn’t get to see mor of Amity’s side of it.

Hooty has no purpose and we should burn him

Ok I don’t mean that

…

Ok I do mean that but COME ON

I know he has a friendship with Lily in season 2 which honestly made him more bearable but then she left and he want back to being annoying.

Uhhhi add more in I think of more but that’s my review so far. At least on season 1. When I finish season 2 I’ll also talk about that.

[darling-i-read-it]

Gryffindor!

George Weasley x Slytherin!fem!reader

Word Count: 2.8k

Warnings: parents are death eaters, enemies to lovers, talks of the wizarding war,

Author’s Note: based on these headcanons that I wrote! I really loved the headcanons and I’m so glad someone wanted the full thing lol. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it!

Requested: by anon, Oh Lordy yes please can we get a full fic for the enemies to lovers with George??? Honestly think those head canons are one of my fave pieces of yours now!!

Summary: the request!

I don’t own these characters. They belong to author/director/creator

(not my gif)

You sat in the back of your Potions class, glad that Snape hadn’t assigned seats. He might later in the week but for now you could just slide behind everyone and hopefully go unnoticed. That was the idea anyway. You didn’t even dislike Snape, you just didn’t really wanna deal with it on your first day. You could muster up the courage later.

You got out your cauldron and took out your quill, looking over your desk as you got prepared for class.

Someone sat beside you. You turned your head, amazed to see George Weasley sitting beside you. He was facing the other way, laughing at someone else. Maybe he hadn’t noticed you were there.

“Oi, Weasley,” you said. He turned around to look at you. “Why don’t you sit with a friend if you want to chat that badly?” He scoffed and crossed his arms.

“Well aren’t you a ray of sunshine.” He flicked the Slytherin logo on your robe. “That makes sense. Y/N Y/L/N yeah?”

“Yeah,” was all you said. You stared at each other. “Are you gonna move?”

He stood up and looked down at you. You crossed your arms and leaned back in his seat. His friends were watching as you stared defiantly at each other. He moved up a row and sat down next to someone else. You smiled smugly and went back to getting things ready.

Anyone else could sit with you, just not one of the twins. You couldn’t stand their stupid sense of humor and even less so how they tried to get everyone involved. This probably wouldn’t be a good class because he was here now. At least Fred wasn’t in this class.

Snape walked in and everyone shut up. He made a spiel about first years and how hard this class was gonna be. The regular Snape stuff. He made everyone take out some ingredients to mix together an easy first potion.

You did as you were told and when you saw George’s head turn, you leaned forward and sneaked an extra dragon's tooth in. You sat back in your chair and waited as he added the last ingredient and it blew up in his face.

“Mr. Weasley,” Snape said, an appalled look on his face. George's face was covered with soot. “This is a simple potion. What can I expect of you for the rest of the year?” George coughed.

“Probably more of this Professor!” he said, laughing. He turned around to you and you shrugged innocently. “It’s on,” he whispered.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Weasley.”

====

Potions ended up being the highlight of your week and everyone else's. People started to make bets on what you and George were going to do to ruin each other's grades. At this point Snape had put you on opposite corners of the room and taken 50 points from both Slytherin and Gryffindor.

You put your hair up as you got looked into your cauldron. You saw orange hair come into the room in your peripheral vision. You had already snuck some things from Herbology you were planning on using on George today. You were a good three months into your schooling at Hogwarts and you were getting the hang of the classes now.

That meant you could just torture each other a bit more.

You got up before Snape could come in and walked across the scale of the room. You sat down on George’s desk and smiled. ‘

“Heya Y/N.” You raised an eyebrow and let out an annoyed sigh.

“Fred Weasley, what are you doing here?”

His eyes went wide. How did you know? Him and George had been switching other classes for weeks and no one had noticed. But the first look and you knew it wasn’t George.

“What gave me away?”

“The eyebrows,” you said, shrugging. “And I was really looking forward to torturing your brother today. Oh well, guess there’s always next class.” You got up and walked swiftly back to your desk, putting the herbology things back into your bag for next class.

Fred turned around to look at you, shaking his head. You must have been paying more attention than George had given you credit for.

===

“Draco Malfoy seems annoying,” Harry said as he looked over to the Slytherin table. He was still getting his grips on being at Hogwarts for the first time. Ron and Hermione sat beside him at the Gryffindor table in the great hall.

“Apparently his fathers awful,” Hermione said as she cut into the dish in front of her. George and Fred sat in front of them, though they were chatting together and with the other people around. This wasn’t exactly their first year, they had some catching up to do.

George threw a piece of biscuit at the Slytherin table, just narrowly missing you and hitting the person you were sitting next to. You turned around aggressively, making eye contact. You flipped him off. He blew you a kiss.

“Who’s that?” Harry asked Ron. Ron turned around to see who he was looking at and laughed.

“Geroge’s arch nemesis,” Ron said, stuffing his face with food. “They’ve been attacking each other since their first year.”

“They’ll make out by our final year,” Fred joked, causing George to hit his shoulder.

“She’d probably rather kill me. It’s in her nature!”

“Ah yes. She’s gonna move from getting your potions grade to tank straight to murder.”

====

“I see you’re back in your seat Miss. Y/L/N,” Snape said that year. You nodded, all things ready to go. Despite what George had tried, you had always gotten perfect marks in your assignments with Snape.

“I’m surprised you didn’t make sure George and I were in different classes this year, Professor.”

“I tried. Apparently I’m not allowed to make those decisions,” he drawled. You laughed gently and he moved ahead. George sat in his regular seat. “Good evening class,” Snape said, addressing everyone. “As you’re all third years I expect you to have a good basis on potion making. I want to start with the Amortentia potion to get it out of the way.”

There was a murmur over the group and you leaned back in your chair, rolling your eyes. You had been dreading this one. The love potion.

“I’ll be handing out the pearl dust,” Snape said and started to get the ingredients together as he handed them out. You looked over the instructions and started right away, eager to be done with it.

Once you were done you leaned over your cauldron and took a big whiff in.

Cinnamon, you thought to yourself. A whiff of candy, like the sweets down in Hogsmeade. And smoke, the kind you smell right after lighting off a firework. You scoffed, shaking your head. That wasn’t...that was impossible.

“Surprised you aren’t trying to sabotage this one,” George said, walking over to your seat. He broke you out of your thoughts, causing you to put a neutral face on. Everyone was chatting, helping each other out to make sure it was right.

“I’m curious Gryffindor, what does your potion smell like? Candy because it’s your one true love?” you teased. He scoffed.

“You don’t deserve to know.”

“Come on Weasley, what did it smell like?” you asked, leaning forward.

“Parchment, apples and shampoo,” he said. “Are you quite happy?” You resisted the urge to smell your hair and nodded.

“Yes I am.”

“What about you?”

“Nothing special. Grass and a summer's day.”

You knew you were wearing the apple scented perfume like you wore every day. It wasn’t overwhelming and that’s why you preferred it. You shoved the thought completely away. That wasn’t possible.

You hated George Weasley.

===

Umbridge's rules were ridiculous. This was your last year at Hogwarts and you should have been spending it doing fun, breaking rules but no, apparently everything was a rule and you weren’t allowed to break one.

You leaned forward over the table, looking over at George who was sitting at the Gryffindor table as usual. The two of you hadn’t even been able to mess with each other at all since her arrival. It was tormenting. You took a bite of a biscuit and then tossed it at George. He looked up and furrowed his eyebrows.

You got up and stomped over.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?” he asked, bowing dramatically in his seat.

“Do you have a big plan to annoy Umbridge?”

“Oh do you wanna work together now?” he asked. You rolled your eyes.

“Alright nevermind-” You turned to walk away. He reached forward and grabbed your hand, pulling you back. You stumbled into the bench beside him, meeting his eyes. Your faces were far too close for comfort.

“Of course I have a plan, Slytherin,” he said, lips upturned into a smug smile. “Do you want in? It includes working with the twins you hate so much.”

“My enemy's enemy is my friend” you said. “We can work together just this once. Join forces for the greater good.” Fred leaned forward and looked at you. “Wonderful! You know how to fly a broom right?”

===

The fireworks flew through the great hall and out to the main halls as the three of you watched. You laughed, shaking your head in surprise at how well that went down.

“Maybe you two aren’t so bad,” you said, watching in amazement as everyone laughed and the teachers grew more and more annoyed by the second. “I have no idea where you got the fireworks.”

“We have our ways,” Fred said.

“We’re going to get in so much trouble,” you said.

“Damn the trouble. She deserves it,” George said. He looked over at you but you didn’t notice. Your eyes were still on the chaos that you had created around the school. “You’ve grown up a bit since that first Potions class.”

“Yeah? So have you. We’ve upgraded our tactics too,” you said, scoffing. “We should probably run.” George grabbed your hand and dragged you down the hall away from the problems you had created.

===

You looked over the school for the last time as a student. You would miss it. You would miss the death scares and the regular student things. You had your arms grossed as you waited for the boats to come and take you to the train.

“Hey Slytherin!” You turned around to see George jogging towards you. Your face eased into a small smile.

The hate had faded into admiration. You would never tell him that but you knew it was true.

“Hey Gryffindor.” He came to a slow stop in front of you. “What can I do for you?”

“Listen this..this whole He Who Shall Not Be Named thing is getting really serious and I know your parents are..were death eaters. I just wanted to say that if you ever need a place to stay, the burrow is always open for you.”

You weren’t expecting that. At all.

You felt your heart clench in your chest. Your face eased even more and you felt a wave of emotion rush over you. You had been worried about that. If this Voldermort thing got any worse than there was no telling what your parents would do. You couldn’t be on that side of the fight.

“Thanks Weasley,” you said, trying to keep your emotions down. “I might have to take you up on that offer.”

“My mom would love to have you. To tell Fred and I apart if nothing else.” You smiled. You grabbed his hand and reached into your bag for a marker. You wrote your address down on the back of his palm.

“Don’t lose touch. I’m gonna miss you.”

“Oh?” You rolled your eyes and shoved him away.

“Shut up.”

“I’m gonna miss you too,” he said. With one last look he turned away. Wondering if he should have kissed you. You stood there. Wishing he would have kissed you.

===

You and George kept in touch through letters. You talked more than you had the couple of years that you were actually sitting just a few feet away from each other. Until one day, the letters just stopped coming.

You were concerned to say the least. The war was getting bad and you weren’t sure what that meant for the Weasley family. You knew what it meant for you. That Voldermort was going to come and you would have to join them soon.

You sat by your window, sifting through papers and books. You were trying to figure out where to go in case the worst of the worst happened.

There was a knock on your window. Which made you jump because you live on the second floor. You walked over and were surprised to see George Weasley on the other side of the glass on a broom. Your eyes went wide and you opened up the window.

“Gryffindor?!”

“Slytherin! You stopped answering my letters and I got worried.”

“I haven’t been getting your letters. I thought you stopped sending them,” you explained. He shook his head. “My owl must have been intercepted. I figured it was your parents. Hence me being here.”

“What are you doing here?” you asked. He rolled his eyes.

“I’m here to rescue you. Obviously.”

“And you want me to stay with you? Seriously?”

“If you want.” You scoffed.

“I want.” You climbed onto the desk that was in front of the window and started to climb out. He hovered next to the window closely and you landed over the stick beside him. You wrapped your arms around his waist, breathing heavily as you looked at your house. “Thank you Weasley.” “Anytime.” ====

“You can stay here dear but if the boys give you any problems, tell me instantly. I give you permission to hex them. Also what size sweater do you wear?” Molly had her hand on your shoulder as you stood in Fred and George’s room. You smiled, nodding.

“Uh just a large please. Thank you so much Mrs. Weasley.”

“Of course dear.” She kissed your forehead. “Goodnight. Goodnight boys!” The twins said goodnight in unison. You sat down on George’s bed. Molly had given you blankets to sleep in between the beds.

“I’m gonna go get some water,” Fred said. You nodded and he slipped out of the room, wiggling his eyebrows at George. You rolled your eyes and turned to George who was sitting on your makeshift bed on the ground.

“I can sleep down here you know.”

“That’s okay. I’m barging into your life, not the other way around.”

“I’m sorry it had to come to this.”

“I’m less scared here then I was there,” you admitted. You slid down the side of the bed and sat down in front of him. He grabbed your hand and you rubbed his skin with your thumb.

“My amortentia smelled like you,” he said, laughing gently.

“Huh?”

“In year three.” The memory started to resurface and a warmth went over your chest.

“Do you know what mine smelled like?”

“Hm?”

“Cinnamon and candy and the smoke after fireworks,” you admitted finally. He smiled smugly.

“You could have told me.”

“And lost our little game? Never.” He put his hand on your cheek and you leaned into his touch. “Why didn’t you kiss me the last day we were at Hogwarts?”

“I don’t know,” he breathed. “Make up for lost time?”

You leaned forward and crashed your lips into his. It felt as good as you had imagined it for years. Maybe it was a subconscious imagining to start but you had always thought about it. You pulled away and put your forehead on his chest, looking down at his crossed legs. He rubbed your back.

“We’re gonna fight this war together,” you muttered.

“Yeah we are,” he said happily. He kissed your head. “Of course we are.”

Harry Potter Tag List: @karasong, @lov3vivian, @russian-soft-bitch, @elisaa-shelby

[army-of-mai-lovers]

in which I get progressively angrier at the various tropes of atla fandom misogyny

tbh I think it would serve all of us to have a larger conversation about the specific ways misogyny manifests in this fandom, because I’ve seen a lot of people who characterize themselves as feminists, many of whom are women themselves, discuss the female characters of atla/lok in misogynistic ways, and people don’t talk about it enough. 

disclaimer before I start: I’m not a woman, I’m an afab nonbinary person who is semi-closeted and thus often read as a woman. I’m speaking to things that I’ve seen that have made me uncomfy, but if any women (esp women existing along other axes of oppression, e.g. trans women, women of color, disabled women, etc) want to add onto this post, please do!

“This female character is a total badass but I’m not even a little bit interested in exploring her as a human being.” 

I’ve seen a lot of people say of various female characters in atla/lok, “I love her! She’s such a badass!” now, this statement on its own isn’t misogynistic, but it represents a pretty pervasive form of misogyny that I’ve seen leveled in large part toward the canon female love interests of one or both of the members of a popular gay ship (*cough* zukka *cough*) I’m going to use Suki as an example of this because I see it with her most often, but it can honestly be applied to nearly every female character in atla/lok. Basically, people will say that they stan Suki, but when it comes time to engage with her as an actual character, they refuse to do it. I’ve seen meta after meta about Zuko’s redemption arc, but I so rarely see people engage with Suki on any level beyond “look at this cool fight scene!” and yeah, I love a cool Suki fight scene as much as anybody else, but I’m also interested in meta and headcanons and fics about who she is as a person, when she isn’t an accessory to Sokka’s development or doing something cool. of course, the material for this kind of engagement with Suki is scant considering she doesn’t have a canon backstory (yet) (don’t let me down Faith Erin Hicks counting on you girl) but with the way I’ve seen people in this fandom expand upon canon to flesh out male characters, I know y’all have it in you to do more with Suki, and with all the female characters, than you currently do. frankly, the most engagement I’ve seen with Suki in mainstream fandom is justifying either zukki (which again, is characterizing her in relation to male characters, one of whom she barely interacts with in canon) or one of the Suki wlw pairings. which brings me to--

“I conveniently ship this female character whose canon love interest is one of the members of my favorite non-canon ship with another female character! gay rights!” 

now, I will admit, two of my favorite atla ships are yueki and mailee, and so I totally understand being interested in these characters’ dynamics, even if, as is the case with yueki, they’ve never interacted canonically. however, it becomes a problem for me when these ships are always in the background of a zukka fic. at some point, it becomes obvious that you like this ship because it gets either Zuko or Sokka’s female love interests out of the way, not because you actually think the characters would mesh well together. It’s bad form to dislike a female character because she gets in the way of your gay ship, so instead, you find another girl to pair her off with and call it a day. to be clear, I’m not saying that everybody who ships either mailee or yueki (or tysuki or maisuki or yumai or whatever other wlw rarepair involving Zuko or Sokka’s canon love interests) is nefariously trying to sideline a female character while acting publicly as if she’s is one of their faves--far from it--but it is noteworthy to me how difficult it is to find content that centers wlw ships, while it’s incredibly easy to find content that centers zukka in which mailee and/or yueki plays a background role. 

also, notice how little traction wlw Katara ships gain in this fandom. when’s the last time you saw yuetara on your dash? there’s no reason for wlw Katara ships to gain traction in a fandom that is so focused on Zuko and Sokka getting together, bc she doesn’t present an immediate obstacle to that goal (at least, not an obstacle that can be overcome by pairing her up with a woman). if you are primarily interested in Zuko and Sokka’s relationship, and your queer readings of other female characters are motivated by a desire to get them out of the way for zukka, then Katara’s canon m/f relationship isn’t a threat to you, and thus, there’s no reason to read her as potentially queer. Or even, really, to think about her at all. 

“Katara’s here but she’s not actually going to do anything, because deep down, I’m not interested in her as a person.” 

the show has an enormous amount of textual evidence to support the claim that Sokka and Katara are integral parts of each other’s lives. so, she typically makes some kind of appearance in zukka content. sometimes, her presence in the story is as an actual character with layers and nuance, someone whom Sokka cares about and who cares about Sokka in return, but also has her own life and goals outside of her brother (or other male characters, for that matter.) sometimes, however, she’s just there because halfway through writing the author remembered that Sokka actually has a sister who’s a huge part of the show they’re writing fanfiction for, and then they proceed to show her having a meetcute with Aang or helping Sokka through an emotional problem, without expressing wants or desires outside of those characters. I’m honestly really surprised that I haven’t seen more people calling out the fact that so much of Katara’s personality in fanon revolves around her connections to men? she’s Aang’s girlfriend, she’s Sokka’s sister, she’s Zuko’s bestie. never mind that in canon she spends an enormous amount of time fighting against (anachronistic, Westernized) sexism to establish herself as a person in her own right, outside of these connections. and that in canon she has such interesting complex relationships with other female characters (e.g. Toph, Kanna, Hama, Korra if you want to write lok content) or that there are a plethora of characters with whom she could have interesting relationships with in fanon (Mai, Suki, Ty Lee, Yue, Smellerbee, and if you want to write lok content, Kya II, Lin, Asami, Senna, etc). to me, the lack of fandom material exploring Katara’s relationships with other women or with herself speak to a profound indifference to Katara as a character. I’m not saying you have to like Katara or include her in everything you write, but I am asking you to consider why you don’t find her interesting outside of her relationships with men.

“I hate Katara because she talks about her mother dying too often.” 

this is something I’ve seen addressed by people far more qualified than I to address it, but I want to mention it here in part because when I asked people which fandom tropes they wanted me to talk about, this came up often, but also because I find it really disgusting that this is a thing that needs to be addressed at all. Y’all see a little girl who watched her mother be killed by the forces of an imperialist nation and say that she talks about it too much??? That is a formational, foundational event in a child’s life. Of course she’s going to talk about it. I’ve seen people say that she doesn’t talk about it that often, or that she only talks about it to connect with other victims of fn imperialism e.g. Jet and Haru, but frankly, she could speak about it every episode for no plot-significant reason whatsoever and I would still be angry to see people say she talks about it too much. And before you even bring up the Sokka comparison, people deal with grief in different ways. Sokka  repressed a lot of his grief/channeled it into being the “man” of his village because he knew that they would come for Katara next if he gave them the opportunity. he probably would talk about his mother more if a) he didn’t feel massive guilt at not being able to remember what she looked like, and b) he was allowed to be a child processing the loss of his mother instead of having to become a tiny adult when Hakoda had to leave to help fight the fn. And this gets into an intersection with fandom racism, in that white fans (esp white American fans) are incapable of relating to the structural trauma that both Sokka and Katara experience and thus can’t see the ways in which structural trauma colors every single aspect of both of their characters, leading them to flatten nuance and to have some really bad takes. And you know what, speaking of bad fandom takes--   

“Shitting on Mai because she gets in the way of my favorite Zuko ship is actually totally okay because she’s ~abusive~” 

y’all WHAT. 

ok listen, I get not liking maiko. I didn’t like it when I first got into fandom, and later I realized that while bryke cannot write romance to save their lives, fans who like maiko sure can, so I changed my tune. but if you still don’t like it, that’s fine. no skin off my back. 

what IS skin off my back is taking instances in which Mai had justified anger toward Zuko, and turning it into “Mai abused Zuko.” do you not realize how ridiculous you sound? this is another thing where I get so angry about it that I don’t know how useful my analysis is actually going to be, but I’ll do my best. numerous people have noted how analysis of Mai and Zuko’s breakup in “The Beach” or Mai being justifiably angry with him at Boiling Rock or her asking for FUCKING FRUIT in “Nightmares and Daydreams” that says that all of these events were her trying to gain control over him is....ahhh...lacking in reading comprehension, but I’d like to go a step further and talk about why y’all are so intent on taking down a girl who doesn’t show emotion in normative ways. obviously, there’s a “Zuko can do no wrong” aspect to Mai criticism (which is super weird considering how his whole arc is about how he can do lots of wrong and he has to atone for the wrong that he’s done--but that’s a separate post.) But I also see slandering Mai for not expressing her emotions normatively and not putting up with Zuko’s shit and slandering Katara for “talking about her mother too often” as two sides of the same coin. In both cases, a female character expresses emotions that make you, the viewer, uncomfortable, and so instead of attempting to understand where those emotions may have come from and why they might be manifesting the way they are, y’all just throw the whole character away. this is another instance of people in the fandom being fundamentally disinterested in engaging with the female characters of atla in a real way, except instead of shallowly “stanning” Mai, y’all hate her. so we get to this point where female characters are flattened into one of two things: perfect queens who can do no wrong, or bitches. and that’s not who they are. that’s not who anyone is. but while we as a fandom are pretty good at understanding b1 Zuko’s actions as layered and multifaceted even though he’s essentially an asshole then, few are willing to lend the same grace to any female character, least of all Mai. 

and what’s funny is sometimes this trope will intersect with “I conveniently ship this female character whose canon love interest is one of the members of my favorite non-canon ship with another female character! gay rights!”, so you’ll have someone actively calling Mai toxic/problematic/abusive, and at the same time ship her with Ty Lee? make it make sense! but then again, maybe that’s happening because y’all are fundamentally disinterested in Ty Lee as a character too. 

“I love Ty Lee so much that I’m going to treat her like an infantilized hypersexual airhead!” 

there are so many things happening in y’alls characterization of Ty Lee that I struggled to synthesize it into one quippy section header. on one hand, you have the hypersexualization, and on the other hand, you have the infantilization, which just makes the hypersexualization that much worse. 

(of course, sexualizing or hypersexualizing ANY atla character is really not the move, considering that these are child characters in a children’s show, but then again, that’s a separate post.) 

now, I understand how, from a very, very surface reading of the text, you could come to the conclusion that Ty Lee is an uncomplicated bimbo. if you grew up on Western media the way I did, you’ll know that Ty Lee has a lot of the character traits we associate with bimbos: the form-fitting pink crop top, the general conventional attractiveness, the ditzy dialogue. but if you think about it for more than three seconds, you’ll understand that Ty Lee has spent her whole life walking a tightrope, trying to please Azula and the rest of the royal family while also staying true to herself. Ty Lee and Azula’s relationship is a really complex and interesting topic that I don’t really have time to explore at the moment given how long this post is, but I’d argue that Ty Lee’s constant, vocal  adulation is at least partially a product of learning to survive at court at an early age. Like Mai, she has been forced to regulate her emotions as a member of fn nobility, but unlike Mai, she also has six sisters who look exactly like her, so she has a motivation to be more peppy and more affectionate to stand out. 

fandom does not do the work to understand Ty Lee. as is a theme with this post, fandom is actively disinterested in investigating female characters beyond a very surface level reading of them. Thus, fandom takes Ty Lee’s surface level qualities--her love of the color pink, her revealing standard outfit, and the fact that once she found a boy attractive and also once a lot of boys found her attractive--and they stretch this into “Ty Lee is basically Karen Smith from Mean Girls.” thus, Ty Lee is painted as a bimbo, or more specifically, as not smart, uncritically adoring of Azula (did y’all forget all the non-zukka bits of Boiling Rock?), and attractive to the point of hypersexualization. I saw somebody make a post that was like “I wish mailee was more popular but I’m also glad it isn’t because otherwise people would write it as Mai having to put up with her dumb gf” and honestly I have to agree!! this is one instance in which I’m glad that fandom doesn’t discuss one of my favorite characters that often because I hate the fanon interpretation of Ty Lee, I think it’s rooted in misogyny (particularly misogyny against East Asian women, which often takes the form of fetishizing them and viewing them only through a Western white male gaze)  

(side note: here at army-of-mai-lovers, we stan bimbos. bimbos are fucking awesome. I personally don’t read Ty Lee as a bimbo, but if that’s you, that’s fucking awesome. keep doing what you’re doing, queen <3 or king or monarch, it’s 2021, anyone can be a bimbo, bitches <3)

“Toph can and will destroy everyone here with her bare hands because she’s a meathead who likes to murder people and that’s it!”  

Toph is, and always has been, one of my favorite ATLA characters. My very first fic in fandom was about her, and she appears prominently in a lot of my other work as well. One thing that I am always struck by with Toph is how big a heart she has. She’s independent, yes, snarky, yes, but she cares about people--even the family that forced her to make herself smaller because they didn’t believe that their blind daughter could be powerful and strong. Her storyline is powerful and emotionally resonant, her bending is cool precisely because it’s based in a “wait and listen” approach instead of just smashing things indiscriminately, she’s great disabled rep, and overall one of the best characters in the show. 

And in fandom, she gets flattened into “snarky murder child.” 

So where does this come from? Well, as we all know, Toph was originally conceived of as a male character, and retained a lot of androgyny (or as the kids call it, Gender) when she was rewritten as a female character. There are a lot of cultural ideas about androgynous/butch women being violent, and people in fandom seem to connect that larger cultural narrative with some of Toph’s more violent moments in the show to create the meathead murder child trope, erasing her canon emotionality, softness, heart, and femininity in the process. 

This is not to say that you shouldn’t write or characterize Toph as being violent or snarky at all ever, because yeah, Toph definitely did do Earth Rumbles a lot before joining the gaang, and yeah, Toph is definitely a sarcastic person who makes fun of her friends a lot. What I am saying is that people take these traits, sans the emotional logic, marry them to their conception of androgynous/butch women as violent/unemotional/uncaring, and thus create a caricature of Toph that is not at all up to snuff. When I see Toph as a side character in a fic (because yeah, Toph never gets to be a main character, because why would a fandom obsessed with one male character in particular ever make Toph a protagonist in her own right?) she’s making fun of people, killing people, pranking people, etc, etc. She’s never talking to people about her emotions, or palling around with her found family, or showing that she cares about her friends. Everything about her relationship with her parents, her disability, her relationship to Gender, and her love of her friends is shoved aside to focus on a version of Toph that is mean and uncaring because people have gotten it into their heads that androgynous/butch women are mean and uncaring. 

again, we see a female character who does not emote normatively or in a way that makes you, the viewer, comfortable, and so you warp her character until she’s completely unrecognizable and flat. and for what? 

Azula

no, I didn’t come up with a snappy name for this section, mainly because fanon interpretations of Azula and my own feelings toward the character are...complicated. I know there were some people who wanted me to write about Azula and the intersection of misogyny and ableism in fanon interpretations of her character, but I don’t think I can deliver on that because I personally am in a period of transition with how I see Azula. that is to say, while I still like her and believe that she can be redeemed, there is a lot of merit to disliking her. the whole point of this post is that the female characters of ATLA are complex people whom the fandom flattens into stereotypes that don’t hold up to scrutiny, or dislike for reasons that don’t make sense. Azula, however, is a different case. the rise of Azula defenders and Azula stans has led to this sentiment that Azula is a 14 y/o abuse victim who shouldn’t be held accountable for her actions. it seems to me that people are reacting to a long, horrible legacy of male ATLA fans armchair diagnosing Azula with various personality disorders (and suggesting that people with those personality disorders are inherently monstrous and unlovable which ahhhh....yikes) and then saying that those personality disorders make her unlovable, which is quite obviously bad. and hey, I get loving a character that everyone else hates and maybe getting so swept up in that love that you forget that your fave is complicated and has made some unsavory choices. it sucks that fanon takes these well-written, complex villains/antiheroes and turns them into monsters with no critical thought whatsoever. but the attitude among Azula stans that her redemption shouldn’t be hard, that her being a child excuses all of the bad things that she’s done, that she is owed redemption....all of that rubs me the wrong way. I might make another post about this in the future that discusses this in more depth, but as it stands now: while I understand that there is a legacy of misogynistic, ableist, unnuanced takes on Azula, the backlash to that does not take into account the people she hurt or the fact that in ATLA she does not make the choice to pursue redemption. and yes, Zuko had help in making that choice that Azula didn’t, and yes, Azula is a victim of abuse, but in a show about children who have gone through untold horrors and still work to better the lives of the people around them, that is not enough for me to uncritically stan her. 

Conclusion    

misogyny in this fandom runs rampant. while there are some tropes of fandom misogyny that are well-documented and have been debunked numerous times, there are other, subtler forms of misogyny that as far as I know have gone completely unchecked. 

what I find so interesting about misogyny in atla fandom is that it’s clear that it’s perpetrated by people who are aware of fandom misogyny who are actively trying not to be misogynistic. when I first joined atla fandom last summer, memes about how zukka fandom was better than every other fandom because they didn’t hate the female characters who got in the way of their gay ship were extremely prevalent, and there was this sense that *this* fandom was going to model respectful, fun, feminist online fandom. not all of the topes I’ve outlined are exclusive to or even largely utilized in zukka fandom, but a lot of them are. I’ve been in and out of fandom since I was eleven years old, and most of the fandom spaces I’ve been in have been majority-female, and all of them have been incredibly misogynistic. and I always want to know why. why, in these communities created in large part by women, in large part for women, does misogyny run wild? what I realize now is that there’s never going to be a one-size fits all answer to that question. what’s true for 1D fandom on Wattpad in 2012 is absolutely not true for atla fandom on tumblr in 2021. the answers that I’ve cobbled together for previous fandoms don’t work here. 

so, why is atla fandom like this? why did the dream of a feminist fandom almost entirely focused on the romantic relationship between two male characters fall apart? honestly, I think the notion that zukka fandom ever was this way was horrifically ignorant to begin with. from my very first moment in the fandom, I was seeing racism, widespread sexualization of minors, and yes, misogyny. these aspects of the fandom weren’t talked about as much as the crocverse or other, much more fun aspects. further, atla (specifically zukka) fandom misogyny often doesn’t look like the fandom misogyny we’ve become familiar with from like, Sherlock fandom or what have you. for the most part, people don’t actively hate Suki, they just “stan” without actually caring about her. they hate Mai because they believe in treating male victims of abuse equally. they’re not characterizing Toph poorly, they’re writing her as a “strong woman.” in short, people are misogynistic, and then invoke a shallow, incomplete interpretation of feminist theory to shield themselves from accusations of misogyny. it’s not unlike the way some people will invoke a shallow, incomplete interpretation of critical race theory to shield themselves from accusations of racism, or how they’ll talk about “freedom of speech” and “the suppression of women’s sexuality” to justify sexualizing minors. the performance of feminism and antiracism is what’s important, not the actual practice. 

if you’ve made it this far, first off, hi, thanks so much for reading, I know this was a lot. second, I would seriously encourage you to be aware of these fandom tropes and to call them out when you see them. elevate the voices of fans who do the work of bringing the female characters of atla to life. invest in the wlw ships in this fandom. drop a kudos and a comment on a rangshi fic (please, drop a kudos and a comment on a rangshi fic). read some yuetara. let’s all be honest about where we are now, and try to do better in the future. I believe in us. 

[zekesexual]

cooking headcanons for my fave aot boys

cw: modern au, aot boys x reader

this was very fun to write pls tell me if you’d like a pt 2!!

eren

he knows how to make ONE dish.

and that dish is chicken and rice

he tries so hard and promises that he’ll switch it up once in a while

but every time he just makes some variation of...chicken and rice

hey at least he’s trying

doesn’t understand the point of measurements? like he just eyes everything and hopes the entire dish isn’t a fuck up

always asks you to help chop onions, one because he just doesn’t know how to dice, and two because he hates the fact that they burn his eyes

always forgets to put oil on the pan if he’s frying something and ruins the pan

will ask you to come try his food in the middle of him cooking and ask what you think

though he doesn’t listen to any of your suggestions

cross contaminates A LOT...like he’ll touch raw chicken and then open a cabinet handle without washing his hands like it’s nothing

also never washes his hands before cooking

100% the type of guy to touch spicy peppers/sauce and then accidentally rub the same hand with his eye

gets really sad when it seems like you don’t like his food

so sometimes you have to pretend just so he isn’t sulking about it the rest of the day

cooking skill overall: 6/10

i mean he’s okay? he could be better if he actually put effort into it

jean

when he first started he was awful

like....he didn’t even know how to boil pasta

didn’t know how ovens worked? like why do i have to wait for it to preheat when i can just put it in now

always cut his fingers from chopping stuff

but jean eventually did get better like the developmental character he is!

he started getting serious cuz he saw that you genuinely disliked his food which made him sad :(

started following a bunch of food blogs to learn how to cook

and yes it payed off!!

though the process was rocky..there were definitely a lot of failed attempts at certain dishes

but his ultimate goal was to make food that you enjoyed

my man is now a world renowned home chef

literally knows stuff about certain foods that you didn’t know??

he’s also really big about keeping a clean space while he’s cooking, if he doesn’t it distracts him and stresses him out

always comes home with like the most expensive ingredients ever like jean??? why did you buy a $200 a5 wagyu steak????

also the most extra cook ever!!!

he looooves to cook with you and teach you all the new fancy cooking phrases he learned even if you already knew what they meant

cooks for you everyday because making you happy and spoiling you with food is all he cares about

cooking skill overall: 10/10

jean went from not knowing how to cook pasta to making pasta from scratch !!

zeke

zeke is one of those people who are just naturally good at cooking for no reason??

like the first time he offered to cook for you he made a perfectly seared filet mignon with steak fries

like..he’s never talked or shown any interest in cooking so you’re just wondering where his skill came from?????

you never admit that his cooking is amazing though because it only fans his ego

but he knows

looks very sexy whenever he’s concentrated on chopping something

sometimes he’ll roll his sleeves up before he starts cooking and it’s just the hottest thing in the world

very skilled with his...fingers

nono but fr cooking is one of his many hidden talents that you wish you’d known about sooner

but he only cooks like really nice meals on special occasions

most of the time he’ll just make you something simple like pancakes or french toast for breakfast

also loves packing your lunches!!

but..he’s a very sloppy cook tbh

always spills things or knocks stuff over

sometimes he’ll realize he missed a very important step/ingredient in the recipe and his reactions are always priceless

always ends up saving the dish though!!

tries to act like he doesn’t care what you think of his food but he does!!!!! 100%!!!!

will sneak glances at you while you’re eating his food to read your reaction

overall cooking skill: 11/10

[herestomyhaters]

just finished love, victor season 2 & boy do i got a lot to say. beware the major spoilers & just fyi, this is comin' at you by a black, bisexual girl. PULL THE LEVER KRONK!

i don't really know who to blame 4 this, & i'm not one to dislike protagonists just because, it's just... is it me or are all other characters more developed + nuanced than victor is? i'd like to see who he is beyond the relationship drama. i mean all we really know abt him is that he loves basketball & we barely even saw anything about that this season (besides the whole homophobic lockerroom extravaganza)

mia brooks is defo giving me Best Girl. there's sth about her that warms my heart, and i think a big part of that is how rachel hilson brings her to life. it really makes u care about her. that being said, i wanna see more! i feel like they could be digging a lot deeper w/ her yet they never really do. hopefully s3 will be the one

ah, the whole benji situation. i'm not gonna lie, i don't really like benji. his relationship w/ victor was almost too perfect & bubbly for me, then it was a hot mess and they kept fighting over every single thing. i kept getting major gaslight vibes from him. i don't really think they belong together, though we should probably cut benji some slack since he has been dealing w/ a lot. i need him to own up about his white privilege tho

speaking of whites, felix weston! my man! he's one of my faves what do you want me to tell ya. seeing him in so much pain broke my heart but i love that they gave him more depth besides being the quirky, socially awkward bestie. he's one of my favourite characters 4 sure

which brings me to his relationship w/ lake. honest: i never really shipped them. they're dynamic was fun in s1 (though it was giving a bit too much stydia imo), though i never fully recovered from lake being embarrassed to publicly date him. they just didn't quite do it for me. and that's probably for the best cause... HELLO? BISEXUAL LAKE? LET'S FUCKING GO?! ngl i always thought if we got bi rep it would be w/ pilar, but i'm not mad abt this at all !!!

pilar !!! my bestie !!! my favourite serial killer vibes, billie-eilish-stanning e-girl. let's be honest she was kinda giving me pick-me vibes all season which didn't really seem like her? i could see the attitude in her style & snarky comments (which i both love), but i felt like sth was missing? maybe, just maybe... a plotline that isn't about simping for your brother's best friend who is in a relationship?

don't even get me wrong, i really like pilix! in that scene in s1, i did get the feeling sth could happen between them someday. i never really imagined they'd go abt it this way tho (i mean did we even see where pilar's feelings came from?), but i get how it's interesting to see felix being crushed on for a change. their chemistry is everything, i do wish the pining would've lasted longer (what can i say, a bitch loves slow-burn)

which is the same i can say for vahim. that's right baby, it's finally time to let y'all know where i stand. and where i stand is HERE. i love rahim to the death (also pilar & him are best duo!), he is hilarious & awesome but my god why is this show obsessed w/ getting characters into relationships when they've just exited one? barely?! absolute same thing w/ felix. it's kind of nasty & just makes rahim and pilar look like the rebounds

SIMON SPIER. WITH A BEARD. the power this mf holds cause 1 minute of his screentime had me crying like no other scene did. then victor saying he doesn't need him anymore?? well I DO ??!! i really hope they'll bring him back 😫

forgot to mention andrew so here it is: i love him, he's an amazing loving himbo jock bf. nothing else to say

all in all, i feel like a lot of situations could've been handled differently, and there's so much i haven't mentioned cause this season was PACKED (feel free to rant below). it's understandable i guess, so i'll end with these wise words by meghann fahy: it's tv BABY, people love drama!

[dylanobrienisbatman]

Omg give us ur rant abt hating d*rklina as a ship.. im petty

Okay Anon, so i saw this the other day and I wasn't in the right headspace to answer but i am now!

So to start off, I am firmly in the ship and let ship category. You like a ship, i don't care. That doesn't mean i won't rag on the ship itself but I don't send hate, I don't really engage with shippers from ships I don't like, and I am liberal with the block button and the blacklist feature. Cultivate your tumblr/online experience, y'all. You don't owe anyone on this hellsite (or any other) a damn thing.

However, I REALLY do hate d*rklina as a ship, and I have a big problem with the way the shippers talk about it, so I hope you were being serious about wanting a rant because here it goes.

As for the ship itself, i feel like the reasons I dislike it are pretty obvious and standard. It's abusive. He is her abuser. He manipulates her. He spends months grooming her and gaslighting her, intentionally trying to get her under his control so that when he literally enslaves her it will go over easier. He never actually loved her, he wanted to use her for her power. It's not complicated, it's not really 'up for debate', that is the way its written, and the author has explained that that was the intended interpretation of her work. I mean he literally sexually assaults her in the second book, and straight up tells her he's going to kill everyone she loves so that she has no choice but to fall to him because she is completely alone in the world. He threatens to skin her alive in the second book when they're on the boat, he has no problem torturing her to get Mal to do what he wants. That's not love. He does not love her. It's pretty black and white, its explicitly written as an abusive relationship. The point was to show how easily powerful men can manipulate and abuse young naive women who don't know any better and try to see the best in people. Alina 'fell' for the version of Darkles Sparkles that he intentionally created to try to control her. Nothing he told her was true, from his backstory, to them both being 'the only one like [each other]' (hello, baghra), to using Genya to convince Alina that Mal had abandoned her, everything he did was manipulation so that he could get her under his control. It is not a romance, it is not 'a ship war', d*rklina is not written as romantic. He is her abuser. Full stop.

There is also the point about him being just a generally horrible person all around. He's not morally grey. He just isn't. He sold an 11 year old into sex slavery, forced her to stay in that situation so he could use her, and then mutilated her when she defied him. He also groomed and abused Zoya, because he saw that she was exceptionally powerful and wanted to use her the way he wanted to use Alina. He enslaved Alina. He blinded and mutilated his own mother. He is a genocidal maniac. He shows no remorse, he doesn't care about anyone but himself and his own power. He is not the type of character that should be romantically shipped with anyone. If you like him, that's absolutely fine! One of my fave characters ever is Kai Parker from TVD. Dude was a straight up psychopath. He tried to kill multiple pairs of toddlers. He brutally murdered his pregnant sister AT HER WEDDING. He is a HORRIBLE person. But I think he's a brilliant character. But do I think he's a good guy, do I want him anywhere near any characters in that show in a romantic way (ehem b*nkai)? Absolutely fucking not. Being a fan of a villain character is fine, but fucking own that shit. Villains can be SUCH good characters, but they're still villains. Erasing the bad they've done so you can justify putting them in situations where they WILL harm the people around them because you can't level with yourself about the bad things they've done doesn't make you 'woke', it just makes you look like you don't understand the media you're consuming.

Which leads me to why I have such a problem with the way D*rklina shippers engage with the ship. They simultaneously wanna say "oh we know it's toxic/bad/abusive/etc., that's why we like it!" and then also they try to claim that it should be endgame, they romanticize scenes where he is abusing her (and by romanticize I mean they literally try to frame his abuse as romantic, not like "oh yeah my ship is interacting!!". those are different things. You can be excited about ship interactions without trying to say that things he is doing to her are actually romantic), they try to argue that he is morally grey/misunderstood/etc., and they straight up try to lie and say he's not her abuser.

If you wanna ship an abusive ship, own it. Be straight up about why you like it. It's okay to be into dark shit, y'all. It does NOT make you a bad person to be into dark shit. But this idea that fiction doesn't impact real life, and that people can't call the ship out for what it is is a problem is a very troubling trend in fandom. Nobody is saying you can't ship it, do what you want. But this idea that these people are 'oppressed' because fans of the show/book continue to point out the facts about the way the story was written and how the relationship is actually presented is fucking insane. Someone saying that D*rklina is abusive is not calling you out, they are stating a fact. It's the story as it was presented. You trying to say it's not makes it look like you have no reading comprehension. And this idea that 'well i'll be on the lookout for evil shadow wizards in real life lol' is such horse shit too. His shadow wizard powers aren't the issue. He is a powerful man who grooms and abuses young women. You're telling me you lived through the Me Too movement and you wanna act like thats not a real threat that young women face every day? You're telling me that you can't see that the actual real life connection you're supposed to be making here? Okay, well you should maybe deal with that and come back to me, because that's an issue.

Fiction is meant to teach us lessons. Darkles is meant to teach us something. He is meant to show us that sometimes, powerful men lie to, manipulate, groom, and abuse young women, and we should be aware of that. The story is about a young woman who is sucked into an abusive situation, and then she breaks free and in the end she is able to defeat her abuser. That is a really powerful story, and one that millions of real life women can relate too. To pretend that that story doesn't have real life connections makes you look insensitive and frankly, kind of cruel.

So basically, in the end, my biggest issue is that D*rklina shippers love to spout this nonsense about 'knowing' it's bad and that he's a villain, and 'that's why they like him', and then turn around and try to say that he's not actually the villain, he's not actually bad, and the things he does to Alina that are abuse are actually romantic and sweet. You wanna ship an abusive ship, you do you, but lets not pretend it's anything other than what it is, but romanticizing and normalizing abuse tactics so you can feel, what? morally superior? Cool? edgy and different? That has real life impacts. You are normalizing abuse. Real people will engage with that rhetoric, and it will make it difficult for them to see abuse when it happens to them or the people around them because they believe its romantic or normal to be treated that way.

You wanna be a villain stan? You wanna ship dark ships? Good on ya, but fucking own your shit, y'all.

[melrosing]

I know you said you dont really care much about the actors and the show but what do you think of NCW? I saw he reposted that video from the Game of Thrones twitter which is just the latest disappointment from him, but I still love his version of Jaime as well which makes it hard to see

okay my thoughts on Nikolaj Coster-Waldau himself are... he's a good actor. that's genuinely as far as it goes, I don't like him or dislike him, he's just the guy who played my fave character in a horrific adaptation lol. as far as Coster-Waldau x Fandom goes, my thoughts are basically:

1) people are looking to this guy for closure on the end of GOT; they are not going to get it from him

2) this guy doesn't understand his character as well as everyone thinks he does, so they should stop worrying about what he says/posts

like, on point 1: I understand. he talked a little shit about GOT pre-S8, expressing his frustration with the stagnation of the character, and he had some nice things to say about JB now and then, so people dearly wanted him to call out S8 for what it was and feel validated in their hurt and disappointment, cos this is the guy who played Jaime, surely he knows him best etc etc?

to which I'd say no. the average ASOIAF fan (and I really do mean the average fan, not even the average Jaime fan lol) knows Jaime Lannister better than Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

by his own admission, the guy just started ctrl-f'ing for 'Jaime' after a point during his read, which means he disregarded several POVs that significantly shape his own (namely Brienne and Cersei's), as well as every other. he does not know the wider narrative his story is taking place in. he can't weigh up the impact his missing story beats have on that narrative.

he probably had a vague notion of where the story was headed based on his read, and, like many casual fans who may not even touched the books, he could feel that something was off with the writing by S5 when things weren't happening as they were meant to. I mean, the writing doesn't ring true in its own universe, so you don't have to be especially read-up on Jaime to figure that much. so unsurprisingly, his critiques of the show don't extend much beyond a critique of the show character's actions, he rarely if ever points to what is comparably happening in the books - and at a guess, that's probably because he doesn't remember them all that well.

so he gets the script for S8: maybe it took him aback at first (as some interviews from that period seem to suggest), or maybe as he later claims he was immediately like 'aahhh, poetry' but ultimately I imagine that rather than end 10 years of work on a downer, he took what he knew (and had been told) of his character, tried to find meaning in it, found a foothold and stuck with it. when lena headey (who's never even touched the books) expressed disappointment at the ending, he preached enlightenment to her and they both get teary-eyed about it. he spends however many months convinced they've done a great job of the landing. cue international backlash.

I do not think D&D 'have anything' on Coster-Waldau, or that they were trying to do him dirty. I think they're all likely on friendly terms, and that, combined with Coster-Waldau's desire to see a long job ended meaningfully, means he's still flying the flag. eventually the legacy of GOT is going to settle once and for all and perhaps he'll reassess, or maybe he'll catch wind (no pun intended) of how things are panning out in TWOW/ADOS and wonder at how his storyline differs, but that's probs a long time yet to come lol

this is a dude who couldn't name Dany's dragons when asked in an interview. and I'm not telling him off for this lol - I understand that this was just a job for most of the actors, and they don't feel compelled to know everything about the world they're pretending to be in.

but I'm sure you can name Dany's dragons. pretty sure any ASOIAF fan can name them without even thinking about it. that is because you read the books and you know them, and he doesn't. so do not worry about his opinion on this story

[symphonyofthewrite]

Saw your post, getting stuff off your chest, I just wanted to say that I haven't seen the thing with the kids mentioned by anyone and it really stood out to me, I feel what you mean to some extent, because for me it was a stronger reaction, albeit you probably won't feel the same and that's, obviously, perfectly fine. I have an instant recoil these days whenever a character is around kids for like one second and everyone instantly goes "THEY LITERALLY ADOPTED THEM/THAT'S THEIR CHILD/THEY'RE A PARENT"... genuinely sick of it, and I went white as a sheet when I heard it, I wanted to pluck my eyes out. I don't know if it's an American thing but English speaking fandoms (well, those teeming with fancops that is) seem like they cannot process adult looking characters being in any near proximity to childlike characters without automatically imposing parenthood and family dynamics and it's becoming distressing to me. I feel like Alucard needed to process his trauma and learn to trust and be whole again, he's young himself too, why he needed to be a "father figure" all of a sudden is beyond me.

Thank you so much for the ask!! I don’t get many asks so it makes me happy when I can talk meta with people 💛💛 (Sorry I’m a bit late in answering.)

Funnily enough I actually do agree with you. I didn’t have quite so strong a reaction, but I definitely had a very similar one when I first hear it.

My feelings were and are a bit mixed. I was saying in my other post that I would have preferred that I got to actually see this interaction; see the kids run by him and call him father, and him smile when no ones looking. I still think that would have been a better, more touching way to do the scene, and would have had more chance of me liking it (though I probably still would have felt very weird about it). (I think it especially would have been better because it would show that Alucard himself liked it, not that Greta was forcing the role on him.) I know that it was meant to be something touching, and pretty much everyone seems to like it (and I have seen some cute posts about it), so I just tried to like it too, and focus on the fact that all they were really trying to say was he was having a nice relationship with the kids, and that was indeed sweet.

But yeah, when I heard Greta say “I heard some of them calling you father” for me it was less a reaction of horror, and more a “HUH??!!”moment. When I heard it I was like “Alucard...you agree with this???!! This is how you see yourself??!!” I almost expected Alucard to refute it and say he didn’t see himself as a father to them. Like I seriously do not see Alucard as anything remotely close to a father figure, and it felt weird and wrong to me.

Like when I saw him interacting with the kids the first time, I didn’t think “oh he’s a father figure to them.” I just thought “yay, Alucard’s playing with some kids, and getting out of his bubble!!” I didn’t have any thoughts as to what his relationship role was with them, I just thought that first interaction was lovely.

And if I saw him interacting with the kids again, I still wouldn’t go “father figure” I’d just be like “yay, Alucard’s playing with the kids again, how sweet!!”

Sometimes the relationship doesn’t need a role or a label, ya know?

And I thought it was especially strange because…he literally just met them?? Like how can they possibly start calling him father when he’s played with them once or twice? Regardless of Alucard’s side or things, what group of kids would randomly call a nice man they just met ‘father’? Is...Is this a normal thing??

Anyways, back to Alucard’s side of things, Sypha’s line about Alucard being a teenager trapped an adults body has always been something that stuck with me and shaped how I view Alucard. I definitely view him as internally much younger than he looks. No matter how much I might hate them for what they did to him, I think Sumi and Take are about the age he actually is, and their relationship with him made sense to me. He’s still a kid—or at least young—he still needs his parents in his life, really. (That’s part of why I didn’t like that Drac and Lisa don’t go to him at the end. I personally don’t think Alucard really got closure, and in my mind I think he still very much needed them, and that would have been the perfect ending to his story in my mind, where everything comes full circle; He was forced to lose his parents and grow up too early, and only when he’s started to truly grow up does he get them back.) So yeah, I really don’t see him like a father at all. One of my main focuses in my Castlevania fanfiction is his relationship with Dracula, so I very much see him as the son, not as the dad, even when Drac isn’t around.

(Sidenote, come to think of it, I think this is another reason why Greta x Alucard is a nope from me. She’s very much an adult, so I just see a discrepancy between them that makes me feel weird about them being in a romantic relationship. If we need a label I feel like she fits as an older sister for him, guiding him and giving him support. Him unloading all his problems on her within just meeting her makes more sense if he’s like a younger brother who needs to cry to his sister. I felt weird about it in a romantic context when it was so fast. I mean I know he was desperate to talk to someone, and I probably would have done the same, but still).

“I feel like Alucard needed to process his trauma and learn to trust and be whole again, he's young himself too, why he needed to be a "father figure" all of a sudden is beyond me”

^^ THIS. EXACTLY THIS.

I was honestly really hoping they’d go in depth into him dealing with his trauma, and how he’s still hurting from the wounds of it, and how he needs to heal. I thought that’s what his S4 arc would be about. I don’t think they gave him the chance to really process and work through everything that happened. (Again, I don’t think him just unloading all his problems on a nice stranger is truly working through his trauma. I would have much rather watched him struggle to trust her, and him telling her about his trauma happen later, and be difficult for him, and a deep, heartfelt moment).

Like I was saying in my other post, I think if they framed his arc in how he dealt with the town collectively, I think that would have fit better, and been more touching and satisfying. I would have liked to see him struggling to trust humans, and then see as time progressed how several different people in the town liked him and meant him no harm, and how he realized he could trust them, and that he liked them too. It wasn’t that he had a bad romantic partner and needed a new one. He believed he needed to be punished for killing his father, and in his deep loneliness he let these kids into his house and heart, and they turned on him because he was half vampire. That’s something pretty deeply ingrained, and not something a new romance just fixes by existing. He needed to work through that in a much deeper way.

I know this is gonna be a very unpopular opinion, and it's totally cool if you disagree, but in a weird way... I sort of disliked Alucard’s ending. Don’t get me wrong, Im glad he’s happy, and I’d certainly prefer it to him just getting more trauma like last season (*shudders*), and I don’t think him opening up his castle (and his heart) to humanity is a bad way to end his story, certainly not. I think that fits. And my heart did melt a bit at the "I'm weirdly happy" scene. But, where everyone else is like “*sobbing* happy endings for all our faves” ...I see the creators of the show trying to wrap everything up in a neat little bow, and while that’s certainly not all bad, I don’t love every aspect of that. Theres a time and place for that, but a show based on video games, for which there’s more content in these storylines isn’t one of them in my mind.

Sometimes some of the sadness needs to linger. At the very least, let it linger at the beginning of the season so you can work through it in a powerful way, you know? It may have been tough to see Alucard be more closed off, but I think it would have been more satisfying to see him open up his heart and go back to his old self if we saw his trauma leave lingering effects at the beginning.

To me it didn’t feel like a satisfying arc, it felt like the fairytale ending of “oh look he’s not apprehensive about humanity even after what happened! Oh look he got the girl! And the Castle’s a happy place now! Look he’s not sad anymore! He’s even a father figure to these kids! He’s totally moved on!” And all those things can be awesome when done properly, and when they have depth to them. But they didn’t work through the trauma to get there, so it felt surface level to me, and too fast. I really liked that first episode, and how we saw the two sides of him—one that's become more closed off, and the other that still buries the human despite his comments—and I also really liked the first interaction with the kids, and thought that was one of the few interactions that had depth to it and fit with his arc well. Having it go beyond “they’re helping him learn to like and trust humanity again, and displaying who he really is inside” ended up detracting from the power of his relationship with them in my mind.

Having played SOTN, I think an ingrained loneliness and sadness are, in a way, a key part of Alucard’s character. That sounds really sad and awful out loud but…there are some people that just have a sadness or a loneliness to them, and that's not entirely bad. Here’s the thing…it can make them that much more beautiful. The fact that they still fight for good, even when they see all the dark, those moments when they find true friends, despite how alone they are, those moments when they are happy, are so much more powerful. They just are always a bit…separate from other people. One of my favorite lines in anything is the line "We are connected by our darkness, not by our light" in Pandora Hearts. I think it's a line that fits Alucard well, and it’s always something that’s drawn me personally to him. Don't get me wrong, I don’t think Alucard’s all dark and sad and lonely, he’s definitely got a bright side to him too, of course he does. But I also don't think he ever is able to fully accept the vampire side of himself, and I find that interesting, and worth exploring. Personally I was honestly hoping for the show makers to come up with a bittersweet reason for why he went to sleep for 300 years, (and I thought that's why they set things up with Sumi and Taka that he’d have something against his vampire nature). Personally it felt like they were trying to say “oh he’s all better now, he’ll never be sad or lonely again” and while that’s nice I suppose…for me it sort of…stops feeling like Alucard, in a way? I don't know if I'm explaining it right, or if that sounds terrible...😅

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. I do agree that’s very common of fandom that people are like “boom! Just add water! Instant father figure!” and I don’t love it either. Sometimes it can be cute if it truly fits, but it doesn’t fit every relationship between an adult-looking character and a kid character, and shouldn't be the first place people go to. In the same way every relationship doesn’t have to be romantic, not every relationship has to be parental/familial either. Sometimes it feels like fandom culture isn't really okay to have some characters just be good friends. A good friendship can be more wonderful than a romance sometimes.

If we have to put a label on it, I think he seemed like a nice older brother figure to them? I think that fits who he is in my mind. But father? Nope. Not for me. And again, I don’t think it needs a label.

Thanks again for sending me this ask!! It was nice to get the chance to work through some more of my feelings here too. Sorry if I went too overboard. And I hope I don’t sound too terribly negative, it really was a great season, and I definitely liked some parts of his arc, just not all of it.

If you or anyone else reading would like to discuss with me more, be my guest!! 💕

[rogersstevie]

I used to like Peggy, but I didn't pay much attention to her, so while watching Endgame, I saw that Zola was working with Howard, and then I remembered she is the founder of Shield, and she certainly approved hiring the man who tortured Bucky, I was oh wait, wtf is this? That's why Howard recognizes Bucky, he probably knew about him being Winter Soldier and Peggy did, too. I felt for Howard dying, but that's what he deserved for working with Nazis. Damn it makes Steve's ending worse!

It makes Steve's ending worse because he reconnected with Howard and Peggy, and knowing they are working with Zola. The writers probably had the intention of east egg in the scene where Howard calls Zola, but that opened up a box of worms in relation to Peggy and Howard, unfortunately the fandom refuses to talk about this elephant in the room.

Disliking Peggy doesn't make you misogynistic, unless you start using misogynistic words in relation to her. Pointing out the flaws of a female character is not misogyny, it is just recognizing that she has a character flaw. I'm tired of seeing people who think that we women have to be perfect, I see it in films too, they do not know how to write good female characters that have flaws.

yeah i think once i started really seeing all this and thinking about it, i just generally like the fanon version of peggy more, kind of the same with tony tbh. bc yeah, really, like...........steve has a different moral code from her and howard it’s INSANE to think he would marry her and be like “yes honey that’s fine go ahead and work with zola <33333″ they just could not have worked in any universe, least of all one where he has all this knowledge of the future and what hydra does to his best friend

i do get people not realizing this, since the mcu itself doesn’t make it so blatant that peggy would’ve been responsible, not to mention various inconsistencies in her character’s storylines, including of course the ending of endgame lmao

but anyway yeah, i get that every fandom is full of misogyny and there will have been some directed at peggy but like........there’s a difference between deciding a woman in fiction who like makes normal mistakes or is rude one time is fully evil and pointing out that this woman hired a nazi for her organization!! marvel just hasn’t done a great job with most of their women. i mean take nat, she’s my fave woman in the mcu, but look how inconsistently she is written throughout the franchise, though most of that i blame on joss whedon lmao, the one thing i will give the russos is they did a LOT better with her character than whedon ever did. but yeah, like, no one’s even saying you have to hate a character when they point out flaws, it’s just like, be aware of it! don’t defend everything they do, but especially not this one, she hired a NAZI, end of story