#i would also erase all the victim blaming ofc

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

damn now i want to make fanart of failsafe where glimmer is the one who asks adora what she wants. it would feel right coming from anyone except catra.

[plan-d-to-i]

Hi Plan,

Probably You might've answered this already. Is so, Please Link it.

I would like to know, Where did this "WWX, LWJ was suffering from PTSD or any other mental illness" take comes from???

I admit I started out with CQL and then I read the novel but I've never found at any page where the Author mentioned anything about Trauma or mental illness. I always see ppl portraying them as victims... Whereas I see them as two Heroic Figures with strong moral conviction....

Is this something common in this fandom??? Because I am fairly new and it's just annoying to see these amazing characters getting reduced into some Drama Queens🙄🙄🙄

I think that's just fandom in general. People are always trying to make characters more relatable for themselves. These days that means frequently giving them x identity. In terms of characterization it's probably some cql leaching into things as well. And ofc "trauma" is always thrown around a lot. If the character doesn't show any symptoms of it, it must be just because they don't know it yet! Or ~no symptoms must be a symptom >:0~! WWX in particular seems to suffer a lot from this treatment in fandom. Which is odd because he only really has one thing he can't get over, that fandom is far less understanding of, and that's dogs! (Both in the case of jc stans who use it to try to make their fav into a victim, or bc many ppl like dogs and want their fav to like them too.) As for everything else, WWX has a pretty healthy way of processing things for himself in the end.

After staring at this face for a long while, Wei Wuxian rubbed it again a few more times, massaged his eyes, and thudded back onto the shore. 

It wasn’t that he couldn’t endure others’ harsh tongues and nasty words. After all, when he had first made his decision, he had understood perfectly clearly the kind of road that lay ahead. His mind had long reminded him: remember the motto of the Yunmeng Jiang Clan—“attempt the impossible.”

Only, he had believed his heart to be an unmovable stone. Yet, in the end, humans were not rocks or vegetation.

The little donkey seemed to recognise his low mood and, for once, didn’t impatiently moan and bray."

This only comes right after he overhears the cultivators discussing Jin Ling and YanLi (and his own encounter with Jin Ling). And again about his core in a very similar vein:

"It wasn’t something he liked to reminisce about. He didn’t want to be reminded again and again of what it felt like when his core was cut out or what price he had to pay. If this were exposed in the past, he’d most likely laugh and comfort Jiang Cheng, ‘It’s not that big of a deal anyways. Look at me all these years. Without the core, I still managed to come through, didn’t I? Beating everyone I wanted to beat, killing everyone I wanted to kill.’ But now, he indeed didn’t have the strength left to put up such a confident, nonchalant pretense.

From the bottom of his heart, he knew he wasn’t so indifferent about it after all.

Was it really that easy to move on from such a thing?

Of course not."

He's not dwelling on it. He's not blaming himself. He's not struggling with resentment. He's not spiraling in grief. So it's not like we need to make up WWX's feelings as we go along and just decide he must always be secretly traumatized. A lot of those type of posts also have this weird 'he's too oblivious to know if he were traumatized' flavor to them... Which leads to- there's also a significant difference between WWX allowing himself to acknowledge that he's faced hardships, and it wasn't a lark now that he has the space and time to do it, and the woe is I, everyone owes me, victim mentality so much of fandom imposes on him. That just erases a really significant aspect of his character, in the interest of making him more understandable and palatable to people who seemingly can't wrap their minds around someone going through trying things without making those things their entire personality.

[kingreywrites]

in what ways do you think stalyan abused eugene?

My exact words were that some of her behaviours "evoke" abuse, and I'm saying it again because it's important to see that none of what i'm gonna say is an irrefutable interpretation. I, with my personal experiences in mind, see a lot of... bad things when I look at the relationship Stalyan and Eugene seem to have in BTCW but it's not like, outright canon 

That said, here are some stuff that makes me think of abuse: 

- when we're first introduced to her, one of the first thing she does is slap Eugene, but not because she's especially angry - she just. does it, and he doesn't even say anything about it. And just after, when he starts to babble about leaving her at the altar, she just has to say "stop talking", and he immediately stops. I feel like, more than anything, Eugene's difficulty to fight back with his words when he's never been shy about annoying the people who hate him before, was always the first thing that I felt was worrying 

- not necessarily about Eugene and Stalyan specifically but she very clearly doesn't mind that Lance could die painfully. She's shown multiple times looking at him before smirking, and it might have been her dad's idea, but she's clearly comfortable with it. When Eugene nearly begs her for an antidote, she makes once again her little speech about being meant for each other, and when Rapunzel & co crash the wedding, she still doesn't consider giving up. She was straight up ready to kill someone she most probably worked with to guilt Eugene into marrying her, and that's? fucked up? like her character is straight up cruel in BTCW, which does not help interpret her other actions in a good light 

- speaking of that the whole thing about them being meant for each other... and how she knows Eugene, better than he does so he should listen to her... that's emotional manipulation 😬 And the thing is, she keeps insisting on how he's still a bad person deep inside, again and again until he starts to believe her, which is... I mean I really think it evokes abusive situations because the idea is to make him feel like the only person that will welcome him, no matter what, is her, and that everyone else will hate him - for good reason, because he is someone terrible, or at least that's what she wants to make him think 

- btw the line "I know what's best for you Rider, I always have" implies clearly that this dynamic isn't new. And like... it definitely sounds like something an abuser would say to me 

- that also ties into refusing to call him by his chosen name. Since she "knows best", she decides that he's Flynn, and it's not really because she thinks he hasn't changed at all, but because that's who she wants him to be, that's the identity she wants him to assume again. She's not stupid, she sees that he's not willing to marry her, but she's definitely ready to do whatever it takes to make him into the person she wants him to be 

- okay last one but I think that's the one that really touches me personally: when she hands him the key to free himself. Because the thing is, by doing that, she makes it his choice to stay there to marry her, he could very well escape but since he doesn't, then he must see that this is the only logical explanation. Except that he's not actually free to go, he's not going to leave Lance to die here - honestly... how many abuse victims have been told they could have just left, that it was their choice to stay? Like ofc my interpretation =/= absolute truth, but I was really hit by this when I first watched, because a lot of time abuse victim are blamed for not leaving, even though the "choice" they had wasn't really one

I'm not saying the two situations are the same, but like, think of Rapunzel in her tower: technically, she could have left the tower when she wanted. But she couldn't, because Gothel's abuse and manipulation effectively robbed her of that choice by making her believe that going outside would not only get her hurt but would also destroy the relationship she was entirely dependent on. Saying that she chose to stay would be ignoring all the emotional manipulation that made it impossible for so long, and would erase the incredible bravery she had needed to go outside anyway

To come back to Stalyan and Eugene, yes it's not the same, but the imagery of being given the keys to his own cell, and given the choice to leave even though it wasn't a choice at all in the end, definitely made me think of these kinds of abusive situations 

Once again I don't think there's only one way to interpret Stalyan, especially since The Eye of Pincosta retconned a lot of what we saw in BTCW to make her sympathetic. It's just that, when you only take BTCW, it always painted a pretty grim picture of what their relationship had been, and imo, clearly made it look like an abusive situation.

[moontheoretist]

Yeah, well Falcon and Winter Soldier made me think. A lot.

Watching The Falcon and The Winter Soldier first episode made me thinking. Like literally a lot about how quick America is to forget the atrocities committed by their heroes as long as their heroes have "America" in their hero name. Ok, so, fighting Thanos, may or may not redeem him in the eyes of the people. "He fought for us after all" and all this shit, and he also had a semi-normal life during the Blip, because nobody cared anymore, but it doesn't change anything. He fucked up the life for every enhanced there was with his Civil War stunt and then when everything was over, he threw everything away, all responsibility for the shit he had done and just went and disappeared into the past, where he very much OOCed himself by sitting on his ass for 70 years doing nothing, while his defining feature is basically that he cannot sit on his ass for 5 seconds. And you know what? I cannot feel differently about it than seeing MCU making Steve's life easier and at the same time undermining Tony's sacrifice. Steve gets his dream life by abandoning the future, and then is praised and his museum is opened and all that jazz, as if to spit in Tony's legacy's face, because MCU couldn't sacrifice Iron Man and let him be a lone hero for once, no, they had to kick off Steve, so everybody would feel sad that Steve is no longer there too. And it is seemingly a tragedy that he isn't there anymore. No, America, it is not tragedy. The tragedy is that he run away from facing the consequences of his actions ONCE AGAIN, and on top of that this time abandoned Bucky to have his peace of mind. It just spells to me that Steve is a highly selfish person who doesn't care about anybody else than himself. You were fooled that he cared about Bucky, but then the moment he had the occasion to run, he kicked Bucky to the curb and said "sayonara, buddy, you gotta live without me now" even though he made the mess of everything around him, because of Bucky in the first place. Do you think Bucky wouldn't feel awful knowing that Steve fucked everything out for him and then chickened out and left him, so he wouldn't have to live with it, but Bucky has to instead?

Honestly there is nothing more grating on my nerves than honoring Captain America, goddammit Steve Rogers after all the bullshit he had done. I hate this goddamn museum. I hate that Rhodey was there to honor him as if he didn't lose Tony just a few months ago and had more important shit to do than honor a guy who fucked up his friends mental health and made his life and work even worse after the Civil War. I hate it so much I wanna scream, and I think Rhodey feels so too, judging by his reaction to the SHIELD being put on display when Sam rejects it (he just makes this face as if he felt conflicted about the legacy of the SHIELD and as much as he felt bad that Sam didn’t accept the mantle, because to Rhodey Sam would probably be better Captain than Steve was, he probably also saw the shield as the tool which was used to hurt and shame his dead best friend), but I appreciate that he is there to supports Sam. I just don't appreciate this American bullshit of licking the butt of Captain America even though it's completely in character for America as a goddamn country, because they cannot be critical of themselves and their heroes for a goddamn five seconds. And don't even make me start on how infuriating seeing Steve Rogers as a hero of WW2 is to a polish person. America and Captain America are hailed as the heroes of the day, while people who fought all this time and didn't have even a choice to sit on their butts doing nothing as long as America did, don't get shit. People of Poland are basically raised with knowledge of WW2, what happened at the time to us, how we were treated (bur ofc we miraculously like to forget how we treated Jews at the time, because polish people are that hypocritical to cry foul when anybody accuses them of antisemitism even though there are historical records to prove it) and how we fought, how our underground army fought with the Nazis and Soviets, but the only thing people outside of us know about this is that “you were liberated by Russia/America, so be grateful”. Thanks America for once again undermining victims of holocaust. Steve may be created by Jewish people, but Captain America is as much an ideal aryan-look-alike superhuman fighting against Nazis, the mockery of the Nazi ideals as he is made to completely spit in the face of the people who suffered, had Nazi Germany conquer them and murder them, because he erases the stories and the struggle of those people and focuses the attention of the viewer on “mighty America saving the day” instead of those people, as they are seen as “victims in need of help”. MCU Steve doesn't even know about the fucking Death Camps and what happened there, because he fell into ice before 1945 when camps were discovered by America.

Also, lol. Bucky is a total brat on his sessions. And it’s funny to see him like this, while fandom was mostly imagining him as the one who would want the therapy, who would behave, most of the time, and Steve was seen as the one who was the bratty one in therapy instead. Yes I am talking about this part of the fandom which knows Steve isn’t an angel and doesn’t excuse his CW bullshit.

Also, why I have the feeling that Bucky picked Yori to be his friend, because 1. His old age reminds him of the past Steve, the sickly one. 2. His stubbornness reminding him of Steve being a goddamn hell of a person, always picking fights and stuff. Like. I saw the interaction, and it was like the first thing I saw, Bucky from Brooklyn stopping his friend from hitting people, which reminded me a lot about how he saved Steve in this alleyway and told him to stop picking fights with people bigger than him.

Bucky Barnes. A guy who tells a woman he wears gloves for “poor circulation” XD Ok, this is goddamn funny, but also sad, because he knows she may get scared of the metal arm or even of the very mention of the prosthetic, because ableism is rampant, and who knows it better than Bucky Barnes, Steve’s buddy?

You know this whole scene about the loan? My family was there. We are so poor that even with steady income no bank wants to give the loans, so I get it. But if I see anybody blaming Sam’s financial situation on Tony or Pepper I will scream and start throwing daggers a’la Loki. The person, or people, who are responsible for this, are those who DIDN’T put ANYTHING in place for the possibility of Blipped people coming back. And Tony WASN’T one of those people, because he already got accustomed to living in the world without all those people. He lost hope, and he wasn’t planning to bring them all back until Steve and the rest shown up and guilt-tripped him into doing something. If he had hope, he would prepare charities and funds for those who were blipped, but he didn’t have the hope Blip will be reversed, so the responsibility lies on the officials who after the Blip was reversed didn’t put into place regulations and funds for all those people who may have various issues due to being Blipped and then coming back. It wouldn’t be really that hard to come out with an idea what to do with the loan regulations for those who were Blipped, like implementing some special exceptions to help those people or something. And ofc instead of helping people who were Blipped with their family issues, America cares more about making a stunt and appoint new Captain America “to protect them”. Who will protect America from America though?

Also, Sam is stubborn. Yes America should do better by the Blipped people and their problems, but we all know how America is, how heartless and uncaring it is to human suffering. Sam here is just stubborn, he wishes to keep something which reminds him of family (which is important ofc) over saving the family he has now, because nostalgia over “good old days” is more important to him than what happens now. Not to mention that he has a faulty belief that him being Falcon changes something about the world around him, and he can get away with getting things which he knows he wouldn’t get if he wasn’t Falcon. He is very similar to Steve in that regard. Stubborn, stuck in his own idea of how world should work and chasing after the past instead of looking into the future. Not to mention that according to his sister, he kinda run away from family issues, Steve’s style, while his sister did everything she could to keep them afloat. Also fans are right. If he asked for help, Rhodey or Pepper would help. You cannot help someone if you don’t know they have issues. People are NOT mind readers. He has to ask for help first to get it.

[casuistor]

I 100% agree that there is a LOT of Misa apologism going around. Misa’s and Light’s relationship is very mutually fucked up, and yet people seem to blame only him. And I think it’s curious that far less people seem to make excuses for Takada, who was far more straightforwardly victimized by Light (not that she wasn’t terrible too, mind you; but she’s not terrible to HIM and he IS to her). I feel like this has to do with people relying on stereotypes to judge characters instead of their actions.

Dear sweet anon who cares about Kiyomi, come to me. 

What you’re saying is true, and it’s kinda made me /headtilt a lot in recent years that so much of what MIsa’s apologists tend to say just generally seem much more applicable to Kiyomi. Unlike Misa who did rather aggressively force way into LIght’s life despite the fact that he clearly was unhappy about it and says things like “use me, I don’t care as long as you say you’re my boyfriend” … Kiyomi really wasn’t doing anything. It’s Light who approahces Kiyomi again after the time skip. He lies to her and manipulates her feelings in order to be in a relationship with her when all he cared about was using her. She thinks his feelings are genuine. It’s sickening how Light treats Kiyomi in canon and you’d think more people would call this out rather than minimizing the serious criminal nature of Misa’s behavior. 

I guess at the end of the day this really comes down to the sad fact that not many people really care about Kiyomi. She’s not a main character like Misa is, so fewer people try to analyze the story through her perspective and just kinda end up going the “lol she’s a dumbass for trusting Light” (nice victim blaming there) or give her the Other Woman treatment where they take Misa’s side of the story and go “wow Kiyomi was a dick for stealing Light from Misa” … which is honestly kinda maddening because it completely erases Light’s responsibility in that whole mess. 

Actually, now that I’m already talking about this and the floodgate has been opened, it’s worth pointing out too, that the whole “lol Kiyomi is a dumbass” thing is actually something that’s heavily endorsed by the series itself – largely through Near’s perspective since he, on several occasions, just shits on her intelligence and asserts to the SPK that she’s a vapid woman with nothing going on upstairs. 

Now ofc Near says this because he has low opinions of Kira supporters (and yeah, that’s arguably more than justified considering how awful their views actually are politically), but when you look at it objectively the thing that almost gets Near killed in canon is the fact that he underestimates the hell out of people whose views he finds abhorrent. In a way, he turns all the Kira suspects into caricatures and comes to realize after Mello dies that this was a fundamental error on his part. 

So if canon goes out of its way to prove that Near isn’t always right about his judgments of other people by making it The Pivotal Plot Point™, then we should also naturally be able to extend that over to Kiyomi as well, right? But I think Ohba being the problematic writer that he is actively went out of his way to make Kiyomi comedic fodder (see that awful dinner scene she has with Misa) which further makes her hard to humanize. 

I mean TL;DR I think there’s a lot that goes into why Kiyomi isn’t really appreciated and it’s just kinda sad.