#is this why there is so much overhyped ships and characters

[jack-ackles]

i cannot describe how shocked out of my mind i am that people who watch bridgerton even most of the fans are now realizing after a half of third season that bridgertons or anyone in the ton does not "work" to earn money, they are already rich without having to do anything. ESPECIALLY while this season's important subplot is focused on mondrich who literally spell it out for you that no one in this rich society works. not anthony, not colin.. no one.

even more bizarre thing is people are learning it through twitter and not through watching the show especially with the mondrich subplot going on in this season.. i really thought people not understanding colin, penelope or polin was just because of their dislike and hate towards them or they just want to see their favourite ship but damnnnnn there is no media literacy whatsoeverrr

[callmeklair]

I read your post about Ayato overhype and I 200% agree with you and appreciate you for writing it. I also read that other person's Ayato analysis and I just gotta say that that cursed fig defense is so dumb. First off that shit wasn't a thing when More Blood came out. It's not mentioned or referenced even once in any route. Because why would it be? It wasn't even thought of when the first games came out. Second even if it were a thing and Ayato truly was cursed, then why doesn't he experience the effects of the curse in any routes apart from his More Blood one (and, according to this particular Ayato stan, Ruki's)? Why doesn't he go crazy from thirst in Kou's route? Or in Subaru's? Or in Shuu's? etc etc. Also, if the curse is truly that excrutiating and debilitating then shouldn't Ayato be a complete and utter mess in the other characters Dark Fate, Lost Eden etc. routes? But he's not. He's totally fine. Because the stupid curse isn't canon to the games and you can not and should not use it to explain or justify his awful behavior in Ruki's MB route.

I'm sorry this got kind of long but I just needed to get this off my chest because it bothers me so much when toxic Ayato stans insist he is oh so pure of heart, an innocent victim and that he unlike the other characters can't be held accountable for his abusive acts 😑

(feel free to vent out in my ask box I don't mind. and sorry for the late reply, life is hectic)

the curse thing is such a loop/plot hole because in more blood EVERY diaboy gets thirsty after starting to have feelings for Yui, so yeah that curse thing isn't canon. and exactly! if that's the case, why isn't ayato suffering from thirst in other's route. okay let's not include MB considering the argument "they weren't close enough" but by the DF, all Sakamaki and Mukami boys warmed up to Yui, so Ayato should be suffering from thirst/curse in other's route????

I liked ayato, but after youngblood when I saw some people(not targeting to anyone, and I'm not just talking about Tumblr), not liking other people shipping Yui with any other boy because "they are not canon" made me slowly detach from AyaYui. otherwise they were in my top 5 a few years ago.

youngblood was just a fanservice. it was good for Ayato fans but Rejet messed it up. first the curse thing then the degrading of Shu and Subaru's character by making them "betray" ayato. which irks me because we all have read flashback scenes of these two from the VERY FIRST GAME, and we are completely aware with how sweet and gentle they were in childhood.

In CL, in Shu's route, it was shown how much he deeply cares about his brothers despite not showing it. so does it go for Subaru in Carla's route. you hear it? not in his OWN route but Carla's route.

the only difference is, because of trauma they weren't sure how to express it and always doubted/hesitated to trust or show true feelings to each other because of what happened to them. they all went through different experiences.

Ayato is Ruki's rival, just like how Subaru is for Kou, and Shu for Yuma. Ayato just came to take away Yui as a prey. "his thirst wasn't controllable and was locked in a dungeon. it was definitely the curse."

the curse didn't even exist at that time. it was just Rejet's plot to progress Ruki's route because if we remember, Ruki asked Ayato, before he took away Yui, if he had feelings for her and ayato replied with, feelings??? that's nonsense, the only value she has is her blood. It was a scene of confirmation to make Ruki realise his feelings and stop thinking "Adam is what she needs and not a snake" so that he can finally betray Karlheinz for Yui and run away with her, free her from this hell.

in conclusion, we have seen every diaboy saying how unique and special Yui's blood is, also a very rare thing (i guess?) so because of instincts as a vampire, Ayato only wanted to find Yui to drink her special blood.

the curse thing can never be canon because everyone gets thirsty in their route, EVEN SHIN in his BRUTE ending in DF. so are they cursed too??? no they aren't 😭

some actions can never be justifiable, I'll even say that about my own fav characters like Shin, Subaru, Carla, Reiji, etc.

[punkeropercyjackson]

Zutara arguments be like

Dadko is canon therefore Momtara should be too(Zuko being the Team Dad of the Gaang was a sign of character development by healing his inner child and breaking the cycle of abuse while Mom Friend Katara is a compulsive trauma induced trait she's always talking about hating and wanting to be just a kid)

Aang is too immature for Katara so Zuko is better fit for her(See above)

Katara can only like brown guys(Jet and Haru)as a stepping stone to Zuko or it's #problematique and not real interracial rep

They used to hate eachother so it's destiny

Red x blue and sun x moon(Symbolism with zero in-universe romantic connecations and afaik not common irl ones either)

Zuko is a boy and Katara is a girl=Opposites attract because complimentary

"Ugh i wish i didn't try to get oppressed for saying Zuko is STRAIGHT,i hate you STUPID GAYS"

Mai is a girl with the same personality as Zuko and this means she's abusive because REAL girls don't bite back or have non-quirky emotions

"Aang sexually assaulted Katara by kissing her and her and Zuko have repressed sexual feelings for eachother-No i am not a pedophile for refusing to not associate children with sex,why are you such an abuse apologist omg!!!"

Katara was a teenage anarchist with a gnc bf who was previously her first ever and also best friend instead of Zuko's rebellious gf he taught to truly understand him and to not judge a person just by their actions and beliefs but rather how much they fit into beauty standards and how hard their childhood was so the entire Atla crew are self-inserters who hate women

Calling Korrasami forced pandering bs and Asami a badly written character who's inherently colorist and overhyped in the fandom

Completely ignoring Ty Luko both as the most supported non-canon Zuko ship in-text and as a fandom rarepair so they can say every Zutara anti just has internalized misogyny while also being revolted by Aang's femininity and multigender/transfem egg hcs for him and even Zuko ironically enough despite claiming to love them for being 'a female fantasy'

"I'm [insert non native american/indigenous type of poc here] and i had crush on Zuko SO WE WERE ALL ROBBED!WHY DOES EVERYBODY CALL ME A COLONIZER APOLOGIST,ALL I SAID WAS KAT IS A CUTER NAME THAN KATARA!"

[detectivebambam]

For the choosing violence thing.

I curious about your thoughts on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24, and 25

(Your thoughts make my day tbh)

lol i gotchu pinky

the character everyone gets wrong: Dan. she's not a badass. i mean she is, but she's not. she's a scared little girl who had to raise herself and has no idea what she's doing at any given time and i love her for it

why andrew would never top or bottom: actually he does both, and tends to enjoy it. kind of an agressive top but Neil likes it, and sometimes likes to follow orders when he bottoms 🫣 i think they do anything and everything with each other. Neil could be dominant or submissive at any given time, which gives Andrew space to learn about what he actually enjoys. He finds that as long as it involves Neil, he doesn't mind

worst tumblr take I've seen: that Andrew was a misogynist because he doesn't like being manipulated, and "manipulation is a woman's weapon" like how is THAT not misogynistic be so real

why did you block that annoying person?: kept saying that Kevin abused Riko as much as Riko abused Kevin. don't know how far they had to reach into the depths of their asshole to find that one, i just hope they didn't get stuck

i don't have discord

which ship fans are the most annoying: y'all are going to absolutely murder me for this but kevaaron. 1) where did it come from? 2) what's wrong with Katie?? 3) no hate ship what u want but also, i can ship what i want? and it's fine it's literally fine

what character did you start to hate because of fanon: i hate to say it but Thea. i adored her when I read the books originally, but after 4 years of exclusively fanon content i didn't like her. but i did a reread recently and adore her again so it's all good

common fandom opinion everyone is wrong about: Andrew being a sex god. Neil is his first consensual sexual partner. like yeah he knows how to suck dick like a dying man, which he learned in juvie (when he was 13-16?) but in terms of sex? he doesn't know what he's doing and he's probably really scared and nervous

worst part of canon: kevin and thea turning their daughter into a mini Raven 😔

worst part of fanon: Renee erasure 😔😔

fandom related words you've filtered: as of currently? anything tsc related because I don't have access to it yet and people aren't tagging properly. but I also have Rinee (rixo x renee) blocked because,,, what do you actually mean

unpopular character you like and why people should like them: Aaron. yeah he's an asshole and a little homophobic but he was raised that way and he's getting better

worst blorboification: if this means what i think it means, fucking riko. like wdym "he serves cunt" he needs to serve time

answered prev

answered prev

you can't understand why this is popular: kevaaron, any riko ship, riko himself, ichirou x neil, andreil breaking up in fics ?

there should be more of this: fic: oral fixation. sexual or non sexual idc but let's Freud these bitches. fanart: ANDREW WITH LONG HAIR PLS PLS PLS

it's criminal that y'all have been sleeping on: STUART HATFORD. LITERALLY NEXT TO WYMACK ON THE FATHER FIGURE SCALE. I LOVE HIM

you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like: i don't feel guilt I'm Presbyterian

part of canon you found boring: anytime they were in class like wdym

part of canon you think is overhyped: this one is going to get me in trouble so i wanna start off by saying that yes, Riko was a victim of abuse. I'm not disputing that at all. but the part where he got beat by Tetsuji and "was more blood and bruise than skin", while being horrible, was also because of Kevin leaving due to Riko breaking his hand. Tetsuji lost one of his biggest investments because of Riko's petty ego

fav part of canon that everyone ignores: Stuart Hatford man

ship you've unwillingly come around to: Kandreil lol. i didn't like it at first but idk the more fanfic i see I'm like yeah that could be cute

topic that brings up the most rancid discourse: picture this, if you will: Nora Sakavic says something about her own damn characters. yeah that's all

common fandom complaint you're sick of hearing: "it's poorly written" it's not. if you can get over the first chapter of The Raven King, the rest is actually written very well and it's so so beautiful and depicts traumatized characters in a way I haven't seen before that is very refreshing

ty for the ask pinky ily

[shyravenns]

violence ask game 13, 16, 21,

13) worst blorbification?

I'm gonna be so basic and go with Konig on this one. Because I genuinely do love his character, but god did he get hit with the blobification beam the worst 😭 Let that man breathe!!! He's not thwee!!

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

As much as I joke about Price being "old" and calling him "peepaw" the way people actually treat him like he's 70 is astounding lmaooo I'm all for the "hehe Price can't use computers" joke, but for the love of GOD some of y'all act like he's aging in dog years 💀

This is very personal and not a bad thing at all but I dislike military!reader insert fics. I'm too pathetic irl to be a badass in fiction. I'll be in the kitchen right where I belong <3

When people make Ghost uncomfortably mean. I've read too many fanfics where he's outright verbally abusive towards recruits and it's such an insane juxtaposition to the man we see in the actual games????

Barracks Bunny!Soap 😔 pls don't doxx me for this

I....don't think price would make a very good dad. I think he would try but I think fatherhood is something he would struggle with. At least at first.

How the fandom treats Kate. She's Mother but she's not that kind of mother, and I think people gloss over her wayyyy too much.

21) part of canon you think is overhyped

Gh*ap. Now, don't get me wrong I love Ghost/Soap as a ship, but the way this fandom overemphasizes their relationship at the exclusion of literally everything else can get tiring fast. I love their canon ingame relationship and their banter is wonderful, but there's so much more in game relationships that could be explored and I think it's a shame that it isn't.

It's especially sad considering all the content we have of Gaz and Farah and these are their games.

Violence Ask Game

[fruixtii]

hey a little tag game i want to try!!! order your favorite twst dorms from least fave to favorite!

Scarabia: their characters on their own are good but seeing them together makes me extremely uncomfortable?? it’s probably because the orientalism plus people shipping together..it’s not jamil and kalims fault but i have a complicated relationship with scarabia

Octavinelle: idk they just don’t stand out to me. jade is neat but i feel like the tweels are overhyped. don’t really have an opinion about azul

Savanaclaw: again the characters are great but. as a whole they don’t stand out to me. i love jack and ruggie but leona 😬 if you got rid of the sarcasm and smug expression he would be a cool character (i kin him more than i would like) but i feel like he’s wasted potential. also book 2 was the hardest to get through because it was so boring it really did them dirty

Heartslabyul: the card guys!! don’t really care much about them either..i usually like alice in wonderland vibes but their dorm uniforms are the worst things i’ve ever seen. WHY DO THEY WEAR T-SHIRTS?? other than that i don’t have much to say about them.

Pomefiore: THE GAYS okay they’re awesome. this is mostly because of rook i just really like rook. and rookvil. epels great to actually. also on the complete opposite note their dorm uniforms are amazing (maybe even my favorite) i would totally wear them myself. but even though they’re in the top three i don’t really think about them more than any of the other dorms.

Ignihyde: okay of course my second favorite dorm is the cute family. what did you expect. but also they are so interesting?? book 6 has been the best book so far especially with all the lore. also ortho is best boy AND LITERALLY A ROBOT. how can you not like precious robot boy who loves his brother. also their designs are cool the hades hair and teeth are very gender.

Diasomnia: you already knew this was coming. my beloved dark romanticism found family dorm<33 i am literally obsessed with them okay. not only are their designs peak gender but they’re WRITING is so. augh. just the contrast between them. we got two faes who are centuries old and have experienced years upon years of hardship. war. suffering. and then we have two (one and a half) humans who have never experienced loss. or grief. they are honest and hardworking and loyal, they represent youth and joy!! and yet they all have so much LOVE and TRUST for eachother it makes me go INSANE!!!! also you can never miss with gothic aesthetics and fairies…literally the greatest thing out there

anyways in conclusion i think any dorm that isn’t diasomnia and doesn’t have tragedy and fate weaved inside them are plain and boring. if i placed your favorite dorm low feel free to tell me why im wrong and why they are the best!! i would love to hear :)) (also feel free to include ramshackle too)

tagging: @rayroseu-reblogs @ethanwinterfan69 @drdepper @shrimpyjustwrites @llondonfog @wondergeek @frogeloise @morays @hxneylavendxr @teslathelame @the-v-lociraptor @anotherlavendergay @chaoticsnacc @aloodonut @valsol-909 if you guys would like<3

[ember-not-amber]

Ok, here’s all of my thoughts on S2 episode 6

• It was very interesting to see that flashback of when Aunt Julia and Susannah were closer and I’d like to see more of those so we can better understand why Julia always felt so left out in her own family. I mean yeah basically everything was explained in that scene but I just want more you know? It seems to be implied that Julia wasn’t biologically related to one of or both of their parents since the mom didn’t like her. Was this at all talked about in episode 5 and I forgot? Was this talked about in the books, too or no?

• Hear me out, what if…………………hypothetically just like, as a concept…………………..Steven x Conrad 🫣🏃‍♀️💨

• OMG DELICATE (TAYLOR’S VERSION)?!!?! AND IN A JELLY SCENE WHERE THEY’RE IN A POOL AGAIN AAAAAHIDKFJFJEJSBS

- Swiftie side rant: OMFG ARE WE GONNA GET REPUTATION TV!? I’m convinced Taylor’s gonna announce it at some point bc SHE ALLOWED DELICATE TV TO BE PUT IN THIS SHOW and that’s gotta mean way more than the 1989 Easter eggs!!! -

Anyway, I WANTED THEM TO KISS SO BAD IN THIS SCENE WHY ARE THE WRITERS TEASING ME SO MUCH OMFGGGG

• I was super suspicious about Conrad and Belly going on a supply run alone together so I’m glad Jeremiah went, too

• That scene where Belly got Jeremiah a soda was so cuuuttee🥺

Conrad saying “And I thought cocoa was your specialty” right after Jeremiah said that half cherry half Coke was her specialty was weird, idk what that was supposed to mean🤨

• JEREMIAH PUT HIS ARM AROUND BELLY AT THE STORRREEEE

• OMG BELLY SAID KISSING JEREMIAH WAS REALLY REALLY HOT AND SHE SMILED SO BIG WHILE REMEMBERING IT SLKAKSBDJFJNF

• I find it weird that Belly told Skye “Your first kiss is supposed to feel like a dream” bc I remember reading somewhere that someone said that first kisses are like, overhyped and in reality your first kiss most likely isn’t going to feel like a dream or like “fireworks” it’ll just feel like just a kiss and I think we should normalize the reality of what your first kiss actually feels like most of the time and it’s more possible that any other kiss that comes after your first will feel better especially since you’ll have more experience with kissing.

• “You’ve been looking at him all day like he’s this ice cream cone that you’re dying to lick” what the actual fuck💀 WHY did they make Taylor say that??

• OMG BELLY TRIPPING AND THEN FALLING INTO JEREMIAH’S ARMS AND HIM WHISPERING “You don’t need to hurt yourself to get my attention” WAS SOOOO HOOOTTT❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

• I think it was so gross of Conrad to not call Steven out more on trying to get Taylor to be with him WHILE SHE HAS A BOYFRIEND and even if Milo is “all wrong for her” it is not Steven’s place to decide for Taylor who she should date or not, it is Taylor’s decision only. Steven is really giving Nice Guy energy in this episode.

• I find it so weird that Cam left his DJ-ing thingy (I’m sorry idk what it’s called😭) to also find Taylor bc shouldn’t he stay there so no one takes control of the playlist and plays sth else?? But I guess it’s ok since in the fight scene that guy Jumper is the one DJ-ing, oh well.

• I don’t remember if I already said this so excuse me if I sound like a broken record but I don’t get why so many people do not like the idea of Cam and Skye together. People are saying “Skye isn’t good enough for Cam” but I don’t see any reason that Skye is a bad person or unlikable besides maybe them being Julia’s kid but that’s a stupid reason bc they are not exactly like Julia and I think that’s been pretty obvious since their character was introduced. I like Skye, I think they’re great and while I did see a besties vibes with them and Cam I don’t mind that they kissed and I’m not against it and I don’t mind if they become a couple. I’m confused about who these people want Cam to end up with if not Skye bc there haven’t been a lot of scenes with just him and Belly and it’s very clear that that ship has sailed so who tf did these Skye haters want him to be with?? Are they just transphobic? Bc I just saw the official ig account for TSITP post about their kiss scene and a few people are saying that so many people in the comments are being transphobic and homophobic which I guess could definitely be a reason why ppl hate Skye even if they deny that’s the reason.

Also I was just informed that a lot of people think that Skye is cringe and I think I understand that a little bit but I mostly just interpreted them as having their own different personality compared to the more outgoing main characters and I just thought that they were more comfortable doing other things besides what the main characters like to do (I’m referring to S2 episode 5) and I don’t really see how they’re cringe but ig I’ll have to look at some compilations to see why so many people think that they are.

• I find it very hard to believe that Steven liked Taylor even way back when she had a big crush on him or as he puts it “even when you were just my little sister’s annoying best friend” bc he literally dated Shayla in the last season and he loved her so this isn’t making any sense to me and I don’t believe it.

• Oh how I wish that Steven didn’t get into a stupid fight with Milo so that Belly and Jeremiah didn’t have their KISS INTERRUPTED AKSJSBIDORHEJNFNG MY GOD WE ALMOST HAD THEM!!!!

• Steven rubs me the wrong way this season bc he’s been going after Taylor while she was still with Milo and I really, really hate that and I hated when he tried to speak for her during his fight with Milo like she can speak for herself on whether or not she wanted Milo to be there STFU and physically fighting another dude over a girl is not attractive at all like can we stop putting that in shows and books? It’s stupid and embarrassing.

• Conrad encouraging Steven to “kick Milo’s ass” was just…ew

• “It’s Madison. Her middle name is Madison.” Ooh I’m such a nice guy, I know absolutely everything about Taylor and you don’t and that’s why she shouldn’t be with you and she should be with me instead🤡

• That condition that Aunt Julia put into the sale for the cousins house seems like a pretty good deal. They get to rent the house for one week every summer, it’s not their house anymore but at least they’re still allowed to go back to it and keep having their fun summers, Conrad should be grateful.

• I honestly don’t think it was necessary for Jeremiah to use Belly and Conrad’s breakup to get to Conrad, I think he could have brought up anything else along with him refusing to accept the condition Julia put into the sale of the house and him not seeing their mom every day after they found out she had cancer, and it would have been nice to learn the specifics of what their relationship was like when they were younger and Jeremiah dealing with people telling him Conrad was better than him and more specific examples of Conrad “throwing things away instead of fixing them when they’re not perfect”. I get that he was mad at Conrad and it was all in the moment and everything was happening so fast but I just feel like the writers could have made him focus less on Conrad and Belly’s breakup and more on their relationship as brothers maybe?? Even though it does track with him in episode 5 thinking “I could have done everything right, I could have given Belly the perfect prom night and Conrad ruined it for her” I just don’t think that he should have blown up about it in front of Belly at the very least.

• Girly, so what if he remembered your middle name?💀 that is the bare minimum, Taylor could have at least said more about why she caught feelings for Steven again besides that

• I’ve been on edge this whole time about Belly and Steven staying at the summer house for too long that their mom will find out that they’re gone and I was rooting for them to go back home before their mom got back home but I guess she’s gonna find out now that Belly left her that voicemail giving it away and I’m so ready to see what happens next!!

• Okay clearly there was a lot of miscommunication caused by assumptions in Belly and Conrad’s relationship. Belly says that if she knew that Conrad cared about her and their relationship then she would have fought for their relationship and Conrad says that he thought she knew he cared about her from the moment that they kissed on the beach and I think that based on that, when things were getting tough he should have reassured her that he cared about her and loved her bc that just sounds like during that tough time he didn’t tell her that he loved her and so she thought he didn’t care. In relationships you need to always be communicating so both parties are on the same page and clearly Conrad isn’t good at communicating when he goes through a rough time and that hurt Belly. And I looked at the script for this episode and he never answered her question “Why did you throw it all away?” Why did he break up with her if he thought she knew he cared about her? That is a really good question that I’m only 50% interested in hearing the answer to, sooo Team Jeremiah for the win, I hope🤞

[theuntamedangel]

The longer BNHA goes on, the more I start to ask this question.

Is this a story worth telling?

It brought up some interesting things to think about like what it really means to be a hero and if villains really are evil or people that society failed.

But then comes the muddled messages, characters that barely do anything significant other than to be plot devices, the overhyping of one character that ruins the purpose and development of the main character, and the inconsistencies and conclusions that characters come to that makes little to no sense.

Then you just have a story that just goes NOWHERE!

Because let's be honest, how much will society actually change by the end of it all? How will it treat quirkless and those with less than stellar quirks? And will they actually allow people like Bakugou to become heroes all because they "try really hard"?

Hi there, @theloganator101 First off, thank you for the question.

Also, TLDR.

Long before, I had made a somewhat similar post, talking about the same points. What makes a hero a hero? Because it's more than wearing a cape and punching issues and problems into submission. Bad guys simply go to jail and rot till their dying breath. And why is the world of BNHA so black and white? So 'this is good and this is bad'? We have a very compartmentalized version of human society. But you and I both know very well that human nature, human social interactions are the most complex and difficult things to understand. And even though I had seen these flaws in the series much earlier, I was still forgiving of the author because I genuinely thought he would eventually come around and explain why things are they way in the BNHA verse. But that NEVER happened at any point in the series so forget about Hori addressing these issues now because BNHA as a whole doesn't matter.

It's a no brainer to say that the job of a 'hero' is to save the day. But what about those who are the victims of school bullying? (cough cough BkDk is a totally normal and a healthy relationship, you're just a homophobe if you dont ship them) or those who had to keep their voice and entire existence heavily suppressed because your marriage was just a means to an end? (Endeavour is a loving husband, a doting father and a hard working hero) What about those kids who are victims of child abuse, child neglect and discrimination? (the Todoroki kids, Shigaraki, Toga and heck, even low key Spinner grew up in loving and healthy households). The Creature Rejection Clan was created to combat racism and All Might, someone who's name itself reduced crime in Japan by a half simply by existing, did NOTHING against the CRC. I thought 'heroes' were meant to protect the weak and deliver justice to the evil doers irrespective of who or what they are. I thought that's what's really meant to be a hero, to be defenders of mankind. Because lets face it, what's the difference between a villain who kills and a hero who abuses his family members on a physical, mental and an emotional level? What are the required criteria to judge these very two damnable actions with a bias attitude?

Which brings me to another question: Why are the students at UA high only taught martial or physical training? Don't they have special classes where they have to moral education classes or something along those line? Besides the rigorous physical training they need to fight against heroes, they have normal, regular-degular academic curriculum. These so called heroes-in-training are well educated in the art of understanding the topography of a battle field but the system has FAILED to educate the kids to understand why villains are the way they are. The entire system, the root itself, the very foundation of the hero society, FAILED to protect what they claimed to be. People like Toga, Dabi, Overhaul, Spinner, Shigaraki, Twice, Stain, Magne, are all nothing but the products of the hero society, the actual end result of this superficial, celebrity-like lifestyle of hero worship. But many fail to see beyond the stars and shimmers of this artificially constructed world.

The above points are heavily tied to Stain's ideologies. He didn't put up arms and struggles against the hero society for nothing. He knew what he was doing.

This may not be the answer that you're looking for but the way I see it, the MHA story shows us a horrifying representation of our already dark and twisted world but that's where it stops. It wants to do nothing with it because the story doesn't know where to go with it and how to go about doing it. It started something it couldn't finish. It created issues it couldn't solve. So the plot choose a different path to tread upon: focus on the popular people from the hero society who are highly questionable and romanticize their words and actions. It doesn't matter if you faced quirk discrimination or worse, became a butt of ridicule for not having any quirk at all. So long as a bully has given a half baked ''apology'' and works hard to be a hero to satisfy their own ego, it's all good at the end of the day. Self worth issues, self inflicted bodily harm, lack of self worth received by the victim (definitely NOT Izu because Bk treats him with utmost respect and comradery), all melt away due to the power of 'apology' and friendship. It teaches us that celebrity worship, fake sense of heroism, the desire to be the top at the expanse of others are to be treated with normalcy because the show must go on no matter what. The other message is that it's ok be a wife beater and a bully so long as you're doing it for heroism, name, fame, recognition.

Our priorities in the MHA universe are all messed up. We don't even have an inkling of a thought about how Izu feels about quirkless discrimination and the manga is wrapping itself up. So all the answers we can provide ourselves with regarding the matter will be head canon.That's why the main message of the story is that it fails on so many levels in terms of writing a morally upright story. The main hero of our story is nothing to offer, no words of hope and encouragement. That's the other message it has conveyed to us. I'm not saying this, the manga has proven to us time and again what i just said. The other thing it hammers home is the fact that, so long as you're a hero, your unjust behavior will be swept under the rug by your school and higher authorities. The message that MHA time and again conveys is that it loves hypocrisy and double standards. These are the solid reasons as to why the plot cannot logically and cohesively march forward.

"With great power comes with great responsibility" and the MHA verse failed to understand this concept by becoming the very thing the villains are condemned for in this series. That, my friend, is the general message of the story. That, my friend, is the moral lesson of the MHA verse.

#MHA critical thinking #bk is a bully #Izu deserved better #Izu is the protagonist not Bk #Izu matters Bk doesnt #Hori cant write shit

[dragynkeep]

violence ask game

1, 3, 12 and 21 :)

any fandom but if you can t100

the character everyone gets wrong.

clarke, to the point even the showrunner thought that ending was a good or even satisfactory ending for her: to be alone with people who've hated her / tried to kill her, no family, no soulmate, nothing. sterilized against her will & having lost her daughter in the most brutal way possible.

justice for my girl fr. she went through so much in this show & catches so many strays in the fandom for actually doing the hard things that their faves won't & will play the victim for instead.

worst take i've seen.

that the flame storyline continuing for madi was a good thing as if it didn't completely ruin her life, led to her death, put her through so much torture & turmoil all to perpetuate this cult's "religion" through a child who narrowly avoided being sent to them as a child to die.

the flame ruined madi & it's horrific legacy should've been left on earth, not inflicted upon her just to tug on nostalgia points for lexa.

unpopular character you actually like that more people should like & why.

jasper post mount weather. i know a lot of people hated him because he was "whiny" or "useless", but i thought he was a very realistic depiction of what trauma, especially traumas stacked up one after the other from day one on earth, does to a person. he was completely broken after maya's death, the only person on earth to show him kindness that wasn't part of the delinquents & when she died, so did his last shred of innocence in my eyes.

i really wish he had survived, i think it did a complete disservice to his arc that he killed himself & died as alone as he thought he was.

part of canon you think is overhyped.

the polis arc fr. clarke is my favourite character & seeing her act against her own characterization so the showrunners could push a ship completely detrimental to her current & future development. overall, the "political intrigue" of this arc was overhyped & underutilized because we only knew maybe 2 of the clans & the rest were faceless nobodies that no one wanted to care about cause there was no reason for us.

that "bowing to lexa" scene is one of my most hated in the entire show for so many reasons, least of all for how the fandom elevates it as a shipping moment & not clarke having to give up more of her own autonomy in order to protect her people.

[sevensistersofsussex]

for the choose violence asks let’s go with 1, 8, 14, 17, 21, 23, and 25!

the character everyone gets wrong

Caroline or rather how some interpretations turn her into a perfect girlboss.

She had some relatable flaws.

Being jealous of her friend and being in a one-sided competition with her. Not having a filter and letting the insensitive, socially unacceptable things come out of her mouth. She was downright harsh. Not being able to keep a secret.

The whole "being a vampire made her better" thing is strange to me. She was still wildly jealous. With Tyler and that random party girl. With Stefan later when she thinks he and Elena are getting along too well?

I think the only thing that changed with her character is that the telegraphing of those scenes are done in a way to make it seem like she's a boss when in reality, she is still that insecure girl. Which is understandable and relatable. How many of us have insecure moments?

common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

Some people act like the sire bond broke after Elena turned off her humanity and I think all that happened was she got a reprieve from it but every time we see her after she is tortured gets her humanity back is a moment when she's sired to Damon.

It's why she handles his death so differently than the other deaths she experiences. I think the sire bond was trying to drag her down with him.

that one thing you see in fics all the time

Reading mostly Klena, I see a lot of Klaus being obsessed with the bite mark he would have left on Elena and making him possessive over it.

there should be more of this type of fic/art

More rarepair art and fics! I honestly just love them. They aren't canon? Good. They barely had scenes together? Fantastic. They weren't even in the same show? Stellar.

On a real note, the thing I think I'm starting to pin down about my love of rarepairs is how creative you have to be to write them. There is no canon to follow. This is all from your own head and I eat it up.

part of canon you think is overhyped

Klaroline.

I just - don't really understand where the connection was supposed to come from. He put her life in danger to show Tyler the control he had over him and then heals her. And she's like "are you going to kill me" and he's upset that she thinks he'd be a monster on her birthday. And that made him like her?

Ultimately Caroline chose Stefan, the man she'd been pining for since the first episode despite his commitment to her friend and Klaus never really did much to pursue her. He wanted to be her last love but then just...meh?

It just seems people mostly like how those two actors look together and the chemistry they had. Which....the show is full of hot people. They all mostly had chemistry with each other.

ship you've unwillingly come around to

Forwood.

The vocalness of the KC fandom made me just want to turn my brain off for this but the more I think about it the more I like their early days. One of the rare friends to lovers ships that I enjoy. And I think a lot of it had to do with him being there for her with Matt and her being there for him with his supernatural journey.

They really could have been cute all the way through. Just a stable, supportive couple for the entirety of the series. I think it needed some stability in that way.

common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

Elena is a crybaby.

And so what if she does cry a lot? So what if any of the female presenting characters cry? What is it about women crying that makes us point to them and claim they are too "emotional" as if it is a bad thing but when a male character kills someone's friend or relative because he got rejected that isn't "too emotional".

[markantonys]

AMOL prologue-chapter 8 (note that i mention in this post a huge spoiler from the end of the book that i’m not supposed to know yet but do and i’ve put a warning in that bullet point, although i’m pretty sure 90% of my audience is people who’ve already read the whole series anyway jkfg)

some guy called isam is apparently in a jekyll-and-hyde situation with luc??? what is going on here on this day???? he’s in some creepy town and talking about stuff called Talentless and samma n’sei. to all of this, i say: NO! it is the last goddamn book, and i do NOT want to receive any new information unless it’s about how rand will be able to defeat the dark one and survive the last battle! and i CERTAINLY do not want to be introduced to any new characters, cultures, or lore! i am handing sanderson/rj’s notes a flowchart that reads: is this stuff vital information? if yes, you should’ve established it in an earlier book! if no, throw it in the trash and put me back into the actual important plotlines!

i do love how perrin is the most boring and useless of the main protagonists and his Archnemesis is the most boring and useless of the main antagonists (if slayer can even be considered a main antagonist, which i don’t think he can be). match made in heaven.

“my people live with a grave misconception of the world, bayle. in doing so, they create injustice.” good for egeanin, but why THE FUCK did this arc go to her and not tuon. MINDBOGGLING.

“something had to be done. and yet, in doing it, did she risk causing the entire empire to collapse?” unfortunately egeanin’s still on her “i’ll always be seanchan, must preserve the empire” bullshit for the moment but at least she’s made SOME real and good progress, unlike TUON.

“honestly, the way you lot [sleete and other warders] have been hovering over me lately makes me think of a mother bird who has lost an egg.” “lan is important to many of us, nynaeve sedai.” omg 🥺🥺 one of the books’ only glimpses at Warders As Community, i love it!

nynaeve rips egeanin a new one for letting the seanchan get the male a’dam and says she’s taking her to the amyrlin, and egeanin decides that she’s now da’covale to the amyrlin. the seanchan woman who will help egwene maybe??? i did predict it would be either egeanin or tuon since they’re the only 2 important seanchan women.

talmanes is going to die from a poisoned wound. oh no! anyway.

jkfjg i’m gonna say it.............talmanes was massively overhyped! i don’t dislike him at all, he’s fine and has had a couple fun moments, but i do not understand why people love him so much. i saw his name eeeeeeverywhere before i started the books! and then i kept going “maybe this will be the book when talmanes becomes my beloved” and it never happened. maybe THIS will finally be the book when talmanes becomes my beloved, but also my Becoming My Beloved doors closed around book 5 or 6 so i doubt it. i also don’t understand why people ship him with mat - it’s a perfectly fine ship that i have no issue with, it’s simply that every time the two of them interact i get such strong Heterosexual Bros vibes lmao in my eyes that dynamic is just so devoid of homoeroticism compared to mat and rand, for example (and rand and every male forsaken, for another example). they just remind me of the dril tweet “me n the boys eating messy sandwiches sneaking around with big binoculars looking for girls and letting every one know who runs this tj maxx”

actually maybe i do have a little issue with the ship, and it is that in some ways it takes the place of cauthor in mat’s life and does a worse/less compelling job of filling that role (as is the case with countless “brand new side character coming in after the first 5/6 books to fill a role that used to belong to main character and do a worse job” situations), and that makes me bitter.

aww aviendha’s in a sweat tent and misses wetlander baths! she is going to thrive in the avirandlayne throuple raising their six (6) babies in caemlyn endgame! even if it SHOULD only be two (2) babies since the quadruplets are cursed.

"why would the columns show a despair that cannot change? no. i refuse to believe it. rhuidean has always shown us what we needed to see. to help us, not destroy us. this vision must have a purpose as well.” bair giving me some much-needed hope!!!

“‘the car’a’carn has a...fondness for dramatic presentations,’ bair said, her tone itself fond. ‘he’s like a crockobur who has toiled all night making a nest so that he can sing of it in the morning to all who will listen.’” WHY IS THIS THE MOST WHOLESOME THING I’VE EVER READ 😭 let rand be a stay-at-home papa bird and spend his time making nests and singing about them to all who will listen 2k22! also it’s throwing me back to egwene’s TSR line about “a boy with a lamb nestled inside his coat, proud as a rooster because he had driven off the wolf that tried to take it” which gave me insane emotional damage that to this day i have not recovered from.

okay, so now aviendha is ALSO at merrilor and both rand/avi AND rand/elayne have not bothered to go say hello to each other yet! i mean i guess avi had to talk to the wise ones urgently about rhuidean, but still!! she could’ve spared 5 seconds for kissing rand (and elayne)! he could’ve burst into the sweat tent to be like “hey i just sensed that my girlfriend whom i haven’t talked to in ages is in here”!

“‘her task was not just to teach him,’ amys said. ‘what i wouldn’t give to know that he was safely under the watchful eyes of a good woman.’ she looked at aviendha, face laden with meaning.” amys really said fuck min huh jkjdfg i’m howling!!!!

amys, after an entire month+ in arad doman watching min be plastered to rand’s side and sleep in his room every night: boy i sure wish rand had a good girlfriend min: um amys: is someone speaking?

it’s honestly crazy (and hilarious) how COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT min/rand is to EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER except the two of them and cadsuane. there are SO many people who have SEEN them together and KNOW they’re dating but STILL assume that rand/avi or rand/elayne is the relationship that matters. as they should! crazy and hilarious but also frustrating, since it proves time and time again how totally narratively unnecessary romantic min/rand was. they could’ve remained platonic friends and nothing about the story would be different, except for the many things that would be better!

“‘he will be mine,’ aviendha said, firmly. but not for you, amys, or for our people. she was shocked at the strength of that sentiment within her. she was aiel. her people meant everything to her. but this choice was not their choice. this choice was hers.” ❤️❤️❤️ we LOVE the contrast with min always complaining that loving rand was the pattern’s choice rather than her own (which eventually is intended to be romantic in a “fate itself wanted us together we couldn’t have resisted if we’d tried” sort of way, but i for one have always been firmly in the “the inherent romance of love being a choice” camp).

also, it’s so bizarre how common a take “rand/elayne and rand/aviendha only happened because the pattern made them both be into rand because he needed political things from them in order to defeat the dark one, while rand/min is the genuine relationship that would’ve happened on its own anyway” when “the pattern (slash prophetic knowledge thereof) forced it and they never would have looked twice at each other otherwise” is literally genuinely EXACTLY what happened with rand/min, while elayne and avi both fell for rand naturally rather than forcing feelings Because Fate Said So as min did. and rand is very much attracted to both elayne and avi before they show interest in him, whereas min’s just kind of an “oh, and min” afterthought way waaaaaaay in the back of his mind until she’s literally sitting in his lap kissing him and making him go “huh maybe i do want to kiss her” like he never would’ve had anything more than a subconscious fleeting interest in her if she hadn’t pursued him so aggressively, and she wouldn’t have pursued him if she hadn’t had a viewing that they would fall in love someday. whereas randlayne and avirand happened 100% organically on both sides! but sure, those are the two that the pattern forced and min/rand is the organic one.

haha the audiobook said “[kymer’s] uncle han” but when i went to the print book to type up my quotes i saw it says “her sister-father han” fascinating! the book i have does appear to be the original first publication hardcover version, so maybe that was a last-minute edit after they’d already given the book over to the audiobook narrators to record.

bair advises avi to change the names of one of her kids (from the names that she learned in the vision) in hopes that that will help avert the bad future. or she could just NOT GET PREGNANT WITH THE KIDS AT ALL, BAIR like oh my god this is such an obvious solution! i’d be totally fine if they brought it up but dismissed it as infeasible/undesirable for whatever reason (maybe they point out that heartleaf tea isn’t 100% effective, or maybe aviendha really wants to have kids and isn’t willing to make that sacrifice, though given her characterization i would find that hard to believe), but it’s just so weird to not even ADDRESS this completely obvious thing that they could EASILY control in order to prevent those future visions from coming to pass. again, it would’ve been a MUCH different situation if aviendha was already pregnant when she saw the visions. but of course, that would’ve required rand to speak more than 2 words to her between LOC-AMOL which was obviously impossible to achieve 🙄 like, they could’ve fucked in arad doman and then avi finds out she’s pregnant immediately after she sees the visions and is like “oh shit that future’s already happening” that would’ve been very emotional!

also it’s wack (wack narratively speaking, that is - ofc these things do happen irl and in-world it could simply be that min’s always drinking heartleaf tea and elayne and avi didn’t) that rand knocks up elayne after 1 time having sex with her and avi after 2 times (i assume, as they fuck for the second time later in this chapter chunk), yet he’s fucking min constantly and she never gets pregnant. really does lend weight to @butterflydm’s depressing theory that rj (whether consciously or not) wanted rand’s live-in sex-providing girlfriend to ~maintain her figure~ and be super hot and unencumbered by negative pregnancy side effects and thus available for sex at all times while the 2 sidepieces he never sees are given the job of being his baby machines.

it turns out that the weird stuff going on at the black tower is channelers being forcibly turned to the shadow by that 13 channeler-and-fade combination (or whatever the combo is, it said it somewhere in androl’s section but i already forget and don’t care enough to skim through it again looking for the sentence). huh i forgot that that was a thing. back in TGH i thought that channelers being forcibly turned to the shadow was gonna be a much bigger problem than it ended up being lmao i don’t envy sanderson having to at the eleventh hour bring back and wrap up all these plot threads that rj forgot about/ignored for 10 books and annoying the reader (or THIS reader anyway) by getting into whole new sideplots on the eve of the last battle.

also forgot moghedien is still alive. she’s been horribly punished for her failures, as has lanfear, as has graendal (who was resurrected into a super ugly body). female villains getting endlessly tortured while male villains get a nice clean death is so real.

“demandred wants only one thing. al’thor.” demandred that’s gay. and also relatable.

my man demandred shows up to the meeting, hello king! maybe we’ll see you for more than 5 pages in this book.

moghedien’s all “graendal’s only weapon was her looks so now that she’s ugly she’ll be helpless” this is exactly what graendal, who is secretly the biggest brained forsaken, wanted the others to think! i’m sure a bad bitch won’t let this ugly new body stop her.

taim is made a forsaken, whoa didn’t know you could do that! so now there’s 5 left: taim, moridin, demandred, moghedien, and graendal.

if taim was gonna become a forsaken anyway, why the fuck couldn’t he have just been demandred?? what has demandred been doing this whole time that he couldn’t have been taim? we need to condense some plotlines and characters here, people! on the other hand, demandred is sexy and taim is not sexy so i wouldn’t want them to be the same person. can’t explain that any further, it’s just their respective vibes.

“‘just remember my requirement: i face al’thor on the field of battle. his blood is mine, and no one else’s.’ ...you will have competition with [taim], demandred, moghedien thought. he wants al’thor nearly as much as you do.” everyone wants rand carnally!!!! “demandred had been changing lately. once, he wouldn’t have cared who killed lews therin - so long as the man died. what made demandred insist on doing the deed himself?” he wants to fuck rand so bad it makes him look stupid. also, moghedien, you don’t have any room to judge other people’s antagonistic homoerotic obsessions jkjfg

moridin says that this is the end, so “if you have plots, bring them to completion” a nice little bit of fourth wall breaking lmao

and i have finished my last WOT prologue ever thank fuck!!

rand and perrin are in rand’s tent together catching up and laughing awww! but where the fuck is mat!!!!

rand is spying on elayne and suspects that she’s also spying on him. he hears that elayne has been wakened late at night, suspects she’s receiving urgent news, and............sends spies to find out what it is instead of just going to ask her himself??? what the fuck???? what is this absolute batshit insanity????? that is your GIRLFRIEND rand???? to whom you’re literally soulbonded???? why the fuck are you guys spying on each other rather than going to ask each other what your plans are????? i can’t. i can’t!!!!

“‘she’ll have someone [spying on us], balwer,’ rand said with a smile. ‘she all but taught me how to do this, after all.’” okay that IS cute. but it still makes no sense that they would go to all the effort of setting up spies in each other’s camps instead of just talking to each other!!!! i love a sexy machiavellian relationship of two political powerhouse partners spying on and mistrusting each other as much as the next person, but that has never been the vibe of *rand and elayne’s* relationship.

rand has finally found out about the babies............OFFSCREEN and seemingly from hearsay rather than from elayne or one of his friends, what the fuck!!! why couldn’t we see the moment of him finding out! why the hell did elayne not find him immediately at merrilor to tell him! why the everloving FUCK did rand not find HER immediately to talk to her when he heard the news through the grapevine! more absolute batshit insanity. a few pages in and the amount of suspension of disbelief being asked of me vis-a-vis randlayne’s relationship is already cracking my skull in half.

“pregnant. pregnant with his children. light! he had only just learned of it. why hadn’t she been the one to tell him?” i don’t know maybe because you DIPPED ON HER WHILE SHE WAS SLEEPING AND NEVER BOTHERED TO STAY IN CONTACT WITH HER OR TRAVEL BACK TO SEE HER DESPITE AN ABUNDANCE OF OPPORTUNITIES TO DO SO, RAND. at least he does go on to acknowledge “he hadn’t exactly made himself easy to find” so okay. but he also thinks that she wouldn’t have told him because she would’ve felt his emotions while he was in The Bad Place and “wouldn’t have wanted to confront him with a pregnancy when he’d been in such a state” which is a) absolutely not true, elayne never once had a thought along those lines and b) totally unfair to elayne, to say that while rand’s in a bad state she would consider being his partner and fellow parent of their kids Too Hard and would just opt not to tell him. avoiding rand when being his partner gets hard is a min move, not an elayne move.

“still, it was a shock. i’m going to be a father, he thought, not for the first time. yes, lews therin had had children, and rand could remember them and his love for them. it wasn’t the same. he, rand al’thor, would be a father. assuming he won the last battle.” baby boy!!!! and these are the only thoughts we get from rand on the subject for now, smh i’ve been waiting for BOOKS for him to find out about the babies, i need more reaction and emotions than this!!! i expect nothing and i’m still let down!!!

sidenote: since the show’s beefed up dad!rand (and dad!LTT judging by the fact that his first and thus far only scene showcased him as a dad rather than as a husband) i hope they’ll dwell more on the tragedy of LTT killing his own kids instead of solely ilyena, as it is in the books.

"i [perrin] have people close to elayne. people who keep watch on things for me.” “let’s go talk to them. i have a great deal to do tonight, but...yes, i can’t let this slip.” RAND??? JUST GO???? TALK TO ELAYNE DIRECTLY??????? jesus christ i’m having a fucking aneurysm over this djfgkj IT’S ABSOLUTE BATSHIT INSANITY!!!!!

when gawyn tells elayne that she needs rest: “thank you very much for the advice, which i will ignore, as i ignored birgitte when she said the same thing.” JSKDFJG GO OFF!!! absolute icon. Good For Her.jpg

now elayne is once again arguing that they should let rand break the seals, which is what she said when egwene first shared the news but then in her povs in the second half of TOM she was thinking that it was crazy and they couldn’t let rand do something so stupid. make up your mind, sanderson!

when egwene refers to “one of rand’s crackbrained schemes”: “elayne smiled fondly. light, but she was smitten.” (this is egwene pov calling her smitten not elayne calling herself smitten lmao) and then later “‘he has a fair bit of gleeman in him,’ elayne said, again fondly.” matrandlayne is the ideal throuple because they all adore crackbrained schemes and gleeman-like dramatic showmanship! and avi is the ideal fourth polycule member because she can kick some sense and dignity into them.

guybon brings news to elayne of the attack on caemlyn and when she praises him for his actions, he says “give your reward to the men of the band, your majesty. it was their work.” yeah now i AM retroactively glad that mat and the band weren’t involved in elayne claiming the throne in canon (tho i adore it in fics) because it would’ve turned into this same sort of “mat/talmanes and the band being the heroes of the day and getting all the credit” lmao

“‘here, let us link. i’ll lend you my strength.’ nynaeve looked shocked. ‘mother?’ ‘you are better at healing than i.’ egwene smiled. ‘i may be amyrlin, nynaeve, but i am still aes sedai. servant of all.’” ❤️❤️ egwene is The Best, Truest Aes Sedai, and The Best, Truest Amyrlin. she embodies everything they are supposed to be, as opposed to cadsuane who embodies everything that's wrong/broken with the system. i sure am glad that it’s egwene and not cadsuane who’s amyrlin. i SURE AM glad. sob.

perrin says that in blacksmith-ing if something shatters it’s better to start again than try to fix it, and rand uses the same thing to talk about the seals. “rand, that’s the most reasonable thing anyone has said on this topic. have you explained it that way to egwene?” “she’s not a blacksmith, my friend.” “she’s smart, rand. smarter than either of us. she’ll understand if you explain it the right way.” thank you perrin!!!!! this whole time rand’s been like “ugh why won’t egwene see REASON” it’s because you literally didn’t explain shit to her, you just showed up at the tower and said “i’m gonna break the seals, see you in a month” and left again immediately.

rand learns about caemlyn and once again, bafflingly, talks to perrin about how they can’t let elayne leave rather than going to talk to elayne herself

“rand could feel [elayne], of course, through the bond. her spike of alarm let him know that she’d received this information. should he go to her? perhaps he could send min.” ??????????????????????????? you just learned that your girlfriend’s HOME has FALLEN TO TROLLOCS and you think of sending your other girlfriend to go talk to her in your place because you’re too busy to check on her and see if she’s okay or needs anything?????? i hate to say it but Deadbeat Dad Rand IS becoming tragically real, christ

and rand now suddenly feels avi arrive at merrilor, so this must take place slightly before avi’s prologue scene. i can report that he, of course, has no thought of going to find her and say hello or anything.

“the attack might unnerve elayne, make her more eager to act. perhaps this will make her more vulnerable to agreeing with my plan. this could be a good thing.” WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK RAND!!!! why is randlayne being done so FILTHILY in this chapter!!!! at least perrin frowns at this statement and rand thinks “how quickly i’ve learned to use others” so at least he’s being narratively called out for being a shithead here, BUT STILL this is crazy. genuinely from this chapter alone, bar the lines explicitly stating that elayne is pregnant with rand’s babies, i would have no idea that he cares about her at ALL let alone that she’s his COMMITTED SOULBONDED GIRLFRIEND i hate it here!!! my sole consolation is that min has been asleep offscreen the whole chapter and rand’s had no significant thoughts about her, so at least i don’t have to have min/rand rubbed in my face while randlayne is dragged through the mud.

rand also says “i thought she had that thing guarded!” about the caemlyn waygate, so not only is he a) not bothering to see if elayne’s okay after her home was attacked and b) thinking that her being upset and vulnerable over this could be a good thing for his plans, he is now c) blaming her for the attack happening.

“of all those to turn to the shadow, demandred’s betrayal seemed the most tragic. the man could have been a hero. should have been a hero. i’m to blame for that, too, rand thought. if i’d offered a hand instead of a smirk, if i’d congratulated instead of competed. if i’d been the man then that i am now...” oh.............OH! that is some good good tragic doomed lovers to enemies shit!!! (but also, what sort of man ARE you now, rand? the kind who doesn’t bother to find his partner to say hello and talk about their babies after not having seen her in months and not having known she was pregnant until just now? the kind who doesn’t spare a single thought for how his partner must feel about tragic news from her home except to think that it would be super helpful to him if she were vulnerable about it?)

okay rand FINALLY thinks that he’s going to send to elayne and also send help to evacuate the city, fucking finally, rand! but he’s still just Sending To her rather than sending HIMSELF to her, of course.

moving on from bullying rand (for the moment). 2 chapters in and this is already my mood:

IT’S THE LAST DAMN BOOK!!! STOP WASTING MY TIME WITH RANDOS I DON’T CARE ABOUT!!!!!! you guys know very well how much i’ve always hated side character plotlines, so you can imagine how enraged i am about this kjfg like man, call me rand because the amount i DO NOT CARE about what’s happening at the black tower is ASTRONOMICAL (okay maybe i’m not done bullying rand)

thankfully, next we get avilayne reunion!!! 🥰🥰

as soon as aviendha hears about the attack on caemlyn she goes right to find elayne to talk to her about it. rand take notes.

“[elayne] looked very much in control, very strong, her red-gold hair practically glowing in the lamplight...aviendha was pleased to se the fire in her first-sister’s eyes.” proud and awestruck wife aviendha!!! convenient source of light that makes elayne’s hair glow!!! also, reminds me of the matlayne reunion when mat was describing how radiant elayne looked and how her hair glowed in the firelight. this is elayne’s harem, we’re all just living in it!

then when elayne insists to the lords upon the hard but necessary course of not trying to retake caemlyn: “her face was a mask, her voice as cold as good steel.” rand parallels!! insert my usual ranting about how we were robbed of rand and elayne dealing with the burdens of leadership etc together.

aviendha thinks that elayne always knows “the most interesting curses” aviendha is the little spiderman to elayne’s medium spiderman to mat’s big spiderman when it comes to swearing jkfjg my loves! that’s what a polycule should be all about.

as SOON as she realizes avi is there, elayne sends every single person out of the tent to leave the two of them in private. so that she can kiss her wife!

“i’ve reached the point in my pregnancy where i can channel again reliably” that seems like awfully convenient timing for the last battle lmao was it mentioned initially that channeling would be reliable again in the second trimester? i think i remember monaelle saying it would just get worse and worse as the pregnancy progressed. overall this was just a totally useless thing that didn’t end up affecting the plot in any significant way - there were many times when drama and danger could have been heightened by elayne finding herself unable to grasp the source, but they were never taken and the source was always there when she TRULY needed it.

elayne receives a LETTER from rand rather than rand just walking 10 feet into her camp to talk to her in person, christ almighty. “he insists that i return to caemlyn to see to my people...light, this is clever. he’s obviously trying to bully me into staying. there’s a touch of daes dae’mar in this.” “you seem proud. yet i gather this letter is only one step away from being insulting!” “i am proud. and angry at him. but proud because he knew to make me angry like that. light! we’ll make a king out of you yet, rand.” again, this is cute and funny on the one hand but on the other hand is the sort of Machiavellian Relationship that does not fit with randlayne’s established vibes.

“a fire still burned behind those eyes of hers. elayne was a warrior, as true a one as aviendha had ever known.” ❤️❤️

avi asks elayne for permission to fuck rand tonight since they may not get another chance. elayne gives it and asks if avi’s spent time with min, to which avi replies “not enough, and under other circumstances i would remedy that lack immediately. there is no time...i do think she feels better about me. she did me a great honor in helping me understand the last step to becoming a wise one. it may be appropriate to bend some of the customs.” ugh it’s always been so annoying how min just.......gets to be an exception to the first-sister thing. aviendha was so staunch that she couldn’t be with rand until she and elayne were first-sisters, yet min is basically a STRANGER to her, and a stranger who has demonstrably no interest in learning about or respecting aiel ways let alone participating in them, or even in sharing rand with the two of them at all, but gets to have avi going “eh it’s fine we can make an exception.” min hasn’t earned that!!! and her “great honor” of helping avi with the wise ones was a complete accident lmao all she did was embarrass avi so much by asking why she was doing pointless punishments (which she would’ve known was a shaming question if she’d had any interest in learning about aiel ways) that avi snapped at the wise ones. min had no intention of helping her and never even realized that she did help her!

for real, elayne broke her goddamn back to make this whole polycule work and gets 0 time with rand, while min didn’t put in an ounce of effort (and actively dislikes that she has to let elayne and avi take part in the relationship) and gets to be with him all by herself for over half the series.

it’s very hard to think about the concept of min being likable to me when i’ve been so deep in the trenches of book!min sucking for so long now, but if i try to think objectively then there are some very easy fixes the show can make. 1) don’t make her change her style and personality for rand (and it’s 100% guaranteed the show will indeed not do this, seeing as it’s 2022 and nobody in their right mind would think that shit is acceptable), 2) make her eventual giving in to falling in love with rand feel natural and as a result of getting to know and like him as a person rather than just a random decision she makes while miles away from him Because Fate Said So, 3) get rid of the whole “hunting rand down and seducing him into a relationship” grossness that characterized TFOH and LOC, 4) get rid of her reluctance to share him and make her equally as on board with a poly relationship as elayne and avi are, 5) make her actually spend time with elayne and especially avi and form meaningful relationships with them. and possibly 6) don’t give her such a disproportionately large amount of exclusive screentime with rand while avi and elayne get shafted, but this would not bother me AS much if fixes 4 and 5 had been made, because it COULD actually feel wholesome, like min taking care of rand on elayne and avi’s behalfs while they aren’t able to be with him (and how wonderful would it be if min and rand actually TALKED about elayne and avi during this time, and did so fondly and lovingly!), rather than like she’s trying to hog him all to herself and prove that she’s his One Real Partner.

me: it’s so easy to fix min [gives a whole list of fixes that require completely overhauling her character and relationship with rand]

anyway, elayne and avi plan to talk to min before sending avi to fuck rand, and we later find out that they did so offscreen. just like with the convo about the decision to bond him, we don’t get to actually see the 3 of them sitting down together and talking about rand and their shared feelings for and relationships with him. it’s so weird!! such a wasted opportunity!! i don’t fucking care about androl and pevara, can i please see elayne, avi, and min having a scene all together for ONCE???

once again so so so so grateful for rafe’s commitment to interpersonal relationships in the show, this shit would NEVER happen there! nor would any of the Randlayne Batshit Insanity i’ve been complaining about in this post.

i have read 13 books. i have slogged through thousands of pages and read or listened to every single word, even if i wasn’t always paying super close attention. but androl and pevara’s plotline has for the first time made me resort to skipping scenes and reading summaries instead. no regrets! congratulations, androl and pevara, you’ve finally broken me when not even perrin’s plotlines could. i’m not going to read a single one of their scenes for the rest of the book, i’ve decided. i just want to be done with this series jkdjfg not that i haven’t enjoyed reading it (during certain books and plotlines, anyway), but good god i just want to be done.

“it was still hard to get used to the idea of tam being there, just one camp over. rand had dined with him earlier. it had been awkward, but no more so than expected for a king inviting his father from a rural village to ‘dine.’ they had laughed about it, which had made him feel much better.” 🥺

but also, i see how it is, rand has the time to invite tam over for dinner and perrin over to hang out from a different camp, but not elayne or aviendha 😤 what a perfect opportunity to introduce his dad to his other two girlfriends that he’s just not taking. i bet MIN was invited to family dinner.

avi arrives to see rand thank god!! but his reaction is so baffling. “how have i taken you from [the maidens]?” he says as if he does not know full well that they got into a committed relationship in WH. “light. she was beautiful. but so was elayne...and so was min...and...he was a fool. a light-blinded fool. ‘aviendha,’ he said. ‘i love you, i truly do. but that’s a problem, burn it! i love all three of you. i don’t think i could accept this and choose-’” like literally what the FUCK is happening???? rand!!! do you not remember the ENTIRE CONVERSATION the four of you had where you said you loved all of them and felt bad about it, and they reassured you that they all loved you and were happy to share you, and then they all bonded you as their warder and avi and min gave their blessing for you to fuck elayne?? what the fuck is happening right now!!!! that WH scene truly had ZERO impact on rand and it’s so absolutely absurd. this is beyond asking me to suspend disbelief, it’s straight up trying to gaslight me into thinking that that WH scene never happened!

but the good news is that “she was beautiful, but so was elayne, and so was min, and..................” gives me room to interpret that he’s subconsciously thinking “and so is mat” jdkfjg

also, interesting that rand is fretting that sleeping with avi now would be A Decision when he’s been sleeping with min for months...............implying perhaps that min has always been just sex to him and not A Decision about which of the three he loves 👀

“‘we are first-sisters, rand al’thor, elayne and i. when we get to know her better, min will join us. we three will share in all things.’ first-sisters? he should have suspected, following that odd bonding. he raised a hand to his head. we will share you, they had said to him.” WHAT THE HELL DID YOU THINK THAT CONVERSATION WAS ABOUT, RAND???? JESUS CHRIST currently saying with my whole chest that every time WOT women complain about men being stupid and unobservant is 100% justified. jesus christ.

for my own sanity, i must assume that this is all a result of sanderson Just Not Getting the polycule or at least avirand specifically (since their relationship is by far the worst in terms of “suddenly experienced a total reset in TGS and acted like WH never happened”) and that it would’ve been much different if rj had written it. i don’t like to lean on “this would’ve been better if rj had written it” too much because most of the time the things i’m annoyed about are things he’d already established that sanderson had to run with and claiming that it’s a Sanderson Problem is just using him as a scapegoat for rj’s own bad storytelling decisions, but in this instance i do think it’s true. even as little as avirand and randlayne got in LOC-KOD, i do remember noticing a marked decrease in rand thinking/caring about avi and elayne in TGS which got even worse in TOM since we didn’t have any rand pov.

“is this so terrible a thing to consider, being with the three of us?” “i want it, aviendha. i should hide myself because i do. but the pain...” “you have embraced it, have you not?” “it is not my pain i fear. it is yours.” “are we so weak, then, that we cannot bear what you can?” 👏👏👏 “of course not. but how can i hope for pain in those i love?” “the pain is ours to accept.” 👏👏👏

god rand NEEDED this kind of “yes you might die, and it will hurt us, but that’s our choice to make and we’ll bear that pain” outlook from a partner SO MANY BOOKS AGO instead of min’s constant insistences that she Won’t Let Him die at tarmon gai’don. not saying it isn’t admirable to keep up that kind of optimism or that it isn’t helpful to rand for his partners to have hope for a future with him, but he really needed avi’s different perspective as well to balance it out.

“be warned; it is all three of us, or none of us. we will not let you come between us.” good on you avi but i am 100% certain that min would gladly let it come between you if rand wanted only her lmaooo

also, this seems like the kind of convo they should all 4 be having together (since it APPARENTLY didn’t stick for rand the first time they had it in WH). this brings me to my other point, that the whole “the 3 women discuss who gets to fuck rand today and send that person to him” (which we also kinda saw in WH tho at least they did all talk to him first even if the women had pre-agreed to leave elayne alone with him after) is SO AWKWARD. HUGE harem vibes. like please just have an orgy all together, for fuck’s sake.

i don’t feel strongly about min having romantic relationships with elayne and avi in the show like i do about elayne and avi having one with each other, and in fact it WOULD be kinda cool to see at least one platonic sibling-spouse dynamic, but if all 4 are all dating each other it would remove so much weirdness when it comes to sex lmao especially when you also add in the fact that the warder bonds allow them to feel each other fucking rand! maybe we could do rand dating all 3, elayne dating all 3, and avi-min sibling-spouses, because it would be easier to make min/elayne happen than min/avi since they spend a lot of time together early in the series and establish a close bond early on that could be given more screentime later by including min in more of elayne’s plotlines instead of exclusively rand’s (also, show!min gives off immense queer vibes, whereas Straight Male Gaze Serving book!min could never), and it would still preserve a sibling-spouse dynamic which IS a unique dynamic that i really love and would love much more if it didn’t feel like such a big No Homo the way it does in the books, which would be accomplished by showing that women can be each other’s wives too and aren’t strictly limited to sister-wives (overall i am so so excited for the show to give us a more explicitly queer version of aiel culture as well as brother-husbands in addition to sister-wives! they haven’t actually said they’ll do that but i’ll eat my hat if they don’t.) okay where was i. oh it would also be good because avi and min being bona fide first-sisters would give them their own unique and meaningful relationship with each other, which is sorely needed. ofc i’d prefer the show just do avirandlayne throuple and keep min/rand as platonic friends because that is so much easier and more natural and works so much better in all respects, but given the “3 beautiful women” viewing and the fact that fans would riot if their beloved Rand Girlfriend didn’t get to bang him in the show, i know that won’t happen.

and so, overall, i hate min and min/rand but i really WANT the show to make me able to like them, for my own sanity if nothing else because it was bad enough having to read so many books heavily featuring a ship i hate and i don’t want to go through that again in the show jdkjfg i’m hoping by the time min/rand begins in the show in earnest it’ll be long enough since i’ve read the books that my “flying into a rage every time i so much as hear min’s name” fight or flight instinct will no longer be so strong.

and kinda same with tuon and mat/tuon, actually. villain redemption arcs (especially when Tough Childhoods and Toxic Families are involved) and hero/villain ships are my bread and goddamn butter and i was so disappointed by the teeeeeeerrible execution in the books because i think tuon could have emerged as one of my favorite characters/character arcs and mat/tuon as one of my favorite canon ships if it had been done in a way that fulfilled the fantastic potential of all the godtier tropes that form the basis of it.

okay i’ve gotten SO off track, but all the s2 stuff from nycc has me hyped up and in show mode! back to the book.

i remember somebody reblogged a post of mine a while back and were saying that aviendha doesn’t know what consent is (i think the original post was an ask where we were discussing avi and birgitte’s terrible reactions to seeing tylin harass mat at the end of ACOS) because the first time she had sex with rand, she took advantage of him while he was half-dead from hypothermia, and the second time, she forced him to have sex with her by bringing maidens to surround the tent and kill him if he refused. that interpretation of their first time i knew straightaway was bullshit bc i’d already read TFOH (they were BOTH half-dead from hypothermia and in fact avi was in WAY worse shape than rand was, which was why he got naked to warm her up in the first place) but i was like “i’m also skeptical of the second one but will reserve judgment until i read it for myself.” i can now say that yes, it’s bullshit lmao i don’t even know how that person could POSSIBLY have come to that conclusion. the maidens arrive of their own accord and avi is kinda embarrassed that they did so, and they’re just yelling and not making ANY attempt whatsoever to threaten rand in ANY way (okay there is “several were screaming about what they’d do to certain parts of his body when they caught him” but avi explains right away that they don’t mean it and the whole thing is just a symbolic practice, and besides, they’re yelling at him for taking avi away from them, not yelling at him to try and force him to sleep with her). and rand and avi do have a little exchange wherein it appears avi is calling the shots and rand just has to do what she says, but it’s clearly just flirty banter that our subby boy rand is very much into (and he’s actually the one who first initiates physical intimacy by pulling her close). you know who DID explicitly think that she would bring the maidens in to kill rand if he tried to not have sex with her? MIN during their first time in ACOS.

“aviendha sniffed. ‘enough talk. you will bed me now.’ ‘light!’ he said. ‘a little forward, aren’t you? is that the aiel way of doing things?’ ‘no,’ she said, blushing again. ‘i just...i am not very skilled with this.’ ...he laughed and pulled her close. she was stiff, initially, but then melted against him. ‘so, do i go fight them first?’ he nodded toward the maidens.” like that’s all so cute! doesn’t read at all nonconsensual to me, it’s just how they flirt! and rand is 100% onboard!

the only thing i didn’t care for was “you three decided this, didn’t you? which of you came to me?” and “i’m never going to get to choose, am i?” to both of which aviendha shakes her head, because while i can see the gender role reversal rj was going for with the 3 women deciding everything about rand between them and he just has to go along with it, it has always annoyed me. but after the second head shake is when rand laughs and pulls avi close, so i guess HE has no problem with it, which is what matters! still, defs looking forward to the show making this not only a true polycule rather than a harem, but a polycule between 4 equal partners rather than rand never being involved in conversations or decisions about his own relationship.

moridin meets rand in a dreamshard and says “i knew that if i created this place, you would join me in it. you can’t keep away from me. the pattern won’t allow it. we are drawn together, you and i. time after time after time. two ships moored on the same beach, beating against one another with each new tide.” oh my god. FELLAS. lines that would 100% fit into a romantic relationship (if a rather toxic one) with no alterations needed! this has gotta be his gayest line to rand yet, which is saying something.

moridin says he’ll kill “you, and the golden-haired one, and the aiel woman, and the little dark-haired-” and gets cut off before specifying woman, so i can interpret that he’s referring to mat as rand’s little dark-haired partner 😌 which serves both my #PutMatInThePolycule AND my #ShortKingMat agendas.

“he was reminded, in passing, of mornings during his youth, rising before dawn to milk the cow, which would need milking twice a day. eyes closed, he remembered the sounds of tam - already up - cutting new fence posts in the barn. remembering the chilly air, stomping his feet into his boots, washing his face with water left to warm beside the stove.” 😭😭😭

“‘light, aviendha! why do you need to sneak up on me in the first place?’ ‘for this,’ she said, then jumped forward, snatching his head and kissing him, her body pressed against his. he relaxed, letting the kiss linger.” 🥺🥺🥺 early morning kisses and then rand brings back showers from the AOL and they take a shower together! weeping over this tiny snippet of domestic avirand!!!! now if only elayne was there too (and mat)

“if i am going to live in the wetlands, then i will adopt some wetlander customs.” avirandlayne throuple raising their six (6) babies in (rebuilt) caemlyn endgame is so real y’all!!!! yes!!!

rand remarks that avi no longer seems bothered by a man channeling, but i don’t think she was ever bothered by it? didn’t he say back in TSR or TFOH that the aiel didn’t seem to care about him being a male channeler and the dragon reborn because they only care about him being the car’a’carn?

rand describes the rough calluses of avi’s hands (and how much he likes them) in a passage highly reminiscent of mat describing the rough heron brand on rand’s hand in TFOH, nice.

and we get to the big meeting of all the rulers! way too much going on in this scene for me to break down thoroughly but i’ll reskim to try and remember some specific things i wanted to note.

elayne tells egwene that she spoke to avi about her night with rand but rand didn’t tell avi his intentions for the meeting. the hoops sanderson is jumping through to avoid making elayne and rand just talk to each other directly! what’s the point? why couldn’t elayne have gone to talk to rand WITH avi for a while and then left to give them privacy to fuck? why couldn’t she have and why WOULDN’T she have? it makes no sense.

the king of murandy is a dick, so egwene makes him think the white tower has been pulling strings in murandy (by saying that she’s heard his rule is consolidating nicely and then saying “you’re welcome,” smiling, and riding away). jkjfg queen shit! “‘egwene,’ gawyn said softly, trotting his horse beside hers, ‘did you really just do that?’ ‘does he look troubled?’ gawyn glanced over his shoulder. ‘very.’ ‘excellent.’ gawyn continued riding for a moment, then broke into a deep grin. ‘that was positively evil.’” DJFKGJ i love them your honor! gawyn loves watching egwene get people’s asses as much as i do, bless him! that’s his wife! that’s OUR wife! (also, ARE they literally married yet? they said they were going to but idk if they have.)

“min stood at his side, one hand on his arm.” min showing up to a serious political meeting with rulers of the whole continent and going “i MUST plaster myself to rand to make sure everyone knows i’m his girlfriend” very inappropriate time for physical intimacy, min! especially since elayne and avi are also at the meeting and are not afforded the luxury of flaunting their relationships with rand (although elayne does tell rand she loves him in front of everyone, so they must be wondering what’s going on jkfg “i see what you’re trying to do and i love you for it, but [objection]” is soooomewhat offhand as telling people you love them goes, but still!)

“elayne swept in, the sorrow on her face lightening as rand smiled warmly at her.” ❤️❤️❤️ finally a randlayne crumb!!!!

“the wool-headed woman was still impressed with rand, pleased with how he’d managed to bully everyone into coming here. elayne considered it a matter of pride when he did well.” ❤️❤️❤️ this push-and-pull tension between elayne disagreeing with rand as a fellow leader but being proud of him as a partner (and vice versa) would have been SUCH an interesting thing to explore in detail across the whole series. sigh.

“and you don’t feel a small measure of pride? egwene asked herself. rand al’thor, once a simple village boy and your near-betrothed, now the most powerful man in the world? you don’t feel proud of what he’s done? perhaps a little.” oh my god my HEART 🥺🥺

and we also finally get a bit of randlayne political conflict! but given that elayne’s just one of many rulers voicing the same opinions and she and rand don’t talk directly to each other that much (most of his argument is with egwene while the monarchs are fussing amongst themselves), and that the narrative frames it as “rand wants a peace treaty but all the monarchs including elayne are too selfish and power-hungry to agree,” overall i’m not very satisfied with it. i do think his peace treaty is a great idea and am on his side about it, but i just wish elayne hadn’t been lumped in with the other monarchs. she’s Not Like Other Monarchs, dammit! or i would’ve loved to see rand’s initial treaty be less Good And Righteous than it is, or to see part of this scene from elayne’s pov to see her actual thoughts about the treaty rather than egwene's assumptions about what she thinks, or to have seen her and rand discuss the treaty privately and workshop ways to improve it before bringing it to the full group - because elayne DOES point out some real flaws in the treaty and propose solutions for them, which i loved to see!

“i am [the seals’] watcher.” “in name only. they were only just discovered, and i possess them. it is out of respect for your traditional title that i approached you about them first.” “approached me? you didn’t make a request. you didn’t make a demand. you came, told me what you were going to do, and walked away.” get his ass egwene!! this is exactly what i was saying earlier!

“is this what it’s about? you want saidin to be tainted again. you aes sedai...you’re threatened by the idea of men who can channel, undermining your authority!” ah, now i see where the batshit take of *****MASSIVE SPOILER FOR THE END OF THE BOOK THAT I’M NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW YET BUT DO***** “it was better for egwene to go out in a blaze of glory in the last battle because she would’ve hated living in a world where saidin is untainted and men who can channel are treated as equals and aes sedai aren’t on top of the world anymore” came from: an obviously ridiculous and paranoia-induced assumption of rand’s that Certain Readers took as inarguable fact about egwene! love that 🙄

“light, egwene. you can still do it, like the sister i never had - tie my mind in knots and have me raving at you and loving you at the same time.” 🥺

“rand looked hesitant, and for a moment, he seemed the child she’d once caught sneaking bites of mistress cauthon’s pies with mat.” cauthor crumb!

rand’s plan is to KILL THE DARK ONE okay damn. given that the whole series is about balance and how light can’t exist without shadow and vice versa, i’m 95% sure that will turn out to be a bad and/or impossible idea and that it will turn out egwene is right in this particular argument and rand will just imprison him again after all. i hope so, i want egwene to win one of their arguments lmao since moiraine comes in and basically calls her out and embarrasses her in front of all the rulers for trying to disagree with rand about the seals.

“for all his complaints about aes sedai, for all of his insistence that he wouldn’t be controlled by them, he was acting more and more like one of them himself.” exactly!!! glad to see that little bit of hypocrisy acknowledged outright by the narrative and not just by me in my own head.

moiraine returns!!!!! and for some reason we are put into perrin’s pov for this scene instead of rand’s or staying in egwene’s. although various channelers flicking the annoying murandian king with the power and perrin being able to tell who it was by them smelling smug WAS hilarious, i’ll admit.

“where had mat gotten to now? why hadn’t he come back with moiraine?” YEAH FOR REAL WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU MAT??????? literally EVERY other character is here, where are you??????? you are RUINING all my hopes and dreams of ef5 reunions!!!! which i always knew would never happen, but they COULD have if mat had gone with moiraine instead of fucking off to wherever he is currently!!! honestly what the hell!!!

“[rand] hesitantly reached out and touched her face. ‘by my mother’s grave,’ rand whispered, then fell to his knees before her. ‘how?’ moiraine smiled, resting a hand on his shoulder. ‘the wheel weaves as the wheel wills, rand. have you forgotten that?’” MOMRAINE!!!

also cracking up at rand: how are you alive? moiraine: the wheel weaves as the wheel wills mat: am i a joke to you?

“‘moiraine,’ egwene said, stepping forward. ‘the white tower welcomes you back with open arms. your service has not been forgotten.’ ‘hmmm,’ moiraine said. ‘yes, i should think that having discovered a future amyrlin would reflect well upon me.’” MOMRAINE!!!

“she passed perrin, and gave him a squeeze on the arm, eyes twinkling.” MOMRAINE!!!

“nynaeve enfolded moiraine in a powerful embrace. moiraine stood for a moment, smelling distinctly shocked, hands out to the sides. finally, she returned the embrace in a somewhat maternal way, patting nynaeve on the back.” MOMRAINE!!! LITERALLY!!!

“nynaeve released her, pulling back, then wiped a tear from her eye. ‘don’t you dare tell lan about this,’ she growled. ‘i would not dream of it,’ moiraine said... ‘insufferable woman,’ nynaeve grumbled as she wiped a tear from the other eye.” MY HEART IS SO FULL

“[elayne was] still staring daggers at rand...oddly, she smelled proud. strange woman.” i love her jkjfg i love Them!!

faile: “if rand persuades [the seanchan to sign the treaty], does that allow them to keep the countries they have now? the women who are damane? are they allowed to slap one of those collars on any woman who passes their border?” THANK you queen faile!!!!

lmao it’s hilarious how every single major character present in this scene is saying stuff and playing an important role in the negotiations.............except for min who has not said a single word and has done nothing but touch rand’s arm twice. she is soooo narratively useless!!! actually, we’re almost 200 pages in and min hasn’t had a single word of dialogue at all or even been present except for in the way background of this one scene. love that for me!

rand gives elayne total control over all the armies at the last battle!!!! that is fucking ROMANCE, baby!!!!! “elayne trakand is a leader to her core; she taught me much of what i know about leadership.” ❤️❤️

rand says he will “try” to “persuade” the seanchan to release the damane and the lands they’ve stolen and go back across the ocean, but aviendha says that they can’t fight the seanchan because they’ll lose. so rand says, “they have done horrible things, but so far, the lands they have taken have benefited from strong leadership.” HATE THIS LATE-SERIES NARRATIVE THAT DIRECTLY CONTRADICTS WHAT WE SAW IN FALME “if forced to it, i am content to allow them the lands they have, so long as they do not spread further. as for the women...what is done is done.” UGH!!!!! i cannot believe i just had to read that load of GARBAGE with my OWN TWO EYES!!!! what the FUCK rand!!!!!! at least he adds “let us worry about the world itself first, then do what we can for those held captive” so MAYBE he’ll try to do SOMETHING, but christ!!! after avi’s visions i feared that “make peace with the seanchan and let them stay, in part because things are ~So Much Better~ under their rule!” would be the “resolution” here, and lo and be fucking hold!!! i’m so mad!!!!!!! rand, go google “appeasement” and rethink your stance here!!!!!

anyway, this tarwin’s gap sequence with lan is sooooo good, i teared up!!! (also, huge spartan 300 vibes which me and my classics degree loved!)

“al chalidholara malkier. for my sweet land malkier. it was the oath a malkieri soldier took during their first posting to the border. lan had never spoken it. he did so now in his heart.” 😭😭😭

“[morgase banishing bryne] hadn’t been elayne’s fault, but she could read the breached trust in bryne’s face.” so bryne is standoffish with elayne because of what her mom did???? fuck that guy. he does later compliment her on her leadership skills and say he doesn’t hold morgase’s actions against her, but still. fuck that guy.

“you will do as you are told.” 😳😳 we may have lost Daddy Rand, but we still have Mommy Elayne!

sidenote while we’re on the subject: baffles me that most people think aviendha tops. did you all read all those scenes of her rushing to do whatever elayne asks and turning into a blushing mess when elayne compliments her?? wake up america. elayne tops always. avilayne, elayne tops. randlayne, elayne tops. matlayne, elayne tops even if mat would never admit it.

anyway. loial returns!!! 🥰 “i am married to erith, though, you see. she’s just over there. did you hear her singing? isn’t her song beautiful? being married is not so bad, perrin. why didn’t you tell me it was not so bad? i think i am rather fond of it.” awwww, warm welcome for loial into the WOT Wifeguy club! also in the club: gawyn, perrin, lan, rand, bashere

“rand needs me.” “rand needs us all.” “he needs me more.” perrin and elayne fighting over their boyfriend jkfg perrin justifies his ummm wild and rude claim that rand needs him more than elayne with min’s viewing that rand will die if perrin isn’t with him at the last battle. now, if only she’d had the same viewing about mat...........

who we learn is IN EBOU DAR????? according to perrin’s color visions. WHAT THE FUCK MAT WHAT ARE YOU DOING THERE???? EVERYBODY ELSE IS OVER HERE GET YOUR ASS HERE NOW!!!! “that man is never where he needs to be.” christ elayne i KNOW!! man.

“the seanchan are the enemy. mat doesn’t seem to understand that, considering what he’s done.” GET HIS ASS ELAYNE!!!!!! TEAR THE BITCH APART!!! it’s still unclear whether she’s aware he’s married to the seanchan empress, but this line implies she might be since idk what else she might mean by What He’s Done

“apparently, rand had specifically told [bashere] to watch over [elayne, while they’re in caemlyn].” another one for the Romantic Or Condescending? debate lmao i’m going to say condescending because rand has time to tell bashere to watch over elayne but doesn’t have time to fucking talk to elayne directly STILL???? they were in the same place for 200 pages and didn’t exchange a word besides as leaders at the big meeting!

tam is part of the contingent who went to caemlyn with elayne, but i’m sure that having an interaction between the two of them will be too much to ask for

elayne notes that bashere doesn’t talk to her “the way a man should a queen” which is absolutely not something rj’s elayne would’ve ever thought, because she was only misinterpreted by others as being a Spoiled Princess but was never actually one.

pregnancy update: the babies are kicking and moving around frequently!!! 🥺🥺 i would like a timeline update because i really didn’t think elayne was far enough into her pregnancy to feel the babies moving THIS strongly and often, and the size of her belly has also lately been described as seemingly much bigger than i would’ve thought it would be (tho that i can excuse as twins making her bigger sooner than a single baby would). google says you typically start feeling movements between 16 and 24 weeks and that they become more regular between 24 and 28 weeks, which would mean elayne’s ~6 months pregnant now, and no way in hell was WH 6 months ago. that was midwinter and we’re still only in spring, i’m pretty sure.

elayne asks bashere if he thinks it’s a mistake for her to go into battle while pregnant and he says no - king shit! then he tells her that she should tell everyone she’s carrying the dragon reborn’s children because it would make them fight harder - opposite of king shit! as we all know, elayne is simply a vessel for rand’s babies and people would care more about fighting for them than for her 🙄

elayne quite rightly points out that this is neither any of bashere’s business nor any of the army’s business, but he says that the heir to the realm is the business of its subjects. yeah, and it’s only their business that that heir is the queen’s kid, the babydaddy is not their business!

“perhaps it will remind them that not everything in this world is dying.” can you believe that rand and elayne’s babies are being used to give a greater emotional impact and sense of hope to an army of randos than to rand? insanity.

“farmers burned their fields in the spring to prepare them for new life. maybe that was what andor was suffering now.” a sense of hope being given to me as well, thank you elayne!

but bashere does tell elayne that she reminds him of faile ❤️❤️ so he earns a few points back. i want to see elayne-faile friendship so bad! they HAVE had a couple fun interactions in this book and the previous one.

elayne does come around and tell birgitte to spread the word that the babies are rand’s. bashere, this is colossally stupid! he claims that she doesn’t have to worry about it making them any greater targets than they already are because she’s already important enough (as high commander of the armies of the light) to make them targets, which on the surface is Hell Yeah Elayne’s Special On Her Own, but if you actually think about it, it’s colossally stupid because rand IS more of a target than elayne. not only in the eyes of the shadow, but in the eyes of regular people and politicians etc. the dragon reborn is hated and feared in so many places, and elayne herself was worried last book about the potential of a Dragon Empire forming after rand’s death with the lands he holds. even were rand to defeat the shadow and die at the last battle, he would still have a dangerous and threatening posthumous legacy among non-shadow people - TONS of people would want to see his kids dead to make sure they couldn’t rise to inherit all the power and thrones and influence he left behind. COLOSSALLY STUPID for bashere to tell elayne she should publicize that he’s her babies’ dad! maybe it’ll make her soldiers fight harder right now, but what about after the last battle, huh? it will cause so many problems for her then! you’ve gotta be thinking long term here!

a shortish chunk of chapters, but the post is getting long and there’s a wonderful wonderful randlayne scene next chapter FINALLY that i know i will have many words about, so i better cut this one off here

[cerisia76]

the character everyone gets wrong

which ship fans are the most annoying?

what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

worst part of canon

worst part of fanon

it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

part of canon you think is overhyped

your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

ship you've unwillingly come around to

Okay a character everyone gets wrong in winx club would definitly be... well it's a group of people but I really think people don't really give Wizards of the black circle the credit and recognition they deserve. Maybe it's because they come from season 4 that today more people like to bash but they actually were so interesting as villains. Like to me what makes them stand out is how they don't give a f^ck about the Winx. in the episode where the girls get their believix (still one of my favs) there is a moment where they have total control over the girls and Ogron basically says "don't be afraid they won't do anything to you, all that we want is Roxy". And actually they already told the girls they had nothing against them and well it is actually true. Like Valtor told Bloom he just wanted her to stay out of the way two seconds before making Aisha/Layla blind. Wizards started being really dangerous to the girls when they became an obstacle for them. They don't care about the Winx because they don't care about the Magical Dimension. They have something to do, a mission to complete and it's their goal. They also have one of the most interesting dynamic as a group and I feel people should talk about it more instead of... fangirling over Duman for the part that cares about the wizards. Nothing against him it's just that I feel like he's the least interesting in the group sorry not sorry.

Also Riven and Roy. Really should explain more about Roy. But I think your other questions can help me.

(tumblr had nothing better and as I'm on my computer I don't have my collection of gifs of them)

Which ship fans are the most annoying? Oh a though one because I don't really interact with fans of ships I don't like. However I will have to give the palm to some representative of the Rivusa fanbase and I'm sorry for you all Rivusa non-toxic fans who have to deal with such problematic people who think that defending a ship is insulting people. Also sorry to those who are good but I had many problems with some Bloom x put the name of the villain you prefer fans. Like sometimes I just want to talk but they take everything as an insult like when I ask "how did you come to ship Bloom with Valtor?" they see it has "lol how on earth can you be stupid enough to ship her with the guy responsible for her parents' fate". Once again not everyone but these fanbase were my worst experiences.

Bloom is basically me dealing with toxic fans

A character that the fandom made me hate: This time I have to go with Mirta. I never was a fan of Mirta but the way the fandom praises her made me feel so out of it that everytime I rewatched season one, I was trying to understand why fans loved her so much and the more I was rewatching, the more I hated this poor Mirta. Today i won't say I hate her because I feel like she had a pretty decent arc and a character that is good for a supportive character (not for a permanent member PLEASE DON'T) and she's cute but for a time I really couldn't stand her face because I felt like she was so overrated by the fandom it made her dislikable.

Worst part of canon: I would say the fact that instead of being very clear when they decided to do their soft reboot in season 5n they chose to do things without being clear enough. Plus they kept things from past seasons but with the new timeline it makes no sense and gives so many plot holes. Even if I kinda like season 5, this soft reboot is still the worst part of canon for me. Plus and this is unpopular as hell, Nabu and Layla's love story. I'm sorry to you fans of this ship who love to say it's the best love story of the franchise but I never was able to buy it. It came definitly out of nowhere, still is a part that annoys me in season 3 and was forced and way too fast. If they had introduced Nabu sooner in season 3 or made them meet the group sooner maybe that impression I had of being forced something in my throat wouldn't have been there but it's here.

Obviously I also have to give Rivusa a palm but I would say the worst part of their story is THE FACT THAT THEY GOT BACK TOGETHER IN SEASON 4. They both finally had grow up and were mature enough to realise that they weren't good for each other. But instead of accepting it... well they got back together.

Look how babyboy is adorable here holding this thing (don't really know what it is supposed to be like it's a wall but not a wall) like it's his teddy bear... Adorable.

Worst part of fanon: The way some people can't stop fighting for their headcanons against other people. Like we all have the right to have our headcanons it doesn't mean we should fight. For example I have the headcanon that Timmy and Tecna are an asexual couple and it goes against many of my friends headcanon that Tecna is aroace. I will never fight with them about it because it's an headcanon. Just respect your neighbour and let him ship Driven without pissing him off for no reason.

It's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on Roy. This guy isn't bland and without a personality like some of his haters may say. He's a sweet guy who never liked a girl before and falls in love with his princess who is also dealing with grief and he's respectful enough to not want to piss her off or be too much. If he got along with the girls and the guys even if this season and season 6 criminally lack of Specialist's friendship moments, it's because he's a sunny guy with a great humor and a personality that goes along with people. He's an extrovert who loves to go and talk with people discovering what interests them and who loves to try new things. And this is absolutely not in my headcanons that are really numerous for him, all of this is shown in the show when he's here and people should stop hating on him just because he appeared after Nabu's death. Plus this reason to hate him is also unfair considering he has nothing to do with the writers decision to kill Nabu in season 4 (unpopular opinion: they were right to do this).

He has so few gifs it hurts me.

Part of canon you think is overhyped: Season 3 and Enchantix. Don't get me wrong, the concept and execution of Enchantix was great and I loved it, it's definitly one of the best transformations in Winx Club. But it also has problematic parts that are for me the way Tecna, Stella, Musa and Layla have clothes that are way too over-sexualising them.And I say that with Stella's enchantix being my favourite transformation for her. An yes I know every transformation has this problem at least once but the thing is that here, it's on almost everyone and it's so obvious. People keep saying it's the most incredible transformation and the "only one where they look like fairies" as if weknew what fairies look like. My fairies are Tinkerbell and her friends and Enchantix doesn't look like them. But WHATEVER. It's a good transformation, definitly has the best way to be earned but is that a crime when someone says it's not their favourite? No and we shouldn't see so many comments saying "if his/her favourite transformation isn't Enchantix...." on youtube rankings of the transformations.

But it's also relevant for season 3. The thing is that season 3 is good but wants to do too much at the same time and loses its own timeline. The first part of the season varies from episodes were everything happens at the same time and others where the plot installs itself. Which leads to the second part of the season where everything goes downhill with many boring episodes and a rushed and deceiving ending. I don't get why people praise it so much because objectively it's not better than seasons 1 and 2 and subjectively not than season 4 in my opinion. It looks like the season was being written episode by episode and suddenly they realised they had ten episodes to conclude the season and started doing WTF and rushed endings of arcs. Plus I don't like the Water Stars scenaristic facility. Sorry not sorry.

Let's be honest, if she had the choice, Tecna wouldn't wear it because it's absolutely not practical. And I also dislike how they decided her hair was too short. Magix Winx, Believix and later seasons transformations except Harmonix showed you could do a transformation with her hair not changing from the rest of the season.

Your favourite part of canon that everybody else ignores: For once I'm not gonna go with easy choices like season 4, Wizards of the Black circle or Roy. I'm gonna go with a plot point everybody keep forgetting and that is: Darcy is a fucking romantic girl. Did she chose power over her boyfriend? Yes but it doesn't mean she's not a romantic person. In season 1, the way she falls for Riven everytime she sees him shows how she wants to build something with him. In season 2 she mentions at the start of the first or second episode that she sometimes thinks of a simple life when she was watching that in love couple (it was a movie I think) and her sisters KNOW she is romantic because they keep laughing at her about it. I'm really sad they decided to forget about that later because it made her character more complete. She's kind of a bitch who dreams of power but she also has a soft heart beating for romantic comedies and who sometimes allows itself (the heart) to dream of a romance. With Riven of course.

Ship you'v unwillingly come around to: There are many but I would still say that the one I wish I never saw is Faragonda x Bloom. How gross it is to imagine the influence this woman has on Bloom since she's sixteen turning into a gross love story? I want to forget it. I do ship Bloom with people and considering the only canon Winx pairings I like in the original group are Brandon/Stella and Tecna/Timmy (Flora/Helia is fine but I prefer her with someone who wakes her baddie and flirty side like Anagan for example or Layla). Bloom to me would fit SO WELL with Nabu. Like he is the soft guy who understands her but also the one who's not afraid to tell her she fucked up and who would treat her right and not let her insecurities win because that's what Sky does by NEVER putting a term to Diaspro's fantasy. But this is mostly linked to the writers loving to torture Bloom and Diaspro.

And this is both Bloom after she finally found peace in a relationship and me after finishing to answer these questions by talking WAY too much!

[narzissenkreuz-ordo]

1, 9, 12, 16, 17, 21?

1. the character everyone gets wrong

i've answered this one already but gonna double down on dan heng/dan feng (their relation cannot be defined as black and white as fandom wants it to be) & neuvillette (he's not a uwu cry baby who doesn't know what sex is)

9. worst part of canon

[puts on my clown shoes] the high cloud quintet......... and also the fact that jing yuan literally has no reason to be in the story as is. they did not utilize his character at ALL when they could have easier done some cool things with him, but it all fell flat in the end and it sucks since he was the character i got into hsr for (im a big fan of his eng VA and only started playing bc of him)

and for genshin. they nerfed dottore with sexy anime ass plague doctor aesthetic. its just so boring and predictable. RIP webttore you should have survived the dottore segment hunger games not omega :/

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

the entire narzissenkreuz cast.... like genuinely one of the coolest and most tragic group of characters from more recent in game history that is fully expanded on in world quests. it a great self contained story told over 3 patches and offers neat context to the events of the fontaine archon quests but more specifically.... rene de petrichor i love you and youre unhinged culty academic shenanigans

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

im sorry but fanon haikaveh (its annoying & reduces their characters down to just a tropey ship) and jingheng (its boring) and i understand why people like neuvifuri and its neat they can be read as so many different relationship dynamics but i very much dislike it in a romantic sense.

i hate the weird sexualization of wriothesley being a prison warden x prisoner! reader, canon character, oc etc

but as for general tropes i think friends to lovers is boring and a snooze fest on its own. wheres the drama....the conflict.... the compelling plot. and i think high school aus are cringe in general. especially from either adult writers or characters who are already adults in canon

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art

like in general? im sick of seeing so much rendered/soft shaded 'anime-esque' fanart being the most appreciated in fandom spaces. not to say these folks aren't talented they ARE but it feels like their type of work is the only stuff being praised and lifted in communities i personally would REALLY love to see more graphic and exaggerated cartoon work because i feel like there can so much personality put into pieces like than rather than just pure skill and technique in more rendered/painted styles of work

21. part of canon you think is overhyped

i really don't have any interested in the traveler as a character. i understand Why they exist but id have just as much if not more fun if they didn't have a story arc of their own........ the abyss twin being connected to khaehnri'ah and the abyss order is more interesting than the traveler's entire journey

[soapskneebrace]

oooooo i love to see the pot get stirred 😈

but im also curious as to what you think!

the choose violence ask game-

1, 2, 8, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 25

LMAO i just realized thats like… all the questions im so sorry you dont have to answer all of them 😅

i’m over 18 so dont worry! muah!

Oh DAMN. Naturally I’m gonna answer them all!

1. The character everyone gets wrong

Gaz. I think people tend to write him as this sunshine sweet golden retriever boy, when in-game we see that he’s a sarcastic little shit who doesn’t hesitate to take the piss out of Price, his commanding officer. Guy’s way more interesting than what people allow him to be.

2. A compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

Stealing @lunarvicar’s answer to this question nearly wholesale, because I agree entirely. Ghost’s trauma would make it very, very difficult for him to endure bottoming. I think a good fic could manage it, but it would have to be done right.

8. Common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

That ANY of these men want to be fathers. I don’t know why so many fucking people are obsessed with children on this goddamn site.

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

The fucking hybrid thing??? First of all, put your pussy into it and call it the furry kink that it is. Second of all, most people who write this shit aren’t even writing characters anymore. They’re just writing bad anime porn and slapping the CoD character names on there to generate notes.

18. It’s absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on…

Farah/Alex. The amount of trust that exists between them? Come ON. But god forbid anyone care about a brown woman in this fandom.

19. You’re mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like…

CRINGE IS DEAD AND I KILLED IT BABEY. I will swim in the ocean of A/B/O while humanity remains fearfully at shore.

21. Part of canon you think is overhyped

Uh. I dunno. That any of the stuff that happens in game is indicative of any kind of real-life heroism?

22. Your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores?

Gaz’s aforementioned shit-stirring. I just know he’s so fun to bitch about things with.

23. Ship you’ve unwillingly come around to

This might surprise people, but I was wary of ghostsoap in the beginning. I have never liked fandom’s penchant to hyperfocus on relationships between men to the exclusion of all else—but in fairness to the ship, there isn’t much else in any of these games to pay real attention to. As you can see, ghostsoap and I have lived happily ever after.

25. Common fandom complaint that you’re sick of hearing

“You should just let people write what they want and what makes them happy without bashing it.” Actually Becky, I will continue to be a petty bitch, thank you.

[momsforroadhead]

idk shit about degrassi let's go with 2, 6, 8, 21, and 22?

YES you can't imagine how happy i am to be doing this i can't talk about degrassi to anyone and the fandom is kinda dead

2. a compelling argument for why my fave would never top or bottom: this question is crazy cause degrassi characters get to be like... 19 at the oldest (not that they die, the just age out and cycle out of the show) so let's imagine them older. now other problem there's like 36 000 of them total starting in the 80s and ending in the 2010s BUT if i pick a fave let's go with Eli Goldsworthy and make a bold claim: he would never top. in canon he's straight (the writers are wrong on this one) but i fully believe that any woman he has ever been with/will ever be with pegs him. he's simply too weak sauce to have the energy to top anybody. he has other things on his mind.

6. which ship fans are the most annoying: like i mentionned, the fandom is kinda dead so i don't really know fandom opinions apart for the yt comments when degrassi was still on youtube for free (booo hbo fuck you) BUT! i will say that people got really invested in Craig/Manny for some reason (he was always awful to her) and started hating Ellie as a result. Now yes Ellie was super misogynistic towards Manny, but that's not really a reason for the fandom to then be super misogynistic towards her. I love Ellie Nash she's my queen get off her back! yes she's whiny and a bitch. it's literally fine.

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about: OOUUH!! A lot of people hate Connor, which is SO WRONG. They hate him for stealing girls' underwear (which i will admit is creepy and weird) but like... degrassi is the everybody gets a second chance show... yall love Peter (so do i!!) and he literally distributed revenge porn of Manny so..... you just hate Connor cause you can't handle his autistic swag. but i can. i love him. him and jenna are my favourite couple and he's aspec in my head. (also he's a case of "if a white character did the same thing you all would love him" but let's not even go there)

also everybody hates tristan and he literally did nothing wrong. and people hate ellie and she's perfect. and people hate jane and why do you people have so much hate in your heart

21. part of canon i think is overhyped: i'm really having to think about this one cause idk if any part is really hyped all that much lmao degrassi fans, we love to complain...... i'll say a part of canon that i wish wasn't there is Adam's death. JT and Cam felt earned and realistic, but Adam... idk it just came out of nowhere..... and he's literally one of ma faves.....

22. my favourite part of canon that everyone else ignores: omgomgomgomg Marco and Ellie hooking up post graduation. for context Marco's like BEEN fully gay. and he hooks up with Ellie out of sheer codependency which is, in my opinion, HILARIOUS. also, he says that the worst part is he didn't want it to stop (they didn't go all the way) and if the writers of that episode weren't COWARDS he would've had a real reflection on the fluidity of sexuality but oh well. it's an iconic throwaway plotline and one of the foundational building blocks in my evil Craig/Ellie/Marco codependent love triangle polycule

[c-53]

hey so, not starting shit, but why all the tma hate? i was an old casual fan, thought it was decent in terms of a different story and a podcast that wasnt essentially some movie without visuals- characters seemed interesting enough without being overly done. was it just the fandom that makes people hate it, like usual, or was it something else? is it because its british? not to put a spotlight on you but i think if i googled this i might not get a straight answer lmao- (also, not that my thinking it was a fun story means others should like it, but im getting at; i dont know whats wrong here. why is there such a violent hate for it suddenly?)

ok this is rambly bc my thoughts on the matter are disjointed, but. Tbh, i just thought it was mid! and. I dislike how overhyped and rabid the fans are. Its really just. Mid. Everything I liked about it has been done better by other podcasts but its still lauded as a peak of its form. I felt the story itself sort of suffocated it. It grew in scale and scope so so so much and so fast that it stopped being horror, and simply became a thriller, and then a suffering montage. Knowing the face of the horror, and the rules it plays by undermines horror, and thats exactly what the show became. I did not like it. but it never felt like an intentional genre change. Things continued as they were, but the small stakes were gone so it didn't hit as hard. And.... perhaps if they did change, they could have put more focus on the plotline of loss of humanity, which really really interested me, but. I don't remember liking how little they got into that either. It felt like a surface level exploration of becoming something Not Human.

But um. moving on. one of the biggest selling points people make for it, is how diverse it is, and. while it had rep, I really did not like it? Jonmartin felt forced for fan appeasement, and it felt obvious that the creators didn't understand the appeal of the ship and just wrote it generically sweet, which, don't blame them, i don't get the appeal either. and then theres the lesbian who's whole thing is that she loves police brutality so much that an entity grabbed her about it, and Melanie (who I wanna say is bisexual but I can't remember if thats fanon or not) who's basically a walking mexican/hispanic stereotype, and then theres the whole thing with the asian market ep that comes off as insanely racist, and. the fucking weird ass thing the fandom did where they took a white man's self insert and made him ambiguously brown to the degree that many people don't even know that he's a white man's self insert and will vehemently argue he's not white, and that he counts as representation?

I enjoy the first 2 seasons of TMA as a standalone thing, but hate the fans, and don't like what it shaped up to be, and that sort of compounds with the issues I have with it. but I don't know what issues other people have with it.