#it's my possible entirely most unpopular opinion ever but i do believe all of them did WANT to marry him

[fideidefenswhore]

It’s a watchable piece of faux history, but the movie does not know what to do with its own heroine, content to leave her to the clutches of its villain: Henry.

yeah, i don’t think i’m going to be a fan of this one. 

[toutvatoujoursbien]

Do you ever feel like this is a little too much of an echo chamber of people feeding each other crazy ideas so much that it becomes truth? I am floored by the N/L chemistry and would love them together if that’s what they want but they have never said that and it is feeling weird. Sometimes I feel gaslighted! I read something on Reddit about fandoms in general following this same pattern and I wonder if I have turned into a tin-hatter myself by shipping them (first time I have ever followed celebs like this). I hope this doesn’t get me blocked. I am feeling a little uneasy lately (I really lead a very normal life with plenty of friends and family and I “touch grass”) but just wondering if I am alone.

Anon, thank you for being brave and sending this ask. I know the past 24-ish hours have been absolutely insane in the fandom and I can understand that if anyone has a different opinion, they might be hesitant to share it (and I'm talking about BOTH sides of this "argument" right now - I know people are feeling riled up right now but everyone, please take some deep breaths). I want to make sure I'm answering your ask with thoughtfulness and sincerity, so here goes:

(Also, I started answering this ask at around 11 am EDT, so before some bombs started being revealed, IYKYK. So apologies, my brain is all over the place rn.)

I think it's totally possible to enter an "echo chamber" when it comes to fandoms and shipping. I will use myself as an example with how I was getting a lot of my info when I started in this fandom at the beginning of the year. I was really only on Twitter (cringe, I know...) and because I was interacting with one specific portion of the fandom, I had a skewed view of the whole situation. You are what your algorithm gives you on social media/what you teach it 😅 And even though I don't necessarily enjoy seeing certain things on my feed or timeline, at least for me here on Tumblr, it feels mostly less toxic.

I also think it's really understandable to feel gaslighted about the entire press tour and N/L's relationship. We watched dozens and dozens of interviews, behind-the-scenes and promos and I don't think it's a coincidence that so many in the general audience started to question whether or not they were dating. Like I keep saying, the chemistry is fucking off the charts between them. (Edit to add: I also don't think so many would have stumbled head over feet into this ship if it also wasn't for the deep and long-term friendship between them. I know that's what drew me in, for sure. There is HISTORY there.)

IMO, as much as we joke about our delulu and whatnot, I feel like as long as you're respectful and keep it to the appropriate corners of the internet, I don't think you've turned into a tin-hatter. The problem is when folks take it to their pages and/or feel entitled to individuals behaving a certain way, like an expectation is the given. Another issue I see is when projection starts to overtake para-social relationships. Lastly, I also want to emphasize that fandom/shipping is supposed to be fun and if you aren't feeling it anymore, then it's perfectly okay to take a break or move on.

Your feelings of unease are totally legitimate and you're allowed to sit in your thoughts and take time to process them!

For me personally, I'm taking the latest "photographic evidence" with grains of salt. I'm just not sure I believe a narrative other than N and JD are in the same friend group - a friend group who all attended the same festival for the most part. I'm also not sure what I think about these photos being dropped a week afterwards; the timing of all the various events over the past week is enough to raise my eyebrows, for sure.

I will also say - and this is probably an unpopular opinion - but if this rumored relationship turns out to be completely true - I will have the same issues about a power imbalance between N and JD because of their age, life experience, etc. I just have a hard time believing N, a woman near my age, would ever consider dating someone so young (and yep, aware that this is projection on my part). I just can't help but wonder that Nicola, someone we've witnessed be very private about her dating life over the last several years, has been so openly "caught" with JD without it raising my suspicions. It's at least enough to make me pause and question it all, you know? I won't get too deep into my conspiracy theories (maybe for a later post).

Anyway, I'm not sure if this has made you feel better, Anon. But I want you to know that you aren't alone. I'm always here to listen if you have any further asks 💕

[thatthoughtatthebackofyourmind]

In Defence of Albus Dumbledore:

Look. I know this is an unpopular opinion, so I’m going to write this here because putting it anywhere else (like at the bottom of the fics which have inspired this frustration) would seem mean, and it would probably end up coming off as unintentional flaming, which I would never do to anyone ever. Also, as I’m less frustrated with individual works than I am with an entire situation, it wouldn’t really be fair to direct it at one specific person.

Get ready. This is going to be very ranty and long and I can't promise not to get off topic and onto a tangent a few times.

I understand that we all have grown up a lot since first reading Harry Potter. I get that once we realized how grey a few of Dumbledore’s decisions actually and the ways in which they affected the characters we love we all felt rightfully upset.

But can we please stop being so narrowminded about it?

There are plenty of redemption fics out there. A lot of them are works that redeem characters like Severus Snape, Draco Malfoy, Draco’s parents, various Dursleys and loads of other people. I’ve seen fics that have Sirius confronting the realities of his juvenal behaviours and having to atone for past wrongs. I’ve even seen (but admittedly never read) fics that redeem Voldemort himself.

But the least popular person for a redemption story in fanfiction by far seems to be Albus Dumbledore.

I get it.

He was supposed to be an infallible genius who did no wrong and he let us down. But please.

Can we all please just admit that we’re using Dumbledore as a stand in?

The hatred we as a fan community levy at Dumbledore is influenced by so much more than his actions in cannon.

It’s the dissolution we feel at growing up. The need as young people to bite back at overbearing authority. It’s the conviction that leaders should never be allowed to fail if failure means the death of innocent people. Even though we can all recognize on a personal level that our failures are typically unintentional and are definitely what make us human.

Of late, it’s very clear that Dumbledore is a stand in for the betrayal we feel at JK Rowling’s anti-trans standing.

We all loved her so much.

She gave us this world.

She promised it to everyone.

And then she said that it was all a lie, and that it was never meant for some of us anyway.

The parallels are clear.

While we were first reading, we loved who Harry loved. Simply because he loved them, and we loved him.

When we grew up, we started acknowledging the ways in which the characters mirrored people in real life, and we chose the people we found the most familiar to love instead. Personally, I understand the reason I read Severitus so often is because I had a largely absent father who I idolized as a child, and that father was a bit of a rockstar like person. Dark, intelligent, and cruel when he wanted to be. Artistic, genius, condescending, and amazing.

As an adult, I still long for his love and approval. Learning that Severus was capable of so much good at the very end of his story, that he was in fact good all along, even when he looked exactly the opposite, gave me hope that my father was too. Even though I now understand that redemption for my father is just a fairy tale it’s still a story I hold close to my heart. A story I long for. It’s a possible happy ending for both a lonely child and a jaded grouchy adult.

Albus Dumbledore was different.

This was a man that we trusted to have everyone’s best intentions at heart. We were told he was safe. We were told he was the smartest man in any room. And then he failed us. And we looked back at all he had done, and rather than seeing the good he had tried to achieve, all we could see were the mistakes he had made.  

I firmly believe that the reason that so many people hate him so strongly now is because we all loved him so much first. Like Harry, we all believe that he was incapable of mistakes. His mistakes in cannon aren’t any more morally condemning than anyone else on the light side.

Keep in mind that I said, “in cannon.” I feel like I need to distinguish that. In cannon, though Harry asked if he could stay at Hogwarts during the summer, he never told Dumbledore about living in a cupboard under the stairs. His letter was addressed to there, but we have no way of knowing whether it was physically or magically written on the envelope. And besides, that letter was signed by Professor McGonagall, not Dumbledore. Harry also never mentioned to him the Dursleys withholding food. Or locking up his trunk so that he couldn’t do his homework. He made it clear that they disliked him, that they thought him a burden, but think. Really think. Dumbledore is the head of a school full of children. How many children misunderstand and exaggerate even in their own minds how much their families dislike them.

Let me be clear; when I say kids exaggerate I don’t mean in terms of abuse. I only mean typical things such as, “My mom’s always grouchy when she gets home from work and she never notices that I’ve tried really hard by cleaning the bathroom if she told me to clean the kitchen before she got home and I decided to do the bathroom because I wanted to clean it instead of doing the dishes and now she’s yelling at me that she just needs me to help her sometimes, and I don’t feel like that’s fair because really I do. Look, I cleaned the whole bathroom by myself! And I straitened up the living room too! The only thing I ‘forgot’ was the kitchen and now she’s acting like I do nothing. This means she hates me and appreciates nothing I do. I am clearly a burden to her, and I should go live under a rock so that she doesn’t have to deal with me anymore.” Really, your mom probably isn’t saying you’re a burden. Your mom is more than likely overworked, over-tired, and almost certainly depressed in a society that doesn’t cater to mental health awareness, and on top of all that she was raised by a generation that was allergic to admitting and self-regulating their true feelings so she can’t articulate that and she’s instead taking her frustrations out on you.

This is wrong, and she shouldn’t do it. But consider. Why didn’t you want to clean the kitchen? Was it because you had a long hard day at school and you’re overworked, over-tired, and definitely depressed in a world that doesn’t cater to mental health awareness, and all you really wanted was a break from the hardest job and you just wanted to compromise by doing the ones you felt emotionally and physically able to do? Because I promise, that’s probably exactly how your mom feels about the damn dirty dishes that she’s going to have to deal with before she can make dinner after being cussed out and yelled at by customers and or bosses all day in between doing her actual work and that’s the real reason she’s yelling.

Because, though a lot of teens believe otherwise, parents are still just people and the feelings that overwhelm kids still overwhelm adults just as badly. And they’re even less likely to know how to help themselves because they didn’t grow up with the internet where everyone shares their feeling and gets back validation and advice, so they mostly just believed those feelings were personal failings that indicated something broken specifically only in them and that they should learn to live with it and never tell anyone ever because complaining is for babies and liberals. Okay, maybe that last bit is a little too specific to my own mother, but you get the idea.

It’s a cycle that’s been going on for years. Hopefully, we can eventually all learn how to communicate peacefully and compromise on chores sometimes so we can end it someday. Or everyone can just switch to paper plates, and then we’ll worry about how we’re killing the planet later and no one will have to do the dishes ever again.

The point is, while that isn’t the best parenting style, and it can cause issue’s with your familial relationship as you age, it isn’t technically abuse. And it especially wouldn’t be considered abuse in the 90’s while Harry Potter was taking place or the early 00’s when it was being published.

Harry was not bruised when he arrived at Hogwarts. He didn’t show obvious outward signs of abuse. He never told any adults what his life was like at the Dursleys at all. He really didn’t even say much about it to Ron or Hermione either. Mrs. Weasley sent him treats for his birthday, which was a sweet motherly gesture. Hermione and Hagrid did as well but think about it. Do you believe for a second that if Molly have-another-serving, can-I-get-you-some-more-bread, try-the-potatoes Weasley honestly thought the Dursley’s were starving Harry that she would first wait until the end of July to send Harry anything, and then only send him sweets? She would scale the Dursleys’ house and stuff a full six course meal through the bars multiple times a day before she let that boy live off stale birthday cake. When she asked if the Dursley had fed him enough she meant it in the same way she always meant it, in the if ‘I can feed the world I can love the world’ way.

 Hagrid sent him rock cakes, but again, think about it. Hagrid had shown up with a cake for Harry’s birthday the day he first delivered the letter when he couldn’t have yet known of the way Harry was treated. He just wanted to show Harry he was loved and missed.

Of the people who sent him food, only Hermione really knew Harry didn’t get to eat his fill at the Dursley’s and she still only sent cake because all she knew was that he was being forced to diet with Dudley. Which is why she sent him the kind of food one would eat if they weren’t on a diet instead of true sustenance. A fourth of a grapefruit as a meal is not a diet, no matter what Petunia called it. And if he had told Hermione specifics, she likely would have told Harry that, but again, he didn’t tell anyone specifics.

 Everyone knew that Harry was unfavoured by the Dursley’s and that they wouldn’t be celebrating his birthday, and he wouldn’t receive cake or presents, but they really didn’t know much else. Ron and Hermione only understood he was being starved in the way most naive well-fed kids from happy families can understand. It sounded cruel, and they did try to tell people, but because they didn’t understand the full gravity of the situation, they couldn’t properly communicate to trusted adults that Harry was actually experiencing abuse. Plus, Harry tended to downplay it even to them.

When Dumbledore speaks about knowing Harry would come from a less than happy home, you can tell he is picturing a world where Harry is liked second best to his cousin. Where he never feels fully at home. Like an overextended visitor in a relative’s house. He thinks they’ll treat him like the weird cousin who came to stay and never left rather than an immediate family member.

He isn’t picturing Petunia Dursley slinging a frying pan at Harry’s head. Or refusing to let him drink his fill of water on a hot summer’s day spent weeding her ridiculous flower garden. Or an overly restrictive diet enforced on an already undernourished body simply to make Harry’s morbidly obese cousin feel better about his doctor changing his eating habits.

I think we’ll all agree that feeling less than welcome by stuck up relatives sucks, but it’s better than whatever Voldemort’s loyal leftover followers will do to him if they manage to track down the person responsible for their dark lord’s downfall.

I understand why a lot of people feel like Dumbledore should have just put Harry under the Fidelius Charm and hid him rather than sending him to the Dursley’s but consider: If Dumbledore trusted Sirius the way he must have done to not betray James and his family, then it makes sense that he felt Fidelius was no longer an option. He fully believed Sirius was the secret keeper. Sirius, the Potters, and Pettigrew were the only ones to know of the change. It’s likely that after learning that the Death Eaters had convinced Sirius to betray the Potters he was jaded enough to take it as a sign that no one could be a trusted Secret Keeper. No matter how much they loved the person under protection.

He also likely would have insisted on a trial for Sirius had Sirius himself not told everyone that he was the one who killed James and Lily while descending into hysterical laughter. We know what Sirius meant, (he felt responsible for them dying because switching to Peter at the last minute had been his idea) because we read the third Harry Potter book, but Dumbledore didn’t have that same advantage. All he had was the word of an apparently mad man. A man who had just tracked down another dear friend and apparently killed him and 12 innocent bystanders in a fit of insanity.

Why, when last he had heard Sirius was the Secret Keeper, would he doubt a verbal confession from a man who did nothing to try and save himself from Azkaban? The Marauders never told anyone of their animagus abilities. No one but Sirius could have understood what Peter had done. Why do we expect Dumbledore to have known better?

So, instead of Fidelius and hiding Harry away for his entire childhood, he gave him the best protection he could think of under the circumstances he had been given. He sought to give Harry a normal life and to keep him safe from the remaining Death Eaters.

Dumbledore understood that fame was power, and that power could corrupt even the best of people with the strongest of minds, so he kept Harry away from the limelight. He also understood how fickle people where about fame. This was the right decision even if the Dursley were a bad choice in guardians. We saw proof of this numerous times while Harry was at school. His fame only ever seemed to bring him more hardships. In book two they said Harry was a dark wizard because he was a Parselmouth and that that’s how he overpowered Voldemort. In book four even some of Harry’s friends refused to believe he wasn’t just a glory hound and that it hadn’t been him who entered his name in the tournament, but rather someone trying to kill him. In book five, almost everyone refused to believe Harry was telling the truth about Voldemort’s return. Every single time Harry’s name entered the limelight, it was in a way that harmed him. Imagine how much earlier it would have started had he grown up in the wizarding world. They would have been debating his kindergarten finger paintings if they could have.  

Why does the entire fandom also assume that Dumbledore thought of himself as the wisest most all-knowing man in any room? The only people who canonically acted like they believed that about him were the Golden Trio, and they were enlightened otherwise multiple times throughout the books as they grew up. Just as everyone learns new truths about trusted adults they thought of as perfect as they grow.

The fact is, Albus Dumbledore has always been just a man.

He was a great and powerful but flawed man who wanted more than anything to make sure that evil could not prevail. He obviously still holds plenty of shame and guilt over his dealings with Gellert Grindelwald in his misspent youth. We have surmised that when he looked in the Mirror of Erised he likely saw his sister Ariana, or something as equally heart-breaking which he recognized as his own fault. He fully understood that he was just a man. He encouraged everyone to understand that fact about Voldemort as well.

He was not a god, and he didn’t pretend to be.

Not in cannon anyway.

Fanon Dumbledore, on the other hand, tends to be anything from a meddling idiot to a full on manipulative dark lord complete with moustache twirling and nefarious intent. Which, I believe, further influences and enforces the fandom’s collective bad opinion of him. Most of us haven’t reread the real books in years. It gets hard to remember at some points what was something he did in canon vs. what was something he did in fanfiction.

 Every other character seems welcomed to grow in the world of fandom.

Severus was canonically a willing Death Eater in his youth, a bully to children in his care in his adulthood, and a petty grudge-holder who couldn’t let go of the past. We accept that we can’t fully know how much of his behaviour towards the students was an act to fool the Death Eater’s children, but we can assume it definitely wasn’t all of it. Still, he gets plenty of redemption fics. He had literal access to Harry’s traumatic childhood memories but still saw no signs of abuse because he was too busy trying to keep a 15-year-old child from gaining any ammunition about his own past.

Looking back, it seems obvious that as very few of Harry’s childhood memories were shown in the Occlumency scenes, he likely wasn’t as bad at clearing his mind as either he or Snape assumed, but it was also possible that Severus didn’t see those memories because that wasn’t what he was looking for. The memory of Harry getting chased up a tree by Marge’s dog as the rest of his family watched and laughed should have triggered at least a couple of red flags, but Severus was typically determined to only see the bad in Harry, so he overlooked it.

James Potter who is often thought of as the better choice for Lily was also a bully. And he spent years relentlessly pursuing a relationship with someone who had never given him any indication that his advances were welcome and had in fact outright told him the exact opposite of that many times until he finally wore her down and convinced her to give him a shot. That’s gross, unacceptable behaviour but I guess it is technically better than dating a budding racist that sees you as the exception to his views on your people, so James is rebranded as a lovable hero who changed after having a slightly misspent youth rather than a mean spirited bully who likely grew bored with his main target once he no longer saw him as competition (there would have been no reason to bully Snape if Lily wasn’t friends with him anymore after 5th year which was conveniently around the time he began to “grow up”) as well as a pushy loser who wouldn’t take no for an answer even though Lily said it multiple times. (There’s also the point that once Snape knew about Lupin being a werewolf, James likely wouldn’t have bullied him anymore so as not to provoke Snape to reveal the secret and get Lupin thrown out of school and possibly killed.)

Ron told Molly outright that the Dursley’s were starving Harry and had fixed bars on his windows to trap him after weeks of being concerned when he didn’t reply to Ron’s letters, and she still ignored it, assuming instead that Ron was exaggerating and never even tried to check with Harry to learn that he wasn’t.

Remus spent a year teaching Harry individualized lessons to repel Dementors and never once asked him why he was so sad that they affected him in ways that none of the other students experienced. I mean really, he couldn’t have been the only orphan attending that school so Remus couldn’t have thought it was just that. And Neville’s backstory was nearly just as sad (and just as well known to Remus) and even he didn’t faint like Harry. Yet, he didn’t question Harry once.

Sirius (who is also a bully and a petty grudge-holder) never wondered why a child would want to move in with an escaped prisoner who he had never met before that had just mangled his best friend’s leg and tried to commit murder in front of him instead of the relatives he had been with his entire life. Even when until that very night he had believed that prisoner wanted to kill him?

Arthur actually met the Dursley’s and saw Vernon’s rage at magic when he came to collect Harry for the Quidditch World Cup and he still questioned nothing.

Half the Order found Harry locked inside his bedroom with locks affixed to the outside of the door, and all they did was give vague unfulfilled threats to Vernon and send Harry back. You could blame that on Dumbledore, but I think that’s ridiculous. They were not under Imperious. They made their own decisions. Every adult there had a responsibility to that child, and they all failed him individually.

Yet time and time again I see Dumbledore condemned so overwhelmingly in the very fics that redeem and or absolve these other characters of those very actions.

Even McGonagall, who knew from the start that the Dursleys were awful people, never pulled Harry aside as his head of house and asked him anything about his home life. And, as I stated earlier, her name was the one on the letter addressed to the cupboard under the stairs. She also made it very clear that she wasn’t someone for Harry to confide in by constantly dismissing any concerns he presented her. The way she reacted about the Stone was ridiculous. And her non-concern over the amount of detentions Harry received from Umbridge followed by the ‘have a biscuit’ scene rubbed me the wrong way. And yet, of late she seems to be revered in the fandom community as some kind of badass grandmotherly character. All because she protested one time about leaving Harry with the Dursleys and then never brought it up again.

It’s getting a bit ridiculous. I’m exhausted by the way the fan community continues to rewrite cannon to fit their dissatisfaction with our once trusted role-model JK Rowling through Harry Potter’s once trusted mentor Albus Dumbledore.

Just once I would like to read a Harry Potter fic without having to think about the various ways in which JK Rowling let us all down. And with everyone rewriting Dumbledore as the ‘real villain all along’ I can’t help but be taken out of the fic and forced to relate it to reality.

[romanthroughthefield]

Ranking All of the Newsies Songs Based on How Much I Enjoyed Being in Them!

disclaimer: i played jack over the summer. we had 2 weeks to produce the show. i am afab and a mezzo-soprano. anyway, enjoy!

18: The Bottom Line

i wasn’t in it + plus its a bad song

17: That’s Rich

i wasn’t in it

16: Watch What Happens

i wasn’t in it

15: Letters From The Refuge

i wasn’t in it

14: Brooklyns Here

i wasn’t in it but its so fun

13: King of New York

i wasn’t in it but me and the girl who played Medda had a really good time doing the choreography backstage <3 also just a banger

12: Overture

got wheeled in on a little platform during this. was silly.

11: The Bottom Line (Reprise)

i was in this one! barely! this is such a good villain song and it gave me chills every time. i was barely in it but i love that they mention jack’s newsies name in this one

10: Finale

made me sad that the show was ending and also i took the girl harmony on this one which is so random and hard lol.

9: Something to Believe In

had a rough time with the harmonies in this one and also the first couple times we ran the scene before it i completely forgot my lines after the kiss because i was nervous LMAO so during the show i was always wicked nervous that was gonna happen again.

8: Seize the Day

okay so im a dancer first. usually jack doesn’t dance much but i did! and then i ran around the entire auditorium because snyder was chasing me. i was so tired and out of breath and also just nervous for santa fe.

7: Santa Fe (Prologue)

i was chillin during this. the guy who played crutchie was amazing and we had a good time working on this song together.

6: Don’t Come a Knockin/I Never Planned On You

unpopular opinion but i love this song. cutie banter and i love when songs overlap eachother.

5: Watch What Happens (Reprise)

these harmonies are FUN! and i love jack’s little dialogue pieces in this.

4: Carrying the Banner

classic newsies getting ready. loved this so much.

3: Santa Fe

everytime i stepped off the stage after this song the cast would run and hug me. i was so so stressed during this though which is why it isnt number one.

2: Once and For All

you ever sang that section with a group of your best friends before? you know the section. anyway yeah its about the most therapeutic musical theatre can possibly get.

1: The World Will Know

and here it is! my favorite song that i was in. the energy in this song is so incredibly high and i just always felt that the ensemble was having just as much fun as i was.

[cimerran-714]

Debunking an argument that Ron was justified in leaving his friends during the Horcrux Hunt

So, I don't really like to get into arguments. I try to avoid them whenever possible. But I was going through Quora, and I came across an answer by a Ron-Weasley apologist (that's a moniker they gave themselves) who attempted to defend him abandoning Harry and Hermione during the Horcrux hunt.

The writer was apparently glad that he'd done so. It'd turned into a mildly anti-Harry/Hermione rant too. Which is of course filled with the same nonsense.

Now, honestly, I do like Ron. I'm not one of those who pretend to either. I really do like him. But when you attempt to whitewash all of the bad things he's done (and before anyone points out, yes, Harry/Hermione are not saints either), that doesn't make you look much better.

Let me just address what this person has written (and here's a link for those who'd prefer to read it directly https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-feel-about-Ron-Weasley-abandoning-Harry-and-Hermione-in-Deathly-Hallows):

Unpopular opinion? I’m glad he LEFT the Hunt. That camping trip was the most boring, dull, stupid, and useless part of a fictional war I’ve ever read. Ron single-handedly saved it when came back.

Okay, so at least we start off by agreeing with it partially. The camping was bad, and I personally thought it was a huge waste of time too. And yes, Ron did save Harry when he returned, although it might sound a little like plot-convenience to me. But there's not much of a disagreement here.

So, why am I glad he left the tent?

It got him away from the Horcrux that had been torturing him for months. It got him away from something that turned his self-loathing and insecurities into suicidal ideations. The Locket weaponized Ron’s depression and anxiety against him in horrible ways and I’m surprised he lasted as long as he did before snapping and walking away from it. People that look at Ron here and think he’s weak and cowardly are just downright fooling themselves if they honestly believe they’d do any better than Ron did. I mean, he was 17 and people still act as if Ron leaving Harry and Hermione here was some type of unforgivable war crime or that it’d make him the next Pettigrew. It’s disgusting. Revolting. Makes me glad I don’t associate with anyone like them in my real life.

To break it down:

It got him away from the Horcrux that had been torturing him for months.

At the cost of his friends who suffered a lot more than when there together, after he left. Also, aside from the fact that Ron was splinched, I'm not sure that there was anything to specifically torture him. Otherwise, Harry and Hermione were getting "tortured" too.

It got him away from something that turned his self-loathing and insecurities into suicidal ideations.

Genuine question: does anyone remember any implication in Deathly Hallows that Ron had turned suicidal?

The Locket weaponized Ron’s depression and anxiety against him in horrible ways and I’m surprised he lasted as long as he did before snapping and walking away from it.

True, but he left even after hurling the locket down. We know from Harry's experience that its effect vanishes soon after you remove it. So you can't blame it entirely on the locket, which is just nonsense.

People that look at Ron here and think he’s weak and cowardly are just downright fooling themselves if they honestly believe they’d do any better than Ron did.

Well, I don't think Ron was weak or cowardly. I just think he was very much rude (he insulted Harry's parents, for one thing). So it sounds a bit like a strawman. He acted badly, but he might not necessarily have been a "coward", as we do have instances where he's shown to be brave.

I mean, he was 17 and people still act as if Ron leaving Harry and Hermione here was some type of unforgivable war crime or that it’d make him the next Pettigrew. It’s disgusting. Revolting. Makes me glad I don’t associate with anyone like them in my real life.

Why are they so desperate to justify what Ron did? He'd promised to accompany his friends (remember that Harry had told them that he didn't want that), and when he realized that his best friend hadn't lied, he flipped out, insulted his parents, and abandoned them during the middle of a war. He acted as if he were the only person who was having a miserable time there, which is a bad thing to do.

And no, that's not nearly as bad as what Pettigrew did (again, remember that it's a strawman, I've never met anyone comparing him to Pettigrew), but it's not a good thing to do nevertheless.

He needed to get his Splinching wound healed properly. Dittany wasn’t enough. He needed blood-replenishing potions and pain relief potions. He needed real rest and food to recover.

Honestly, it's probably the only valid point in this entire rant, so I'd give it some credit. But if he'd wanted to take time to recover, he could've done that without flipping out too.

Also, can someone point out to me where it says that Dittany wasn't enough to heal his wounds? I was under the impression that a few weeks had passed after he got splinched, when Ron left the Trio.

Because of this:

Autumn rolled over the countryside as they moved through it. They were now pitching the tent on mulches of fallen leaves. Natural mists joined those cast by the dementors: wind and rain added to their troubles.

He was right about the mission not going well. They were in over their heads. Camping was getting them nowhere. Harry even said their biggest accomplishment was not being dead yet. People were dying as they were hiding. Not finding more Horcruxes or ways to destroy the one they had was disheartening for all of them. 

All correct points, but as Harry was perfectly honest with them since the very beginning, it's completely irrelevant. Ron thought he was lying, that's on him.

They were stuck, but Harry had refused all help so far and Ron knew he’d keep refusing.

"All help" as in refusing Lupin's assistance? Is this person excusing him trying to be a deadbeat father?

So, yes, Ron was frustrated with the way Harry was “leading” them and he had a right to be.

No, he absolutely did not. Again: Harry was being honest, but Ron thought he was lying. That's Ron's fault for not believing his best of around six years, not anyone else's.

Why does nobody ever mention that Hermione agrees with Ron, but she was too afraid to ever say it out loud to Harry?

Why does no one talk about how even though she might've been mistaken in her idea that Harry was holding back, she was still willing (although she could've Disapparated with Ron instead) to help him with the search? Ron could've done that too.

Instead, she threw Ron under the bus trying to save herself.

No... that's a really weird way of looking at it. She wasn't throwing him under the bus. She wanted to help Harry. If she wanted to save herself, she could've just Disapparated with Harry instead.

People hate Ron because he’s never been afraid to call out Harry and Hermione. He doesn’t lick their boots or blindly follow them and people HATE him for that. How dare this super average nobody named Ron ever dare to tell Harry The Hero and Hermione The Goddess they’re wrong or that their ideas aren’t working?!

Honestly, that's such a ridiculous strawman that it's not even worth debunking. No one I've ever met (including anti-Ron folks) believe that he was Harry/Hermione's slave or anything. It might be fun to make things up, but please ensure that you don't lie about what others believe.

Ron was trying to see if Harry saw anything related to his family in the visions he got from Voldemort. We saw how worried Ron was about his family after the Death Eaters attacked Bill and Fleur’s wedding. We also saw just how physically relieved he was at getting his dad’s Patronus. It was never going to be easy for Ron to go with Harry and Hermione on the run knowing he left his family behind in the world where Voldemort was in control, especially once they had no way of ever knowing anything after Grimmauld Place.

Again:

He willingly accompanied them despite knowing that it's not going to be a cakewalk.

If he wanted to leave, he could've done that nicely. That's what a best friend's supposed to do.

The next section's about them describing why Ron was worried about his family, and I don't really have anything to say there. My point still stands.

So we move on.

Harry was being downright awful to Ron during the fight and he didn’t have the Horcrux on at the time

How so? By telling Ron that he had a problem when he was acting like a douchebag, and asking him to leave when he implied that he didn't want to stay?

If that qualifies as "downright awful", then I wonder what's it like to insult your dead parents, ask your other best friend to abandon your friend, accuse her of "choosing" him, and Disapparate despite her (the person you like) asking you to stay back?

Ron leaving showed how badly Harry and Hermione needed Ron. How much they missed him. Hermione spent weeks crying for him. Harry had never felt more hopeless in his life. They even resorted to taking out a portrait to have company because they didn’t talk to each other much. Like, it got better towards the end right before Godric’s Hollow, but Harry’s broken wand took them back to almost silence. 

"See, he abandoned his best friends, and they missed him a lot. That makes him such a good person, and his actions were absolutely justified."

Is.... this even an argument? It proves the point that his actions were not justified considering the effect that it had on his friends. It's gone from a post justifying what Ron did, to an anti-Harmony post. It's not surprising, because it's almost always anti-Harmony shippers who write such rubbish anyway.

There was no dancing or “charged moments” like JKR supposedly said existed (and if she was actually serious about that and not just pandering to the Harmony fans, well, that’s just even more proof that she sucks at romance, LMAO).

Oh, there are. A lot of them, actually. But I'm not writing this to make a case for Harmony, so let's just walk past that for now.

The next section is about how Ron's return helped the Trio, which is something I don't disagree with. Very reasonable points. I'm not sure how it justifies leaving them in the first place, however.

JKR once made a comment about how Hermione was the one who stayed with Harry throughout the whole last book and how that said something powerful about her while Ron leaving said something powerful about him. But it’s like… her writing reflected the complete opposite of that. Hermione might have stayed with Harry, but the only things they accomplished was almost getting themselves killed, breaking Harry’s wand, and finding and trusting a book written by Rita Skeeter.

Nah, that's not true at all. There are a lot of Harry/Hermione moments after Ron left them. But then again, that's a point for another post. This one's been long enough already.

So, yeah, I'll just end it here. I'm not good at signing off by making impressive comments, but to whoever's reading this: have a good day.

[tsaritza-mika]

Unpopular Opinion #3

Okay...so this might ruffle some feathers, but I still really feel it needs to be said. As always, if you don’t like what I have to say, just keep scrolling. I am a full believer in curating your own internet experience, and if you find yourself upset about a random opinion, please just leave and find something that makes you happy. You deserve it, and I promise that you will never hear me advocate otherwise.

Now then... Let’s talk a bit about our favorite mountain man. Shall we?

I see a lot of posts, especially as of late, that really go hard on the way Muriel’s route dealt with his various issues. Now, yes, Muriel is not one of my top LIs, he’s jut not the personality type that really gels with me, but I love him as much as I do all six of them for different reasons. I also acknowledge that his route isn’t perfect, but I honestly don’t think it’s nearly as bad as other people automatically jump to. Muriel has a metric fucking ton of issues, which include severe lack of self esteem, trauma that links to both those self esteem issues and his time in Vesuvia’s arena, depression, and some fun little sprinklings of Nihilism just for extra flavor. And all of that is just from a pure amateur observation. I’m not a psychologist, nor will I ever claim to be, but from the little bit that I know from former college classes and being friends with people who have experienced trauma from various forms of abuse, Muriel has all of these issues, and likely more that I’m not immediately familiar with.

A good amount of people in the fandom seem to believe that a better way for Muriel’s route to go would have had him ending up being more forceful in standing up to Lucio, really digging into him for the harm that he caused and is still causing, and more of coming out of his shell than he did. Now, while that would be a more dramatic take, you’ve gotta keep something important in mind: give or take a few years, Muriel has been dealing with most of these issues since he was at least around 6-8 years old. If we assume he’s maybe somewhere along the lines of 26-28, that’s twenty years of issues in an increasingly hostile situation. A single year alone of that much negativity is likely to leave some pretty impressive mental scars, let alone the possibility of twenty or more.

People who experience trauma will process and react to it differently, this is true, but to say that it’s OOC to have Muriel just be only a little more talkative and at ease with others outside of MC and Asra, strikes me as those who aren’t very familiar with how trauma can actually work. The entire ‘stick it to them’ fantasy seems great and totally cathartic in theory, but when victims of abuse and trauma actually have that chance, more often than not, I’ve only ever known them to prefer not wanting to be anywhere near their tormentors. Muriel actually being comfortable with himself, speaking up more, but still very much wanting his distance from everyone is a HUGE step in his healing process, and I honestly don’t think people give him enough credit for that. 

Muriel has been exploited and manipulated, verbally and likely physically abused, and all of that we could apply to JUST the time he was known in Vesuvia under the mantle of ‘The Scourge of The South’. We see in the Travel at Night tale that he already dealt with excess stress and fear from traveling through a war-zone at a very young age, where he says he even distinctly remembers hearing Lucio enjoying himself as he killed others. He’s already terrified by roughly age 12 when Lucio picks him out of the other street kids. He’s very aware that Lucio would enjoy hunting and killing him, and for a child to be aware of this, that alone is gonna fuck him up somethin’ fierce for a long time. Hell, when Lucio points him out from the other kids, he’s so afraid of him and what he knows Lucio is capable of, that his arms and legs go numb, and he can’t move. And later when he’s talking to Asra, if chosen, the response he gives Asra when asked about what he would do with magic is to make himself invisible, the very thing he’d wanted since the start of that tale. He wanted to be left alone, not deal with those kids who wanted to hurt others and steal, or be noticed by Lucio.

Muriel even straight up tells MC and Julian when they visit him in the forest during Julian’s route that he asked to have the gift of being forgotten. If he was forgotten as soon as he left someone’s sight, he wouldn’t be exploited anymore, and he wouldn’t be forced to take lives in exchange for keeping his most precious person safe anymore. To Muriel, deeply set in his traumatized and self loathing state, it was the perfect solution. Being forgotten meant that he wouldn’t take up space, that no one would force him to hurt or scare others just to exist, and that Asra, the only person who had ever told him he was worth it and more, wouldn’t be taken from him. 

You don’t just magically get better when your tormentor is gone or gets what they deserve, and confronting your abuser is not always going to be the right answer that puts you on the road to healing those mental scars. Muriel is far from cured of his issues by the end of his route. If anything, the end of his route is just the start of his even longer road to recovery and being able to fully enjoy and embrace life without fear that he’s taking up space and isn’t wanted. He’s just gotten better about it all. People who experience trauma can take years to even begin to feel comfortable in their own skin, but Muriel learning that he has value, that others value him and want him around without asking for anything in return, and to learn that others will sacrifice for you because they want your happiness instead of some leverage on something you can do for them; there is just so much beauty in the subtlety of that, and I honestly don’t think it gets the attention it rightfully deserves.

[heybeyby]

hey if you're still taking asks for the ship ask game, would you mind giving your thoughts on kira/zyro (if you haven't already)? I think I saw you put this ship in another person's ask box so I got curious and wanted to know your thoughts :D

are you aware that you just activated a sleeper agent in me /pos

Ship It

What made you ship it?

I'm going to be honest it's entirely because of my working on FDWDBG that led to me shipping these two. Studying their relationship and dynamic and the possibilities just made me spiral so intensely I kinda ship this more than zyronobu (im a big multishipper so i still love zyronobu but. i just like these guys a little bit more now. sorry)

What are your favorite things about the ship?

It's just. these two are such narrative foils once you think about it. Zyro and Kira were both chosen to be symbols of two entirely different futures and perspectives towards beyblade by warring organizations, and though while they both saw each other as enemies they acknowledged each other as equals, albeit kira did so much more begrudgingly.

Plus there's like so many tropes that apply to them??? Enemies to lovers, grumpy x sunshine, cool x warm, hero x villain, touch-starved x affectionate. it’s always on my mind how zyro immediately extended his friendship to kira not once, but twice!! it’s about zyro being the only person to believe kira could change. it's about kira wanting to battle zyro fullheartedly and defying doji to do just that. it's about kira believing zyro more worthy of being saved than him. its about zyro refusing to let kira go. gripping your shoulders do you see the vision.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Kirazyro is a rarepair in a small fandom so i don’t think there’s that many opinions of them in general, but one thing i’m a stout believer in is their dynamic in canon would be leagues better than most hypothetical fanon interpretations.

i’ve thought A Lot about how if shogun steel was more popular there would be so much bastardization of characters in canon i can imagine it so clearly. there’s already a lot of mischaracterization of these two (ESPECIALLY kira). having them be a popular ship and attracting Certain people would increase that tenfold. people would make them out to have this weird power imbalance that never existed. they’d make kira act unnecessarily cold and uncaring, while woobifying zyro and making him out to be a giant pushover (when in reality, based on canon, kira would more likely be the insecure one in the relationship). it's either that or they woobify both of them to hell and erase any and all potential conflict between them or their respective friend groups. HELL ON EARTH

kirazyro if it ever happened in canon would be the the slowest burn ever. like cooking a steak with a match. their relationship is that of one of reluctance and forgiveness and it's RAGGGGGGGGGH

[marley-manson]

Hawnk or Henry/Hawkeye

lol thank you 💖

Hawnk

Ship It

What made you ship it?

I watched the show and thought to myself, it would be funny if these two guys fucked, and somehow I completely believe they would both absolutely go for it in the right circumstances.

They're also a shoe-in for a sexual dynamic I'm really into lol, ie confident cool bottom/awkward loser top, and it's incredibly fun to write Frank from Hawkeye's point of view. So maybe it's not really a surprise that my first Mash fic was Hawnk lol.

I don't really endgame ship them because I can't quite make it work in my head and even if Frank turned a political 180, which I could totally believe, he still wouldn't be like, fun enough or cool enough for Hawkeye lol - but I want to endgame ship them because it would just be so funny.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

Hawkeye bullying Frank while Frank fucks him

The sheer unadulterated "him??????" factor of anyone from the 4077 finding out post canon.

How completely awful and obnoxious and pathetic Frank is because it's fun to write.

The concept I have in my head of Hawkeye and Frank both knowing full well the other would be dtf and carefully stepping around that knowledge in their own heads.

Frank's hilarious level of repression, ie imo he's not actually repressed, but he wishes he was and pretends to be, even to himself. But like, the instant a cool dude expressed interest he'd be down because he craves validation that much.

It's actually pretty versatile considering - like it can range from comedy to angst to darkfic without stretching the characterizations.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

One thing I want to mention because I've seen a few people complaining about it recently: I don't think it matters that Frank getting character development or more 3 dimensionality in fic goes against the themes and even genre of the show. Fanfic is transformative. I would never have wanted Frank to get character development and become someone Hawkeye could fuck without cringing in canon lol, but that's exactly what fanfiction is for.

But idt that's actually an unpopular opinion, so here's another one: it's the most entertaining possible ship for Mash. I ship HawkTrap more because it's what Hawkeye deserves, but Hawnk is just so incredibly fun lol.

Hawkeye/Henry

This is tough lol, but I'm gonna go with

Ship It

What made you ship it?

I don't ship it in the sense of ever wanting to read about them falling in love, I couldn't buy that, but I do ship it in the sense of "it would be funny if they fucked," which definitely counts as shipping to me.

What made me ship it is probably the jokes and the rapport they have. I can pretty easily headcanon that Henry, Trapper, Klinger, and Hawkeye are the 4077 lgbt club lol, and Henry is actually the most canonically bi of all of them in the sense that the punchline of a few of the jokes is Henry earnestly and unselfaware-ly being attracted to Klinger.

So like, maybe they fucked? Why not? Maybe they occasionally fuck when their dates fall through. They both got that swingers into nsa sex vibe.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

It's funny! There is actually a compelling power dynamic too, with Henry as CO and Hawkeye as the manipulative gaslighter who always gets his way. Adding sex to that is like a flavour enhancer.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Being into it at all, probably lol. Also I have a standing headcanon that Hawkeye blew Henry a few days after his arrival when he realized Henry was bent, in a bitter bid to get preferential treatment, before realizing that it was entirely unnecessary, and they joke about it after, which I doubt is a common take lol.

ask meme

[juniperhillpatient]

The Earth King Re-Watch

This was a fun episode. I wouldn't call it one of my favorites, but I enjoyed it. Seeing Aang & Appa finally reunited is pretty heartwarming. I was a little annoyed & confused by Sokka's random new "positive attitude" even though he had some really endearing moments in this episode. I just don't get it. Yeah, Appa is back but you just discovered an underground creepy brainwashing cult & your old frienemy was killed? You have no reason to believe you're any closer to convincing King Kuei to hear you out? I can see the whole "brand new positive attitude" thing happening once the other good news hits later, but right at the start? It just felt jarring & weird.

Katara saying she wants to leave this horrible place....I will take my "Jet's death mattered" crumbs where I can get them. I think Katara & Toph's idea to leave makes a lot of sense, but so does Sokka & Aang's desire to force Kui to hear them out...I mean, they are trying to plan this attack on the eclipse...So, that was a well-set-up conflict, because both sides make sense. I also absolutely loved the fight scene with the Gaang breaking into the palace! Everything about it was iconic. It was neat to see Aang use earth-bending in a fight against earth-benders too because he usually relies heavily on air-bending. I loved Katara & Sokka apologizing lmao - & Toph saying Kue's distrust after they broke in made sense.

Kue is a bit pathetic & easily pushed around so I'm not a huge fan of him. Bumi has a chaotic morality & he's not always the most LIKABLE person but at least he's fun so I always enjoy him. Kue is just pathetic, & not even in the hot way lol

Possibly the best part of the episode was Katara telling Sokka that he gets to see their dad & Sokka bouncing around in excitement & hugging her & kissing her while she's just like "yeah yeah, I know, I'm great."

[ID: Sokka saying "Nicest....sister...ever!" to Katara while Aang & Toph watch.]

Also, the Gaang talking about how they will miss each other while they're split up was really cute. I loved the group hug & Sokka like "alright alright, we love each other" trying to end the hug was such a mood - me when friends or family try to get all touchy-feely lol! Sokka gets 10 iconic behavior points for interrupting Aang before he could confess his crush on Katara. I wish I was giving out jerk points so I could give them to Aang for the line "yeah, girls are waiting for us." Ugh, pushing the Katara/Aang agenda before Jet's body is even cold? The writers deserve jerk points for that tbh! Not even Aang really, 'cause he's just a kid with a crush, but I'm still allowed to be annoyed.

Anyway. Zuko gets 500 iconic behavior points for doing one nice thing in his entire life & immediately collapsing like a Victorian maiden. Zuko you drama queen, ily. However, while I've said this re-watch has made me appreciate Zukaang I MEANT the romantic ship Zuko & Aang NOT this monstrosity that lives in my nightmares.

[id: a horrifying image of Zuko & Aang's faces combined.]

What the fuck lmao

As for the rest of Zuko's dreams.....Very interesting lines from Azula & a very interesting performance from our lord & savior Grey Delisle. I will say nothing more about that :)

[id: Dennis from It's Always Sunny saying "because of the implication..."]

Anyway *ahem* right, I think Zuko clearly sees his father & sister as sort of devils & Iroh as an angel on his shoulder. This is what the writers were going for, & an unpopular opinion maybe but I think it works to an extent. The biggest issue here is that Zuko continues until the end of the series to treat Iroh like a messiah of good & he never learns to view Azula with any more nuance despite evidence that Iroh is not perfect & Azula is not irredeemable. Another issue I take is that while I love Azula as the embodiment of the Fire Nation & that darker path here, especially right before Crossroads of Destiny, & I actually find the shifting of the blame about Ursa's disappearance & by extension Zuko's bad childhood from Ozai to Azula super interesting - it's again, just something that's never addressed as wrong by the narrative & therefore becomes frustrating.

[id: Azula as a blue dragon next to a scarless Zuko]

I would have liked to see Zuko's black & white way of thinking about his uncle & sister (which is just really obvious here with the angel & devil motifs) addressed by the narrative. However, I don't think the whole "two sides arguing for different paths through dream visions" in itself is bad. It's certainly fun to watch & makes for a nice visualization of Zuko's internal struggle. Oh, Zuko & Azula get +500 iconic behavior points for foreshadowing the Crossroads of Destiny betrayal. I know it's just a fever dream version of Azula, but she still gets the points.

Oh, & Azula, Mai & Ty Lee get 1000 points each for their Kyoshi Warrior surprise reveal at the end. I love them so fucking much.

Anyway, that's all I have for this episode! Tune in next time for more rambling thoughts on the kid's cartoon!

[knightzp]

izuleo and uhh. xingyun for the ask game (I think you like xingyun right?? I was and still kind of am obsessed with them)

izuleo:

what made you ship it? tbh i remember watching the enstars anime and not really understanding at first why everyone was shipping izuleo (bc the anime shows absolutely nothing abt them) and then i read checkmate and lionheart and i was like. Oh. now i get it now i understand everything. izuleo oughgg

what are your favorite things abt the ship? just. all their story. theyve been through so much together, both good and bad moments. how they started as best friends and understood each other like no one else at the beginning and then how it all went wrong after checkmate and they hurt each other a lot during the war but after months of being separated they reunited and started slowly healing from their wounds to the point theyre now living together in florence. the whole evolution of their relationship is just. So good

is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? actually im gonna say the same as you tia bc its so true i really think it too. their relationship is a lot of things but i dont think it is extrictly romantic i cant imagine them like a regular romantic couple at all but also its not entirely platonic either bc they love and care abt each other so much and in a lot of unique ways. theyre def a secret third thing and i believe not even them know how to describe it

xingyun (and YES YES YESSS I LOVE XINGYUN SO MUCH theyre my fave genshin ship and one of my fave ships ever in general too my absolute beloveds <333):

what made you ship it? oh god its been so long i dont think i remember the actual moment.... like i knew abt the ship way before i got to know their characters in the game and i Had the feeling i was going to love them. and then i played their quests/hangouts and started to slowly get to know them until i was like. yep i do love them. i knew it <3

what are your favorite things abt the ship? oh boy *inhales air*. theyre best AND childhood friends with water/ice powers which is the best combination ever both combat wise and aesthetically one is pining a lot and making every possible excuse to spend time together with the other (like remember that moment when xingqiu asked chongyun to go to that haunted place BC IT WAS A LOCATION ONLY VISITED BY COUPLES HE CLEARLY WANTED A DATE) and the other is so oblivious that wouldnt take a hint ever (and so asked the traveler to go with him instead.... sorry xingqiu) but also most of the times one appears onscreen the other is very likely with him bc theyre clearly so attached to each other. xingqiu pulling pranks on poor chongyun and teasing him so much but also 'dear chongyun'. and chongyun may get a bit mad at first but would never hate xingqiu for anything he does bc he just cherishes so much. THEIR MATCHING TASSELS. THAT BDAY LETTER FROM CHONGYUN THAT WAS CLEARLY FOR XINGQIU AND NOT THE TRAVELER. THE YOUNG AND HOPELESSLY SMITTEN THING they just have one of my fave dynamics ever and there is So much evidence in canon content abt their feelings for each other and hngngngngngn im so obsessed i love them so much ��💙

is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? mmmm not really? idk if this is really unpopular but if i have to say something. theyre So ace. to me. both of them but especially chongyun. ace xingyun is real and canon to me <33

[vanillahub]

☄❀✂❦

@honorhunt

the salty af munday meme [Accepting]

☄ Have you ever been in the middle of drama?

// In all of my years RPing here, I've managed to avoid big dramas for the most part! Thank fuck.

So, the one that did involve was mainly due to misunderstandings, from another person. This happened about 4-5 years ago, and the person in question has come clean and apologised for jumping the gun, the way they did. It's all good between us, but the incident in question has kinda of stuck in my mind.

Essentially I had responded to one of those unpopular opinions memes, and this person's former friend looked @ my post and went straight to this person, try to push the idea I was somehow vagueposting about them and their muse. And they believed their so-called friend in question.

Which I really wasn't..... At all. Things escalated for like an hour, thankfully it all ended within that night, and next to nothing hit the public dashboards. But it was still seen as an odd incident, because other rpers who knew this person better, found their reaction to my post odd (they could tell my post wasn't a jab at all at them). Then about an year later, I was reached out by this person and we both cleared things up.

read more bc iT GETS LONG LMAO

❀ What has made you completely lose your chill?

// SEE, I'm SO confrontational avoidant, it is really difficult for me to pop off in the instant something is happening. I may grow angry and develop resentment, but that only happens after the matter.

So, looking back on some of my shit experiences. I'll have to say that it for sure was back when, I had to deal with ppl who loved cherrypicking everything I said, and distort beyond belief what I was trying to communicate. I don't hide the fact I'm not native in English, and I try my HARDEST to be as clear and straightforward as possible.

BUT THAT DIDN'T STOP TO ATTRACT PEOPLE, who cannot have a rational and level-headed discussion, and have to resort to low moves with me. Why bother coming up with arguments and yknow, keep it within the realm of things we are discussing. When you can just start acting as if, you can't understand a single sentence I write?

Yes gringos, show us how you guys simply cannot communicate with us, because we may have made a small grammar mistake while talking to you in an informal setting like Discord DMs. Just make it all about the semantics, that's such a big brain move. Only native english speakers can do this, we are the pleb and must be thankful, you guys even talk to us foreigners at all. This has unfortunately happened more than once with me, and let me tell you: this shit can get under my skin so FAST. It happened with my writing, and it has happened with some of my muses portrayals as well.

I'm being clear with my statements, but people CHOOSE to misinterpret to suit their views of me. I have always been clear about what my muses are about, but people CHOOSE to run with whatever they want to believe.

✂ A fandom that you feel isn't open and accepting?

// I've been through a handful of Fandoms around here, and I'm going to say it. The RPC that's the worst one, in being the most newcommer unfriendly. That would be League of Legends. Things were already pretty bad, back when I was into it and part of that RPC. And by the looks of it, it only got progressively worse. The Arcane show, only added to that toxicity according to some of my folks, who are still in touch with that series one way or another.

You just don't hear a lot from it now, bc now there is competition for the prize of "the most toxic online community".

❦ Has someone been jealous of you?

// There could have been, and at the same time no one may have felt like that about me. Either way, I really don't care about it, I'm not dying to find that one out. And honestly? That's entirely a their problem.

I genuinely have better things to do in my day. I pity anyone who develops jealousy of others, over tumblr RP of all things.

[ykoriana-imperatrix]

SDC Month - December 2022 - Monday #4

Last chance for a truly unpopular opinion in 2022?

One last time, the disclaimer everyone must be tired of reading by now: if you think there is even the smallest chance this post might upset you in any way, if not outright infuriate/offend you, please do what is best for yourself and avoid reading it. Have a nice day, and a nice remainder of 2022.

(Cut for content and some spoilers from The Chosen through Dragon Fire.)

Now, for our last maybe-genuinely-controversial-maybe-not statement of this year: Flama's feelings for Osidian were fully platonic.

And no, before I get accused of that, I am not saying this (just) based on her young age at the time of her death. Yes, she was only 9 (~10 in our years, though, in my opinion, there's hardly a huge difference in emotional maturity between a 9-year-old and a 10-year-old, so perhaps the difference is a moot point) when she died, but I am aware that is possible for someone that young to have (if only budding) romantic feelings for someone else. (Though it is also entirely plausible a child that age would have never experienced those, of course.)

In any case, this goes beyond the age aspect to me — I actually used to believe Flama feeling romantically towards Osidian was indeed the case, but over time, I started examining that belief more, and realised we have nothing resembling actual, solid evidence for it. Yes, we know it is definitely not uncommon for members of the House of the Masks to develop incestuous feelings for their kinsmen/kinswomen, but really, even in a House already predisposed towards incest, is every single Masks lord/lady going to potentially feel attraction towards every single one of their relatives? No, I don't think that is plausible in the slightest; attraction just does not work that way, in fiction or reality.

That said, there might be the tendency to consider that since Ykoriana canonically had romantic feelings for Kumatuya, perhaps their children's situation just parallels theirs, with Flama feeling unrequited romantic love for Osidian. (And just a side note: Osidian's feelings for Flama are not the ones under discussion here — I definitely think it extremely unlikely for his affection to have been anything but platonic, especially considering the 3-year age difference and resulting gap in emotional maturity and development. I have no doubt Osidian cared deeply about Flama as his little sister, just not in what you might call the usual Masks way, and I consider their bond as being made no less meaningful by that. Without going into too much of a tangent, it is a huge pet peeve of mine when platonic feelings are considered completely worthless compared to romantic ones — one can be appreciated without diminishing the other, I think, and all sorts of meaningful connections between humans, real or fictional, can exist.) In any case, yes, the reader might be tempted to compare Flama to Ykoriana in this regard, but here's the thing — no one in-universe ever makes the comparison. Ykoriana's POV, "Mothering Mask", is the chapter which provides the most information about Flama, and yet she does not compare her and Osidian to herself and Kumatuya once. Don’t you think she would have, if only in passing, had their situations actually been the same? Instead, the only comparison we do get is that of Carnelian and Osidian to Sardian and Kumatuya, and I feel like the omission is telling:

Before the election, Imago had told her that Osidian Nepheron had descended to the Forbidden Garden of the Yden with Suth's son, Carnelian. The parallels between their relationship and those of their fathers had disturbed her (...)

And one could argue that perhaps Ykoriana finds that particular parallel too painful to make, because she does not wish to bring back traumatic/sorrowful memories by considering her past feelings for Kumatuya... but she mentions them earlier in the exact same chapter, and, as you’ll recall, had no apparent issue with bringing them up during The Chosen (”Ykoriana” chapter) or The Third God ("In the Underworld" chapter) either:

Only a girl when her father died, Kumatuya was the brother she loved.

'Thwarted love is the charioteer of vengeful deeds.'

‘I demanded this proof of love from your father, Nepheron. Though I had reason to hate all men, him I loved. (...)'

Sure, in “Mothering Mask”, she also recalls her past plans of potentially poisoning Flama's love for her brother:

Given enough time, Ykoriana would have been able to gently poison Flama's love for Nepheron.

But, in my opinion at least, you could read that very quote and consider that scenario while believing Flama's feelings platonic, and nothing would really change. Flama having a strong sibling bond (in the usual, platonic sense of the term) with Osidian is just as much a problem to Ykoriana, because it still means she intends to vote for him and not Molochite. (And you know, it is not impossible Ykoriana thought Flama's feelings for her brother could eventually become romantic, — as we can assume her own had — even if they were not so at the time, which could have made her all the more determined to create a rift between her children.)

The only other character who goes into any detail about Flama and Osidian's relationship is Osidian himself, and this is what he has to say in The Chosen ("Just One More Day" chapter):

Osidian nodded slowly. 'She murdered my sister, who would have been my wife.' 'That is rumoured—' 'That is a fact!' said Osidian, causing Carnelian to flinch. 'Flama promised to vote for me.' Carnelian caressed Osidian's jaw. 'I'm sorry.' 'We loved one another since we were children. When I am the Gods...'

Yes, Flama would have married Osidian were she still alive, but that means little, if anything, regarding their actual feelings; it is just the custom in the Masks, so I think we can hardly conclude anything from that particular tidbit of information. Do note Osidian does mention they had loved each other since they were children, which means their closeness was almost certainly not a recent development by the time Flama died. They were likely very young children when they first started bonding with one another, so that could be argued to make the possibility of romantic feelings even more unlikely, since while the idea of a 9-year-old having romantic feelings for a 12-year-old (just sticking with SDC years here; as we’ve discussed, the difference is small at these young ages) still has some plausibility, would you consider the same to be true back when they were, let's say, 3 and 6 respectively? And yes, I will concede that Flama's feelings could have started out as platonic and shifted into romantic ones later in life, but again, there's no real evidence of that to be found. Just like the passage regarding Ykoriana's intentions above, I think that "we loved one another" can still be read with the fully platonic interpretation in mind and nothing would change. Flama's death being a traumatic experience to Osidian and one that turned him even further against Ykoriana is consistent in terms of cause and consequences regardless of the nature of Flama's feelings.

And there you have it — the conclusion of the unpopular opinions project (for this specific SDC month, at least). Does this contradict your own views, or do you actually agree with me? Also, in relation to the project in general, would you enjoy seeing it make a return in 2023 (provided I have enough good ideas for it, that is), or would it be better to shelve it for a time?

[aegis-of-corin]

i'm not sure if this is a popular opinion or an unpopular opinion, but i'm not really a big fan of the doctor and yaz. not that i don't want to love them because i do. i really want there to be a good female doctor x female companion relationship and i'm ecstatic that it's canon that yaz and the doctor love each other... but i just don't feel yaz and the doctor's connection.

and this isn't because of the acting. the few real moments we did get, jodie and mandip acted the shit out of. those lingering glances, the hologram scene, the scene where dan tells the doctor that yaz has feelings for her? *chef's kiss*

BUT

the writing for all three of thirteen's seasons has not done the characters or the relationship justice.

(SLIGHT SPOILER FOR "LEGEND OF THE SEA DEVILS")

it blew my mind in this episode when the doctor said that yaz was the most incredible person she'd ever met including her wife (which is most likely referring to river song.) i couldn't believe it - because we haven't seen that.

sadly yaz has been a fairly average companion because we honestly haven't gotten to see that much of who yaz is or what she's really like or capable of. what has she done that makes her so incredible?

for example:

rose tyler became the bad wolf and incinerated an entire dalek fleet.

martha jones walked the earth and saved the world from the master in the year that never was.

donna noble was the first time lord/human metacrisis.

amy pond was the girl who waited, who fought the silence - who brought back the doctor when he was erased.

river song was a human time lord who was a badass time-traveling archeologist.

clara oswald survived going into the doctor's time stream and lived hundred of lives saving the doctor.

bill potts saved the doctor when she sacrificed herself to the monks and once as a freaking cyberman.

so what have we honestly seen yaz do?

we saw bill do more in one season than yaz has done in three, so comparing her to river song - who is unarguably one of doctor who's more complex, interesting characters is quite laughable. (and this is coming from someone who was a big tenrose shipper.)

we had three seasons and three additional episodes to fall in love with the doctor and river song's relationship - which also spanned three doctors - while chibnall is trying to cram this big "incredible" relationship between the doctor and yaz as the tiniest of subplots in the six episodes of series 13 and the current specials while also attempting to convince us that the doctor cares about yaz as much or possibly more than river?

i just don't buy it and maybe it's just me.

i just wish that chibnall had actually taken the time through his three seasons to properly flesh out their relationship so we could get the proper lgbtq+ representation we wanted. hopefully we'll get an actually well-written wlw couple next series with russell t davies returning to doctor who

(who, let's not forget, gave us iconic couples like madam vastra/jenny and jack/ianto.)

[mordigen]

Unpopular opinion: Christians are not witches

I said it. Fight me.

There has been a trend that has been growing ever more problematic recently: overbearing, hyper-zealous, hyper-vigilant "acceptance" This means the pagan community is an absolute free-for all, and you are not allowed to so much as even feign the possibility that you do not agree with absolutely 100% of everything, lest you be named a gatekeeping, ignorant bigot.

Whether you like it or not - there ARE paths out there that have specific rules...regulations...stipulations...tenets - whatever the hell you want to call or classify them. End. Period. There's no other colour that comes in - that's it. Sorry for you, but they DO exist. In fact, there are many of them.

If you do not follow those rules, tenets, etc..., then you are not of that path. Point. Blank. And there is nothing wrong with that - it simply means that you are of some other path. That's it! That's all that means! It may be *nearly* identical to the path in question - but it is not, hence the 'nearly'.

If you happen to be a part of one of these paths, there is absolutely nothing wrong with saying so. If someone claims to be a part of one of these paths, but are absolutely, blatantly not - there is nothing wrong with saying that, and explaining why that is. Some people just honestly don't know there is a difference, or that these certain prerequisites are indeed a definitive factor - so they learn something, they broaden their horizons. Everyone seems to be all about educating themselves about being sensitive to other cultures and customs - except the pagan community, apparently, because this mentality does not translate across that pagan/witch line. Instead of taking it as a learning experience, you are immediately pounced on with notions of 'there are no rules!' 'you can't tell someone what to do on their own path!' Or, simply, the name calling. Well yes, while all of that is true - it still remains that how ever you want to practice or whatever you personally decide to do, may just simply not be what you are claiming, or calling it. It may just be semantics - but semantics matter when dealing with nuance. And paganism is extremely nuanced.

You can call a tomato an orange all you want to - but that thing will never be an orange, no matter how much you believe in it. And people are not wrong for informing you that you may have the wrong name, that is in fact, a tomato. If you go on deciding to call it an orange, you can do that - but that is willful ignorance. So, in your fight to be unapologetically accepting of every ridiculous notion, you are perpetuating willful ignorance - whilst being directly in opposition of your goal and being, *GASP*, unaccepting to those who follow a path where distinction and definition matters. You are completely invalidating those people's paths and beliefs while trying to defend another's (another who may, in fact, actually be wrong) and actively using their path & beliefs as the very reason to berate and ostracize them. Pretty fantastically hypocritical of you. Now...on to the second problem. I do not, at all, in any form, believe in "ritual magick" - as perpetuated by Aleister Crowley hardons. And no, that is not a knock on Crowley, just the idiot followers that don't understand half of what he taught and latch onto the superficial.

When you look at the origins and make up of magical beliefs, and magic itself as a separate entity - no matter which particular branch - they were all created by religion. They all have roots in highly spiritual cultures and customs. So, I absolutely do not believe for one second that you can believe in magic without SOME form of religion - whatever one you adhere to is your choice, but you cannot have the first without the latter. You cannot. Even if you claim that you have no religion, or spiritual faith, your practices absolutely do. You are calling on elements and agencies that absolutely have divine ties and connections one way or another. Oh, how many atheists I see calling on the seals of Arch Angels.... are you fucking shittin me? Really?? So let's bring it all together now - with the fact that many faiths DO have prerequisites, AND the fact that magic is religious/spiritual -- Christians are not, and cannot be witches or pagans. They are mutually exclusive. Not only because so many various paths have such prerequisites, and very define religious/spiritual beliefs that are contradictory to others - but simply because Christianity DOES, very much, have very clear and stringently defined Do's & Don'ts, and obviously the religious aspect itself clashes with the religious beliefs of others. Their religious beliefs clash with people who believe in their same god - so how could they not with those who believe in other gods?? Considering this, no other path would even need such stipulations themselves for them to be mutually exclusive, as Christianity already covers that issue so completely, but the fact that so many pagan paths do only exacerbates an already existing problem. That being said - that does not mean you cannot believe in the Christian 'god', by whatever name you know him by - or that you cannot believe in Jesus, and also be a witch or pagan. In fact the latter has an even bigger argument for believing in both, as paganism, generically, in itself is polytheistic, so it is very fitting to simply have the Christian god and Jesus amongst the many deities being worshipped. But those two things alone is not what makes Christianity. A good start, yes, but that is not all it takes - in fact, there are many that are shunned, excommunicated, banned, condemned and moreso whilst having those very two qualifying factors. You can find this in *every single* sect of Christianity, so...the proof is in the pudding, as they say, that it is much more than simply believing in 'God' and Jesus that makes a 'Christian'. And if you take that to heart and follow all those rules - you cannot be a witch or pagan, many times over, as you would be in direct opposition, or violation, of a number of their teachings - both on the aspect of simple 'rules', but also on a much deeper spiritual level of the entire foundation of their faith. Cannot serve two masters, and all that... If you do not follow those rules, then sure, you could be a witch or a pagan - but then you cannot be a Christian. That is just the facts.

Many people like to argue the use of magic and mysticism in the bible - but the issue is what parts of the bible they are found, and all the amendments of the further books. Again, what really carves out being a Christian vs. any of the other sects of Abrahamic beliefs. As, news flash - there is far more than just Christianity. And some of them, do, in fact, do hand in hand with magic. The Kabbalah is an astounding example of that - and, in fact, where a lot of the so called *ahem* 'non'-religious 'ritual magick' comes from. In this same vein, I would like to note that I have never had any issue or seen conflict with the Hebrew or Jewish take on shamans, mystics and witches, as they really do go hand in hand - They have their own very in depth, detailed, spiritual and sentimental form of mysticism that was a natural progression from pre-Abrahamic religions and culture, and grew into their teachings and belief system, so it does not go against their core beliefs the same way it very stringently does in Christian theology. Considering their ethnical histories and cultural heritage - this is a brilliant example of the natural evolution and progression of faiths - not simply ripped from the hands of the brutally oppressed and rewritten as a mockery to wipe out the preexisting notion of faiths -- as the Church has a history of doing. The Book of Enoch is another shining example of Biblical magic, or Angelic magic. But, this also also turns my point into a self fulfilling prophecy, as in the fact that it is accepted amongst all denominations as heresy, and it is taught that these magics - though they do, in fact, exist, were for the angels and completely forbidden from mankind. So, thusly, if you are a follower of Enoch, you are not a 'Christian', by name and membership, as you are outright going against it's teachings. You are a heretic, a blasphemer. Perhaps you may be one of the many other forms of the Christian god's followers - but not a Christian, as being Christian denotes a very specific set of beliefs and tenets - end of story. Magic, and paganism, is in direct conflict with those teachings, and therefore, cannot coexist.

On top of the logic - there is also the emotional issue. Christianity has a long history of abuse towards various pagan, tribal and indigenous faiths, while stealing our beliefs as their own, and demonizing those they couldn't successfully acclimate into theirs. To now be expected to be OK with this faith, yet again, latching on to *our* sacred rites and practices as being a part of their own is a hard pill to swallow at best, a slap in the face to most, and flat out perpetuating trauma at worst. Once upon a time, people sought out these very same communities and groups within their pagan circles as an escape, a safe space, and a shield and guardian against the Christian onslaught, torment, oppression, or just exhaustion - and now, we must not only tolerate them invading our private spaces, but must now welcome them with open arms and expected to be happy about it? Forgive me if I don't sympathize....

If we are going to now be forced into being shoulder to shoulder with them, the very least you can offer us is neutrality. You can be accepting of all and still be neutral grounds - not taking any one side anywhere, all you have to do is be respectful to each other. Disagreement is not disrespectful. Could someone who disagrees with a certain viewpoint *become* disrespectful? Sure, of course they could. But simply the act of disagreement is nothing hateful or hurtful in any way shape or form - in fact, good discourse is how progress is made. So we need to remain neutral grounds and normalize the acceptance of different viewpoints - we need to recognize and accept that, yes, there are paths out there that do have specific requirements, expectations and limits - there are paths that are going to disagree, or just flat out not believe in something. Instead of name calling, when someone of those paths decides to speak up and enlighten and elaborate on information that may be inaccurately described or depicted, you need to LISTEN and learn, and not just bludgeon them with presumptive judgement. You also need to accept that there are many, various different closed practices out there - beyond Native American & Voodoo practices (as those seem to be the only ones the pagan community recognizes) and if someone of those closed faiths tell you - no, you are not xy or z, that is also not being judgmental or hateful or hurtful - that simply is. ....a very important side note here is that acknowledging closed practices is also not a carte blanche for screaming about cultural appropriation. Please shut the fuck up about cultural appropriation. Not being of a specific faith is not equivalent to cultural appropriation - Telling someone "no, you're not xyz" is very different from telling someone "no, you can't practice xyz" (looking at you smudge-Nazis) You can enjoy, practice, learn or celebrate anything you want of any faith you want while not actually being apart of it - that's the beauty of sharing and learning. And I think that is where all the trouble boils down from:

Yes, you can do whatever you want and can create whatever path you want for yourself...just don't misrepresent it, don't call it something it is not, and don't deny those who are more educated & experienced in that particular department. We get enough of that from outsiders to start doing it to each other.

[joysmercer]

knowing that the anubis kids have lived together for years (or like <2 years in eddie/kt/nina's case), I refuse to believe that they never developed crushes on another person in the house (like aside from their respective partners). SOOO do you have any hcs about potential crushes each of the anubis kids could've had? [sidenote: i'm a firm believer that patricia and alfie had crushes on each other as kids, and I will die on this hill 😂]

yes!! i mentioned it briefly here/here but i think it's def possible that mara had one on alfie (i have no reasoning except that it gives off childhood-best-friends au!peraltiago vibes aka 'he makes me laugh' aka v cute) but it was one-sided, and amber/jerome had lil baby crushes on each other at some point as well (also no reasoning for this except for that throwaway post-ping-pong line but also i lowkey love them as a concept?).

i think alfie was the first person Patricia had feelings for but didn't actually realize it until eddie came into the picture and she was like "oh THAT'S what was happening" lmao. alfie basically-canonically had a crush on Patricia during s1 and i think that started probably as soon as they moved into the house but because they became really close friends almost instantaneously, i don't think he ever really realized it, especially because he mentioned amber was pretty *one* time and jerome started incessantly teasing him about that. unpopular opinion though but palfie crushes resolve themselves by mid-to-late season 2.

eddie only ever had eyes for patricia (while at the house) end of story the end :)

kt and joy is basically canon in 3a as well although i think joy gets over it by 3b when sibuna stuff starts ramping up and she's not in it anymore. there's a brief period of time (like a couple weeks max) sometime after amber leaving that sparks seem to fly between joy and alfie, but she convinces herself it's all in her head…it wasn't entirely, let's put it that way.

obviously joy and fabian was a thing on her part, but i do think he let it go on so far because he kinda thought he might like her too, although he wasn't sure. also at the very beginning of high school people started assuming him and mara were a thing (because nerds stick together, right) and lowkey he always assumed it would happen by the time they graduated although he never actually had feelings while those rumors were going around. also something abt how nearly every time he hung out with joy, Patricia was there, and how that complicated things too.

this is slightly off topic but i have this headcanon that there's some point while they're doing victor's chores in season 2 that Patricia tries to explain what went on the previous year with joy to eddie but because she cant actually tell him most of the details she ends up focusing way too much on her own trauma and eddie just kind of goes "that's a lot for someone who was 'just a friend', yacker". now obviously he's teasing (and entirely in good fun, and she knew it) but she can't stop thinking about it. now I'm conflicted on whether or not there were actually feelings there because i love their besties dynamic so much and i 100% want it to stay that way, but idk

tbh. mara and willow shouldve gotten together at the end of s3. that’s also irrelevant to this ask but close enough that im putting it here

OH AMBER yeah no she was definitely into nina in season 2 (if not season 1) and you can't change my mind on that lskdfjl

also i dont think either of them liked each other AT ALL but sometimes i watch a kt/alfie interaction in 3b and wonder if the writers were considering going in that direction. I'm so glad they didn't

[sotorubio]

Why is Ava still the front runner for a potential season 8? Ava has been prominently ft in every season of the new gen - although im not sure if that will remain the case during s7. But srsly is no one on tumblr interested in giving other characters a moment in the sun? Finn, Yara and Mailin are top of my list!

unnecessarily long answer ahead beware 🤸‍♀️ pls read the section in parenthesis at the end too bc i'm talking abt my own opinion here n don't wanna seem like i'm discrediting yours!!

i think the reason she's such a popular pick is actually exactly bc of the fact that she's been a big part of other seasons. her possible storylines have been prefaced & foreshadowed already so moving onto her pov would make sense n be smooth.

this is mostly just my personal opinion but also just generally what makes a good story: the reason noora's season works well is bc she's a central part of eva's story too n we've seen her interactions w william in the past, the reason isak's season works is bc he's tied into the joneva plotline from eva's season & is a background topic in noora's season too, sana's season works bc her faith has been brought up time n time again in the previous seasons. in the context of druck, fatou's season works rly well bc her crush on kieu my has already been discussed & built up in nora's season.

alternatively, tiff's season flopped bc they took a main character that had zero existing storylines & invented a theme for her that was mentioned for the first time ever in a trailer. the reason ismail's season is falling flat for a lot of viewers is bc instead of focusing on the existing plotlines from season 5&6 (ava's bullying, constantin & ismail's draining friendship, the instas as group etc) they've used the first episodes to build character dynamics w completely new characters & lay the foundations for some sort of love drama plot.

TLDR the mains that work best r the ones whose stories are tied to or can be tied to the previous seasons.

for example finn & yara. do i like them? yes, a lot. do i wanna see more of them? absolutely. would i watch a season abt one of them? most likely.

what do i think one of their seasons could be about? i have absolutely no idea bc we don't know anything abt them. they're lovely side characters n in theory i have nothing against the idea of seeing them as a main. but it would mean their season is very separate & detached from everything that's happened in the series so far bc they don't have any existing topics n i assume that's why those kind of side characters aren't as popular.

as for ava i can already name 5 things that 1. could be topics in her season and 2. have an already existing foundation from the previous seasons.

but like i said - and this was kind of the point of my post - the show keeps solving all these possible conflicts n topics ava has as part of other characters' stories which leads me, an avid ava season supporter, to ask the same question as u. why should she be the one to get a season? the more they resolve the less it makes sense to give an entire season to her. don't get me wrong, i personally DO believe she should get a season. i want to see her season. even if they run out of every single plot line for her i'd still watch a season abt her. but i'm worried that if she gets a season she'll end up getting a random theme that they came up with after s6 or s7 that ultimately has nothing to do w her already established story.

(also as a side note 💌 i am in no way trying to say u shouldn't wish to see other characters' seasons. if that's what u would be interested in u have every right to think so!! i'm just explaining what i believe to be the reason behind these type of characters unpopularity as opposed to ava)