#none of their actions are excusable

[falsebread]

Ehehheh who wants to see the fic idea me and @ghostly-quest are cooking up? Tbh they came up with most of this I’m just OwO F E A R A L about it!!

So! Here’s how it works, LB wakes up as SJ in a dirty ally way with absolutely no idea who he has become. No idea how he dies yet, but this is after the bingge v bingmei extra

And here’s the kicker, he gets a system! With tasks and points and even a nifty ooc lock! …not that he knows it’s there, and oooof is it a shock when it finally shows up- but we’ll get to that point!

See, I think LB and SJ have very similar mindsets, and for most of SJ’s childhood that mindset was just… survive ya know? So the ooc doesn’t kick in until way later-

He goes through SJ's trama, it's not pretty, it's not good, he loses the one person he thought he could trust, but on some level he can't believe he ever waited for YQY to come back for him. His revenge is bloody, brutal, and angry.

He goes through it. He survives. It's what he's best ast, surviving. He claws his way to power, he's always hated feeling weak, and here, with stunted cultivation (again) alone (again) and freshly traumatized. He knows what wu yanzi wants and has no problems learning from him…

At least until WY pushes a bit too far and LB kills him in a panic. Ifk what happened then, how he gets into the sect, but he does. And... he finds he absolutely cannot sleep.

He's upset. He should be safe here, he knows this peak, there's bullies sure but he's cunning and cutthroat. But... he just can't rest. He goes to a brothel to blow off steam, he finally had the money for it, and being with a woman to blow of steam was all he did in his past life

He just wants to feel like himself again. Between dealing with ptsd (old and new, not that he knows he has it) and sheer exhaustion, he falls to familiarity.

But...

When he's there he just.... cant

So he sleeps. Doesn't do anything with anyone. But here, he's away from the sect that so hurt him in the past, and men, who so hurt him in this life

Later, when he gets a fake cultivation manual from an older disciple, he's hit with de-ja-vu. It's almost funny, to him. He remembers mingfan and starts idly daydreaming about acquiring some specific ants…

Haha but he doesn't want to throw away this chance yet. He still doesn't know what this strange life is. It's the same peak he trained on, the same peak he destroyed. But he recognizes no one, and no names sound familiar. At least... not until he gets promoted to peak lord.

"Shen Qingqi" and the second he can, he flees. He tries to leave the mountain in a dazed rage. He's almost numb with it. And then he can't leave.

OOC

he can't get out. He hasn't unlocked the ooc feature yet. He didn't even know it existed. He has to laugh then. He refuses to cry.

He has well and truly become the same monster who poured tea on his head. Who beat him senseless. Scorned and abused him. Who still holds more power over him than he'll ever admit.

We end this fic years later. As he watches himself climb up those stairs with bright eyes and a young, gaunt face. Hopeful and sad, clutching at the false jade pendant under his robes.

And he watches, bitter, envious, afraid and alone.

He sees himself. And he has a choice to make.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

The fandom can't make up its mind on what's supposed to be a joke and what's supposed to be serious because the show can't either half the time. It's a tonally disjointed mess that wants to have absurd over-the-top humor as well as a plot and moments of drama, romance, and angst that demand you see the characters as people and feel for what they're going through. Except you can't do that without also treating the dumb bullshit in a somewhat grounded way. Like, you're still dealing with the same characters. You can't just go "Oh, that? Let's ignore that!" the moment it's no longer convenient to you. You've opened this can of worms and now you have to sleep in it. So, every character flip-flops between two different versions of themselves depending on what the writers need in any particular scene.

This is not to say surreal humor can't be used right alongside characters you're supposed to empathize with, Teen Titans (not Go) did that and it worked. It's just that the absurdity can only come from the setting (Mad Mod, Mother Mae-Eye, pretty much anything Control Freak is in) or from designated joke characters (Date With Destiny). Teen Titans never had the main characters acting in clearly absurd ways as the butt of a joke unless those characters were brainwashed somehow, because the writers knew that would ruin any of the more grounded moments they wanted to write. The writers of Miraculous missed the memo on that one.

I don't disagree. A perfect example is Derision where the show takes all of the bad jokes about Marinette's crush and decides to take them seriously as if you can possible take them seriously without making Marinette come across as unhinged and dangerous. You can't, which brings us to the topic at hand: how do you even begin to understand these characters when the show is constantly making character-breaking choices?

My approach - and the approach I recommend others take if they're going to keep watching the show - is to focus on the characters' cores and reject anything canon does to violate those cores. I don't argue for this stance because I love the characters so much that I only want the good things to count. I take this stance because, if you don't, then the characters fall apart. There is no way to make them work as fully realized characters while embracing every choice canon has made. Miraculous has massive characterization issues that go well beyond the humor.

For example, Adrien has multiple moments of terrible behavior that are played in a serious manner such as the moment in the episode Frozer where he tries to start a fight with Ladybug in the middle of an akuma attack because she wouldn't accept a rose from him earlier:

Setup

Ladybug: I can't accept this rose from you. I told you already. I'm in love with someone else. Cat Noir: I know, M'lady. But if he weren't here, would things be different between us? Ladybug: Well, you know, I can't even begin to imagine him not being here. I'm sorry, Cat Noir. I really gotta get going, and you better do the same. (Swings her yo-yo to head back home; Cat Noir is sad, looking downwards, with one petal of the rose falling.)

Payoff

Ladyice: Cat Noir. We need to set up a trap for whoever turned the city into a giant ice rink. (throws yo-yo) Icecat: (bitterly) My feline instincts prefer to track and observe before I attack. You go your way, I'll go mine. Ladyice: Please don't tell me you're mad at me about the rose. Icecat: There may be a certain chill now between us. Ladyice: I get it, but we should really focus on saving Paris right now. Icecat: We don't always have to do everything together, after all. It's not like we're a couple. (skates away)

There's no way to argue this off as a bad joke. While Adrien has every right to feel hurt, those feelings don't excuse him acting like a pouting child in the middle of an akuma fight. It doesn't excuse him acting like this at any point! Ladybug is not a villain for telling him no. She wasn't even mean about it!

I clearly fully agree that Adrien looks awful and selfish here, but I'd still argue that it's not something that should be used to define Adrien's character if your goal is to tell the "ideal" version of Miraculous. "Ideal" being the version that canon seems to be going for based on the overall picture we can sort of make out if we back way, way, way up and look at the extremely abstract picture canon is clumsily painting.

Unless canon is going to do something monumentally stupid, Adrien is Marinette's endgame romantic interest. It's also clear that there is no plan to cut him from the team. He's going to be Chat Noir for the rest of his life or at least well into his adulthood. This means that he is supposed to be a good hero who deserves his miraculous just like he's supposed to be a charming and cute romantic lead. These are the two things I keep in mind when trying to shift through canon to figure out what writing choices I should fully embrace and what writing choices I have to either ignore or treat as true flaws that get an actual character arc. In my book, either approach is fine because most of the characters are deeply flawed at this point and you can't give them all arcs without bloating the story to nonsense levels.

My goal with this approach is never to say, "oh, that moment shouldn't count in terms of how people feel about the character." It's more, "that moment goes so hard against who this character is very clearly supposed to be that I can't take it into account if I want to tell the kind of story that Miraculous is trying (and clearly failing) to tell."

As an example, let's list off Adrien's worst behaviors. The things that make him look terrible:

He sucks at communicating his needs and feelings, leading to multiple moments where he gets mad at Ladybug for things she's totally unaware of

He has quit or considered quitting without warning multiple times and only one of those was because of something he did "wrong" (NYC Special)

He puts his feelings before the safety of Paris on multiple occasions, even going so far to purposely miss akuma fights to see what happens

He is incredibly pushy about his crush, often ignoring Ladybug's feelings on the topic by continuing to bring it up even after she asked him to stop

There have been multiple instances where he almost cataclysmed multiple people in a fit of anger

His love for Ladynette isn't strong enough to let him break free of things like akumas and nightmare dust even when he's looking her in the eyes making him a pretty crappy romantic lead

People will argue that some of this behavior makes sense for his character because of the abuse that canon has technically introduced, but that the writers seem blissfully unaware of. I don't disagree with that argument, but that doesn't change the fact that none of this is acceptable behavior for a hero and Adrien is a hero who keeps doing these things. A sad backstory doesn't give you the right to behave poorly without consequences.

At the same time, if I fully embrace these elements of canon, what I get is an Adrien salt fic where he loses his miraculous for good while Marinette finds her real true love or even just a non-salty fic where Adrien leaves for his own meatal health and gets replaced by someone who can handle being a hero right now. Canon's not writing either of those, so the only way to engage with these flaws while enjoying canon or aiming for the same end goals as canon is to say, "I guess this doesn't count" or "I guess I need to tone this way down and work through it via a character arc" or even "I guess that was just a bad joke maybe?"

That is the essence of what I mean when I call myself a writing salt, character sugar blog. It comes from looking at canon and seeing that there's simply no way to embrace the worst moments and the best at the same time. We're not dealing with a coherent plot and/or complex characters. We're dealing with a nonsense plot that will warp the characters to bizarre shapes to make random ideas work even if those idea go wildly against canon's end goals.

As an example, Glaciator and Frozer should not exist in the same universe or, at the very least, something should explain why Chat Noir randomly changed his stance on Ladybug's crush from acceptance to pushiness. As is, the pieces don't fit together. The behavior is too contradictory. Remember, this is how Glaciator ends:

Perhaps Ladybug will love me someday. I mean, like, I love her. I have to believe. In the meantime, her friendship is the best gift of all.

Where did this version of Adrien go? Why did he regress in Frozer? There's no in-universe reason. It happened because the writers weren't ready to let the love square date or grow close, but they also wanted the love square to cause drama, so Adrien ends up looking terrible just like Marinette ends up looking terrible when it's her turn to cause love square drama. Her terribleness takes a different flavor so it can be hard to realize that this is a systemic issue, but that's what it is. It's deeply frustrating, but it also clearly stems from cheap writing and not quality characterization.

This is also why my stance is that canon as a whole only supports my Doyalistic core-character analysis style of approach. The writing is too poor quality to do Watsonian analysis where you embrace the full picture and try to put it all together. The closest I'll get to Watsonian analysis is pointing out how much the writing botches a Watsonian take by showing you all the way the writing contradicts itself, twisting into a nonsense pretzel of frustration where the payoffs never satisfy! (See the season four rant for an example or anything where I talked about Chloe's supposed damnation arc.)

There are even characters where canon is such a total mess that you can Doyalistically argue for two separate takes! Gabriel is a perfect example. He is all over the place and his ending was so poorly handled that you can make strong arguments for writing him as a cold-hearted villain or a sympathetic villain without the end result feeling like it spits in the face of canon because both takes maintain his one core element: villain.

That's the big thing I keep in mind when I look at the characters and the lore and the plots and try to come up with versions that the average fan would like. I don't think that there's one true version of any of these things, but I do feel comfortable saying that there are versions that will very clearly only appeal to people who are salty about a specific thing that canon did poorly. That's not who I want to appeal to in my adaptions, so while I'm not going to argue that those takes have no backing in canon, I will argue that those takes are not supported by canon as a whole. Embracing them requires you to take the worst parts of canon at face value while ignoring what canon is clearly trying to do with the overall story.

I get the appeal of that, but it's not fun for me because that approach feels like rolling around in the mud with the pigs. I don't want to sink to canon's level! I want to have fun! That's why I talk about how to make canon into its best self, not its worst self. If you want its worst self, just go watch the actual show. I will be shocked it if disappoints you.

[fluffypotatey]

To be honest I am a huge Nalu shipper. But the thing is I want to know the difference between the way Natsu cares about his guildmates and Lucy. Like what is the obvious difference since that boy sees every as Nakama so how can we say that the wag he cares about Lucy is different?

Like even when Erza passed away? (All the way back in first season there was a segment where the guild was gathered at her grave and all) Natsu was still very reactive. Plus he was also said to be depressed even when Lisanna passed.

What's the difference between all of them and Lucy?

the fact that he stayed. the fact that before he met Lucy, Natsu wasn't one to stay in a group or even want to work with anyone besides Happy at the start of the story. hell, he was ready to just file Lucy down as "New Guildmate" once they reached Fairy Tail

but then, Lucy doesn't leave. she follows him on his mission to save Macao despite her not needing to or even really understanding everything about it. she stays and then fights with him and saves him. it's no secret that Natsu is strong and can take care of himself really well. he's been going on solo missions for years now, and no one has really stopped him, but that means he's been in a lot of sticky situations where he and Happy are on their own and have no backup. and yet, without asking, Lucy offers it

and i think this is the moment when Natsu considers that maybe it's okay to have someone there to have his back (sans Happy)

"but Natsu only needed Lucy for the next quest because of the requirements," well, Natsu also wouldn't have taken or even considered that quest if it weren't for Lucy, yeah? he was not a team player (in the picking job's sense) or really wanted other people to help him on his quests sans Happy. and then he goes and picks a job that caters to their team whilst ensuring that Lucy can't say no

or maybe i'm reading too much into it 🤷🏻‍♀️

or maybe Natsu's got horrible abandonment issues that he will latch onto people so fast (Igneel & Lisanna) but also cause him to distance himself so far when left behind (his 1st time at the guild, Lisanna's death). Erza and Gray are Natsu's closest friends after Lisanna and yet they cannot reach him when he closes himself off. and then we have Lucy, who stuck by and had his back, so who is to say Natsu didn't make some contingencies to ensure whether or not she'd join him?

but maybe it's the rose, colored ship glasses i have on

because yeah, Natsu cares for all of his guildmates. the power of friendship is his biggest motivator. when we meet Natsu, our first introductions of him is defending his guild's reputation from Bora (who was using it as a guise for human trafficking) and saving Macao. and our 1st big arc (Galuna Island), where Natsu adamantly refuses to allow Gray to use Ice Shell and sacrifice himself despite how antagonistic they've been to each other. we get Natsu 100% at Erza's defense throughout the Tower of Heaven and he is even ready to defend Wendy though they only met hours ago

Natsu is a character with a bleeding heart and cannot help but wear it on his sleeve, but we don't really see him allow others to fight his battles or have his back until Lucy comes in. to be honest, i don't even think he had his heart on his sleeve until Lucy. he still has a bleeding heart (i don't think anything could stop that), but he was not ready to be open in receiving company because he was so used to it being ripped away from him

that being said: of all the characters he interacts with, he finds Lucy to be someone compatible enough for him to start going on team missions and inviting her on them (for example, his 1st S-class mission, which he stole, he went to her house to show it to her. the fact that part of the reward was a celestial key might be a coincidence, but i wouldn't doubt it as Natsu and Happy's trump card in case she refused)

but yeah, the difference is that he stayed and didn't push her away at the beginning, but instead continued to invite her along with him to the point that doing a mission without Lucy wasn't his regular anymore. compared to the rest of the guild, of whom he spent most of his childhood with, even if he spoke to no one, they would still be around and talk to him anyway. he might not invite them on job and only challenge them to fights, but the guild is his home and a constant in his life, a constant he needs (bc heavy abandonment issues).

"okay, but he still pushed her away after he watched Igneel die right in front of him. and he left the guild for a whole year, too. so what's the difference there?" you may ask.

so 1) Natsu never thought the guild would disband. he returns to Fiore after a year and is the last to know that they disbanded. he assumed, like all the other times before and while he and others were sealed for 7 years, that Fairy Tail would still be there when he returned. he assumed that his disappearance would not impact so hard because the guild would still be around and Lucy would have the others with her

which, did not happen :)

and like, so many guild members go off on jobs, quests, or even just leave for an indiscriminate amount of time (which i, personally, believe was his rationality for leaving), so him being gone for a year was nothing! right? no harm, eh? his plan was never to be gone forever :))))

2) he just watched his father die and lost any chance of having some semblance of a long term reunion with Igneel. he literally lost one of his main driving motivations for getting stronger and taking jobs. before Fairy Tail, before anyone, it was Igneel. and to learn that a) Igneel was always with him to begin with and b) he only got to see him for less than a day after 14 years of nothing......i would feel lost too ngl

man's needed space from everybody. and he also needed comfort, but Natsu has been shown not to really be the character who asks to receive comfort (and when he does receive it, it's usually when he's already emotionally compromised). he is in the habit of shutting people out after being abandoned or losing someone close to him, with his next rationale being to "get stronger" in order to prevent what happened in the past to ever happen in the future.

anyway

what makes this different? well for one, he sent the letter only to Lucy (or it's implied since no one else is shown getting one) because of how the two spend most of their time together. even the line that goes with the panel makes it sound like Natsu is unsure on how the note will be received (maybe even hesitant? but that could be my own hopes)

and one of the 1st people he reunites with after a year is Lucy and we get such a similar parallel to the first chapter of Fairy Tail between the two as if the narrative itself is slotting them together to say "ah yes, now everything is back to normal and new journeys can begin"

but yeah, this is just a long way of saying, that Natsu does love his friends and guildmates but even when he is close to them, he kept to himself (and Happy) and sort of stayed in their orbit but always with some emotional distance because of his fear of abandonment. and then you have Lucy where he will stay for and allow her to orbit around him and he will invite to new adventures no questions asked

that's the difference

[sagrandr]

god shauna fans are the dumbest people on the planet

[menlove]

Why do you think Paul insists saying John was sweet and nice when he really wasn't. He was shit to everyone including Paul. Because he feels he has to or because he was in love with him and that's what he remembers?

i meannnnn people are mixed bags. someone isn't always cruel and they also aren't always nice. ofc, john WAS a deeply awful person to many people around him (especially women). he had a Lot of untreated issues & anger. he could be very cruel & hurtful. but i think paul says he was sweet and nice because he was that, too. people aren't all black and white, ykwim? and while certainly you can absolutely hate john for some of the things he did & that's totally your right, so too can the people that loved him in life choose to forgive him. i think paul definitely like. remembers john's capacity for cruelty. he's talked about it a lot, as well as how much john hurt him & how confusing that whole period of their lives was for him. i DO wish he'd ever talk about the awful way john treated women, but i really don't think that's ever going to happen.

but as for their personal relationship, i think he just sees that john was sweet/nice a Majority of their friendship (or... whatever lmao) & that's just as much a part of him as the cruelty was. not to mention, a lot of that cruelty paul unfortunately shared in, especially in their youth, so i don't know that he saw as much of an issue with it before it turned on him.

but yeah i mean. john being a cunt & abusive doesn't necessarily negate him being sweet/nice. and if the latter is what paul remembers most and wants people to remember about john as well, i can't exactly blame him given how traumatically john died & the hole he left in his life. i think remembering him only for his cruelty would be worse for him than remembering both and focusing on the sweetness, yk?

[fromtheseventhhell]

Not Arya, Robb, and Jon catching strays for not "warning" Sansa about Joffrey?? As though they didn't all meet him at the same time and have equal opportunity to understand what he was like?? It just blows my mind that somehow everybody can be blamed for her actions regarding Joffrey but Sansa herself. Apparently, she can't be expected to understand anything because nobody sat down and slowly explained everything to her using small words (not even when Ned does just that lol). And then they just ignore the fact that Sansa had a crush on Joffery and actively wanted to marry him? To the point of excusing his behavior when she witnessed his cruelty first-hand? Then they pretend that she was just "coping" with her engagement when she actively argued against Ned breaking it and went to Cersei because she thought she could stop him from doing so. There's no way they like her actual character if this is what they have to come up with to cope with her writing.

[thatpurpledudetrey]

nesta literally telling feyre that shes going to fucking died from the babe in an unpleasant way is literally just an argumental point for rhys stans to use to cover up the fact he LITERALLY hide a medical information from feyre?!?!?!? bro HE was the on who started this shit not fucking nesta????

it was rhysand's fault, he started this shit by being a stupid bitch who decided to not tell feyre

[asterbats]

i think for the shitty scorpion family, their entire dynamic is definitely toxic (heh) but also neither dusk nor bruno is an inherently terrible person? its just that they’re a) horrible together longterm as they are and b) people who should not have had kids.

[waywardsalt]

bc its been bouncing around in my head i think another little tiny grievance i had with totk is that i got to the end and just felt a sense of ‘well what the hell was that all for then’

[kataraavatara]

So I'm watching this recap series on acotr and I have to ask wtf happened to tamlin after the first book

he pulls a complete personality 180 because of his trauma and becomes a controlling & abusive partner so Feyre can leave him and get with Rhysand and give sjm a reason to think she’s making some sort of deep commentary on abusive relationships and feminism. which she is not.

[ssaltlicker]

So much of the arcane fandom subscribes to the belief that any harmful action can be explained away and excused as long as its either someone you agree with or if you have a good enough sob story

[bitchapalooza]

Isn’t it canon that Russia is abused by her bosses? Like she’s forced to do all this shit or she’ll be punished? Anyway, Russia went from being the victim to the abuser and ngl I’d love to read a whole character analysis for why this is possible but I don’t know psychology enough to write it

[chiratsuku]

She eyes him cautiously, curiosity flickering in her venomous gaze, from behind the rabbit mask Alice tilts her head. Button nose wrinkling as her pout turns into a grimace, even in a sea of luxury, she can pinpoint that smell of decay anywhere. It is permeant within a ghoul's being, even she, glamorous as ever could not escape what they naturally were. "What's a handsome man doing here? I think your lost" the hostess calls out, though she stands clad in her small posture, there is an air of intimidation. "Tsk, brooding while surrounded by beauty? What a shame, perhaps I can help" // renji!

@kuroyrii

Hunger is what cripples either a man or a child no matter if ghoul or a human. Through cold patches of life in the world full of vassals of blood triumph upon absolute inevitable taught him much on the matter, his was full of compromises where sacrifices must be made to live free from the demands of accursed lines of descent. To record what befalls the warriors in future songs that never properly mourn sisters because of living legacy.

Months after having enlisted the aid of Yoshimura, his task was simple, groceries, or shopping those necessary things for Anteiku to function under its gown of guise. He recalled the old man's ever-jesting tone, something Touka would grin about: 'Adding a treatment masque to your cleansing routine works wonders.' - of course, such words oil the wheels of a sense of purpose, which wasn't a bad thing; he sought it, the purpose. Given to frequency of wandering Renji was difficult to find except for those few who knew how to sniff out his lane. Focus becomes temporarily aimless as he would not refuse navigating command of guttural intuition, and would not, even if both legs were wounded as one. Stubborn and hard-headed, thinking always of duty to honor the service! First, indeed, second? Questionable ... Pulled further and further, teeth biting on iron, seething melodies, and fluttering ire, wayfaring carried him into the known unknown. He was supposed to fetch coffee beans and a few other things given the location and address described by the senior. --- Sound of heavy boots getting lost and braving danger in strange assembling of diverse tongues or whatever arrangement of sorts it was -- no, a party. Among rows of gilt buttons and fancy suits, the valiant intruder was not the most impressive figure, soaked from outdoor downpour, and within periphery accentuating his dressing mostly of grey tones. Coffee filters in his pockets being the only dry thing. And suddenly he found himself unable to trail back in his footsteps and find shoulders of doors to exit. What is this place even? Why is he here? He shouldn't be, couldn't be. This was nothing of a market or store. The Raven sits still on a branch, unsure about detecting establishment for landing. Patrol soon happened upon his location, leaving no pondering or reverie to linger, that kind of encounter that yielded insight into going ons and awareness that the brooding stranger was a 'static' matter demanding attention. A rabbit — a glamour on needles of fire clad in decay, easy to fool anyone. Don't they symbolize luck and advancement? Menacing. Hopeful and equally foolish would wish that she may have been blinded to the truth.

' I think your lost. '

Certainly. ㅤㅤㅤYeah ...

The unknown visitor has finally shown some sense. There were more words, hidden; not made to leave.

'' ... '' '' Sorry, didn't mean to intrude ... - had to get the building wrong, '' words tempered with pensiveness but mind becoming clearer as he spoke, deft eyes under spikes of dirted silver inquiringly fastened at lean speaker behind masque, '' but apparently I got a wrong turn and wandered even further in. '' As dry and hardly believable as it sounds it was at the same time strangely convincing thanks to his unfeigned perplexion. Nothing worth drama to do one's heart good and get momentarily enraptured by ambient enchants, even a man with a rigid heart couldn't fake it.

Yomo wonders if she can turn a blind eye to his presence and keep this meeting a secret - if only it wasn't kinda late for that.

But what now? Would he follow the rabbit further into the maze of the unknown and right down the rabbit hole or she'll help him out to the exit?

[dove-darlings]

the thing is that they're all trauma survivors and representations of what trauma can look like if not treated with connection and compassion

[gregoftom]

Hi, I'm the "people don't want to see who Ewan really is" anon, and I was looking for the script that confiemed Greg's major bc I need it for a fic and stumbled accross this on reddit. And... yeah. It's just as we think. In case you're interested: /r/SuccessionTV/comments/152lrdz/deleted_greg_and_ewan_scene/

hi! and uuuuuuuuuuurggggh. how tiresome. i simple think it might be more interesting to examine ewan with the same scope as other characters, but ah well i guess we can't do that!!!!!

[catcatb0y]

I ran out of tag... (It's mostly like two things that end up becoming annoyingly intertwined the more the series goes on). He was only powerful when it was convenient to the power scaling, which led to him being constantly put in otherwise intensely traumatizing victim situations solely to spur the main character into saving him no matter the cost. Which normally would have only furthered his unrealistic inferiority complex (and also his fear of weakness as well as distaste for weak people given how many people VICTIM BLAMED HIM, which you'd think would only confirm his fucking bias??) which OOPS was made into a... realistic inferiority complex?? Somehow solely to show that the MC somehow managed to grow past the underdog he never fucking was, and since the fans adored this, that became his only character! Yeah, somehow THAT was his big character growth...

He went from a complex, morally grey character to UwU empty ship fodder, and the fans of the series ate it up SO much that one of the main villains (one of the only people who genuinely acknowledged the strength and horrible treatment of my silly guy) telling him 'You're useless actually, I just want to kill you to make that other kid sad lol-' is seen as his PEAK. That. That's his peak. That's the "good ol days" the shipdom romantacizes. A villain poking at his weakness and deepest insecurity is somehow the canonizing moment of the ship (and it doesn't even happen, MC gets mad at his best friend's death for three seconds and then effortlessly kicks the villain's ass, as like the shittiest cherry on top) < it only gets worse from there!

I was also a shipper back in the day, and, in hindsight, I really should have seen the whole shitshow coming, but unfortunately I went on to dedicate six years to this hyperfixation that continues to haunt me three years after I attempted to quit the fandom cold turkey. It didn't even work.

reblog this with one canon thing you dislike / think is flawed about your blorbo and/or the way they were written