#or things that made me mad like how the female characters were used/treated

[paraderain]

Naruto Mixed Teams AU

So the teams in Naruto are broke as fuck and seem to have no reasoning outside of Asuma with InoShikaCho which they partially threw away in Boruto anyways so… I’m changing the teams and lots of other stuff but most notably is probably the teams.

In this AU Iruka as there home room or main instructor in the academy chooses team composition and their team leaders. Iruka is given a dossier of the available team leaders and chooses the teams each one will have.

First is Team 7: Sasuke Uchiha, Neji Hyuga, Shino Aburame, and Kakashi Hatake as sensei. I think Iruka’s reasoning here is grouping all the prodigies together to challenge each other and to try and survive Kakashi’s no pass rate (and his shitty teaching, sorry not sorry). Shino is counted as a prodigy because he’s never lost a fight and I refuse to believe that kinda skill wasn’t noticed.

Next is Team 8: Ino Yamanaka, Kiba Inuzuka, Hinata Hyuga, and Kurenai Yuhi as sensei. These guys are not as well balanced but I couldn’t take Hinata from Kurenai. The reasoning here is that Ino and Hinata need the companionship and Kiba needs to learn some tact and a bit more empathy. Ino needs a non competitive gal pal again to chill out and learn teamwork. Hinata needs the confidence from both teamates and her sensei to rub off on her. Ino’s temper and Hinata’s soft spoken personality will force Kiba to learn some tact and respect in trial by fire basically.

*I know none of the kids can get much from a genjutsu specialist except Sasuke or Sakura but it was the same in the show. Also I wanted to keep all the sensei with their favorite students and I had plans for Sakura.

Next we have Team 10: Naruto Uzumaki, Shikamaru Nara, Tenten, and Asuma Sarutobi as their sensei. I think Shikamaru and Naruto work well to counter each other well. Levelheadedness and well thought out plans are all well and good but sometimes energy and spontaneity is what a situation needs. Also Naruto and Tenten can account for the human element of planning since Shika is a logic boy. Plus (although we see very little of her) Tenten seems like a good middle ground, excitable but mission focused. Plus Shika and Tenten seemed not to have their minds made up and predujiced against Naruto like some of their classmates so it’d make sense for Iruka to take that into account when deciding team dynamics. Also Asuma uses chakra infused weapons which could aid Tenten and help teach Naruto better control.

Lastly we have Team Guy: Choji Akimichi, Rock Lee, Sakura Haruno, and Might Guy as sensei. I think Iruka would see the spirit displayed when not pandering to her crush on Sasuke and throw her to Guy right away. She has the same energy without the “youth” obsession. And throw Choji in with those 3 to try and motivate him a bit more too and also give him some hype men. Guy and Lee would never call him fatso and might even indulge in eating competition with him after training since they see the “spirit of youth” in everything. Also all the guys, after getting to know each other, would definitely call Sakura out on her less than stellar motivations to be a ninja and her attitude towards Naruto and to a lesser degree everyone not Sasuke.

In this AU the original Team Guy members are still all a year older than the others but were in the academy at the same time. Lee and Tenten took the extra year to train ‘cause of there limited skill set and Neji wasn’t allowed to attend ahead of Hinata.

Also in this Naruto still has the moniker of “Knucklehead Ninja” but he’s not an idiot. It never made sense that Naruto as much as he said he wanted respect and acknowledgment couldn’t do anything at the beginning from what we could see. So my thoughts are he already learn Shadow clone and some other probably a bit common big chakra ninjutsu but things that require finer control are hard cause of just how much chakra he has to deal with. I think in this AU the moniker was mostly unjustly assigned due to prejudice and quick judgements.

Also he and Sasuke have a silent respect for each other already. I think right after the massacre Sasuke would be tired of the pitying looks or even praise over his genius so he wanders looking for a place to be alone and finds Naruto. From then on they have companionable silence together every now and then. Naruto just glad someone’s willing to be around him and Sasuke likes that at least one person just doesn’t care to worship him or walk on egg shells. Also Naruto doesn’t like Sakura here. He’s just not in a good enough headspace yet for romance when platonic love isn’t even in view yet. Sakura still likes Sasuke but mostly cause that was most of her character before so I’m using that crush for character growth on her end.

Lastly, episodes 1 and 2 basically don’t happen. I always thought 1 was like an original pilot pitch that never got adjusted in terms of how it actually fit in the show and 2 just seemed fully unnecessary. Basically everything before the Chunin Exam is getting gone or condensed and lots of training and team bonding is getting added since the exam supposedly starts 6 months from the beginning of the show.

[benjinoff13]

okay let’s talk about 3B a bit

the first thing i’m really really upset and disappointed by is how they handled cress and eloise’s friendship, yes i’m sad creloise will never happen (that’s what i’m assuming cause i really don’t think they would ever make 3 of the bridgertons queer), but i’m more upset about their friendship and mostly, how much they have messed up eloise’s character

it was said and implied in 3A that their friendship was a learning opportunity for them both, eloise taught cressida to be more open, vulnerable, honest and kind, this has definitely happened, we see that happen during cressida’s conversation with colin, she doubles down on they amount of money she asks for but i think we all know she had no other choice and frankly, i would’ve done the same if someone had said the stupid shit colin said, but we see her be honest and truthful and emotional

eloise was said to learn about her privelege, we were told that she was gonna learn that not everybody has the fortune the bridgertons have, not all women can afford to do whatever they please and go wherever they wanna go, eloise learned this in 3A and then completely forgot it in 3B, demonizing cress for taking action to safe her from being a victim of the patriarchy and the marriage mart, something eloise was supposed to learn about

we see how cressida was raised, she was abused, she’s treated like an object and she has absolutely 0 say over her life and her choices, eloise knows this but the second cress takes action to safe herself from a situation eloise knows she’s in, eloise turns on her because she’s starting to forgive pen, el takes it personal eventhough it has absolutely nothing to do with her, her family’s name is harmed a bit but that honestly doesn’t matter and it was purely circumstantial + it wasn’t even cressida who decided to do that but ofcourse she doesn’t even get the chance to explain herself cause eloise doesn’t bother

they could’ve helped cress, talked to her more, if they had shown genuine empathy and understanding towards cressida i genuinely think she wouldnt have done what she did but they just didn’t care and this is what made eloise such an awful friend, they made the friendship seem so meaningless the way el talked about it but you cannot convince me of this, they truly cared for each other, even got emotional when they know the other person is mad or sad with them, this doesn’t happen unless you’re genuine friends and really deeply care about one another, but when cress had to chose herself, el did a full 180 and didn’t even have ONE conversation with cress

i think that’s what bothers me the most, the sheer lack of creloise scenes which would have resolved the issue but instead the writers decided that el could only have one (1) female friend, what a tired and old school way of writing

penelope, colin and eloise were supposed to be the heros of the season, the beautiful love story, the team that protects their family and uses their lady whistledown power for good, but to me they were the villains purely for how they treated cressida

[theloganator101]

The Great BNHA Review: Characters or Check Lists?

Oh Characters...

The bread and butter to all stories.

The thing that gets a story from Point A to Point B, the thing that allows us to connect with the story and helps it feel alive. You can pretty much make any character for your story, from the gentle and kindhearted to the more rough around the edges... to making them likable or unlikable. There are many ways to write a character and how they can make your story come to life.

And by bringing this up you know where this is headed... that BNHA utterly failed at expanding their characters into being people we're supposed to care about.

I could make a long fucking list of how BNHA failed every single one of it's characters it introduced but to keep that from happening, I'm just going to either list certain characters or just group them together since some of them share one common thing that's holding them back from being good.

Starting off with!

Shota Aizawa:

He was supposed to a hardass with a hidden heart of gold for his students, but what he ENDED up as was a walking hypocrite who hated Izuku for no other than he was associated with All Might and couldn't control his quirk... and then CONTINUED to give Izuku a hard time and labeled him as the "problem child" like... I don't even have the energy to get mad here, I'm saving THAT for another time in this review.

Oh and then there's him holding up this ridiculously high standard for his students to reach or else he fails them... which is exactly what happened when he failed Sero in the finals but allowed Bakugou to pass for doing the same.

Which again his hypocrisy gets in the way of that!

And not once does he ever get called out or punished for his blantant abuse in power and instead gets complimented and praised for his methods as if he's the next Einstein.

Fucking end me.

The Todoroki Family:

Oh how Hori totally fucked you guys over in the end... Natsu I'd give a pass since he ended on a more believable note, but sadly I can't say the same for Rei and Fuyumi.

As they were never allowed to think bad of the guy that made their lives hell and were instead to jump on the forgiveness train and take Endeavor's side so they can be a "Happy family" again. Which... no, that's literally stockholm syndrome.

Class 1-A:

... (Sighs)

Oh my babies... oh my favorites... look how that monster Hori ruined you all...

He tried to have this found family dynamic for them all, only for it all to fall apart since... you know, they barely interacted at all and got any screentime.

And it also didn't help that Hori had all of them as bystanders to Izuku's suffering, make fun of his interests, and follow Bakugou when he led them to beat him into coming back. So it really doesn't work when you have these things on your mind and fails to convince you that they give a shit about Izuku and his wellbeing.

And the worst part is that they ALL look like they have stories waiting to be told, but we don't get any of that. At most they're only used to fight against the minions while the Cash Cow Triplets fight the big hero.

Every Female Character in this Series:

Oh boy what even is there to talk about? Since they barely have any personality of their own and are only made to be fanservice for the pervs that likes watching anime girls in bikinis. They definitely deserves much better and to be in a story that'll treat them with respect and dignity.

ESPECIALLY to those like Hagakure and Miruko.

All Might:

Oh All Might, how the story did you dirty.

If there's anyone in this story that I feel sorry for the most (That isn't Izuku) It's All Might.

All because of how he started off at the beginning, people clung to the idea that he's a quirkest asshole who Izuku needs to steer clear from... even though he's literally the one to save Izuku from literally living in misery.

All Might deserves to be an actual mentor and father figure for Izuku, not fucking Aizawa who openly expressed his hatred for the boy.

The League of Villains:

I already made a post on how the narrative did them dirty and I don't feel like repeating myself, so I'm just gonna leave a link here while adding this.

What was even the point of building them up to be forgiven by their foils if they were just gonna die in the end? It was all just a big time waster.

And of course, we can't talk about characters and how the author failed them without talking about...

Izuku Midoriya:

Oh Izuku... the most tragic and wasted main character I've ever seen in an anime series.

He started off so strong only to get worse as the series went on. He should've been the shining definition of what a hero SHOULD be! He should've been the one to realize how fucked their world was and strive to change it for the better and to prevent others like him from suffering like he did.

But... we didn't get any of that.

We don't get acknowledgment of his past, we don't get him rising from his pain and become something more. Instead we get a watered down version of him at the beginning who has NO reaction or introspection to anything whatsoever, not to the world they live in, to the way things are handled, and even to him losing OFA.

For some odd fucking reason, Izuku is never allowed to grow out "I'm worthless" mindset or realization that everyone in his life has failed him in one way or another. He just praises it all like the fanboy he is and just stays where he is.

And then there's the fact that he just flat out refuses to ever acknowledge his past in any meaningful way, as whenever he DOES bring it up, he talks about his past self as if he's a different person from him. To which I can kinda see how this could be symbolic of something... But it just doesn't work as it only makes him look horrible for forgetting his roots and just wanting to fit in with the other people with quirks. To which it somewhat feels like "Fuck the quirkless they're useless so why even focus on them?"

He's a hollow version of the idea of his character, just blankly reacting to things in front of him and praising Bakugou for being the best thing to come around. He honestly deserves better and deserves to be with a writer that won't bully him and give him the depth and development he needs.

Now who else am I missing...?

...

Oh yeah!

Katsuki Bakugou is still trash.

Look forward to the next part.

(Roundabout starts playing)

[ladyloveandjustice]

I felt like my faith in humanity was dying reading the tags on that Atla poll. Half of the hero team and one whole villain squad were women ffs, during a time when most shows still had on designated girl slot on the team, or maybe two for tomboy and girly girl.

"Being motherly is Katara's whole character" I see, I see

Wanting to master waterbending -> being a mom

being fed up with her own slow progress and lashing out -> being a mom

stealing back a cultural heirloom in spite of the consequences -> being a mom

taking on two waterbending masters and defeating one with their own technique -> being a mom

standing up for the oppressed and exploited -> being a mom

ecoterrorism -> being a mom

suggesting a kiss between herself and Aang and being offended by his idiotic reply -> being a mom

having big and impotant battles in all three season finales -> being a mom

lmao about the ecoterrorism you're so right and she was so right for doing it.

Yeah there was a tag that Katara's entire character was "being a Mom and her trauma" which again, I think it just straight up misogyny disguised as feminism. I've never heard anyone say "all there is to Zuko is his trauma" despite the narrative spending so much more time on him grappling with it.

Why is it when it's a female character, having trauma and exploring that trauma is a bad thing? Katara's pain and anger and hatred and grief is just as important as a male character's, but instead it gets dismissed and used as a point to get her. When it's a male character, it's "complexity" but when it's her she's a stereotype. The fact her trauma was taken seriously, that she got mad and wanted revenge and was terrifying when she attempted revenge in a way that was usually reserved for male characters is actually really important to me! There are so so many male characters that have this kind of trauma and it makes them cool and angsty and badass.

(lmao now I'm imagining someone saying "all there is to Batman is being a dad and his trauma". Why have we never heard that. god the misandry).

That's all there is to her character? Like what about her staunch commitment to justice and desire to put herself on the line to help anyone in trouble without caring about the consequences? What about her constant stubborn rage and desire to challenge the establishment? What about her resistance to sexism and willingness to challenge tradition? Her tendency to hold massive grudges? Her desire to make fun of her brother every chance she gets? Her passion for honing her waterbending and commitment to her craft? Her desire to fight and get better at fighting? as you said, her intense jealousy when Aang catches on to waterbending better than she did, to the point where she lashes out at him (she's clearly momming him there SUCH a Mom)? Her anger at her father for leaving her and her brother behind? I could go on.

"she and toph are not as complex as aang and zuko" no you just care about them more. Skill issue. (love how poor Sokka gets left out).

TBH I do think "The Runaway" exaggerated her motherliness (and in framing her as a wet blanket. she LOVES having fun and committing crimes. Though you could argue her concern there had to do with the gravity of what they were about to do and the possibility of getting caught, which is what she emphasized rather than it being "wrong" (i mean it was wrong. but Katara didn't seem to care lmao). if anything it was ooc for Sokka to be so into it considering his earlier commitment to the schedule and previous disapproval of theft.) But it also made the point she was very much forced into this role at a way-too-young age as a result of absent parents.

And she, notably, RESENTS that. One of the first things we learn about her is she resents that! She screams at Sokka that she's sick of keeping the family together, sick of doing his laundry, that how she's treated is sexist...it's not something she enjoys, and that makes sense! in the Big Joel comments I saw a lot of comments related to how she's parentified (using that specific term).

I don't think her love and protectiveness of others falls under being a mom, btw. There are plenty of times she acts as a peer to the others, or is even the immature one in the situation. Especially in the first season, where Sokka really had the role of the wet blanket (he was kind of parentified too, fandom just doesn't really focus on that. It just manifests in a different way because he was asked to be "the man of the house". His early sexism, his need to be in control, the way he often chides Aang and Katara for goofing off, his (sometimes very justified) paranoia about things going wrong and hyper vigilance about protecting the group and keeping them on task ,those are all things that partly come from thinking he has to assume a parental role imo). It is an established part of her personality but every time she looks after someone or holds the team together is not "being a mom".

If you want to see a Katara that's entirely defined by her trauma (her anger left out) and relationships with men, just go watch the netflix show or the movie. You'll notice the difference!

Well i just really went on a rant there. But I do deeply love Katara and she's my favorite and fandom misunderstands her so much. As much as I was talking about the atmosphere of 2005, I think there's something much more insidious about dismissing female characters but dressing it up as "feminist critique".

[odinsonslut]

4 am

⊹ genre: angst, fluff ending

⊹ pairing: george weasley x reader (implied female)

⊹ themes: slight enemies to lovers, slight friends to lovers???

⊹ summary: following the abrupt ending of your friendship, George, the instigator of the breakup, continues to treat you with carelessness and disregard. You’re pushed to the point of retaliation, leading to a cruel confrontation. George attempts to redeem his character and finally express his feelings.

⊹ warnings: swearing, kind of a heated suggestive make-out, a mean george.

⊹ word count: 2.1k

⊹ a/n: I haven’t written since, like, 2018. PLEASE, please treat me gently. I know I tend to overuse the same phrases within a story. I also suck at writing summaries. I promise there’s more to it than described 🫶🏽🫶🏽

It was 4 am when I jolted awake, still wading off the reminiscent agitation from a dream involving a sinking ship and a niffler from what I could remember. Hermione’s lamp was on its dimmest setting right next to where she had fallen asleep, book in hand, a muggle book I had gifted her since I rarely saw her reading for pleasure since we entered our fifth year. 

I turned her bedside lamp off on my way out, hoping the elves were up preparing breakfast. I’d befriended Winky and often spent time with her over butter cookies in the kitchens when I had trouble sleeping. Her addiction was steadily improving without the burden of her previous master.

I made my way to the common room, contemplating walking all the way down to the kitchens, when I heard a thudding pair of footsteps down the stairs. It was George. It was too late to act like id never looked up; we had already made eye contact. Our usual routine was to avoid an acknowledgement of any form. Things hadn’t been the same since he’d rejected my invite to the yule ball last year, though that wasn’t why our friendship had fallen through.

“He’s got you sneaking out at night now too?” 

I was taken aback. The last time we’d ever spoken was the reluctant exchange of Merry Christmas’ due to Molly’s prodding at the burrow. The ‘he’ George was referring to was the date you ended up with at the ball, Draco, the reason George had cut you off completely that night.

“Tell Angelina she’s welcome to join us when she grows tired of faking it with you.” 

I was furious. Why does he get to decide your friendship is over? Why does he get to be mad about your relationship after rejecting you? Why is the standing of our relationship always dictated by how he feels and what he wants? And why should I continue acting civilly towards him?

I picked a book off the shelf and bumped his shoulder as I passed him, deciding to return to bed. I had lost my appetite.

-

I’d practically sprinted to the great hall for dinner after a two-hour-long class of potions. Since your breakup, being partnered up with Draco for the next year was a little awkward. Keeping the DA a secret and him being on the inquisitorial squad just caused too many issues that couldn’t be resolved on top of the Gryffindor-Slytherin debacle. He was the sweetest boy, and being apart still hadn’t affected how he treated you at all: softly, politely. It was comforting knowing he’d always have a soft spot for you, but getting to the point of friendship would take a little longer.

I sat between Hermione and George, across from Harry, getting subtle looks from my friends. I was tired of walking on eggshells around George, waiting for him to dictate how our interactions go or tailoring my behaviour for his comfort. This was his problem, not mine. 

“Get yourself somewhere else to sit. This seat is spoken for”, he spoke immediately. 

I refused to react defensively. Instead, I picked an eclair off his plate and took a bite. 

Harry avoided looking at us at all, shovelling meat pie into his mouth. Hermione didn’t employ the same faux indifference, staring directly at us. George shifted a bit farther away from me and continued eating, similarly refusing to give me a reaction. 

“Where is Angelina? Last I saw, she was off ‘practising’ with Marcus Finch”, I prodded, refusing to concede

“Your desperation for me is becoming pitiful to witness; it’s pathetic. Keep her name out of your mouth; you’d think it’d be exhausted with what all you spend your time doing with it.” 

You finally got the rise out of him you were looking for, you pushed him to a breaking point, but it wasn’t the satisfying victory you imagined. It hurt.

I kept my gaze downcast, lightly placed the remainder of the unfinished eclair back onto George’s plate and left the hall. I spent the night on a couch in the room of requirement, unwilling to accept Hermione’s comfort quite yet.

-

“What on earth is going on with you two?”  Hermione was lying on my bed beside me, our hands loosely intertwined. She’d spent all Saturday morning with me, avoiding the topic of George completely till now. 

I sighed

I knew it would be an inevitable discussion, but a part of me wished I could avoid it into in-existence. “It was embarrassing, Mione. I think we’re truly done with each other, and I honestly feel okay with the thought of that. I know I pushed him, but hearing those words was jarring. It felt like a completely different person than who I thought was still in there. It’s the lighthearted and slightly sarcastic tone in which he said it that made it hurt. I feel foolish.”

“Nothing you put him through warranted that response, honestly? It sounded more like a projection to me. You were dignified in accepting his rejection, and he cut you off for going with someone else?”

“There is absolutely no sense in trying to decipher why the Weasley boys act the way they do. I’ve still never gotten a sound explanation as to what exactly Ron was on that night, either. I mean, it’s obvious he was jealous but-

“Yeah, jealous he wasn’t Victor’s date for the night”, She cut me off.

“oh my god, whatever happened to the Krum-themed anal plug Fred had custom-made Ron for Christmas third year?”

-

Opening my eyes felt like such an effort; my head felt like pounding out of its skull in an unfamiliar bed in the boys’ dormitory. I recognised the burgundy hand-knitted sweater with a large W embroidered on it. My heart leapt into my throat for a split second. I had worried I’d somehow managed to break into George’s room for a confrontation. 

He had been on my mind a lot lately. It had been about two months since the incident, and since we last spoke, and lately, he and Fred have been all everyone can talk about with the success of their prototypes and antics that seemed to have tightened in frequency the more decrees imposed by Umbridge.

I was rushing to get my things together when he walked in. I paused in place, petrified.

“You were careless last night. I don’t know when you became this person, but you’ve got to stop letting Malfoy ruin you. Muggle narcotics are dangerous.”

Just hearing his voice chastising me yet again pulled at me internally. 

“I’m begging you to stop saying anything to me at all if they’re going to come out like that; I will genuinely beg because I just can’t take this from you anymore, George.”

He looked unamused 

“When did you become so weak? Malfoy broken you down so badly that all you know how to do is make yourself small and beg?”

I’d had just about enough. I threw George against the wall yelling at him to shut the fuck up, haphazardly punching him wherever I could land any, the frustration that had built up for months finally meeting its outlet. Save from shielding his face, George stood there and took it till I was done.

“Draco and I broke up over two months ago. He’s a good friend, he does help me get what I use, but he makes sure I’m safe and alive whenever I’m using” I finally broke the silence, and we sank to sit on the floor across from each other.

“I know, he told me last night. He was carrying you outside the common room, yelling at the fat lady to let him in to put you to bed. He told me you’d broken up and that you remained friends. He also said you were developing a problem and needed me back.”

“I don’t need Malfoy speaking for me, and having you around would actualise my supposed ‘problem’. Why am I in your clothes in your bed?”

“When I opened the door for Malfoy, you asked me to stay with you. You told me you just wanted one night of being us again, so I gave you clothes to change into, put you to bed in my room, and slept on the couch in the common room.”

I stood up to leave without acknowledging his response, relieved nothing else had happened. 

“I don’t know that it’ll change anything for you, but I’ve felt sorry for treating you the way I did for a really long time. I figured you’d finally found peace with the situation and avoided trying to resolve things for that reason. At least, that was the excuse I forced myself to believe. I didn’t realise I was really just afraid of confrontation and rejection. Not generally, just with you. You were right about Angelina, too, apparently, she’s been shacking up with Finch since Christmas,” He continued 

“None of that means anything to me. For as long as you got to decide to do whatever you wanted with my feelings, all I wanted was to get past this. This doesn’t mean anything to me after what you’ve done with the importance I trusted you enough to hold to you. I’m well within my right to decline your apology. And it isn’t even to spite you for your selfish decisions. You were right. I am truly happy without you. You don’t mean anything to me anymore.” I spoke with my back towards him and walked out and back to my dorm immediately after.

-

George had spent the last three weeks trying to earn back a spot in your life as the friend he once was to you. He’d done everything you hoped he would for the longest time, and it felt empowering to ignore his advances and put your pride first. But the more time you reluctantly spent with the old George, the harder it was to stop your previous feelings from resurfacing.

This particular morning, if you could even classify 4 am as the morning, George had snuck into your dorm with Harry’s cloak in hand. You only agreed to leave with him because he promised you a visit to Winky. After devouring an entire gooseberry pie between you, George suggested a walk by the lake. It was tempting, especially after seeing how he interacted with Winky, as normally as he does everyone else, without judgement. But you pushed yourself to decline and returned to the common room together.

You spotted professor Snape on your way up, seemingly aggravated by Peeves, omitting a chuckle from George as he watched Snape flail around, attempting to curse the ghost.

“Who’s there?” He sneered

I immediately lifted my hand to cover George’s mouth as we scooted closer together under the cloak. We kept our eyes locked as we tried to remain still. His eyes dipped to my lips at the same time he lifted my palm off of his. Tangling his left hand into my hair, he used his right to guide my waist back till we hit the wall and kept me in his hold, his lips moving closer to mine with every breath he took

“What’re you doing?” I asked softly enough for just the two of us to hear

He looked into my eyes as he finally connected his lips with mine, our eyes fluttering shut after the initial kiss as we melted into it. He teased my tongue with him as he hoisted me up to his level, wrapping my legs around his waist. The build-up of tension escaped us with every rough feverish kiss. His kisses moved to my neck as he began guiding my hips against his, perfectly lining me up against him. I could barely keep myself composed.

“It’s unfortunate, the 50-point deduction limit per student” My blood ran cold at the sound of Snape’s voice. George immediately dropped me to the ground, where I landed on Harry’s discarded cloak. George squeezed my hand in comfort, signalling he’d take care of things.

He took a breath and stepped toward Snape. “I drugged her, Sir; she’s completely innocent.”

“God, you’re an idiot”, I thumped him on the back of his head.

We sniggered, trailing a few steps behind Snape as we were escorted back to our dormitories, not too fussed about detention every week till the end of the term.

End

✩ I DO NOT CONSENT TO HAVE ANY OF MY WRITING POSTED ON ANY EXTERNAL WEBSITES ✩

[amour393]

ok. dragons rising part 2 thoughts

these will be in no particular order but I'll try to stay somewhat organized XD

spoilers ahead!

(this ah. got long)

Characters

Lloyd: As sad as I get when I think about Lloyd growing up, I love what they're doing with him. Seeing the parallels between him and Wu is so poetic and I LOVE the dynamic with Lloyd and Arin. Lloyd is kind and strong and wise and he has been treated so well in dragons rising

Arin: Speaking of, Arin is absolutely amazing. He is precious and adorable and I love him. Sweet polite boy I love you so much you have never done anything wrong ever and I love you

Sora: Sora is fine, I like her but I'm not like obsessed with her character like I am with Arin. I love Sora but I'm never super jazzed about her. Her arc in part 2 was alright but I wish it had more buildup. I think with a few more moments here and there of her trying to use her powers without Riyu would have made the payoff much better. And I know they were trying to go for a "resistance never quits" moment with her speech at the end but. Idk it just didn't hit the same

Zane: Zane I love you. I feel you I also am BROKEN over Pixal being gone. Literally everything about Zane in part 2 was perfect. I love him so much and he loves pixal so much it makes me unwell. Also. Zane Day is now an international holiday

Nya: I love Nya's dynamic with Sora and how she gets to be like. The first positive female influence in Sora's life. Especially because Nya didn't have that as a kid or uh ever so I love that. HOWEVER!!! Oh my goodness gracious give Nya feelings. She has emotions. She has trauma. What are we doing guys. I'll go episode by episode later but I am incredibly salty at how Nya was treated in episode 14. and also. OH MY WORD. WHAT ABOUT JAY. You have said his name TWICE and Cole looked more distraught than you!!! You care about this boy more than almost anyone else in the world!!!!!!!! Why aren't you acting like it???????????? I see you with a lightning dragon but that's like the most we get.

Kai: oh Kai I absolutely love how they are treating you and i also hate it. It's like with Jay gone they were like haha let's make Kai stupid so he'll be the new comic relief! However I love teacher Kai. He is my favorite, the growth, the development, the parallels! Yes! Kai is an accomplished ninja!! He's been a ninja for over 10 years at this point!! He has learned so much and grown so so much since then and I love him so much.

Wyldfyre: I'm about to make a lot of people really mad but I absolutely despise Wyldfyre. I love the concept of Kai having a kid to train (and all of them each having a next-gen kid to train) but Wyldfyre was not the right fit and I just disliked her more every time she was on screen, which was really upsetting because every time it switched back to her and Kai I was already annoyed and I don't want to be upset when Kai's onscreen but she is just so intolerable it made it hard to enjoy Kai, which is so so sad because I absolutely love Kai! Wyldfyre is selfish, arrogant, irritatingly reckless, petty, and INCREDIBLY rude and disrespectful to Kai. I don't care if she was raised in the wilderness. Kai spent all of part 2 trying to help her be better and the most of a character arc we got from her was her. Not acting like a jerk. Which we should not have to be proud of!! Not being a jerk is expected!! That's not a character arc that's just being a decent human being!! I think Wyldfyre's character could have worked in theory if she had literally any likable characteristics but she just doesn't. I don't think I have ever disliked a ninjago character this much which is such a bummer. It fills me with rage every time they compare her to Kai. Sure, in the early seasons Kai was kind of reckless and a bit self-absorbed. But not nearly to this extent, and Kai was still likable. The things about Wyldfyre they try to play off as humor aren't funny, they're just annoying or gross. I'm not opposed to the concept of Kai adopting a feral child, but if the feral child is like this then I don't want it. Replacing Wyldfyre with Skylor or a new character that is actually likable would have made Dragons Rising SO much better.

Cole: on a MUCH more positive note, I literally don't think they could have done Cole any more perfect. I am SO GLAD HE'S BACK I MISSED HIM SO MUCH. Cole being thrown into the Land of Lost Things is absolutely heartbreaking and says so much about his character. Cole, who had an entire character arc over fear of being forgotten ending up in the Land of Lost Things? I AM BROKEN. Dad Cole is back and better than ever. He found a bunch of children and immediately adopted them? Perfection. Could not be better. He actively chooses to remain in the Land of Lost Things to protect them?????? Amazing so in character it hurts and I love him so much. A lot of this season made me remember how much I love Cole. I spent this entire season freaking out over Jay that I forget how much I love Cole and this season did not fail to remind me. His first line being "NO ONE TOUCHES THESE CHILDREN!!!!!" is amazing and perfect and so in character. I cannot applaud what they did with Cole enough. Well done. I am very curious to see where Wu is leading him, can't wait to see him in season 2. I will die mad he didn't get to see Zane or Kai or Lloyd but ITS FINE IM FINE

Geo: I would throw him in with the other characters but oh my gosh. Geo's existence is absolutely perfect. The symbolism?? The metaphors?? Absolutely perfect. Him being a hybrid of two peoples who have a reputation for hating each other being the Master of Fusion, of bringing two things that don't belong together? I am destroyed. It occurs to me that when they first met Geo was probably like "yeah, I'm half geckle half munce and I was exiled from my people since they hate each other and they will never reconcile their differences" and Cole was like "Well that sucks but I have some good news for you" but then Geo couldn't even leave to try to find Shintaro. I am depressed. I love love love Geo based on his symbolism alone, not to mention the fact that his powers are genuinely super cool.

Other Characters: when i tell you I lost my BLOODY MIND when gulch showed up it is a vast understatement. I freaked out I screamed it was amazing. It was so fun seeing Gulch again. This is the dragons rising I love, new characters doing important things and running into old characters we know and love. Frohicky is fun I love him. Lobbo has never done anything wrong and I'm so proud of him for winning the Zane lookalike contest. Slay king. Jordana is uh there I guess, she's boring so far. I will give thoughts on Arrokore when I talk about episode 14

Villains: Beatrix is incredibly boring and I am SO glad she's not gonna be the actual villain. Lord Ras is much more interesting and compelling (is Chima the Wyldness????? Because he is definitely from Chima and the writers are COWARDS for saying anything different). This is the first time we've had a Ninjago plot genuinely stretch across more than one season and I am sooooo relieved that Beatrix isn't actually the big bad. I'm really excited to meet Ras' master. I'm not going to lie I literally forgot about Rapton and had to come back and talk about him. I cannot emphasize how neutral I am about him. He is a Guy and that is the extent of my feelings. Same with LaRow I keep forgetting about her

Speaking of villains! That brings us to the Administration. I absolutely love it. The concept of the Administration is so interesting and I cannot WAIT to learn more about them and see more of them. There's something so interesting and also poetic about an organization of micromanagers being part of the same realm as the Realm of Madness that just. hnng. The Administration is totally sick and i can't wait to see more of them. Which leads us to...

Jay: Hm. Ah. Where do I begin. When I tell you I screamed, I lost my freaking mind it is not an understatement. I think I've watched those same 20 seconds like 30 times at least and I need those five lines tattooed on my brain. I have so many emotions. It breaks my heart. I'm elated. This is everything I've wanted. I'm so mad that's all there was. It makes perfect sense. Why would they do this. There's something that destroys me so much about Jay- sweet, kind, fun, creative, quirky, genuine Jay- in an organization of micromanagers. He is passive-aggressive and sassy and degrading and mean and I LOVE HIM. It is so inherently not who Jay is (except for being sassy I'm so glad he's a little brat) and I think that's great. It makes me SO excited to see what they do with him in season 2. If they don't do him justice I will RIOT. This has the potential to be one of my favorite plot points in all of ninjago history if they do it right, but if they do it wrong I will be broken. He looks so good in this animation, I absolutely LOVE IT. He is beautiful and sassy and it BREAKS ME that they don't know he's there. They were so close and they missed him. No one knows Jay is there. I am destroyed. He's a manager!! He's working his way up in the world!! I am so proud of him. He would buy himself a worlds best boss mug. Everyone loves him and they hate him. I might make a whole other post just on how I need that reunion to go but. I miss him so much. So much. I don't know how long I can wait without them knowing he's there. Go find your brother. You know where everyone else is now GO FIND YOUR BROTHER!!!!

Episodes

11. Temple of the Dragon Cores - Solid episode? It makes me curious about the lore. Surely either the Wyldness or the Garden are Chima there's no way Chima is separate. There are literally snail people and giant trees. If that's not Chima core idk what is. Rapton is there I guess. The guardian thing was cool. Lloyd dropping random earth-shattering facts is such a Wu thing to do I am LIVING for it.

12. Gangs of the Sea - When I say I spent this whole episode wishing for Bentho I'm not joking. I freaking miss him why didn't they mention him it would have been so easy!! Arin you are so cute and I love you.

13. Wyldly Inappropriate - This episode filled me with so much rage solely because of Wyldfyre. I'm sorry Wyldfyre truthers I am happy for you but oh my word it's just painful. She is so arrogant and just straight up unkind I hate her so much. This episode would have been so much better with Skylor instead. Or literally anyone but Wyldfyre.

14. The Last Djinn - Ok as a skybound truther I have So Many Emotions about this episode. How did Nya know this was a place of the djinn and she was just? Fine? Ok. Arrokore is fine as a character but i absolutely hate what it did to the Djinn. Having a character who has lost their whole society is fascinating! I would have preferred if they made him more of a Ronin-type recluse, where he's extremely paranoid and distrusting instead of just straight-up depressed. All of the experience we have with Djinn is that they are extremely powerful and evil and crazy and dangerous. Switching from Nadakhan to Arrokore was such a hard shift that as a fan it was so hard to be able to enjoy Arrokore as a character. That's not the main thing I'm upset about, overall he's likable and he's fine, I just think he could have been a lot cooler. My main issue with this episode is Nya. Is she just perfectly fine? GIVE HER EMOTIONS OH MY GOSH. SHE HAS TRAUMA YOU COWARDS SHOW IT!!!!!! Literally one of THE most traumatizing times in her life was directly tied to a Djinn and she runs into one and she's just. Fine? There was pretty much NOTHING that alluded to Nya having any sort of history with the Djinn except maybe a little bit of salt when she's talking about their showmanship. A Djinn kidnapped and tortured the love of her life. A Djinn almost destroyed her entire home. A Djinn captured her and caused her own possession. A Djinn killed her (more or less). You want to look me in the eyes and tell me she's going to run into a Djinn and just be perfectly fine? Absolutely not. They could have done this SO much better. Show the trauma. Show the distrust. Show me Nya jumping in front of Sora, show me the fear running through her. Give me Sora asking how Nya knows so much about the Djinn and Nya just can't bring herself to answer. Or she does! And we get a moment of "the only other person who remembers is Jay, and he..." [ACTUALLY SAD MOMENT THAT GENUINELY SHOWS THAT NYA HAS EMOTIONS AND ACTUALLY CARES ABOUT HER LITERAL FIANCÉ WHO SHE LITERALLY GAVE UP HER LIFE FOR] and maybe Sora comforts her! A "we'll find him, Nya" moment. Just a moment. Nya left and Jay fell apart and I hate how Nya is shown to be perfectly fine when Jay has been gone for years. We could have had a little arc of Nya overcoming trauma and distrust and learning that not all Djinn are the same! Okay, fine, we didn't get that. But how dare they let Nya start wishing. Wishes got her killed. Wishes caused the most traumatic weeks of her life. Wishes almost killed the love of her life. You want to tell me that she's just totally fine firing off a few wishes? SHE DIED. GIRLY DIED AND SHE'S JUST MAKING WISHES LIKE IT'S NOTHING? We could have had a moment of Arrokore saying they have to wish for it and Nya being like "NO Sora you can't trust him, they're all the same" and then Arrokore proves himself! Even so, Nya should not have let Sora make a wish without protesting, and she CERTAINLY would not have made one herself. As a skybound stan this episode made me so sad. It was genuinely a good episode but I am so so broken up over what could and should have been. Zane did put a picture of Pixal on a broom though so this episode gets points for that

15. They Call It Doom - YOU'RE TELLING ME THE ADMINISTRATION JUST CASUALLY ALSO SHOOTS BLUE LIGHTNING. FINE OKAY THAT'S GREAT. I already shared my Nya and Arrokore and whatnot thoughts but still. I'm still salty. Anyway this episode's ending was glorious. Teacher Kai you will always be famous I'm so sorry this is the trainee you got stuck with. NO ONE TOUCHES THESE CHILDREN lives in my head rent free and his powerup is so so cool. Baby Serpentine. yes.

16. Land of Lost Things - so you're telling me that Cole has adopted stray children who have run away from home because they felt unwanted and unloved. no I'm totally fine I'm SO normal about cole and his character and the respect he got and the sacrifice of him staying there to protect these kids. I am so broken but its fine I'm fine everything is fine

17. The Administration - See aforementioned thoughts on Jay. The Administration is so cool I love them and I am stoked to see more of them. It's giving men in black tbh. They are so cool. When they follow the directions and find Zane and they're like oh hi Zane! we didn't even know you were here! A) peak comedy and B) when he said "who did you think was going to be here?" THAT WAS DIRECTLY TO US THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT JAY AND IM SO MAD AT THEM FOR IT NOT ACTUALLY THOUGH. Also I don't remember which episode Zane Day and Gulch was in but every moment of that was both perfection and also the peak of comedy. The music when Jay walks on screen destroyed me it was so so good. He is a tired office worker the headcanons were RIGHT. Cannot get over that. I love the look of the Administration, the style, it all looks so good. The concept of a whole organization with an entire division assigned to realm reassignment is fascinating. I want to see Kai's teaching in this episode is great and the parallels between him and Wu were amazing. At the end of the day Jay was here and that gave me enough serotonin to last me a good long while.

18. Absolute Power - I'm not gonna lie this was hard to enjoy because I just wanted to see more of Jay but it was a solid episode. I wanna know what Beatrix' sister's elemental power was. Ras is very cool I am so glad he's going to have a bigger role. Nya and Cole's relationship in this episode is everything to me. They are So Siblings and also Best Friends I love them so so much.

19. We Are All Dragons - good for the Imperium kids starting the revolution, but Rapton being the traitor made no sense. It's like they tried to pull a Kallus in Rebels but there was not nearly enough buildup for this to make sense. I really couldn't care less about Rapton so I'm not mad about this it just didn't make that much thematic sense lolll. I did really like Sora's moment with her parents and rejecting them in favor of the found family, but her speech didn't make sense. It would have hit so much more if she actually explained what ~being a dragon~ means but she really just went WE ARE ALL DRAGONS!! and everyone went YEAH!!!!!!!!!! like girlie uh what does that mean. I liked the parallels but Lloyd's moment was better.

20. The Power Within - I still don't understand why Beatrix wanted to uh. destroy the universe but pop off. I'm not gonna lie I literally cheered when Wyldfyre got sucked into a mergequake. Kai's reaction was in theory great but i am still salty it was over Wyldfyre, this child has been absolutely horrible to you Kai what are you doing. I don't understand how everyone is perfectly fine when everyone comes back from the merge quakes when Beatrix literally went through one of them. I loved Sora's showdown with her parents and I can't wait to see what's up with Ras. I will DIE MAD THERE'S NO MURAL ON THE WALL but WHATEVER.

Returning Characters

I want Pixal back so bad. I'm very optimistic she'll be here in season 2 and I cannot wait for her to be back. I'm hoping that she'll come save Zane from, idk, sensing his signal or something.

SKYLOR. OH MY GOODNESS BRING BACK SKYLOR. I need her back so bad it's unreal

I want Vania back. I want fugidove back. WHERE IS GARMADON. WHERE IS HE. WE HAVENT EVEN MENTIONED HIM WHERE IS HE.

I miss Ed and Edna and Lou and Cyrus Borg and Scott and the elemental masters (WHERES KARLOFF I MISS HIM SO MUCH) and BENTHO and yeah. i miss them

SO, I have a lot of thoughts as you can see and this probably isn't all of them. I want all of everyone's thoughts please send me asks send me messages I just want to scream

AND BRING BACK JAY

[chaifootsteps]

y'know, im usually against using screenshot of people doing bad stuff in the past to "prove" that they are bad people nowdays; for example, when they try to get some youtuber cancelled because he said a slur 6 years ago or something.

Because that just negates the fact that us humans commit a lot mistakes, sometimes we do mean stuff, but that doesnt make us terrible humans that are incapable of redeming themseves, most of us grow out of those ugly behaviours, and learn to be decent human beings.

However, with miss Vivziepop its a different story, i like the fact that that we are still finding screenshot of her doing heinous things in the past, for 3 important reasons:

First, The things she did are like, actually really bad.

Its not like most cases where its like "omg this dud said the n-word when he was 12 and didnt know what a slur was! We must cancell him!1!", no, the things Vivziepop did are always when she was a grown ass woman that know what she was doing, she was just being evil.

And then you have her fans insisting those arent "that bad", thats its "a nothing burger", etc. And like, yeah, they ARE bad, those things are really mean and people arent evil for pinting it out.

It is important for growing up to reconise that our past behaviours were not good, thats how we learn better.

Defending a stranger on the internet will just lead you to repeat those behaviours of your idol because you conviced yourself those arent "that bad", until you do them and then you get hit with reality because, thanks to those behaviours, people dont like you anymore and see you as a rude toxic person.

Second, she proved many times she NEVER changed.

She still shows those gross behaviours, unlike most people she never learned to be a better person.

For example: that catcalling comic was made years ago, so, i guess it doesnt represent her views anymore, right? She is no longer misogynist, right?

Well, the way she treats her female characters, plus how she gets mad at people pointing out how badly written they are, proves she never stoped having those mean ideas about women.

Or how about those aboit how she was shaming a fan for not paying her what she wanted and making them feel bad for it? Obviously she grew up and never did something so mean like that again...

Oh wait! No she didnt, every once in a while we see her throwing a fissy fit about people criticising her work and liking tweets of her fans saying people are EVIL for not loving her and giving her all the support in the world.

And about those abuse allegations... wait, those are not even old, most of them are from less than a year ago. You cant even "those were years ago" out of this one.

So fuck the "those were long time ago, she changed!", thats total bs.

And finally, every time she responded or "apologised" for these acusations, she keep proving that she didnt belive she did anything wrong and its just "the haters" being mean.

Anybody remember when she made a weird ass apology that started with "i would apologise for existing, but i know people would get mad at me still"? Her responses are always full of "actually, YOU are the mean one for calling me out, look how bad i feel? Dont you feel any shame?".

One day she will def make a shitty youtube apology video where she admits everything but with the classic "i was in a bad place", "i didnt know what i was doing", basically painting everything as "just a mistake" and not her being an evil asshole. Then half of the video will be her ranting about how this whole situation that SHE created is making HER sad, she will probably said something like "i just wanted to make cartoons and people are being mean :(((" to victimise herself.

Mark my words, we will have a Vivziepop ukelele apology in any day of 2024, im really sure.

All I can say is that after everything she's put people through, she'd better have a damn ukulele.

[away-ward]

In my understanding this tiktok video (https ://vt.tiktok.com/ZSLt7AAgE/) literally is how will grayson treat other women that's not emory scott, including his initial stages of escort-fuck buddy-friendship thing with alex, and his character as a man and his relationship turns me off so bad, that i rooted less for him each time he appeared on page as i lose my respect towards how he treats women in general. Like we knew Michael and Damon were shit, but they both ADMITTED to it, but Will was always labelled as "amazing" and all good things, but his character was like THAT? Nah. The same goes with alex when she used others to hurt aydin, idk i find men, women, MCs & FMCs like them so icky, so i especially hate reading about fictional characters with these traits. What i hate about alex was that she could've been like emmy where she would've beenjust jealous n her head, and not humiliate or touch her physically to put her down, but alex literally just proves the stereotype of fighting over a dumb guy with an innocent woman. I disliked that banks and rika fight in hideaway for the same reason too. I can understand where they came from, but i fucking hated it. I hate it even more when other female reader cheered them on for it. I hated the will/damon/aydin jealousy scenes with a passion too. In fact, I would usually avoid these scenes in romance books if i can, because authors spent so much time wasting their talents on scenes of characters being jealous for other LIs, than building ACTUAL happiness & chemistry between them. I couldn't avoid this trope for this book especially, because i was never warned that the trope "other men/women drama" with a touch of "treating non-Love Interest like shit" trope were so fucking bad in Nightfall, it just ruins everything about Will for me.

Personally though, i'm not a big fan of both alex and will, and even though i know you're not very fond of alex too, i think based on one of your older asks about willalex's relationship, you described your understanding of alex's place in will's life differently than i would have. I don't have any problems with differing opinions though. I feel like you saw and put a lot more importance of alex's presence in will's life more than i did, or even will did. It's interesting how we interpret characters, because while i can agree with some of your interpretations of them, i have a very opposite opinion with the others. I also always thought it was kinda sad that for someone who was "close" to will, alex was the one who always "seems" to care more about will, than the other way around. But it's not like her care matters so much, because it still doesn't change will for the better, he only just got less lonely, but was still very self-destructive. For me, even though i knew that alex was a friend and family to will, and is automatically important to him for that, i never saw any hint that she was THAT important to Will personally, even off-page, like how you described in that willalex friendship post. Idk, maybe it's just me.

Because just like damon who had an exception towards winter, will too had an exception towards emmy, where he used everything he can as long as they're not emmy. So his relationship with alex too wasnt always sincere or deep, they only bonded through shallow things which then after one or two years of casual friendship, made them mirrors of each other's pain (or so they thought, they're shallow people, i can't always take their observations seriously), so i cant see why people fawn or get mad over their relationship too much. The fact that will couldn't get any friends outside of the horsemen if they're not their friends' girls, escorts, people he can pay with money, or people of similar status with him, even with all his status and privilege, already tells a lot about his classist and shallow personility. I kinda understand though being friends with people of the same class, since it's easier to get along with people who gets you immidiately without feeling like you're being judge for it, but still. The more that i think about this side of him too, the lesser i like him.

Idk, and that's the thing, when i read nightfall, i couldn't enjoy willemmy's story, because willemmy was busy destroying themselves and each other, then continue to go back to being jealous of the other, while always letting others intervene their relationship. Even when they had time alone, they always had to involve some third parties in their relationship, which pisses me off so much. It's one thing when people kept on meddling in their relationship, but it's another thing for them to drag others in it, just because they were immature, couldnt handle their feelings like mature adults. Their problems had existed way before alex and aydin got between them. We get the gist already if emory was a stronger woman, so i'm not gonna talk about her, but will. Ah, will, that useless fuck of a character, a character who no one calls him out for his shit. Now, If Will Grayson was a stronger man, Alex Palmer will never be able to slap Emory Scott. The only reason why his friends can treat emmy like shit was because Will lead them by example, just like how the horsemen initially didnt respect rik because michael humiliate him by example. Weak men are truly a fucking disease. Will humiliated and set a standard to how emmy deserves to be treated first, in front of stranger, classmates, and friends, i can't always blame others to not intervene or when emmy had to fight alone, because will grayson, when it matters, never really stood up for emmy. Even in high school he only did when it was for petty shit. The same thing happened when he humiliated her in front of everyone in the train, and letting emmy being insulted again by alex before that orgy. Idk, it's such a cruel thing, he was just as mean as emmy, but it was always overlooked by others. Will grayson is such a turn off for me fr, i can never see myself being attracted to a man or a book boyfriend like him tbh. Damon would never let anyone treats Winter like that, not even her own sister, even though HE was worse for her at first, and this comes from a damon hater alright. Nightfall made me so disappointed of will, i almost skipped nightfall's epilogue and his pov in firenight, if not for emmy's crumbs. All of that drama and pain because he was a pussy.

I hink i really agree with one of your older damon slander asks that said something about hating to read about whiny incompetent male characters, and it's probably not just because of my moral or personality, but also because we had enough of these men in reality! I dont want to escape reality only to find men like the horsemen in stories i read. Will grayson could've been like christian from the made series, but no, he was the walmart version of him.

Idk idc, will grayson didnt do it for me. Anyway, if you want a morally better and ACTUAL loyal pining of ACTUAL mean girl x sunshine amazing characters, i recommend you and your followers The Losers series by Harley Laroux. It's devil's night, but fucking amazing. It's reverse harem though, so if you're not into it then maybe you can just skip it. The main character jessica, was everything that pd wished rika or alex were and would be. Literally. Jessica was THE it girl, and she embraced it. This series was about going over the edge too, and be true to yourself, and just exploring topics of kinks, shame, vulnerability, love, friendships, identity, career, desire, etc. and everything amazing i could think of. Thats all.

I tried to find the tiktok but the link didn’t go anywhere/said the video was unavailable. If you manage to find it again, or one similar, feel free to send it through.

I mean, it’s easy to sit here and say I wish the series had been done differently. There’s plenty I would change in the development of the characters, but there’s only so much I can do before I overhaul everything and start with something new. In that case, wouldn’t I just be using PDs framework/bones to build my own story? But then, aren’t a lot of the series/books in this genre (especially on KU) just made from the same bones? Built on the same or very similar idea? It’s true that there’s nothing new under the sun, but where does inspiration end and stealing begin?

This is all just to say I understand where you’re coming from.

Taking Will out of the super special box I’ve placed him in, examining him without rose-colored glasses, Will’s nothing. Less than nothing, really. He’s not good, he’s not kind, he’s not all that funny. Adding to that, all of these characters, with a few exceptions, are underdeveloped and inconsistent. I wanted more from the mysteries that PD posed, and I wanted more from the “bad guys for a good reason” vibe. What we got was a bunch of immature and messy characters acting like they knew what they were doing, but in reality really proved that privilege can give you a lot of blind spots. DN could have been done better. I’ve never denied that.

If you hate when authors use jealousy as motivation this much, then I can see why you were frustrated reading the series. For a group of people who were about freely experiencing the world with no limitations, and openly shared their S.O.s with their friends occasionally, they sure were jealous a lot. But you know… people get jealous. People also react out of anger and do stupid stuff for reasons that I can’t understand. So I won’t say that Alex should have been like Emmy because Emmy’s reaction was one that I could understand and relate to. Because there are real people who have reacted like Alex. What I didn’t like is that PD framed it as though Emmy was wrong and Alex was right. The reality is that neither of them should have been framed as the superior one. Emmy wasn’t perfect, I just understood her better.

I can see why Will was ruined for you. Like I’ve said before, by the end of NF I was ready to scrap the whole series, save for the past scenes where I agree with the portrayal of his character, and wipe my hands clean.

I feel like you saw and put a lot more importance of alex's presence in will's life more than i did, or even will did.

Honestly, I never saw Alex as important until Nightfall tried to convince us she was. But since that’s the narrative it served us, I tried to examine from that perspective. Why is Alex here? Why is she even relevant? The easy answer is that PD pushed that narrative. But removing that, just analyzing what the story is, and what are we left with? Making it make sense is what I'm trying to do.

I also always thought it was kinda sad that for someone who was "close" to will, alex was the one who always "seems" to care more about will, than the other way around. But it's not like her care matters so much, because it still doesn't change will for the better, he only just got less lonely, but was still very self-destructive.

What I thought was fascinating about this point is that you’re right, but also…

As noted at the end of KS, Will only started improving when Damon returned and his friends started helping him get off drugs. They got him clean, but not sober. I think that’s what finally motivated him to go to BC, because he started realizing he had nothing to offer his friends anymore. On top of that, was he going to rely on them to keep him clean? He couldn’t. He needed to learn to do that on his own. First real grown-up decision he made. Of course, he then became the worst version of himself, too scared to return to a place that offered all his vices so freely because he couldn't trust himself, and too stunted to try. He did the physical work, but none of the emotional or mental work. Alex never helped him with any of that.

She comforted him. She made him think everything he was doing was okay. Maybe she tried to encourage him, but I don’t think she ever pushed him to be better like Emmy would have. Emmy would have demanded better (at least the Emmy that lives in my head, but I think the book version is at least closer to that then Alex ever was). I truly think if Emmy had returned to Thunder Bay by the time Will was released from prison, he would either have never gotten that bad or she would and forced him to get better earlier.

But Emmy wasn’t there. Alex was, and who know why Alex did anything. Was it her character? Was it her flaws? Did she not know what to do for him because she’s literally 19 and life suddenly hands her a client who’s been to prison and has trauma surrounding that, and is angry, and is numbing his pain with vices, but that she can occasionally see a glimmer of something more in? I don’t know. Maybe it was just excellent sex, and even she says that’s what she’s usually thinking about. She says he puts in the work. Either way, because of the way this story was told, it’s up to the reader to make up their own mind. No one is more correct than anyone else, least of all me. I read way too much into this anyway. It’s really not that deep.

The fact that will couldn't get any friends outside of the horsemen if they're not their friends' girls, escorts, people he can pay with money, or people of similar status with him, even with all his status and privilege, already tells a lot about his classist and shallow personility. I kinda understand though being friends with people of the same class

I mean… I’m not sure about this opinion. We see these guys host parties in nearly every book. It’s safe to say they have friends outside each other. And if you want to say all those friendships are shallow because they’re built on who has money and what people can offer each other, that’s fine. I won’t argue that point, though I’d disagree with it. But it’s obvious that these relationships are the most important to them, and since we only see a very narrow time frame of the series, we don’t get a lot of development of outside plot.

Even when they had time alone, they always had to involve some third parties in their relationship, which pisses me off so much.

This is partly why I say I would have preferred if NF had taken place in Thunder Bay like the others or was not the end of the series. The force proximity and limited cast really make it difficult to determine what is Will and Emmy, and what is the situation forcing them to act this way. Not giving either an escape route to see what decisions they’d make without the pressure is frustrating. There is a way to keep this plot and make the series work.

Now, If Will Grayson was a stronger man, Alex Palmer will never be able to slap Emory Scott. The only reason why his friends can treat emmy like shit was because Will lead them by example, just like how the horsemen initially didnt respect rik because michael humiliate him by example.

This is a fair point. I’ve been thinking a lot about friend group dynamics, especially in fours (gee, wonder why), and I realized something that frustrates me about the way the horsemen are set up. I’m gonna segue into something else, so if you want to skip the next few paragraphs, that’s fine.

Michael is set up as the leader, Kai the brains, Damon the passion, and Will the heart. In recent posts, I’ve called Michael the brain, and Kai the heart. Because that’s what makes sense to me in terms of the roles they feel. A leader needs to lead with something, right. It can be courage, it can be heart, it can be logic, but it needs to be something. Just calling Michael a leader because he makes the call doesn’t mean anything. What is he leading with.

But Michael is framed as logical and decisive, so I place him as the brain. Kai is supposed to be compassionate and wise, the voice of reason in the group, which PD calls the brains, but I call the heart. Damon can remain the passion. But that leaves Will with nothing.

Will, in my head, is supposed to be the glue that holds them together. He’s supposed to be the one they go to when they need encouragement, to see things from a better perspective. The one that fixes them, not the other way around.

If that’s the case, he totally fails in his role. He’s so weakened by his various traumas and heartbreak, he can’t fulfill that role. And that’s irritating because it takes the entire series for him to come out of that and then it ends. We never actually get to see Will as he was supposed to be. That’s what pisses me off. So, you’re right. He’s useless.

Back to your point, I think also would have preferred to see a stronger Will. A character who is so happy all the time, the glue that holds the team together, the one they go to when they need to be built back up, and all of a sudden the only thing that makes him so angry he goes over the edge appears in front of him again? To the point he becomes unhinged and starts wilding out? That could have been interesting.

And it’s interesting because we do see a bit of what you were talking about with Will setting the standard when Damon was trashing her at the cove, before they went to beat martin. He straight forwardly, in all seriousness, tells Damon to stop. Will can feel that way about her, but no one else. Somewhere along the way, Will lost that thought. Where’d it go? I don’t know.

Anyway. What can you do?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I hope I understood what you were saying and responded fairly. I know I come off as totally pro-Will Grayson, Will Grayson can do no wrong, but that's not the case. I do see the characters clearly (for the most part). Not only that, but I want them to be better. So I make it so.

[pix-writes]

They also said David was right that he and Ellie have a violent heart and then compared Joel to him like a parallel. Like its purely to justify the second game/season beacuse he knows audiences wont receive it well in the first one.

Like its not in the first season beacuse it would ruin the story which is why they try so hard to justify their position to trick us into thinking seeds of violence were planted when they clearly weren't. If anything the actual show makes the second game look even MORE unrealistic.

And Neil recently reaffirming he does not care for people who dislike the second game. Like im sorry thats not a valid opinion he unironically based this game around Palestine and cycles of aggressive violence and promoted it through sabatoging beloved characters in favour of his new actual facist fave youre forced to play.

A good game is not devisive amongst the fanbase like the sequel was. Thats bad. And I think he will be in for a rude awakening at the reception to season 2. Beacuse general audiences will watch the show more then go out and play a game. Gamers paid already it doesnt matter if we stop playing half way through.

But TV shows with audience drop offs are much more brutal for a shows reception.

The amount of people already who refuse to tune in for a future season just from what ive seen on here is staggering.

Its a bad, brutal, punishing story with no mercy. And it'll be an even worse show.

I agree with these senitments, mutual!

I find it intersing making Ellie more used to violence (or using violence) in the TV series - of course she is a girl who's grown up in a miliatry school in a post-apocalypse, so it would make sense for her to be used or more ready to utilise violence in terms of survival. But I don't like the idea that she is violent like David is, or comparing his version of violence to Ellie's (or Joel's, for that matter) because its totally different - especailly as neither of them seek violence as a way of abusing people or to gain power like David most certainly does.

When I think of Ellie I don't think of her having a "violent heart" I think of her as a scared and yet feirce girl. I think the only thing David ever got right about her was that she is very loyal. I'd say that she has a loyal heart and one that puts loyalty into people who she cares deeply about & that show her that she can trust them/that they won't abandon her/that they can protect her.

^^^ I mean???!!!!??!!!!!! looook! the sweetest <3

Its intersting to hear Neil said that, I haven't seen much about what the creators have spoken about since the first game came out (/little snippets from the podcasts), to be honest, but its very disheartening. (And as a writer myself, I can't imagine having that perspective or lack of thought for fans by saying something like that publicly!)

I could go on about how I don't trust a lot of the men involved in this story (Pedro excepted ofc), for the way they treat David, like he's not an obvious predator, and how I didn't like that Joel doesn't intercept Ellie during the restaurant scene, but I'd just end up getting mad! ^^' and on top of that, the mentioned narrative that Ellie is 'forever changed' by what happens to her in her run-in with David & his cannibal crew (according to Craig/Neil). I've always taken issue with such things, as much as Ellie is a wondeful well-fleshed out female queer character (mad props to Ashley Johnson for being pivotal with that <3); and it makes me feel that tlou 2 was just made to be a rug-pull type story (as has been used in GoT and TWD) like 'oh you thought this? haha, well think again! your fave is dead because of tragedy!' --> its edgy for the sake of being edgy and missed out on being a meaningful additon to the first game & DLC and its themes...

I'm thinking the same, that the second season is going to be just as divisive - all the people who haven't been spoiled by the gameplay etc., are going to have a similar rude awakening to fans when tlou part 2 was released, and I don't think they'll get the reception they were hoping for (but then again, perhaps the writers don't care?). BUT it'll probably affect viewership dramatically, especiallly if (as I've heard other fans say) that they will sequence it much like in the game where it jumps back & forth in time/perspective (meaning *spoilers* - Joel 💀 in the first half of the series, most likely). I just can't fathom that going down well with general audiences. That's a recipe for a tv series bomb if ever I saw one.

... ... ....

Its probably kinda bad I do partly want the second season to bomb, isn't it? 😅 don't get me wrong, I love the first game/season, and the actors etc who've worked on it - but I just have so much issues with how they've handled the story since then/their interpretations of it, like I do with a lot of other tv series/tv in general right now, that I would just feel pure justified satisfction from it if it did!

[sunnyie-eve]

Special Bond || 1. A Feeling

Paring: (Paul Lost Boys x Original female character Emerson cousin!)

Word Count: 1.7k

Warnings: slight language, cute interactions

Next: You Got a Little

Someday love will find you True love won't desert you You know I still love you Though we touched and went our separate ways

Katherine parks her bike, which kept breaking down on her, as she walks towards her work. "Sorry, I'm slightly late Maria. My bike broke down on me again for a few minutes on the way here." She walks into the shop for her shift. "Good thing we are hardly ever busy and Max hasn't been by. Now, on the other hand, your boys have." Maria gives her a look smiling. "They're not my boys." Katherine laughs.

There was this group of four boys that would always come in and bother her. She found them slightly creepy at first but she kinda gave them a pass for being good-looking. Not to mention she did have decent conversations with them over time it developed a small friendship with them. But she was still cautious of them since she only saw them when she worked nights and they were kind of a gang and were super mysterious.

"Lies, all lies." Maria laughs working as Katherine gets the tapes to go put away. As she was working Paul walks back in and Maria points in Katherine's direction with a smile. He gives her a head nod making his way over to her. "You're late, Kitty." He speaks up making her turn to face him. "By twenty minutes because my bike broke down on the way here again but I got it to start again to get here." She turns back around to work.

Out of the four boys, she found Paul was the best looking, even though they were all attractive, and was the easiest to get along with right away. The second was Marco then Dwayne and last David. David still slightly made her uncomfortable at times but it was hard to explain why she didn't mind the uncomfortable feeling.

"Paul, I have work to do. What do you want?" She laughs looking at him. "You, to talk to." He gives her a smile. "Go talk to the guys, who are basically your brothers. I'm working right now." She huffs trying to ignore how he was looking at her. "But this is the only time I can see you." He leans closer to her. "That's not my fault." She doesn't look at him. "It is your fault though." He says making her turn to face him. "How is it my fault?" One of her eyebrows raises. "You never want to hang out with us." He leans against the wall. "Because I have work and during the day you guys are never around. You guys are basically vampires." She of course jokes but Paul eyes her.

"What time are you off?" Paul steps closer to her. "I'm not telling you because you already know the answer to your question. You guys always seem to be waiting outside before I get off." She tries her hardest not to turn her head to look at him. "That's just by coincidence." He lies to her and she knew that. "Sure, Paul." She turns her head giving him a smile. Paul turns his head as the other three show up making Christine look over at them as well. "Boys." She smiles. "Kitty." David gives her a smile. "We lost you." Marko leans on Paul. "Had a feeling you came back here." Dwyane leans on the other side of Katherine. "As I told Paul, I have work to do." She goes to a different section with them following her.

"Can you make time for us after work?" David eyes her putting taps on the shelf. "And if I can't?" She smiles to herself. "We can just kidnap you from this place and go have fun." Marko messes with her hair as he passes her. "If you do that, I'll get in trouble with Max." She explains to them. "Trust me, Max won't care if you ditched to be with us." David gives her a look as she looks over at him. "And you how this how?" She raises an eyebrow. "He'll let you have a pass because he treats you like a daughter. What do you say?" David stares her down with a smile. She looks at the others smiling as well as they wait for an answer. "I guess one night won't kill me. But if he gets mad at me... I'm painting you four as the bad guys like I didn't have a choice." She goes to get her jacket and tells Maria she's out. "Don't do anything you might regret." Maria gives her a wink as Katherine heads out with the guys cheering.

"You are going to have the night of your life!" Paul picks Katherine up running around making her squeal. Marko runs over and they both put an arm around her as they walk around laughing. "Are we going to try tonight?" Dwayne asks David watching the three goof off. "I want to but the question is Max's blood like he wants or go against him with ours mixed?" David keeps his eyes on Kat. "You want to go against Max?" Dwayne looks at him surprised. "Not really but this is Katherine we're talking about turning." David looks at him. "And Max wants her in the family so we have to use his blood. He's the boss." Dwayne says making David roll his eyes.

The five end up having so much fun on the boardwalk for hours, Katherine didn't want the night to end. "My grandpa is going to be upset with me because of how late I'm out." She looks at her watch. "The night isn't over yet. We haven't even shown you the cave yet." Marko shakes her in his arms. "I don't know." She sighs. "You'll love it." Paul gives her a smile and she sees David looking at her. "Why not." She smiles going to their bikes but hers was missing. "What fucking asshole!" She growls. "It was a piece of shit anyways." Paul rubs her shoulders. "It was my ride still." She moves his hands off her annoyed someone stole hers. "Let's just go have more fun and it will take your mind off it." Dwayne tells her. "You can ride with me." Paul leans down into her ear.

She hops on the back of his bike wrapping her arms around his waist and liked the feeling making Paul smile. "Hold on." He tells her before they all take off to the cave. Katherine enjoyed the ride there having way more fun holding onto Paul than if she was to ride alone. When they get to the cave she wasn't surprised to see Star and Laddie. Katherine knew they were part of the group. She and Star have talked many times. Actually, she would say she knew Star a lot better than the guys. "Kat!" Laddie runs over giving her a hug. Katherine hangs out with Star when she comes by the store and she treated Laddie like a little brother.

Star looks at David and knew they were going to try to get Kat to drink Max's blood. She didn't want Katherine to be like her and Laddie, but she also felt that if she was things would be different in a good way. "You finally gave in to coming here." Star walks over to Kat. "Yeah. It's nice and I've had a fun night with the boys." She tells her truthfully. "Thirsty?" David asks her. "I'm good. Thank you though." Katherine gives him a smile. "Don't accept any red drinks from them. Trust me unless you want to end up like us." Star whispers making Kat look at her confused. "Okay." She trusts her because Star has never made her feel uneasy.

"Let's dance!" Paul shouts turning on the music so Marko grabs Katherine making her dance with him. She gives in having fun with the guys and could tell David wanted to ask multiple times during the night if she wanted a sip out of the bottle. But he never asked again after she turned down the first offer. He kept thinking was it the right thing to do with Max's blood. Yes, he was the boss but Katherine was special to the boys. Especially, Paul, he was head over heels for her. They all were but mostly him. They wanted to be her sire, not Max.

"Want me to give you a ride home?" David asks as they were all just relaxing now after some time. "Or I could do it?" Marko raises his hand. "Umm, sure. Why not." Katherine gives David a head nod. "I will see you, boys, tomorrow at work. Am I correct?" She laughs getting up. "You know it." Dwayne gives her a wink. "Night guys. Laddie, Star." She waves leaving the cave with David.

The ride with David was different than with Paul. She couldn't exactly describe the feeling. It didn't feel as right and comfortable like it was with Paul, but a feeling that she was safe with David as she held onto him. "Thanks for the ride." She hopes off his bike. "It's what friends do." He gives her a smile staring into her eyes. She's always known he had blue eyes but staring into them she had this whole new feeling hit her. "Don't look at me like that." She laughs, breaking eye contact. "Like what?" He smiles more and the dude hardly ever smiled like this. "You know what." She shakes her head not understanding why she suddenly was shy. "I know you should start hanging out with us more. It's fun, right. Kind of feels like you're at home..."

"Sorta it's hard to explain but yes it's fun. You guys aren't that bad or scary to be around. You know, before tonight... You used to make me feel uncomfortable but at the same time, I didn't mind it. You all did at first but there's just this-," David cuts her off, "A feeling you can't explain." She nods her head. "I know what you mean. As soon as we saw you, we had this feeling too. We knew we had to get close to you." He stares her down. "I should get inside before my grandpa goes bat shit crazy on me." She laughs. "Goodnight, Kitty." David says her nickname the boys called her in a tone making her get a slight smile. "Night, David." She heads over to the house.

[acourtofthought]

You seem like a fair and kind person to me, plus you do a lot for this fandom; we're lucky to have you, and you deserve the compliments! Also I wanted to add that the az-luc theory was nice to hear bc it made the whole situation b/w them less “teen drama” I feel like a lot of the times the explanations given for the tension among the 3 of them are oversimplified. And although it’s not bad thing when guys fighting over a girl, it seems out of place in this series. Idk how to explain it exactly, but yeah it just seems so random snd doesn't make sense for this situation?

Thank you again!! 😊

I agree (with the rest of your message, I wasn't saying I agree with be deserving compliments though I greatly appreciate them 😂)

I think some treat the Az / Lucien setup as if it's really not a big thing but it's so out of character for two of the good guys in the series and the animosity Az has for Lucien has been mentioned enough times that it doesn't feel like they're simply going to shake hands in the next book and walk away without further explanation. SJM has made Az's dislike of Lucien a pretty big plot-point.

It's hotly debated but I honestly don't think Az was romantically interested in Elain until Solstice of MAF. I think he was protective before that because to him she seemed to be someone in need of protecting but he was relieved not to have to get her a gift and while she was in the room with him at Solstice, he stared at Mor with heat and yearning. You just don't do that if you're interested in another female at that moment.

But he was pissy about Lucien before Solstice:

"Send Lucien then. As our human emissary." (Az said this line)

After saying it, Rhys takes note of: "I studied the tenseness in Azriel's shoulders, the shadows veiling half of him from the sunlight."

He also says: "I don't make a point of looking after his movements" and: Azriel's Siphons guttered, the stones turning as dark and foreboding as the deepest sea. "Where did Lucien go"

After that last line Rhys is a bit taken back Az's tone and the way he basically demands an answer.

When Rhys asks Az if he thinks Lucien can handle being around Graysen, Az adopts an expressionless face and says "Why should I be the judge of that?".

And Rhys thinks again on how Az is giving absolutely no emotion away.

This can't be about Elain, he's still lusting after Mor. He's either mad about the fact that Lucien was "worthy" of a bond (regardless of who it was with) or mad that Rhys is looking to Lucien for information where Az used to be the go to person.

And of course after Solstice Az gets fixated on how Elain gave him and gift (which he opened after blushing, lusting over Mor) but didn't give one to Lucien and suddenly Az is caught up in his thoughts of Elain and his anger towards Lucien has progressed to him really not giving shit about Lucien at all, to the point that he's annoyed to have to ask him for help in Spring, thinks he's not good enough and doesn't care that he's casually talking about killing him.

I mean....what?!?

There's deeper emotions going on when it comes to how Az feels about Lucien that I don't think has anything to do with Elain and I kind of like the idea of it echoing whatever fallout may have existed between Fionn and his best friend, maybe some sort of jealousy that drove (Pelias?) to kill him.

That whole "history repeating itself but we'll do better than our ancestors" is always a good trope in books. And I think it was the TOG series that said something along these lines but maybe I'm thinking of something else entirely, "all the original players have returned". Which adds up to there being key people thousands of years ago that made mistakes which led to bad things happening and now, all those that were once connected to the originals have come together to succeed where they failed.

I don't know, it would make this whole setup a big more grand and purposeful and would be something more exciting to sort out instead of having a fan favorite MMC go down a path where he's being a dick to Lucien all on his own for absolutely no reason that's important to the story aside from being mad that he's not getting what others are getting. Having their setup be an echo of history somewhat takes the focus off Az's childish behavior and puts the focus on the bigger story.

[iamafanofcartoons]

I haaaaate hate hate hate how people said Hazel's redemption arc made sense and Emerald's didn't?

I'd argue Hazel's does still make sense ofc but it's sooooo telling to me how ppl love his and hates hers.

Esp bc, imo, hers makes MORE sense?? We saw hints of it from volume THREE come on

If you want a short example, here's a screenshot by somebody on Twitter who noticed an annoying trend.

Here's the link if you're curious. https://twitter.com/spicybinch/status/1582743854477778944 Me personally?

I've noticed THIS particular issue.

Ruby Rose: Tries actively and super hard to always do the right thing and respect people’s choices.

RWBY Critics: OMG She’s so boring, come back when you have a personality.

Ruby Rose, Blake Belladonna, Robyn Hill: Makes human mistakes, proving both are complex character with flaws, capable of evolving.

EruptionFang, Vexed Viewer, their followers: OMG See? She’s not a saint, she was a horrible person all along, idk why people act like she’s a good person, she should burn in hell.

And then we have the straight white guys who are the villains in RWBY. Yes, I'm excluding Hazel for this one because Unlike Roman, Adam, and Ironwood? Hazel takes accountability for his actions, tries to make amends, and shows actual regret...so already we see that like Emerald, he is given more of a chance of redemption than the three.

Roman Torchwick and Adam Taurus : Does awful things willingly, consistently and without reason, and may make jokes about hurting people in general.

EruptionFang and The RWBY Rewrite folks: OMG he’s so funny and hot. I love bad boys/villains/bad people. They MUST be morally grey, cause they're so cool, they must have a tragic backstory justifying their actions.

James Ironwood: Has a pathetic excuse for his actions, blames it on other people, never takes accountability, and does a teeny tiny good thing (Think of it as nepotism) and throws outbursts when he doesn’t get his way.

Fandom on all 3 men: OMG, he is so sad, my poor baby, he deserves so much better, my heart is breaking for him. He is a complex character  with so many layers and he owns their horrible disgusting actions. But his actions are not his own fault. He has trauma. OMG so hot.

I mean they also scream character assassination when it comes to male antagonists, but let me ask you this.

You notice how these critics look at a robotic acting nanny for Penny Polendina by the name of Ciel Soleil, who only had 60 seconds of screentime, and whine about wasted potential?

Several things to keep in mind. 1, these people only call v1-3 "peak animation" because they put Monty on a pedestal, and because they were obsessed with yang's chest size. That's it.

2. These people are not used to women characters having more complexity than a male character. They were fed a diet of media that treated female characters badly in one way or another.

3. Last but not least. ANYTHING Miles and Kerry do, or ANYTHING a RWBY fan does, people will hold under a microscope. Yet insulting the show and the fandom gets people put on a pedestal.

The next time you see somebody get mad at female characters in RWBY getting some form of redemption? Check their comment or post history and see if maybe they have some weird issue towards women...or LGBT.

You ever noticed how these critics who claim to be fine with LGBT shipping or at least wlw shipping get so upset and uncomfortable at the mere thought of mlm shipping?

[yo-namine]

Okay, one more thing and I'll shut up.

I guess what really bugs me about the "KH1 is also Kairi’s fault because she hurt Riku’s feelings" stuff is that – aside from it not being true because she quite literally did nothing to him – is that it comes off as kind of entitled? Especially when you consider the whole "Riku is actually the light" argument fans were pushing post-KH3.

It’s like, if Kairi does something good like saving Sora in KH3 – something totally unique to her abilities as a Princess of Heart – well, Actually, she couldn’t have possibly done that herself. Riku should get credit for that.

But if Riku does something wrong – like letting his ambition override his love for his friends (something that lays the foundation of his entire redemption arc in this series) – Kairi deserves the blame. Because she should’ve been nice to him or something (never mind that she is, lmao. She just teases him the same way he does her. Because they’re friends.).

And I used to just chalk all this up to standard shipping nonsense (for obvious reasons), but honestly, sometimes it really does come off as straight-up misogyny. Like sure, a male character did something wrong, but this female character should’ve stopped him. Or she could’ve prevented it by placating him more, or by giving him whatever it was he felt entitled to.

And it’s frustrating because Riku is a fascinating and well-written character, but that’s mostly due to his redemption arc which you can’t fully appreciate if you ignore his single-mindedness and entitlement at the start of KH1 and instead just blame Kairi.

And I’m not saying everyone who claims Kairi owes something to Riku for KH1 is doing it to be an asshole or even consciously doing anything, really. Odds are that it's just one of those fanon interpretations that got so popular everyone forgot it isn't actually supported by canon.

But I do think it's part of a larger pattern of how fandoms treat male characters who fuck up vs. female characters who have the audacity to acknowledge that he fucked up (like Zuko fans with Katara, or Snape fans with Lily), and that really bothers me. And I think it bothers me more in this case because – again – Kairi didn’t even do anything. She would be justified in being mad at Riku, but she never is. By the time you get her to the Traverse Town waterway, it's clear that she sees Riku a victim who needs help, not a perpetrator. Kairi merely made a single (accurate) observation about him back home that wasn’t even critical of him in any way, and fandom blew it out of proportion.

Anyway, this post is too damn long, so TL;DR: Kairi Did Nothing Wrong in KH1, and I just wish fandom would give her less flack for things she doesn’t do and more credit for what she does do.

[mypralaya]

Hello you just get disjointed Haven thoughts today. It’s funny how so much of my analysis on Shaw is so structured whereas with Haven it gets more emotional, but I guess that fits? This rant is really like THREE rants, the first one is about how difficult it is the handle a character like Haven without being Problematic and how I do my best to steer through these while staying IC too, then to thoughts about her relationship to the Adversary and its memory, then her child, her real one that never was, and likening her to figures that admittedly don’t really work for her as a non-Christian but that personally do remind me of her because I was raised Catholic THERE’S A LOT HERE

Anyway, I used to think the worst thing about Haven being brought back in the modern era would be the inevitable sexualization and whitewashing and so on, and probably more racist writing. But I’ve now decided the worst thing about it would be that she’d probably be a Girlboss, because that seems to be the shortcut that so many writers now are taking for a Strong Female Character or to right wrongs that have been done to them. And I get this is coming from good desires but it’s so inevitably bad , almost always OOC, and usually does more harm than good to the character’s portrayal. And for Haven, the reason I get why you’d want to do it (not that anyone at Marvel does, I’d put down good money, and thank goodness, but IF SOMEONE DID) is the same reasons I just don’t think it would work for her. And no one suggested it would, I am just arguing against hypothetical situations in my head, because I am like that. Anyway, a big component of the Girlboss is she’s right about everything and knows it and she’s very determined in making sure other characters and the readers know it and she will call out and shoot down every real and imagined slight against her, often violently. But Haven, though WE know she was treated terribly by the narrative and frankly also by the heroes, died with the horrible knowledge that SHE WAS WRONG and that her mistake, whether her fault or not, doomed the world (as far as she knew) She died knowing all the horrible things she did and caused with the belief it was all for a greater end that would justify the means, was actually FOR NOTHING. That her greatest and most deeply held convictions were nothing but a joke by a demon to pass the time, and she had made so many others SUFFER for that. It had to be a hideous experience, one of incredibly crushing pain, but also a HUMBLING one. On a meta level we’re all in Haven’s corner (OR DAMN WELL SHOULD BE) but in-universe she has to face she was as wrong as anyone could be and it had massive consequences. So what sense would it make for her to swagger back into the story calling out all the “good guys” for being shitty to her when it turns out they were retroactively justified and it would have undeniably been BETTER if they’d stopped her? I guess you could justify it in that she’s angry at their treatment nonetheless because it was BEFORE they knew her Evil Plans, or being angry at Xavier because she canonically knows that he sensed another mind inside her, so why didn’t he do anything? But I don’t think that makes sense for her character either. We know she’s not the type to blame others even when they have done her LEGITIMATE WRONG. When she talks to Xavier about the man she loved and who abandoned her pregnant, she has no animosity in her phrasing towards him, just shame and reprimand at HERSELF for being “selfish” in that she abandoned her work and the children in order to have a love affair. She’s not mad at HIM even NOW. And she’s very obviously quick to forgive others; when she flees from Xavier because he kept essentially ASSAULTING her by going into her mind past what she was comfortable with and she KEPT ASKING HIM TO STOP, afterwards she doesn’t think of him with ANY animosity. Quite the reverse, actually. She thinks about how she still does love and respect him. She intends to kill him, because she now knows she has to as he stands in opposition to her, but she’s very sad about it, thinking how she will be sure to slay him with compassion and will weep for him after, and then prays with her “child”. So like, god, if she did come back? She’d probably be so painfully repentant and apologetic, especially to him and X-Factor, and god that is SO UNCOMFY given the racial dynamics here. Which…tracks, because Haven’s whole story is very uncomfy in terms of the intersections of racism, misogyny, and xenophobia. But I also don’t think making her an aggro unrepentant Girlboss would be the answer either. Myself, I DO make her very often unsure and demurring and Taking A Lot of Shit but I also try to be conscious in portraying this as an aspect of trauma, that we have SEEN in canon is HOW she reacts to trauma, and not Just How Brown Women Are since the passive submissive brown woman is SUCH a thing and like, I’m a white Western woman, it’s a dicey thing to handle and I’m not even gonna pretend I get it right all the time—-which is, thank god I’m not actually writing her for Marvel, even if I want to. If I ever was, I’d only take the offer if I could work with a South Asian co-author, I don’t wanna fuck this up in a PUBLISHED WORK. But rest assured I’m not fetishizing this, or holding it up as a Good Thing on her part to be this way, or doing it thoughtlessly, I think about this a lot. And of course her developing from this WOULD BE GREAT AND END GOAL but also real development cannot be rushed. I hate quick fixes in canon, I hate them so much. It’s so cheap and not reflective of reality OR satisfying as an escape. Coming back to stereotypes, there’s also the worry about casting a WOC as a helper and caregiver and like. . .she is, she absolutely is. But I also always have worry about that for obvious reasons. And like. . .so I think Haven is this way because she is a truly good person who canonically has despised the inequality and suffering in the world since childhood and been trying to stop it since she was a kid. As a little she’s said she was tormented by knowing that beyond her privileged world there was so much pain, and tormented by her inability to stop it, and she prayed to God every night to do something. And as an adult—a teen, actually–she went out and did it HER DAMN SELF. And that’s…GREAT. I would never take that away, it’s a key aspect of her character. And alas, as mentioned, she also thinks HAVING ANYTHING FOR HERSELF and taking a break to FALL IN LOVE is SELFISH OF HER and then canon validated that by PUNISHING HER IN THE WORST WAY FOR IT. Again, thorny as hell character here. But I also think, while this is natural for her, it’s also firstly more comforting for her to be the caregiver and in that role because it means the focus is off HER trauma, the acknowledgement is not on HER pain, so she can ignore it too. It gives her control, keeps her in a role that is comforting to HER too. And lbr, she’s societally rewarded by conforming to this role, and would probably face societal consequences if she deviated from it. It’s like how I’m a very naturally feminine person, I think that’s just how I am, but it’s also delusional to think that the fact I’m societally valued and benefitted for this as a cis woman isn’t a factor in this. It’s like that. Like how I’ve also noticed how SUPER FEMME she is and I think she IS JUST LIKE THAT but also she’s a dark-skinned WOC who is six feet tall, so like she probably does have to be Extra Gender Conforming just to get treated like a proper woman. Like Mommy Fortuna putting a false horn on a real unicorn to make people see a unicorn who didn’t believe in them. That’s the angle I try to approach things from, that it’s not simply that she isn’t anything more than a caretaker, but she IS sincerely one BUT also that she locks herself into that box due to societal pressure AND trauma, and all three things can be true at once. Speaking of The Last Unicorn, I couldn’t tell you WHY but I tend to associate it with Haven. In particular, the bit where the Unicorn says “I am no longer like the others. I have been mortal, and part of me is mortal yet” but in reverse. She held a cosmic entity within her body for twenty years and she is fundamentally separate from humanity for that, even though she’s functionally once more a normal human again as she always really was. She cannot go back from that. And in some sick way, she misses the Adversary. I’ve written about this before, but for 20 years she believed this was her divine unborn child talking to her, a constant companion she looked at with love and trust. It’s hard not to miss that lie, even knowing what it was now. I usually think of “Not once did the beast look back before leaving me behind” from Petshop of Horrors and “ I’ve never forgotten him. Dare I say I miss him? I do. I miss him. I still see him in my dreams. They are nightmares mostly, but nightmares tinged with love. Such is the strangeness of the human heart. I still cannot understand how he could abandon me so unceremoniously, without any sort of goodbye, without looking back even once. ❞ from Life of Pi with regards to this, but I also think “.and to this hour the image of Carmilla returns to mind with ambiguous alterations--sometimes the playful, languid, beautiful girl; sometimes the writhing fiend I saw in the ruined church; and often from a reverie I have started, fancying I heard the light step of Carmilla at the drawing room door.” from Carmilla is good too. Her relationship with the Adversary was not romantic but the sentiment is the same, of knowing what a monster this was now, of knowing how you were preyed on, yet unable to stop missing the good times too, even though you KNOW. It reminds me a lot of how many abuse survivors remember their abusers. I think she thinks of it a lot like that. And god it just always kills me how, on top of everything, she lost her child. It was a new meat suit for the Adversary before it was even through her first trimester. I think you can mourn something that never existed, something you only thought existed, something that could have existed but failed to. I think she does. And speaking of the Adversary taking twenty years of her life, ultimately her life itself, and everything she stood for, and then her baby too. . .that’s why I’m always reminded of the Biblical woman clothed with the sun, and the dragon lying in wait to devour her child. Haven wore shining armor, and her child WAS devoured by the great dragon (which obviously represents Satan, which is a word that LITERALLY translates to “Adversary”), and it didn’t even need to wait til birth. And I wouldn’t actually use this metaphor for her if I was writing for canon, because it’s very Christian and Haven is not, but it’s what comes to MY mind as someone raised Catholic and whom this image very much scared when I was little, and I always mentally conflated the woman with Mary whom I also tend to think of in conflation with Haven even if, again, not something I’d write. But like I said, raised Catholic, so that imagery is very much ingrained in my consciousness. And probably why I gravitate so hard towards mother goddess figures. Anyway I’ll stop with the stream of consciousness now and go draw dgjsj

[m0tel6mxzzy]

I will never not be mad at what they did to Cassie's character.. Cassie in s1 wasn't perfect ( she cheated, let guys hit it because she sought love and attention, drank and took drugs when feeling bad etc.) she reminded me of me when I was her age honestly. And I know growth isn't linear but I feel like they kinda murdered her character and instead of exploring why she feels like she needs attention from ( possibly bad ) men they made her out to be this crazy love obsessed girl with no regards for her friends. She obviously has daddy issues and a need to be loved but imo they took it too far and there was so much more they could've done in much better ways even while keeping the same storyline..

( they kinda murdered most characters tho ) But I'd like to hear your opinion on Cassie since most people seem to hate her because of S2.

i actually have a deep love and admiration for cassie despite not relating to her family life, but totally knowing what it’s liked to be over sexualized by men, often older and adultified as a tween/teenager for the way my body looked. eventually you get used to being catcalled and treated like and object, and when I was younger, confused that for being “liked” even if things never got past objectifying comments on my body from strangers.

i also believe her character was ruined, and that there was so deeply a way to emphasize that cassie was missing a sort of love in her life, but that it could only be found on her friends and family she knew she could depend on, not her boyfriends. a big issue i have w how levinson writes female characters is that he is spot on w how their pasts make them who they are, but let’s their future revolve around men as if their traumas that haven’t been fully processed aren’t complicated enough.

that support to lean on just couldn’t be mckay, nate, or her father, who isn’t worth his salt but cassie dearly misses. i’m glad cassie and mckay broke up, but i do also think his trauma from the hazing was never actually processed either, yet we constantly have to have nate’s elaborated. nate is 99% of the problem w how the show went downhill in s2. and all he does is manipulate every girl in the show outside rue. i also do want rue and nate to interact again, w rue in a much better place and nate falling from grace.

and cassie clearly never liked nate, she liked the idea of someone paying attention to her that disregarded her past even if nate was just as much a culprit in cyberbullying cassie even if he pretended not to care. obviously, nate knows when to hold his tongue and not use information to blackmail and or demean others when he wants positive reinforcement from them. (ex: maddy, who he’d loved bombed constantly in efforts to get her back so she wouldn’t expose his abuse)

(ex 2: mckay of all people wanting the benefit of dating cassie, but still slut shaming her and not at all considering why so many guys in her school had taken advantage of her in a similar manner then left.)

i believe cassie can still be salvaged whereas nate has become the one punch man of the series (wins everything, no consequences but occasionally he gets his feelings hurt but levinson is constantly trying to bring pity on him, it’s getting boring) as well as jules. the only way to fix him is to make him crumble under the weight of his insecurity with a refusal to better himself in college.

the only way to fix cassie and jules after the s2 ooc butchering is show how out of character their actions were but that, undeniably, they happened and rue and maddy are allowed to feel hurt, but their feelings are also valid and when both are ready, a civil conversation to mend things even if they may never be as full close again can be had. episodes dedicated to these discussions sound wonderful. along w glittery visualization s1 once had to show the girls trying to come to a compromise back to how their s1 bonds.

but also drastic changes in appearance. rue dressing more “formal but casual” while maddy more mature and sophisticated (like a mini maddyfied-samantha) , jules more androgynous if she so chooses rather than letting elliot influence her gender expression, and cassie dressing in ways that may not be as “flattering” but do compliment her color wise with a darker, less bubbly color palette and don’t emphasis dressing a certain way to mimic matter or please nate. i’d love seeing her in flannel or plaid skirts w touches of black/dark blue/maroon red/silver and more of a messy grunge inspired look but akin to cassie from skins, who dressed strange even though not fully alternative or emo most of the time.

altho i totally believe there’s a way for maddy and cassie to get back together in college, and that’s forced proximity. both of them living in the same dorm hall and seeing each other’s names on the doors, but second guessing that it could really be them, because cassie and maddy are quite common names. cassie apologizing for how she hurt maddy and disregarded her feelings for so long while wanting her own to be acknowledged, but also explaining that in some ways nate had manipulated her and much of the lines of consent were blurred considering cassie was nearly wasted and nate was slightly drunk but could still drive.

and cassie going to therapy for having symptoms of what is essentially alcoholism and functional major depression. i do not at all believe it is low grade as rue said, bc on multiple occasions cassie shows severe emotional disturbance that harms herself and others and is given to reckless, impulsive behavior that warrants some sort of extensive psychiatric treatment often seen in those w mdd

i’ve heard some ppls theories that cassie has borderline personality disorder and depression, which i think could be interesting if represented well, especially for a popular tv show. bpd is often stigmatized for those who have it and showing cassie going thru the worst and coming out better able to manage her mental illness(es) despite it being clear she will always have some difficulty and barriers to managing them, and that some days will be better than others. also, having lexi and her mom more sympathetic toward her mental struggles rather than her mother making her out to be just some overdramatic drama queen. bc sue supported cassie wonderfully during her grapple w the abortion.

and truly, there’s no character i’ve given up on except nate. cassie, jules, maddy, and in the absence of kat, development for her, still have so much potential. rue i believe was the only s2 character i believe was consistent from s1 and on even if i have mixed feelings on if she’d actually kiss elliot just to make jules, who she spent her nights crying over, jealous.

[lemonhemlock]

"You can't whitewash one to the extreme, while giving the other the worst possible interpretation. In a story that is famous for the "both sides bad, all war terrible" angle." But why you speak as if the show ended? Maybe in upcoming seasons they won't whitewash Rhaenyra anymore? Especially after the last scene when she is personification of fury and rage? Because they only whitewashed her when it comes to Vaemond death. It's only 1 thing and surely in season 2 she won't be like she was before Luke died. It's a turn point for her character. Just wait to see more of Aegon and Rhaenyra in 2 season. I mean, I am not that mad at writers because I treat this season as the beginning. Rhaenyra will surely get worse. Maybe 1 season Rhaenyra (especially her youth in first 5 episodes) is meant to show us how she as character started and as the show progresses, how she would end up. Maybe not showing all her wrongdoings in season 1 is meant to highlight her coming wrongdoings in season 2? To me, the last scene and Emma's facial expression really hinted hard what Rhaenyra will turn into. The girl from first 5 episodes is gone by the end of 1 season. Season 2 Rhaenyra will be a different Rhaenyra. We will see how she gets to the point of being called Maegor with tits by small folk. While Dany lacked screen time to show how her madness progressed, in hotd there will surely be enough space to show Rhaenyra turning into paranoid and cruel. To me it will be huge contrast between what Rhaenyra was as a teenager and what will she be like before she dies. I am here to see this journey. It would be boring if Rhaenyra was Maegor with tits from episode 1. I also think that Alicent and Rhaenyra relationship is not bad writing. It's basically the quote "The world will ask you who you are, and if you don't know, the world will tell you." They were once girls sitting on the grass, laughing and then their friendship turned to ashes. "Poorly written failed childhood female friendship as sole emotional connection in the whole show? Show being bland" Like excuse me? And what would be more compelling? That Targs are loving family until Viserys died? That they love each other very much, but after Viserys is gone they begin to hate each other? Sorry, but if someone wished for family idyllic life it's basically impossible both in real life and in any show. Conflicts that will ruin not only Targaryen's family but also other houses in Westeros and thousand of small folk didn't happen overnight. The seed was planted many years before Viserys died. Part 2

But why you speak as if the show ended? Maybe in upcoming seasons they won't whitewash Rhaenyra anymore? Especially after the last scene when she is personification of fury and rage?

bc they gave aegon the two things for which the audience will never forgive him - rape and violence against children. they even made sure to up the ridiculousness by mentioning they file their teeth and some of those children might be aegon's. it's nigh impossible for him to be "redeemed" now or for rhaenyra to "stoop" to his level

Because they only whitewashed her when it comes to Vaemond death.

a pretty significant one considering she also desecrates his body by feeding it to syrax

To me, the last scene and Emma's facial expression really hinted hard what Rhaenyra will turn into. The girl from first 5 episodes is gone by the end of 1 season. Season 2 Rhaenyra will be a different Rhaenyra. We will see how she gets to the point of being called Maegor with tits by small folk.

i hope you're right but you're v optimistic to think that they will turn rhaenyra into an outward war criminal / tyrant. they shied away from even presenting her as the usurper she is, by not properly explaining how aegon has the superior legal claim

I also think that Alicent and Rhaenyra relationship is not bad writing.

agree with this, i also liked the rhaenicent addition