#other arcs exist guys

[zxal]

who are you? who am I to you?

[bonefall]

.. opinions on wind runner? i feel like im one of the only ones that genuinely hates her sometimes

If you feel like the only one who genuinely hates her, I think you need to look around more. Wind Runner is a very widely disliked character, because she's often used within the story as a small antagonist who "threatens" the authority of Tall Shadow. Gray Wing dislikes her. Thunder is openly cat-racist to her. She spends several books trying to break through the moor cats' xenophobia to join a group that came to HER LAND.

Then, when Moth Flight is old enough to be a relevant character in Forest Divided, Wind Runner is turned into Yet Another mean mom the very moment Moth displays ADHD. She's contrasted to her mate Gorse Fur, who is a Soft And Good Dad, and ultimately MASSIVELY punished with the harrowing events of Moth Flight's Vision (even though, for most of that book, she's completely right.)

Ask yourself why they're especially harsh on WIND RUNNER for being mean to her child, in the arc with Tom the Fucking Wifebeater and his redemption death, plus Thunder being forced to stop being mad at his abuser Clear Sky, please.

To me, Wind Runner is an intense, ambitious woman who's demonized for it in a way that men just aren't. She's subject to several misogynistic trends within WC, plus a huge helping of xenophobia that goes absolutely unexamined. If DOTC cared at all about women, it would have treated her with the nuance she deserves.

Wind Runner is treated with nearly endless suspicion by Gray Wing through books 1 - 3, while he's bending over backwards to suck Clear Sky's toes.

Her wanting to join the group that came TO HER HOME and being a bit pushy about it earns a stronger reaction from Gray Wing than Clear Sky murdering people.

She's pressured into changing her name "to fit in," and it's still not enough. She wanted to join the group so bad she changed her name, at the request of the Mountain Cats, for a chance of being better accepted

This came after she'd already saved Jagged Peak's life when a burrow collapsed on him. She's plenty trustworthy.

She keeps doing shit to try and prove herself to this group of assholes. Remember Bumble being dragged back to her domestic abuser? Gray Wing interprets this as a power struggle, when WIND RUNNER WAS NOT EVEN PART OF THE GROUP AT THE TIME.

From Wind Runner's POV, she did something that the Moor cats wanted done. It was fucking evil. It was committing violence against another member of the out-group the cats see her as.

But who actually has the power here? Tall Shadow does.

Gray Wing said it himself that she could have come up with some excuse for Bumble to stay, and she didn't. In fact, any cat could have spoken up. No one did.

and still. STILL. Wind Runner gets nothing. Her reward is Gray Wing surmising that actually, her doing their sick dirtywork was a political move.

It's more consistent as a motivation with how Wind Runner wants to join their group. The thing she's been doing.

She only actually gets to join the group after Thunder starts publicly hurling slurs at her for suggesting they need to be ready for Clear Sky to attack them. "What do you know about peace? Last time I was here you were NOTHING BUT A ROGUE WITH A ROGUE'S NAME"

Gray Wing even starts purring when she gives birth, because her ambition goes away briefly and she "stops bossing everyone around." this is treated like a sweet thing. god forbid women retain their personalities when they have kids

She loses her first premature child to a seizure and Gray Wing starts proselytizing his religion to her. "Maybe it's a good thing your weakest child died because Jesus has them now" I want to beat him with a hammer

When her second child gets sick, Clear Sky has a bright idea that involves killing it. I refer to this as his "reverse leper colony" suggestion. He only develops a sense of humanity towards the sick when his brother's pregnant wife is in danger. Wind Runner and her kitten barely seem to clock as people to him.

It's only after her SECOND baby succumbs to a horrible, painful death that she decides the moor cats are assholes, and she goes to start her own group. It's LONG overdue. I was extremely excited to see it.

Now. Listen.

I've been treated just like Moth Flight before. I've practically heard the scolding in Book 6 Chapter 3 verbatim. I'm not downplaying anything about Wind Runner being harsh to her; being yelled at like that never fixed the problem.

What I'm saying is that this is the SAME arc that summons the hollowed-out ghost of Storm to coo that Clear Sky "never drove anyone away" with his abusive behavior and gives Tom the Wifebeater a heroic redemption death.

So why is the scolding from Wind Runner treated as unambiguously harsh? What's the difference between her and them?

Why is it that outside of this little bubble of the community, you can get buried in a flood of people crying about how "Clear Sky made Summisteaks Butt he thought it was the right thing :((( He feels bad about shoving Thunder's face in a weeping, pus-filled wound and trying to kill him :((((" but Wind Runner is mean about Moth Flight not catching a rabbit and she should be skinned alive

Why is WIND RUNNER held responsible for the death of Clear Sky's child in Moth Flight's Vision, WHEN IT WAS COMPLETELY HIS OWN FAULT??

So, why should I hate her? Because she's mean to the idiot protagonists? Because she's Yet Another Bad Mom whose actions ARE treated as Bad in the story, in the arc famous for openly weeping whenever someone's mad at their abusive dad?? When she has this whole horrific, unexamined story about how incredibly bigoted The Settlers are towards her and the extremes she goes to in order to please them?

I'm glad she's mean, actually. She should have been even meaner. I think she should have a gun

[fromtheseventhhell]

Zutaras are really the original self-insert, "we understand the story soooooo much better than everybody else" girlies and they just never moved on

[tastycitrus]

Harper's feel when her story is inexorably linked to Cass because Cass killed her mom, but the inverse is not true and Harper doesn't even show up in either group shot of the most important people in Cass's life shown in Spirit World:

[druidshollow]

"what would your character be like without their trauma?" is such a hard question for me because it makes me feel like a massive asshole LMAO

(im attaching a picture of a tundra literally to add context to my ramble in the tags because my posts are structured by a sane person) (you should read the ramble in the tags i talk so much about rivers fsr)

[byler-alarmist]

While I dearly love Byler Tumblr, it's important to me to follow some ST blogs that aren't Bylers because you'll have the most insane, beautiful, heart-rending and mind-blowing predictions about Mike and Will in S5, and then if Steve's arc is mentioned it's just "buh buh buh uhhhhh death lmao idk does he even have an arc?" 😌

[kurokoros]

I've been seeing the "endeavor is the best written character in BNHA" take for a while and regardless of if that's true or not (because that's an opinion, not a fact) do the people saying this not think it's questionable or off-putting that the "best" written character is a middle aged man discovering after over two decades that neglecting, abusing, and overall traumatizing his wife and children is BAD and he wants to be a better person now???

[lemongogo]

vash w this hairstyle is literally so cute.. .. wolfwood matchies or smt T__T

[yeonban]

It's lovely when I read a book and some random paragraph in it hits me in the face like a train at mach speed

[guideaus]

the fact these are basically the only characters left in jjk. one is dead, the others' fate is undetermined, and two arent even participating...

[bonefall]

Your talk about Briarlight's mobility device is super cool, so i wanted to ask for your opinion, if a cat was missing a single back leg (amputated at the heel), would a mobility device be helpful? I'm assuming no, i've seen cats with only two legs hopping around, which leads to question #2.

The character in question got injured and their leg needed to be removed, a Cinderpaw situation of sorts. The clan begins pushing the use of the mobility device on them, parallel to irl people pushing the use of prosthetics to make amputees look 'normal'. Paired with a severe case of gifted kid syndrome, where their missing leg made training difficult and they begin to burn out because they're suddenly struggling, they get shoved/shove themself into the cleric role. They're miserable about this; They loved being a warrior, but simple training they used to breeze right past suddenly became difficult, so they've resigned themself to picking leaves and chewing herbs.

I'm mostly worried that it will be read the wrong way. The character COULD complete their training, they arent lesser than anyone else, but the gifted kid syndrome hit at the same time, along with a mild dose of peer pressure and internal ableism. It IS a case of 'disabled characters go in the square hole medicine cat den!', and thats the whole point because I wanted to explore the ableism in that situation. They just think that if they can't get something right in the first few tries, they cant get it right ever, so they resigned themself to the metaphorical square hole.

I'm just worried though that by trying to comment on it by adding it to the story that im instead encouraging it. Any advice is 100% appreciated, it's just a thin line and im super worried about walking it. Anyways sorry for invading your ask box i just really wanted to ask for second opinions and i have absolutely no one else to turn to.

A mobility device would not be useful, nope! I'm planning a "mobility device that is just for everyone else's comfort" with Thunder Storm too, though that arc is ending with Thunder pulling it off (and then finding out that Tall Shadow exiled Bumble and flipping his fuzzy little lid)

I think what you need most is clarity of your message, and confidence. You know WHAT you want to say about this-- so start thinking about how to show it. How do you impart this to your audience?

The cat in question doesn't need to realize it. They can have friends, mentors, family, other people who come to the right conclusion. Set up their Gifted Kid problems early, and SHOW that they give up and do as they're told when they struggle with something.

You seem to be doing well by establishing that Examplepaw doesn't like the cleric den, and so this was NOT the right choice for them. In my opinion, that's something that muddies Jayfeather's arc in-canon. He's forced into it but ends up just... fine with it and good at it. The fact Jay was pushed there against his will doesn't actually result in negative consequences.

And people argue, "ah, well, authorial statements say ACTUALLY he ALWAYS would have liked it but he felt like he was fitting a stereotype by going in there so actually it's good that they did an abelism because he wouldn't know what's best for him" and like... they don't see the problem in that lmao. Don't Be Like Them People.

But anyway, that's enough advice rambling on my part. @The Audience, if you guys have advice for this anon, feel free to RB it with commentary or reply to it, especially if you have experience with burnout and physical disability

[perenlop]

havent read tbc but i think its so funny how shadowsight seems to be popular to the people i follow just because “the narrative treats him like all the female characters do so hes an honorary girlie”

[lasnevadaslaborunion]

I genuinely do love the prison arc and find it fascinating and I wish it was easier to find content and analysis about it that didn't veer to any of the Very Not Fun extremes

[daisyachain]

This is generalization but it does make me feel like I’m losing my mind. Anglo-American romance novels aimed at women—‘what if you, a normal person, were forced into proximity with the smuggest most self-satisfied person who physically invades your space, insults you, acts like an attention whore at best, borderline sexually assaults you, isn’t that great’ and then you go to romance manga aimed at young women—‘what if you, a normal person, we’re forced into proximity with a two faced bitch who tries to control your every move and also refuses to speak or engage with you unless it’s to isolate you from your peers or get mad at you for talking to another living person’

[miragemirrors]

re: last post it's insane how even in media where *everyone is a person of colour* (such as toku) you still get that like if it depended on The Online Fandom i wouldn't have dared to dream there were girls in kabuto despite hiyori being literally as important as the main rider

[calwasntfound]

some ocs i doodled last night :]