#poor little meowmeow who only wanted to help people...

[cleromancy]

[zykamiliah]

Hey, sorry to bother you, but I've been seeing something in the fandom that kind of confuses me, so I'm leaving this ask to my favorite svsss blogs.

I've been trying to get more into Shen Jiu's character, as he is pretty interesting and arguably a fan favorite, and I've noticed that, so far of the fanfics I've read, he is more often than not depicted as a good teacher. A harsh one, but still good? Or not terrible?

One that likes teaching, is involved with his students, taking the little of what we've seen of Shen Yuan's teaching methods and just, giving them a twist, "improving" them even sometimes.

Often it ends up being a show of how Shen Yuan was clumsy, not that good of a teacher (or of a Shen Qingqiu) and I'm... Kind of confused by this trend? Like, is it rooted in canon? Obviously this is still more interesting to read than the "SJ is just a tsundere that never did anything wrong ever" thing, but it feels kind of similar.

I cannot imagine a character as genuinely bitter and angry as Shen Jiu enjoying being a teacher, having a nurturing bone in his body or even being hands on in the teaching of his disciples, several of which he literally bullied out of his peak. But maybe it's just me and I'm wrong?

Was Shen Jiu a good teacher?

I guess I'm just curious of where it comes from. I like Shen Yuan's character, and it often feels like people take Shen Jiu's to show how bad at everything SY is, even if it isn't consistent with SJ's character and often lack nuances, in my opinion.

(Or even if the story claims loving SY while also stripping him away of everything that makes him interesting other than his obliviousness, but that's a whole other thing.)

Sorry again, and I also apologize for the long ask, I'd just figured you or someone that follows you might have an answer.

(Also, I get that fandoms gotta fandom, and I'm not saying people shouldn't write it or anything, I may be a strickler for canon but I'm not the police. Write what you want. I just wonder where it comes from, as I figure that knowing its origins might help me in the future, but I promise I'm not trying to start discourse or anything, so I hope I've made my point clear enough without offending anyone.)

hello!! :DD

well sj being ooc in fics is a common thing by now. people tend to portray him softer than he's in canon, to the point it sometimes turns his whole character upside down. in extreme cases, you'll be dealing with a bitter, more tsundere version of sy with sj's backstory, which is secretly what many people want IMO lol often this people also perceive sy as an incompetent dumb nerd that only knows about monster lore and has no other skills or abilities aside from that-- essentially, they fall for the unreliable narrator's trap of believing every lie he tells about himself.

it's never outright stated, but sj didn't like children, so is fair to assume he didn't like teaching or caring for them either. taking into account qing jing peak's toxic atmosphere pre sy's transmigration, AND the fact that sj was paranoid about being overthrown since he hadn't developed a golden core even after becoming a peak lord and taking lbh in, I don't think he'd be interested in teaching anyone anything. in a lot of cultivation novels, disciples are just given manuals and left to self-study them (like he let lbh use the fake manual, expecting lbh would die from using it. haha. such a good teacher!). this could be the case. aside from that, I don't personally think sj would want to provide any kid guidance. and that's not mentioning how he allowed and enabled bullying, targeted talented disciples, and overall was more worried about his own cultivation and survival and reputation than other things or people.

so where this fanon sj comes from? I'm not sure, really, but I think some people just want a version of him that's palatable AND defensible, like my friend furby says, a declawed sj that's just a poor misunderstood meowmeow who deep inside is secretly good and nice. it's a thing that people who struggle with liking "villainous" or "morally bad" characters do: twisting the narrative around to justify this character's actions. It doesn't help that he's SO complicated, and people who have very black-and-white thinking struggle to place him in either side of the spectrum-- it's the problem mxtx outlined through sqh and sqq's voices

ch.14 house arrest

ch.19 shen jiu

really, the fandom has just proved mxtx's point xD

anyway, there's a lot of misconceptions about sj. there are some pretty wild theories around. some fans also treat his abuse as The Worst Abuse in comparison to the Child Abuse he did, because of the (unconfirmed) hints that sj was sexually assaulted by qiu jianluo, as if SA is the worst kind of abuse and child abuse falls back on the tier-list ¯_(ツ)_/¯ because obviously anything that involves sex in inherently worse, apparently

in other cases, people are simply more familiar with the fanon version of the characters, and that's who they portray in their writing. after all, many people read the novel once and then go on to read dozen of fics; it's normal the fanon sticks more on the brain than canon (not judging! it happens to me as well lol) and those fanon versions are more popular because, as i said, this version of sj is more morally palatable (and bland and less fun ┐(︶▽︶)┌)

thank you for the ask!! :DDDD ❤️❤️❤️ i love receiving asks~

[tangledbea]

What are your thoughts on Quirin? I feel like a lot of people make him out to be some horrible father and I don't really like that take.

I'm about as invested in Quirin as I am in Varian (which is to say: not that much), but I think he's a dude who had too much on his plate and not enough screentime to be properly developed. I feel like the people who think he's a terrible father either a) really relate to Varian and have a terrible parental figure in their own life, thus making Varian have a terrible father makes him more relatable to them, b) find Varian to be a poor little meowmeow and feel the need to wubify him even more, or c) a combination of the two. (Please note: these are not meant to be derogatory, only observational. They are perfectly valid reasons to interpret something the way you do.)

To me, Quirin was frustrated with Varian and didn't really know how to handle his precociousness, and would yell at him when he didn't know what else to do. Varian was proven to be very headstrong and didn't really listen to what Quirin told him to do, apparently so regularly that Quirin's not particularly surprised when Varian doesn't listen. We don't actually see enough of him in season one to know what he's like when he's not stressed out, but he seemed pleased that Varian was going to accompany him to the palace, which means he likely wants to spend time with him.

And then, in season three, they are shown to have nothing but a loving relationship. Varian helps out on the farm, Quirin helps with Varian's inventions. They've reached an understanding, which removes a lot of the parental stress from Quirin's shoulders.

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for avenging my brother?

hiiiii ^^ so im (30, let's say M for convenience's sake) am currently the leader of a very big sect, which was Not the plan WhatSoEVER (i'll get into it). i was born as the younger sibling to the sect heir, which meant i had free reign to basically do whatever i wanted while he got the responsibilities and stuff! great deal methinks. our father died when we were both still young due to heart issues that run in the family and also being killed. since my brother had a decade or so on me, he pretty much raised me from then on while also having the new role of official sect leader on his shoulders.

again, seems like a good deal! he was strict, and really really insisted i practiced my fighting skills (like that wasn't the literal cause of our family's heart issues) to the point that one time he like kind of burned my paper fan collection in front of me but that's like it's all besides the point okay he loved me and i loved him and we were both there for each other okay? okay

anyway he had this servant/best friend/pretty sure somethingsomething was going on there. he was kind of like a second big brother to me. our interests overlapped and he also preferred stuff like art and poetry over fighting. he understood me in a way that my brother couldn't, and he helped raise me just as much, even accompanying me to my third year of summer courses. which lol was supposed to be a one year course but i failed twice. lmao w/e

things got... bad. a war broke out, the servant betrayed us by letting a dangerous enemy out of his cell, and he and my brother had a horrible fight that ended in the former's expulsion from our sect. fast forward yadda yadda this isn't so much the part of the story it's just context but basically that turned out to be a plan to get close to the enemy sect leader so he could stab him in the back. which turned out to become a recurring theme.

the servant, now a prominent figure in his own sect, my brother, and one basically-a-celeb from another sect became this big trio (and totally a Thing) because of the role they played in ending the war. servant-now-big-boy (let's go with snbb for convenience) used that position to send my brother into a cardiac arrest by playing a melody that was supposed to soothe him differently.

so now i was alone, and with one of the current biggest sects to lead, while all i wanted to do is look cute, paint and be bisexual. you can probably imagine how i felt when i learned who did it, especially considering how not only no one else knew, but he got /rewarded/ for it by becoming a sect leader himself. soooo i got a little silly and here's where i mighttttt be tah :3

basically i started a 10+ years revenge plan. i didn't really plan a /lot/ of it, but i knew i'd have to resurrect one of my childhood friends for it to grab attention away from me etc and such and so on and so forth. but basically i also got a gay and socially rejected teenager killed for that, desecrated the corpse of snbb's mother, paid some people to spread rumours here and there, possibly killed a few cats to lure a group of people where i needed them to be, and adopted a public persona of a useless idiot who couldn't run a sect for the life of me to keep suspsicions off of me for the duration of this, which was Also a part to get back at him because that meant he, as someone responsible and sooo niceys and oh won't you please help your poor little meowmeow with the big scary emails plssss (he basically ran the sect for me lol).

to top it all off i had him killed by the one person that loved him the most (mister sir basically-a-celeb. god his jawline is stronger than my will to live) (he has gone into seclusion and is isolating himself indefinitely to mourn)

but also all this allowed my old bestie to get gay married with his longtime heartthrob

so. aita?

[fairytale-poll]

ROUND 2! MATCH 5 OUT OF 8

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Into the Woods:

Aside from giving her several good songs, the plot of the musical explores the lessons she takes away from her adventure and continues past her "Happily Ever After." Her new found maturity is represented by her giving away her riding hood and replacing it with the pelt of the big bad wolf. (And she begins carrying a cartoonishly large knife for self defense.)

She wears the Wolf's fur as a coat after her grandma kills him. She gives her cloak to the Baker to help him. She's a badass. She's only a kid. She taunts Jack into going up the beanstalk again.

She's just a feral child tbh. One of her lines in THE VERY FIRST SONG, delivered totally casually, is "into the woods, to bring some bread to granny who is sick in bed! Never can tell what lies ahead, for all that I know, she's already dead!" Everyone else gets a major life change by the end of Act I - Cinderella goes from being a maid to a princess, the baker and his wife have a child, and Jack goes from being poor to being rich - and Little Red just goes from being a feral child to being a feral child WITH A KNIFE, which she constantly brandishes in Act II! And she gets a cool wolfskin cloak to boot. She also goes through Trauma and Losing Her Family in Act II. Poor meowmeow. She has a sweet tooth too and on the way to Granny's house she eats half the loaf of bread and all of the MANY sweets she has in her basket... so silly. She also has AUTISTIC SWAG!! Constantly misses social cues, super bouncy and excited! Basically she's just the ultimate scrunkly and you should all vote for her

She’s so cool and sings cool songs :)

(Spoilers) Bratty little girl who has no value of life in Act 1, forced to reckon with the consequences of everyone's selfish actions as a mourning and vengeful Giantess widow tears through the land in Act 2.

The most iconic little shit. I love her. Has a knife and laughs while threatening people off with it. Allowed to be more than just naïve. 10/10.

the movie is SO SUCKS and she is SO BADASS i love her. please please i'm begging you use the stage musical version instead of the movie

SHES SO GREAT like ohmygod first of all she’s written in such a real way? like she’s not completely helpless just cause she’s a little girl but she’s also not a cold unfeeling girlboss just cause she has a knife (unless you’re watching the movie but the movie sucks). she acts like a kid would really act in these situations. it’s a little depressing to think about cause it’s so widespread for media not to do this, but for all the shallow, surface level girlbossery in modern media, it’s refreshing to see that sondheim treated the women in his art like people. they didn’t have to be held to any sort of standard just by nature of being women. they are just themselves.

She's got really awesome songs + she's just a hungry little girl who wants some food and also to go see her grandmother. We get to see her process grief and learn how to be on her own and then we get to see her learn that she doesn't have to be alone because "no one is alone". We see her grow from a naive little girl to a girl who lashes out at everything so she doesn't end up in danger again into a girl who wants to look out for and be there for people because they are alone just like she was and she doesn't want them to have to feel like she did. Also she has a knife and she's not afraid to use it. Her first cape is somewhat magical and is used in a potion to reverse a curse and give this couple a baby and then her second cape is really cool and made out of the skins of the wolf. She group effort helped kill a giant through gaslighting, gatekeeping, and girlbossing. (and also in my opinion the wolf-grandma-little red cottage scene is one of if not the funniest scenes in the show) [also Into the Woods is amazing & I love it & my best friend played little red]

Tweenage girl with a lot of anger. There is no stronger force on this earth

she's classic little red but she's a lot more cool she got a knife from her grandmother after the wolf incident and she wears the skin of the wolf she also interacts with other fairy tale characters and uhm she's very much a little girl with a knife she's perfect

Edgar w.bg would want you to vote for ItW

Original Fairytale:

The girl, the myth, the legend. The one who started it all. She skips into the forest with head held high, unknowing of the wolf and the many, many retellings of her story. Something, something, puberty, something, something, men are wolves. Just let my girl wear her red cape and be on her way to Granny's, please and thank you.

I feel like in a lot of modern adaptations they get lost in making Red Riding Hood more a girlboss who fights back or making her secretly (or not secretly) the real wolf or having her and the wolf be love interests, they lose a lot of what made the original fairytale so good. AND SO CHILLING! We have been told this story so often since childhood we can forget how frightening it can really be. A lost young girl, punished for the follies of childhood. I also think that even in the "happy" endings when the huntsman saves her there is this sense that she will never be the same. Her childhood is over. And that's haunting! The horrors of unprotected innocence.

[catcatb0y]

I'm not longer a BakuDeku lol. I'd rather ship Bakugou with someone who ACTUALLY lifts him up instead of using him as a footstool.

This ship used to be the best for him and his development- overcoming his past, both of their paths, really.

Bakugou getting wounded and Midoriya coming to his rescue... It's a dead fucking horse. Back when, I would have argued for the merits it had, but seriously five times is too fucking much. Every time it's the fucking same- Bakugou does a ton of work, gets overpowered because he's a fucking child, and then Midoriya swoops in and gets the win. Five times.

It doesn't actually help anything.

He's still battling the exact same inferiority that made him lash out against Midoriya to begin with, but now it's just taken away his own confidence- is that really the best take on his character? Like for years, everyone shit on antis saying that Bakugou needed to be "put in his place," for years we talked about how trauma doesn't make him a better person, but now that him getting shit benefits Midoriya, everyone's gagging for it? Really?

Bakugou's "death" gets dozens of celebration blogs, everyone zooms in on Shigaraki telling Bakugou he's fucking worthless other than his closeness to Midoriya- and everyone wants that to become true! Everyone wants Bakugou to lay there dead while Midoriya gets to be the Hero he always wanted but never put any of the actual effort into achieving before he got All Might's quirk and Bakugou, who has been training for years and wanting that Heroism just as badly... Well, no one cares about that, right?

No one cares about how he was the only one who landed a blow on ShigAfO. No one cares that AfO was scared of Bakugou- that got glossed over. Edgeshot being willing to step in and give up his life for Bakugou got LESS THAN HALF of the posts that Bakugou's "death" did- and... actually I don't remember seeing a single post about it that wasn't booing Edgeshot, talking about how shitty Bakugou should* feel, or making fun of antis.

Huh... Yeah, everything else has been actively forced into my circle, but I had to go out and search for that just to know it fucking happened (and no, it wasn't because I finally blocked enough people, because I still saw everything about Midoriya swooping in- because that's all anyone fucking cares about.)

Oh, and P.S. to all of the shippers: at least pretend to be consistent.

Don't think I missed the way that everyone was cheering and applauding when Bakugou got so much as a fucking paper cut. The whole fandom jumping at the idea of Midoriya swooping in and saving the day because poor widdle Bakugou was over his head. Everyone wanted him to bite shit and go down- congrats, you were right.

Then the moment Midoriya was even POSSIBLY going to get his own breakdown- oh noooo, no, no, we can't have that!!! He's gonna be better than that, right? He already knows and can control his heart, and it's never beem about proving that Bakugou means a lot to Midoriya, it's always been about making Midoriya look better, because that's all anyone cares about, huh?

*Why is it that Bakugou can't get help from another Hero without everyone saying "He's gonna blame himself for bringing the downfall of another Hero T0T just like Kamino!" (Hey, why not 'oh, think of how Bakugou is going to feel knowing that his Heroism was so inspiring, someone thought with was worth their life. How someone has FINALLY- well, not criticized him for fucking one, someone finally acknowledged his worth and importance (outside of Midoriya), and someone finally thought he was worthy of help. Someone finally gave him the support that he's needed this entire time)

But Midoriya showing up- no, he's gotta look pretty. He's gotta be pretty. Look, the Black Whips make a heart!! He's distressed over Bakugou, but it's manageable, so he'll kick Shigaraki's ass and be the victorious Hero!!

If this is the canon that everyone wants, I'm fucking out. Glad your little MeowMeow gets his happy end, but this shit was exactly why I left the Kiri//Baku fandom during the early game- why so many of us CRITICIZED that one sided shipping... but now it's all good and fine, because "BakuDeku is just giving Midoriya what he wants," right? It doesn't matter that the whole thing ends up being shitty to Bakugou. Nah, he deserves that, huh?

To spend his life comparing himself to the kid who got lucky. To never think he's good enough, always trying to make up for *checks notes* being a brat in middle school.

Because that's what BakuDeku is, right?

[whetstonefires]

If you feel like answering, I'm curious who's your blorbo (and others) from mdzs!

Smaller, more structured cast! Let's see if this is more or less challenging than the vastness of DC/Batman.

blorbo (favorite character, character I think about the most) ...Lan Wangji. I don't know he's just compelling. He's a mood.

scrunkly (my “baby”, character that gives me cuteness aggression, character that is So Shaped) Wen Ning? Yeah. Wen Ning. Lan Zhan hit me like this initially and I still want to obnoxiously pinch his cheeks sometimes but he's just so much of a dick also. Oddly not Sizhui much as I love him, I weirdly have too much respect and also the camerawork in The Untamed kept handling A-Yuan like a prop instead of a character and it squicked me out.

scrimblo bimblo (underrated/underappreciated fave) Oh this is harder, there aren't like. That many side characters allowed in mxtx's writing style, and everyone seems to have a little fandom of their own atm due to the high pitch the fandom's running at. Jiang Yanli. She is criminally underrated, sometimes even by people who like her. I saw a fic the other day tagged 'make jiang yanli relatable' and I'm like maybe she's not to YOU. Maybe she's just not for you! She's pretty thinly written in the novel but she's got a reasonable character core and her drama actress did great work! (Do not talk to me about animated Jiang Yanli pls.) Particularly underrated is the part of her power move at Phoenix Mountain where she declares wwx is her little brother, and should be regarded as such wrt things like whether she needs a chaperone to be alone with him, because like. He's definitely never been formally adopted, so the only way for that to be literally true is if he actually was Jiang Fengmian's bastard. So what she's doing there is drawing the line that her dead father's reputation is expendable if it will help protect and maintain her connection to her living foster-brother, which in that social context is bananas. This woman knows her own weaknesses intimately but she is fearless.

glup shitto (obscure fave, character that can appear in the background for 0.2 seconds and I won’t shut up about it for a week) For reasons cited above this is literally impossible unless I want watch The Untamed enough times I memorize the extras' faces and pick a fave from amongst them, which admittedly I would if I did. Maybe it'd be that guy who's sitting with Lan Qiren basically in his lap, after he goes down in the cursed objects saferoom trying to deal with the arm, because that guy is a real champ for watching Hanguang-Jun and this random flute maniac music together at the problem like that, and just rolling with it. I wonder how many scenes that guy would turn out to be in if I did. I wonder how many sects he belongs to lol. But it's Ouyang Zizhen. He gets left out all the time, including from scenes he is definitely supposed to be in in the donghua, and I adore him.

poor little meow meow (“problematic”/unpopular/controversial/otherwise pathetic fave) Haha I mean I think wwx is technically a meowmeow and he's built around fucking with villain and villain-protagonist norms. But. He's also the MC. So. Oh, it's Lan Xichen. He is very pathetic by the end of things and while his popularity in-universe is titanic he's got a lot of live human haters and people who hold him casually in contempt. As we know from the existence of the Oldest Sibling Cinematic Universe, he is my Jane Bennett and I love him.

horse plinko (character I would torment for fun, for whatever reason) I...look the leads of this romance are built to be tormented. If I'm tormenting anyone it's them. Also maybe Jiang Cheng a little but only for his own good.

eeby deeby (character I would send to superhell) Jin Guangshan I suppose, he is The Worst. Nie Huaisang already basically handled sending Jin Guangyao to the torment dimension, and he doesn't really inspire that kind of aggressive impulse in me anyway I just want him to cease from problems. Oh. Lmao it's Xue Yang then I suppose. I really, really want that guy to die and stay dead. Which is after all the true meaning of superhell.

[promiseiwillwrite]

End of Tour

I ran out of social energy three or four days ago.

As it is that I am on Annual Tour, I have to be present and show face, and do what I am supposed to do today and tomorrow, before I can go home and hide. Then I only have one day left before I have to go back to work and clean up the mess that the billing systems will inevitably be when I get there.

I have been sleeping too much, and I have been taking refuge in the arms of fantasy lovers.

I stopped doing that a year and a half ago, because I thought it was a maladaptive coping mechanism.

Getting out of that context was useful, because I had used it to maintain the idea that no one wanted me in the right way except my fantasy lovers. (and then I could stay a poor little meowmeow) But identifying it as a maladaptive coping mechanism was probably painting it with too broad a brush. It was part of why I was having trouble communicating with my partner, but it was also a very important avenue to my experiences and expressions of self love.

I have learned several things since then. First, it is important to understand that every relationship, everything shared between two people is different, and all its own thing. Comparing them is like comparing snowflakes and oranges. They are both beautiful and complex, they may be made of the same stuff ultimately, but they are going to nourish you in different ways. This includes your relationship with yourself.

Second, there are therapeutic mindsets and paradigms that operate from sets of assumptions active in every practitioner. These will not necessarily always focus on a patient's needs, but may operate quite apart from them. Any focus on daydreaming may seem detrimental to a therapist who assumes that this is inappropriate as a coping mechanism, whether that coping strategy has historically been a net positive in a patient's life or not. But no coping strategy that does no harm to anyone is intrinsically morally wrong.

At the bottom, it is important to understand that a nuanced, curious approach may be best overall, to allow for differences in possibilities and understanding. Even a therapist with a set of assumptions may still have useful things to say that can help disrupt things that are holding back the development of agency, autonomy and communication skills. It has been useful for me to have many possible coping skills and strategies for different situations, and most of my therapy has focused on building these skills, and letting go of my own assumptions.

With time, I may even be able to put down a struggle I've fought all my life, with this idea of myself needing to be wanted in a certain way, and not realizing how fictitious that way really is in terms of how actual relationships with human people function. I think I am starting to accept that what I have wanted can exist in my mind, and not be detrimental to my human relationships. I am learning when and how to manage my expectations of myself, and my partners, and of relationships in general, and it has put huge chunks of my anxiety to bed for good, simply because I am either not guessing anymore, or I am making reasonable estimates when I do have to guess.

[fairytale-poll]

ROUND 1B! MATCH 1 OUT OF 8

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Little Red Ridinghood:

Aside from giving her several good songs, the plot of the musical explores the lessons she takes away from her adventure and continues past her "Happily Ever After." Her new found maturity is represented by her giving away her riding hood and replacing it with the pelt of the big bad wolf. (And she begins carrying a cartoonishly large knife for self defense.)

She wears the Wolf's fur as a coat after her grandma kills him. She gives her cloak to the Baker to help him. She's a badass. She's only a kid. She taunts Jack into going up the beanstalk again.

She's just a feral child tbh. One of her lines in THE VERY FIRST SONG, delivered totally casually, is "into the woods, to bring some bread to granny who is sick in bed! Never can tell what lies ahead, for all that I know, she's already dead!" Everyone else gets a major life change by the end of Act I - Cinderella goes from being a maid to a princess, the baker and his wife have a child, and Jack goes from being poor to being rich - and Little Red just goes from being a feral child to being a feral child WITH A KNIFE, which she constantly brandishes in Act II! And she gets a cool wolfskin cloak to boot. She also goes through Trauma and Losing Her Family in Act II. Poor meowmeow. She has a sweet tooth too and on the way to Granny's house she eats half the loaf of bread and all of the MANY sweets she has in her basket... so silly. She also has AUTISTIC SWAG!! Constantly misses social cues, super bouncy and excited! Basically she's just the ultimate scrunkly and you should all vote for her

She’s so cool and sings cool songs :)

(Spoilers) Bratty little girl who has no value of life in Act 1, forced to reckon with the consequences of everyone's selfish actions as a mourning and vengeful Giantess widow tears through the land in Act 2.

The most iconic little shit. I love her. Has a knife and laughs while threatening people off with it. Allowed to be more than just naïve. 10/10.

the movie is SO SUCKS and she is SO BADASS i love her. please please i'm begging you use the stage musical version instead of the movie

SHES SO GREAT like ohmygod first of all she’s written in such a real way? like she’s not completely helpless just cause she’s a little girl but she’s also not a cold unfeeling girlboss just cause she has a knife (unless you’re watching the movie but the movie sucks). she acts like a kid would really act in these situations. it’s a little depressing to think about cause it’s so widespread for media not to do this, but for all the shallow, surface level girlbossery in modern media, it’s refreshing to see that sondheim treated the women in his art like people. they didn’t have to be held to any sort of standard just by nature of being women. they are just themselves.

She's got really awesome songs + she's just a hungry little girl who wants some food and also to go see her grandmother. We get to see her process grief and learn how to be on her own and then we get to see her learn that she doesn't have to be alone because "no one is alone". We see her grow from a naive little girl to a girl who lashes out at everything so she doesn't end up in danger again into a girl who wants to look out for and be there for people because they are alone just like she was and she doesn't want them to have to feel like she did. Also she has a knife and she's not afraid to use it. Her first cape is somewhat magical and is used in a potion to reverse a curse and give this couple a baby and then her second cape is really cool and made out of the skins of the wolf. She group effort helped kill a giant through gaslighting, gatekeeping, and girlbossing. (and also in my opinion the wolf-grandma-little red cottage scene is one of if not the funniest scenes in the show) [also Into the Woods is amazing & I love it & my best friend played little red]

Tweenage girl with a lot of anger. There is no stronger force on this earth

she's classic little red but she's a lot more cool she got a knife from her grandmother after the wolf incident and she wears the skin of the wolf she also interacts with other fairy tale characters and uhm she's very much a little girl with a knife she's perfect

Jenny:

Jenny is a character who, despite functioning as little red riding hood in the play, has a massive amount of development aside from that. Also: in the end, she goes from playing Red to taking over the role of the Wolf from its previous owner. The play is really cool and I love her character and I'd give you more info on her if I wasn't about to pass out

[fairytale-poll]

LOSER'S BRACKET ROUND 1! MATCH 3 OUT OF 8

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Little Red Ridinghood

General Propaganda:

Aside from giving her several good songs, the plot of the musical explores the lessons she takes away from her adventure and continues past her "Happily Ever After." Her new found maturity is represented by her giving away her riding hood and replacing it with the pelt of the big bad wolf. (And she begins carrying a cartoonishly large knife for self defense.)

She wears the Wolf's fur as a coat after her grandma kills him. She gives her cloak to the Baker to help him. She's a badass. She's only a kid. She taunts Jack into going up the beanstalk again.

She's just a feral child tbh. One of her lines in THE VERY FIRST SONG, delivered totally casually, is "into the woods, to bring some bread to granny who is sick in bed! Never can tell what lies ahead, for all that I know, she's already dead!" Everyone else gets a major life change by the end of Act I - Cinderella goes from being a maid to a princess, the baker and his wife have a child, and Jack goes from being poor to being rich - and Little Red just goes from being a feral child to being a feral child WITH A KNIFE, which she constantly brandishes in Act II! And she gets a cool wolfskin cloak to boot. She also goes through Trauma and Losing Her Family in Act II. Poor meowmeow. She has a sweet tooth too and on the way to Granny's house she eats half the loaf of bread and all of the MANY sweets she has in her basket... so silly. She also has AUTISTIC SWAG!! Constantly misses social cues, super bouncy and excited! Basically she's just the ultimate scrunkly and you should all vote for her

She’s so cool and sings cool songs :)

(Spoilers) Bratty little girl who has no value of life in Act 1, forced to reckon with the consequences of everyone's selfish actions as a mourning and vengeful Giantess widow tears through the land in Act 2.

The most iconic little shit. I love her. Has a knife and laughs while threatening people off with it. Allowed to be more than just naïve. 10/10.

the movie is SO SUCKS and she is SO BADASS i love her. please please i'm begging you use the stage musical version instead of the movie

SHES SO GREAT like ohmygod first of all she’s written in such a real way? like she’s not completely helpless just cause she’s a little girl but she’s also not a cold unfeeling girlboss just cause she has a knife (unless you’re watching the movie but the movie sucks). she acts like a kid would really act in these situations. it’s a little depressing to think about cause it’s so widespread for media not to do this, but for all the shallow, surface level girlbossery in modern media, it’s refreshing to see that sondheim treated the women in his art like people. they didn’t have to be held to any sort of standard just by nature of being women. they are just themselves.

She's got really awesome songs + she's just a hungry little girl who wants some food and also to go see her grandmother. We get to see her process grief and learn how to be on her own and then we get to see her learn that she doesn't have to be alone because "no one is alone". We see her grow from a naive little girl to a girl who lashes out at everything so she doesn't end up in danger again into a girl who wants to look out for and be there for people because they are alone just like she was and she doesn't want them to have to feel like she did. Also she has a knife and she's not afraid to use it. Her first cape is somewhat magical and is used in a potion to reverse a curse and give this couple a baby and then her second cape is really cool and made out of the skins of the wolf. She group effort helped kill a giant through gaslighting, gatekeeping, and girlbossing. (and also in my opinion the wolf-grandma-little red cottage scene is one of if not the funniest scenes in the show) [also Into the Woods is amazing & I love it & my best friend played little red]

Tweenage girl with a lot of anger. There is no stronger force on this earth

she's classic little red but she's a lot more cool she got a knife from her grandmother after the wolf incident and she wears the skin of the wolf she also interacts with other fairy tale characters and uhm she's very much a little girl with a knife she's perfect

Edgar w.bg would want you to vote for ItW

Loser's Bracket Propaganda:

I feel that they all deserve a bit more recognition as just about every Little Red Riding Hood is remembered for their story, but not their character. And I believe that the few I selected are truly well rounded characters, and amazing takes on who the character is.

Bugs Bunny

General Propaganda:

So the story is that the Three Little Pigs sell Bugs their straw and wood houses, the Big Bad Wolf blows them down, and Bugs decides to get revenge - by dressing himself up as Little Red Riding Hood, getting the Wolf to play his part in that story, and then messing with him as only Bugs can. Here's the video if you've never seen it: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6vk41x

Bugs Bunny is an icon and he was so good for his role in this short. When he and the wolf realized they could work together against the pigs... oh my God. Come on Tumblr, you have to admit they had a little gay tension between them. Besides, at the end, when the brick house comes down and the wolf, so surprised and proud of himself exclaims "I did it!" and then it pans over to Bugs with the bomb and he slyly adds "We did it!" communist Bugs canon.

I love Bugs but badass little girls with the personality of a gruff action heroes are everything to 12 year old girls.

Loser's Bracket Propaganda:

Bugs Bunny winning would just be really funny