#problem is he has a hard time separating fiction from reality and has to be pulled out when he’s in too deep

[herebecritters]

How bout some spicy D&D drama today?

Geshtu and Hopp’s edgy dnd characters: Ilawela and Atlas

Atlas belongs to @ickyguts

[da-mous]

My Read of Puhoy! :)

Hey pizza babies! Puhoy is an often praised Adventure Time episode, and I've seen a few analysis videos on it, but I've never really felt satisfied by any of them, so I wanted to put my own thoughts on the episode in writing somewhere. After all, the episode turned 10 just two days ago!

So, right away, I think this episode is about Finn letting go of the simplistic understanding of the world he had as a younger kid throughout the first few seasons. In the early episodes, Finn has an extremely black and white perspective. Stealing is always bad, everyone's problems can always be solved, and good and evil are clearly delineated categories

Puhoy opens with an establishing shot showing a knife storm raging outside the tree fort. This calls back to "Rainy Day Daydream," an episode where Jake's imagination becomes reality. Puhoy also plays with the line between imagination and reality, and, while this post isn't about trying to explain the pillow world lore-wise, I think the knife storm's appearance suggests that the pillow world was created by Finn's imagination, which is very thematically in line with the rest of my read on Puhoy

Finn starts the episode in a funk because he's convinced Flame Princess doesn't like him anymore, just because she didn't laugh at one of his jokes. I think this conflict illustrates that Finn doesn't know how to separate his feelings from reality. He imagines FP doesn't like him, and he's unable to conceptualize anything else. In the simple, ideal world in Finn's young mind, she would have laughed if she liked him. There isn't room for the nuance that maybe she just didn't get it

Jake is able to see that Finn is completely making up this problem, but his solution of ignoring his feelings, demonstrated by hurling his favorite cup out the window, is pretty unhelpful. In the end, even Jake can't let go that easily, and he fishes his cup back up

Fortunately, instead of trying to hurl his feelings out the window, Finn decides to crawl into the pillow fort to let his thoughts "fester," and Jake perfectly illustrates the difference between their approaches by telling Finn that festering is always bad. Jake wants to move on from things immediately, without having a moment to sit with or say goodbye to his feelings

The pillow world Finn ends up in reflects the simplistic worldview he needs to let go of. It represents the fantasy that he, until now, thought his life would play out like. He easily slays a pillow dragon, immediately wins the adoration of the pillow people, and wastes basically no time hitting it off with a pillow girl. Years pass and we see a strapping, idealized older Finn living a simple, cushy life providing for his pillow nuclear family

There's no horror to Puhoy. No dark turn, no sudden twist. Finn gets to live an entire, comfortable, satisfying lifetime in his idealized fantasy world, right up until he simply dies of old age, at which point he finally "wakes up" and finds himself back home

Puhoy feels, to me, like a twist on a common trope in fiction. Typically, like the island of the lotus eaters in the Odyssey, a world as cushy and idealized as the pillow world is presented as a trap of some kind, and the "right" choice is to resist the temptation. These stories usually suggest that there's something wrong with choosing a simple life, like it's ultimately unfulfilling or hollow in some way. But Puhoy doesn't moralize about Finn's life in the pillow world. He comes off as certain the entire time that he does want to find a way to go home, but as the years pass and he forgets what home even looked like, he ends up making the choice to stay, and it comes off to me as entirely reasonable. He has an entire life here, meanwhile he can't even remember what Jake looks like. Why should he throw all this away to return to the people from his past?

Puhoy is the ultimate wish fulfillment. It can be hard to let go of what the world looked like when you saw it through the eyes of a child. It can be hard to accept the complexities and terrors of the world. It can be hard to even understand why you would want to see the world as a difficult, uncertain, complicated place. If I were once again Finn's age and you'd asked me if I wanted to live out an entire, satisfying lifetime in the world I thought I lived in as a kid, I would be extremely tempted to say yes. Only then might I be able to move on with my real life without eternally mourning the honey-dipped worldview I was forced to outgrow, finally satisfied that I'd gotten to have my time with it

Once Finn winds up back home in his own time, he almost immediately forgets his life in the pillow world. Unlike Jake's cup, after living a full life there, it's truly gone and he truly doesn't care about it anymore, and so he's able to forget it entirely

FP calls Finn to tell him she finally understood his joke, which is a surprisingly convenient, external solution to Finn's internal problem, but he nonetheless comes off as if it never tore him up in the first place, as if, by leaving his simplistic perspective behind, he was able to develop a more mature perspective on his relationships with others

Thanks for reading!! :)))

I have an unspoken rule on this blog that it's strictly for the funny and only occasional self promotion, but I really wanted to write about this episode. Usually I write more analytical stuff like this on my devblog, but cartoons isn't video games! If I keep wanting to write stuff like this, maybe I'll make a sideblog to put that stuff in 🤔

By the way, I think of Puhoy as part of a trilogy with Dungeon Train and Hall of Egress. They're all important journeys along Finn's larger journey of growing up, and they're all framed by Finn trying to deal with rough feelings surrounding FP. The latter two are more overtly connected to each other, but Hall of Egress does have what I think is meant as a reference to Puhoy, where Finn emerges from the Hall by poking his head through the dirt on top of the hill it's under, the same way he emerges from the pillow fort at the end of Puhoy! Maybe one day I'll write about those episodes too. I have a lot to say about Finn's arc throughout the show in general, so I could even do a post about that :)

[bloodofgrapes]

AA thoughts time

I’m the last person to ever “criticize” Ace Attorney for being unrealistic, because a) it’s a story, and thus designed for entertainment purposes, but b) I believe its wild premise allows it to explore real issues, emotions, etc in a way that winds up being beautifully authentic because reality is often stranger than fiction

However, if there’s any one thing that I could change in AA, it's that nearly everyone would be just a tad older. Don’t get me wrong, I think AA does great with what it has--Phoenix being a rookie attorney fresh out of law school, young and headstrong and still kind of naive while being an accidental genius at what he does, contrasting with the fact the Edgeworth burnt out this hard after only four years of practice. But it has this anime problem, where everyone is clearly written to be established professionals in their field (including characters like Gumshoe) while acting like 30 is old somehow.

I could, and possibly will, make an entirely separate rant about all the “prodigy” characters AA has, and my firm belief that Edgeworth is the only one that should have ever been allowed, but I digress

To get personal with things for a moment, I first played AA when I was a teenager, and I remember how it felt then--Phoenix and Edgeworth did feel so old and mature at the ripe age of 24, worldly with education and experience that seemed far beyond my grasp. However, revisiting the series as a man in his mid thirties has been interesting. They do still retain that feeling of being older and mature, but now I can’t help but feel that  their ages ought to reflect that.

@themumblingmouse turned me on to the idea that Phoenix likely worked as Mia’s paralegal through law school, and I could see him sticking with it for some time as he worked as her junior partner, doing all the behind the scenes work outside of the courtroom while she took the lead. More specifically though, I think about Edgeworth’s downward trajectory. As I said earlier, I do think it fits him well enough that it was only four years for him to go from a relatively bright eyed and bushy tailed bratty little asshole to, well... this

But time goes by fast the older you get. Four years is practically nothing. And to be fair to Edgeworth, we could even lend him some leniency and say that his life under Von Karma likely extended that, and we could consider basically all of his time as a teenager to be part of the spiral downward, but again, he was upbeat when he was twenty. It seems far more likely that it didn’t begin until he was working in earnest, slowly forking over little bits and pieces of his soul with every case, racking up that bad (and well deserved) reputation. To my mind, that sort of thing takes time, because you often don’t realize you’ve slipped into a hole until you’ve been in it for some time, especially if you’re the sort of person that’s used to brute forcing your way through life, finding justifications and rationalizations for your actions.

Phoenix was obviously the turning point, but that turning point would hit a lot harder for me if they were both older, I think. This entire post is a little inspired by that request I got about them hugging it out in Trials and Tribulations--the observations in the tags about how desperately Edgeworth needed to just let go are absolutely spot on, and at this point I basically HC that he had at least a decade to spiral down down down until finally hitting rock bottom, with Phoenix to raise both of them from the ashes. Ace Attorney has sincerely brilliant symbolism around death and rebirth, so why not allow them a little time between their lives, so that spiral meant something, instead of being a brief and regrettable footnote from one’s early twenties?

[theyanderespecialist]

Yandere Alto Clef Headcanons: Clef VS Period

[Hello, My Sexy Muffins! I am back FINALLY With Some SCP headcanons, this one is Yandere Alto Clef X Non-Binary Listener On Their Period and how he comforts them! So let's do this Please enjoy this!] 

(Disclaimer: Yes, Reader/Listener is Non Binary! They were most likely AFAB if they were having a period, they still have their uterus but do not identify as female. This can happen and is normal. They are a person that has a period 

Disclaimer number 2: Alto Clef is not yandere in canon! This is just for fun and not to be taken seriously at all! Simping for fictional yanderes and characters is fine! Just do not be illegal or gross about it! Yanderes are not ideal partners to have in real life Also, remember to separate fiction from reality and headcanon from canon!) 

-Yandere Period Problem Headcanons With Alto Clef X Non-Binary Reader- 

.He is a worry wart when you are on your period. 

.Though a part of him wants to breed you. 

.He does not do it cause he knows you would not be happy with him. 

.He hates to see you in pain so you know he is going to get you a hot water bottle for you and painkillers. 

.He also has a very sweet side with you when you are on your period. 

.Most women find him to be a creep but he is actually very wholesome with you and never forces you to do anything romantically or sexually. 

.He also cares about you because he is obsessed with you and wants to just love and be sweet with you. 

.He would get all your favorite foods and of course, he would still be a chaotic poo. 

.He is a liar to his core, so he would say how hard it is to take care of you when you are on your period. 

.That is what he would tell others. 

.To you, you are the only one he is honest with. 

.So he tells you that is perfectly happy to take care of you and to love on you~ 

.He loves to just lay on the couch with you, watch your favorite show, and give you a tummy massage. 

.He can also tell when your period is going to come. 

.All based on the amount of swelling in your chest. 

.Your chest area he knows very well no matter their size. 

.So he will be able to tell when your chest is showing signs of your period. 

.He DOES NOT LET ANYONE Misgender you, even when you are not around. 

.He does not care if you have a uterus and are AFAB, he sees you as his partner and the person you are. 

.So it does not matter what your biology says, and he will frick up anyone who says you are female, just because you have a uterus. 

.He has been known to kill the people who misgender you, because protecting you and making sure you feel the safest you are. 

.He will also be there to cry on his shoulder. 

.To make sure you can get all the frustration out of your monthly cycle. Especially if it makes you feel like you are not the person you are and not the Biological Sex you have. 

.He also would scare the researcher in charge of you to give you time off. 

.He still would work from his and your apartment. 

.Also he gets a ton of chocolate for you and leaves it in the bathroom with all the period products that you could ever want. 

.He is a no-nonsense yandere so you better shut up, sit down, eat your favorite foods, and rest your body. 

.Or he will tie you to the bed to do that. 

.Clef had said if he could beat the crap out of your period for hurting you and causing your emotional destress if he could. 

.He would fight your period if he could. 

.No one hurts his darling aka you, not even your period. 

.If he can get a hand on any scp to get rid of your period he would. 

.He does not care what the O5 council will say. 

[YASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS another chapter is done! I hope you all enjoyed this and stay sexy, all of my sexy muffins!] 

[house-of-slayterr]

Rant From An Autistic Person:

TLDR: Stop using mental illness as an excuse for your Villains

I think I’m starting to realise that a lot of Slashers have a lot in common with Autistic people. But I’m not sure how we’re supposed to feel about this. Obviously we all in this community, adore our Slashers, but that’s because we all understand they are fake. They have now real bearings in our world, and therefore cannot hurt anymore. No real people suffer as their victims.

But shouldn’t we take offence to this? Because most of the time it’s neurotypical people writing these stories and directing/working/staring in these films.

Like let’s talk about some non horror aut sic characters first. And do correct if I’m wrong, but I believe both of these characters are Canonically autistic.

The most well known would be Sheldon form the Big Bang Theory. Everyone quotes him as autistic representation all the time. Now of course he’s only one demonstration of the neurotype, but at the end of the day it’s still representation. From the autistic community, I hear complaints that’s he’s just a basic Cis/het white man with “high functioning” autism. (Although we do not use functioning labels, or the term Asperger’s anymore, that was at the time what he was stated to have) And from the neurotypical side people still call him odd, but they are more excepting of his traits because they aren’t as “burdensome” on society. He’s just seen a “quirky”.

Another example that falls under the same quailfiers would be Shaun from The Good Doctor. Again, played by a neurotypical person, not someone who actually has autism. And people infantilise his character whenever he’s showing that he need higher support efforts. But then everyone praises him because “wow, I didn’t know autistic people could be doctors” which is incredibly insulting. But most people accept him because again, he’s just “a little quirky”

But back to the slasher community. There are people out there that think we are disgusting because we enjoy slashers/gore/horror. Because they are unable to separate reality, from fiction, or at least not as severely as we do.

I vividly remember getting bullies in school and someone saying “(Dead name’s) gonna be the school shooter, just you wait” because I did not hide my love for the horror genre. And I don’t see why I should have to. But that statement, it killed me inside. Do you know how awful it is to have to try and defend yourself from a statement that heavy? It was like the weight of the entire universe was thrown on my shoulders, and I was just expected to take it as a “joke”.

But this girl genuinely thought that because at the time I was Interested in learning about the Lizzie Borden case, that that meant I wanted to hurt people. I was also dressing fairly alternative at this time. I made its know that I wanted to be a mortician. (I still do, I’m just figuring all that stuff out though cause jobs are hard, lol) I sometimes have what neurotypical people would consider an “inappropriate” reaction to death, or dead things. I enjoy collecting bones, and learning about cannibalism, autopsies, taxidermy, entomology… So I get excited when I get to participate in my special interests.

But this makes a lot of people uncomfortable, and I’m tired of them making that my problem. Having a fascination with the dead, doesn’t automatically mean you’re going to become a killer. I have so much respect for dead things, I ask the Earth before I pick it’s flowers, or use any of its resources. Because as a Witch, that is a part of my specific path and spirituality. But again, that does not help my case because a lot of people think witches like me are satanists who want to sacrifice babies and goats or some shit.

Some people may just say these are harmless jokes, or overexaggerations, and that nobody really means it when they say these things. But you don’t get to make that call. The person saying the offensive things doesn’t get to decide if it’s offensive or not. That’s like saying a white person gets to decide if black face is racist or not. These jokes propitiate harmful stereo types, and can be passed on to people who don’t know any better. And you can’t say that all autistic people won’t understand, because even if one of us isn’t “smart” enough to understand your words directly, it’s still effects us at the end of the day.

Over and over again we are othered and forgotten about. We’ve been plagued by the curse of being forced to exist in a world that was built for us. We’re made to feel unsafe, and risk our own health to make everyone else feel “comfortable” with our existence. I mean even the diagnostic criteria isn’t an accurate depiction of what autism acatully is. Instead of defining us by what we can do, and experience and change in the world, we’re defined by how much of a nuisance we’re are perceived to be on society.

Instead of saying stuff like “Autistic people have an amazing capacity for learning and retaining information about subjects they are passionate about.” It’s always “Autistic people can’t hold conversations and obsess of silly things. They don’t know how to shut up about it, and it annoys me. Therefore they are being rude.”

So I bring us back around to our beloved Slashers. Do you guys realise how many of them are non verbal? I mean there’s Jason Voorhees, Micheal Myers, Bubba Sawyer, Thomas Hewitt…. That’s a trait that’s commonly seen as a bad thing to neurotypical people. Parents will cry about how their children “can’t communicate” with them, but they never stop to observe their child’s different ways of nonverbal communication. They assume just because they can’t talk or articulate themselves, they must be “stupid” or “slow” or “low functioning”, but that’s simply not true. A mute neurotypical person can’t talk, but they’re still smart. Their lives are still worth living and celebrating. But Autistic people aren’t afforded the same luxury, simply because nobody wants to put in the effort.

It doesn’t help that people often turn to Autism Speaks for all their neurodiverse questions. When that company literately spreads lies and misinformation. And tortures innocent children, simply because they are express themselves differently. ABA therapy is literally just forcing autistic people to fit into a allistic mould. It’s dangerous and harmful, an frankly disgusting.

Do you know how many parents I see how do nothing but complain about their children? Parents who genuinely believe they would be better off if they killed their children. Parents who’ve actually gone through with it, and some of which never get charged because “oh they were under a lot of stress, it was understandable.” I’m tired of society treating all disbaled people like we don’t matter. Like we’re nothing more than a sob story to get them sympathy points. I hate seeing parents film their children in their most vulnerable moments while they are having a meltdown for “educational” purpose. Especially if their child is unable to consent, it’s vile, and inexcusable.

There so many of us who try to help and educate, yet no one will actually listen to the marginalised groups about how to help us. The same way some white people will only care about racism, if another white person is calling them out on it. If a black personality dared to do that they are “rude” and “argumentative”. Or the way people are saying “Hellen Keller can’t be real; how could she communicate, I don’t believe it.” As if there aren’t thousands of Deaf/Blind people who exist to their day telling you how hurtful that sentiment is.

Do you guys know the first thing a person with a disability or chronic illness hears when they talk about their struggles? It’s always “you’re so brave” or “If I were you, I would kill myself.” Because we will always be viewed as a problem. We’ll never be defined by more than our “worst” traits. We ask people to call us “disable person” and they say “person with a disability” or “Differently abled” or autistic person” and they say “person with autism” because they literally have to remind themselves that we are also people. I can’t take off my disabilities, I can’t shove them in a little box for safe keeping. They are part of who I am, they are the building blocks designing how I have to live my life. My foundation may be a little unsteady, but that doesn’t mean you have to tear down my house right away. Let it’s fall on its own time, it doesn’t matter if it happens a little sooner then the rest of the houses on the block.

Autistic people are often quotes to have “no empathy” when really we just have a difference in empathy. Having more empathy doesn’t make you better than someone else. And having low empathy doesn’t make you a bad person. So it hurts my heart that in the media we consume, neurodivergent people often end up relating to the villain. Of course, most villains are also queer coded, but I’ll save that lecture for another time.

People seem to think when they hear the sentence “I relate to Micheal Myers” that I’m talking about finding joy in killing or hurting people. But they never stop to ask what I mean by that. They never sit and think “oh, maybe they relate to being mentally ill, and forced into getting help against their will, and not being understood.”

You guys do know we’re are supposed to be routing for Samuel Loomis in that movie right? He’s supposed to be the hero, the good guy, the man who stops the boogeyman. But we don’t, because we see that he’s also a horribly flawed human being. He treats his patients like shit, and some of his tactics are borderline criminal. He’s not better than Micheal, but he’s not the one with a “scary” mental illness.

Take Carrie white for instance. I think she is honestly one of the better examples of a Slasher who exhibits autistic traits. She takes things literally, has difficulty socialising and making friends. She doesn’t understand when she’s being bullied at first. Her own mother babies her, until she stops listening and being obedient. And what does her mother do? Try to fucking murder her own child because she’s “unruly” and “need to be punished.” Sure it’s an extreme example, but this happens to far more autistic people in real life than you’d think. Carrie was fine, until she was pushed yo the edge. She could have lived her whole life, happy and exploring her powers. Maybe even been a hero instead, but she wanted adored that luxury. Sue is the only one that really understood her, which is why she was spared. And she’s the only one who will ever know what a gem Carrie was before she was made to be a monster.

Norman Bates is also a really good example of an autistic person I think. Of course the more obvious diagnosis everyone focuses on is the Dissociative Identity Disorder (formally knows as Multiple Personality Disorder) (also how weird is it that there are two Freddie Highmore characters on this list, I think I could probably fit more in if I search other genres) But if you watched the show, instead of just the original movie, you get to see a lot more of his personality. You actually get to understand Norman as a person, before seeing him as the antagonist. He too has awkward speech, he gets upset by change, he doesn’t understand when someone is flirting with him. He feels his emotions very instantly, and does have violent outbursts during his meltdowns. But do they show us this to humanise him? No, they added it to his character because it’s entraining to watch mentally I’ll people get pushed to their limits. We are a spectacle to behold.

Dr Herbert West form the Reanimator series! Another genius level autistic intellect! He has a special interest in science and dead things. They could have made him a character who found the cure to cancer or HIV. But no, it was more entailing to make him a wanna be Frankenstein’s, and cross moral boundaries for his own gain. And if you asked anyone why he did it it’s “because he’s crazy” not “because he wanted to” They almost always blame the mental illness, not the person who has the illness.

It’s the reason Aaron Stampler gets away with his crimes in Primal Fear. He faked a mental illness so he would get put in a mental facility instead of rotting in jail. Instead of being “Aaron Stampler, the killer.” He’s “Aaron Stampler, the killer with multiple personalities!” Or Split, the movie that just antagonises DID for no reason whatsoever. There’s clearly a supernatural element in that movie with “The Beast” so why not make it’s a movie about possessions? I would have loved to watch a story where The Beast posses poor little Kevin’s body, and makes him do horrible things. But no, instead we stick with the trope that all people with DID are unpredictable and dangerous. And that they all have an “Evil alter”

I’ll never be ashamed of my love for the horror community again. Because I know my place, I know my moral standing, and I have done nothing wrong. If people want to assume my special interests or jobs or hobbies make me a bad person, then that’s their problem. I cannot force anyone to open up their ears and listen to me, but I also won’t stand idly by and watch as people who don’t know what they’re talking about, do harm to my communities. These are my people, and I love them, and will defend them with my last breath. We need to destigmatise mental illness, because too many people die each year because they are made to feel like villain, or like their lives aren’t worth living. And that’s not ok with me.

[aidansplaguewind]

In response to the previous anon, I don’t really like that type of RPF, since they’re real people and she’s so much younger than him. I personally find it a little creepy. It’s fine to write your own sexual fantasies about Aidan, like reader-insert stuff, but I don’t think we should be exploiting Sophie in that way, because she’s a lot younger than him. It also makes Aidan seem like a creep, when from what I’ve read, he was nothing but respectful to Sophie when they were filming GOT. I know it’s just fan fiction, but it would probably make her uncomfortable if she knew it existed, so I don’t think it’s a great idea.

Petyr and Sansa are different, because they’re fictional characters. It’s not my thing, just because I prefer to fantasize about Petyr being with a dominant woman who can challenge him, but I won’t tell anyone not to ship it, because they aren’t real. I just think that we should leave the actors out of it.

I mean, it doesn’t make Aidan seem like a creep because it's not real and I can separate what I read as fiction from reality. I honestly don't know why on Earth a fic that Aidan has nothing to do with whatsoever, would make Aidan seem like a creep himself. In that case, why don't his characters make you think he's a creep? That would actually make way more sense because you can't help but wonder why he's so good at playing bad guys, right? (I don't actually think this, I'm just saying that makes so much more sense than a fic making him seem like a creep because he has nothing to do with fic at ALL.)

He's not responsible for any fiction written about him. Unless you have a hard time distinguishing reality from fiction and fantasy, there is absolutely no reason a fic should make Aidan seem like a creep. And if that's the case that's a YOU problem and you're responsible for it. Not him or anyone else.

There are lots of things out there that I find offensive and make me feel uncomfortable. I choose not to listen, watch, or read those things. It's that simple.

And yeah, if someone wrote a fic about me I'd probably think it was hella weird. So I wouldn't read it.

Basically at the end of the day, whether I like it or not is irrelevant. I'm responsible for my own feelings and I don't have to expose myself to things that I find offensive or uncomfortable. Now, if someone is putting you in a situation where you're uncomfortable or offended and you had no choice in the matter, that's different, obviously.

If you personally don't want to write it because you don't think she would like it, that's fine. That's your prerogative.

And I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm positive if Aidan and Sophie read the Petyr x Sansa fic they wouldn't like it and it would make them very uncomfortable because for one, we already know neither approved of the ship because of the age difference and two, they know we're picturing THEM. You can call it Petyr and Sansa all day, it's still their faces, their bodies, their private bits. Let's stop pretending here. I mean, if it makes you feel better because "it's the characters not them" that's fine but it's still his cock attached to his body we're picturing smashing her vag attached to her body.

But it's not written for them. It's written for US.

[ruckis--rookie]



Hi can i write to you? just sad tonight. You are aware of mini-me from the "Austin Powers" movies? In real life being baby/toddler sized isn't as funny as Mike Myers script makes it out to be. Especially with additional medical problems and the permanent legacy of imperious neonatal doctors of the several years ago.

...this is a Hardee's

Jokes aside I'm going to assume that based on the fact the blog was deactivated just as quickly as I got this ask it was deleted soon after this was sent or this is a bot. (Edit: It says its anon now. first it said it was sent by a burner blog, then a deactiveated one, now anon. Tumblr is a functional website).

Either way I'll humor it because clearly you're new to this blog and I can't imagine being sent this other than one of my starring characters Geragera being 3ft. After careful consideration have decided not to delete such an out of nowhere ask as this is someone's lament and I feel bad for just leaving it up in the air. Because I do have some genuine thoughts about this, albeit maybe not directly in relation to. I have not seen the movie so I can't say for sure.

I consider being short or small as a trait of endearment. Disclaimer: that isn't to say that people who are actually that size don't have it harder than others or are portrayed in a harmful way, this isn't to bash them at all or romanticize it, but note that Geragera is not human and is cartoonish in nature. For several years this blog followed a race called Beanish which a lot of people including myself headcanon averaging at about 3-4ft naturally. Heck, I have a starring character named Roxie who is even smaller at a 2ft mark and I portray her as being a badass most of the time.

That is to say sometimes art reflects real life, but sometimes it really doesn't. In most cases fiction doesn't reflect reality at all. I myself am short for the average human. Not toddler sized but that's why Gera *is*, to reflect the fact that you can be small but you can be very strong despite the fact. If any short jokes are made its in a playful manner.

If this derailed from the og topic its because I genuinely have NO idea what to do with it considering I haven't watched the movie and I dont know wtf an imperial neonatal doctor is, nor do I have the patience to look it up right now. All my short characters aren't human and weren't entirely made with that in mind. I think its a matter of separating exaggerated features from fiction and reality. This isn't just about people who are that small, this is about all... I guess all stereotypical characters is what I'm looking for, my vocab is limited and I have a hard time finding the right phrasing.

But no, short is endearing here. Sorry if that offends you in any way but I like poking fun at my own second sona because he has a best friend/duo dynamic with my first sona who is outrageously tall and is more prone to expressing playful bullying. Little man /pos wants to wish you a good rest of the week 💖💫

[k-rising]

San's birth chart analysis

DISCLAIMER: This is just a part of the analysis of the idol’s natal chart, which wants to show a deeper perspective on the idols life. This analysis is carried out thanks to the data that appears in the birth chart. These are my interpretations of the signs and how they work based on my experiences with them. Everyone has different opinions and all interpretation and experiences within is valid. The point of this post is to entertain. [This idol hasn’t confirmed his birth time, so I used the standard 12pm time to calculate his natal chart].

𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐮𝐧

sensitive

shy

affectionate

protective of his loved ones

devoted

dependent

moody

in touch with his feelings and the feelings of others

san doesn't like superficiality

doesn't like to confront others, but he tends to leave clues about his unhappiness

it can be difficult for san to express his own opinions that easily

Sun sextile Saturn

wants to live an order life

has a slow but sure way to achieve his goals

responsible in his work

𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐌𝐨𝐨𝐧

charming

funny

this placement have also the tendency of nervousness and worry

when it comes to feelings and complicated emotions, san may be comfortable talking about his feelings... but feeling his own feelings doesn’t come as easily

can get tired easily, so variety is needed

Moon sextile Mercury

with this aspect he can be not only a great storyteller, but also an excellent songwriter!

he's also good at appealing and persuading other's feelings

san knows what others want to hear

can be good at using his words to manipulate others somehow

it's easy for san to express his feelings

Moon square Venus

his romantic desires and emotional needs tends to create tension

fears intimacy

can be easily used

may get into bad company

Moon trine Uranus

has good friendships

wants to change the world somehow

doesn’t like routines

it might be quite difficult to understand him, because his emotions are pretty complex

has the need to stand out

Moon trine Neptune

empathic

perceived as glamorous and mysterious

Moon opposite Pluto

san can have the tendency of not revealing too much information about himself at first

may have the desire to control what others know about him

his feelings are like a rollercoaster

very skilled at figuring out other people's struggles, but not figuring out his own struggles

it can be hard for him to truly change

a woman or a lover may take care of him at some point of his life OR he can fear about it and will try to control them instead

𝐋𝐞𝐨 𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐲

has his ego tied to his intellect

speaks with style and authority

may seem like a know-it-all

wants to share his knowledge with others

loves to express himself

takes pride in his beliefs

sees the bigger picture

a natural leader

makes friends easily

very persuasive

creative

idealistic

passionate and enthusiastic when speaking

it can be difficult for san to separate fact from fiction

again, a great story teller

he's good at public speaking and may be good at acting as well

Mercury square Mars

mental burn out can happen a lot with this aspect

argumentative

can be overly defensive

might have a narrow view in conflict

can have a bad temper

Mercury square Jupiter

EXTREMELY exaggerated

can have extreme point of views

san may jump to conclusions very easily

bragging can also be a thing here

Mercury square Saturn

a slower learner

can appear harsh to others when communicating

Mercury opposite Uranus

again, defensive

contradictory in communication

Mercury opposite Neptune

has a hard time seeing reality from fantasy, as well as dealing with facts

an escapists

a daydreamer

an artist

Mercury trine Pluto

attracted to secrets and mysteries

he may like talking about taboo things

loves figuring out problems

extremely opinionated

tries to understand the world through intellectual means

perceptive

Mercury conjunct North Node

he needs to open his mind to new ideas and ways of thinking

san will overcome his challenges with self-expression and communication

I also think that his mission in this life is to become a singer/performer with this aspect

𝐋𝐞𝐨 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

EXTREMELY caring

san wants a partner he can be proud of

LOVES showing his lover off

in love with love

PASSIONATE

wants to be the center of his partner world

wants a person who will adore and admire him

hates feeling rejected/ignored

wants someone who's charismatic, dramatic, entertaining and bold

needs a lot of excitement to be happy

Venus sextile Mars

wants to feel energized

enjoys company

seeks for connection

Venus trine Jupiter

cheerful

secretive about his love life

enjoys flirting

this aspect brings good fortune, popularity and true love

could be easily used for his generosity at times :(

Venus square Pluto

fears being vulnerable in close bonds

can be self destructive

can be paranoid, controlling and manipulative in relationships

has love for forbidden things… or maybe forbidden by society lol

has a tendency to fall for toxic people

𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐩𝐢𝐨 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐬

loves challenges

san likes to prove himself

has strong willpower to accomplish anything he wants to achieve

silent and subtle

calm on the surface, but he is very passionate on the inside

doesn't let others see this side of him very often, tho

has a talent for reading between the lines

provocative, but in a subtle and controlled way

possesses strong emotions

sensual

magnetic

intense

proud

has a great memory

self-sufficient

self-disciplined

has a strong sense of purpose

when angry he can be quite scary

can be a bit obsessive

faithful to his partner

Mars opposite Jupiter

desires change and excitement

wants to stay busy 24/7

san can be good at sports and even politics

restless

impatient

takes action without thinking twice

san can be hard to satisfy at times and won’t stand for boring relationships/jobs

Mars square Neptune

again, a dreamer

creative

tends to imagine the worst of situations

gets disappointed when things don't turn out as he expected

drawn to anything mysterious, as well as intrigued by things that might seem unusual

lack of confidence

sensitive to criticism, so it was probably so hard for him to pursue his goal when he was a trainee

tends to do things for others... however, there's gonna be times were he feels resentment towards them and starts questioning his friendship/relationship with those people

there's also a possibility here of experimenting a lot sexually OR he may feel quite insecure about it

there's also a struggle here for asserting himself

lack of confidence in his abilities

san may go to extremes

he can also lower his standards a lot when it comes to finding a partner and may feel like he settles for less which can be due to a lack in confidence or not feeling like he deserves more :(

san may find himself attracted to partners who are 'unavailable' in some way

he also projects his fantasies onto his partners and sees how he wants to see on them rather than being able to see people for who they actually are

san needs a big dream to accomplish rather than something ordinary

is important for him to express himself and do something that keeps him stimulated and fulfilled

this indicates that san is also very attractive/desirable, but maybe he doesn't see that himself

𝐓𝐚𝐮𝐫𝐮𝐬 𝐉𝐮𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫

this position points out that san can have a successful singing career

attacks good luck when he's generous

money is really important for him

Jupiter square Neptune

wants to evolve and make his wishes and dreams come true

with this aspect I feel that there's a limitation of his abilities which doesn't allow him to do bigger

feelings can also be brainwashed in some way

𝐓𝐚𝐮𝐫𝐮𝐬 𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧

san tends to hold tight to what he has and knows

he can also have a hard time when asking for help

san can also feel guilty when indulging himself

there's a fear here of not having what he needs or fears losing the things he already had

being dependent is another of his fears too

these things may end up limiting his opportunities somehow

Saturn square Uranus

can be rebellious

has inner conflict with freedom vs. stability

has trouble with authority

Saturn square North Node

san could create his own troubles

he gives himself burdens

Uranus opposite North Node

acceptance and detachment are a theme with his life mission

san could probably rebel against the lessons he has to face in this life

𝐋𝐞𝐨 𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐍𝐨𝐝𝐞

ha has to learn to accept praises and recognition for his achievements

san's life lessons involves on being more confident

he needs to follow his heart

empowering himself and others is important with this placement

san has to allow himself to shine, to be in the spotlight

a lot of famous/successful people have this placement, so he needs to embrace his creativity and allow himself to entertain others

san needs to understand that it's okay to show his affections openly

[pan-ic-at-the-homehome]

Golden Child Pt. 1

I literally can't remember where I found it but I read a headcannon for an angsty SBI +Reader and I loved it so much that I had to write something similar to it but I think I might have forgotten to like it, so if you know what the original is please tell me so I can credit them I was partially inspired by@helliontherapscallion's "Adrenaline Junkie" series, simply for the fact that because of them i haven't stopped thinking of inventor reader. Also let's just pretend that uh my human biology degree isn't going to waste by me writing blindness incorrectly ha ha. This is a purely fictional way that blindness works.

(REMINDER YOU IDIOT, FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS STORY: Wilbur is 26, Techno is 20, Tommy is 16, Phil is 32, SO READER IS 22, GET IT RIGHT AND STOP MESSING UP)

As soon as Y/N's wings started developing, they were instantly the favorite child. Philza still showed his love to Wilbur, but nowhere near as much as he did to his winged child. If he had to choose between spending time with them or Wilbur, he'd pick them in a heartbeat. Wilbur was usually upset when this happened, but he had gotten used to it and had learned ways to cope with it.

This was until Techno showed up. On their doorstep. Next to a freezing Philza who had sacrificed most his warmth to the young piglin. Wilbur had his thoughts on this, yhough he kept them to himself. But Y/N couldn't be happier! This meant a new friend, AND they were right when they said that Phil was just a nice person, there wasn't a favorite child! Right?

They quickly realized that Techno wasn't their friend, as the first interaction they had together was them getting a claw to the face by the piglin. Philza just simply sighed and made sure the wound would stop bleeding before tending back to the scared pig.

Y/N was only eight at the time, they didn't know what they were feeling. But whatever it was didn't feel good.

Since that day, Y/N was the new Wilbur and 'Technoblade' was the golden child. Y/N wanted the spotlight back, so they tried hard at everything. Nothing ever worked. Nothing was better than what Techno could do. Nothing was more amazing than Techno's knowledge, or his skills in fighting, or his odd way of speaking, or those stupid things that he did, or the fact that he'd always blame it on some 'voices' in his head. That he had a God complex. That he was better than Wilbur. He was better than Tommy. He was better than you...

He was always better than you. Of course. Thats what you felt when you first met. Not amazement, not the happiness of having another friend. Of course not. It was overwhelming jealousy. But he was your brother, so you had to suck it up just like Wilbur did.

But soon enough, they came to peace with this. They moved on and worked on what they actually enjoyed, not what Philza enjoyed. Mechanics. Phil would have killed you if he learned of all the dangers that you put yourself through to consider yourself an inventor. Or.... Would he?

One day your older brother approached you with his idea to create "L'manburg". At first you couldn't help but laugh. But when it was realized that Wilbur wasn't joking and that he had already recruited Tommy, they agreed to join the fight for freedom. It was a way to pay Wilbur back for being there for them, afterall.

Y/N never imagined the true horrors that they would have to go through so they could say a 'thank you' to Wilbur. They never even truly said it to him, L'manburg was already exploded and he was killed before they could say it to him. Not even saying it to Ghostbur was good enough.

Y/N was forced to suffer through watching her loved ones go mad. Sometimes, they would try coming up with inventions that could help her friends out, and some that could help some regular problems in the world for other people. Most of them didn't work, they were only able to produce goggles that could just barely help fully blind people see. But it was a step in the right direction.

Then doomsday came. Y/N didn't want to be part of it, they didn't want to even try hurting their father and younger brother. They aren't even sure how they came to that point.

Before they knew it, they were begging the man who once gave them anything in the world for him to stop. The whole server was one big family especially everyone in the homes he was about to destroy. But what they wanted didn't matter anymore. It's what Technoblade wanted, and he wanted blood.

At the last moment, Y/N remembered Friend. Ghostbur would be devastated if Friend died.

Falling down to the ground from the small warning of TNT, Friend flooded their mind.

If they couldn't save L'Manburg, they needed to save Friend. Ghostbur wasn't the same, but Ghostbur is Wilbur. They still never said thank you. They have to show their gratitude through the miracle of Friend surviving.

And so that's what they set off to do. With no mind to their own self-preservation, Y/N got up and flew as fast as they could to save Friend. But before they could reach the sheep, a large pile of rubble fell on one of their wings, almost snapping it right off. Y/N tried to get it off but to no avail, and their whole body wasn't safe. As they saw more rubble they crouched down while covering their head with their hands and covering the undamaged wing with their body, they prepared for impact.

The last thing they could speak out was almost incomprehensible.

"Wil..... Will...... Ghosbu.............. Tommy.......... Dad............."

And then everything went black. Y/N couldn't see or feel anything. Not even after her youngest brother, the ghost of her older brother, and the three fiances of the SMP untrapped them. There was nothing.

After what felt like years for the brothers, there was finally a glimpse of Y/N waking up. But they continued to drift in and out of consciousness and whenever someone tried communicating they were completely unresponsive.

During this amount of time, it was agreed that it was in their best interest for their wings to be removed. They were both utterly useless now after being crushed and would just be extra weight with unnecessary pain that can be avoided the sooner their wings get removed. Just in case Y/N was still aware of everything going on, they were put under amnesia to lower the chance of them feeling the agony of a wing removal surgery.

Slowly Y/N began more responsive to people, but never to the same amount. Everyone that took care of them were absolutely heartbroken when they figured out part of the rock that fell on them damaged a vital organ that allowed a person to see. Luck was in fact on their side for damaging their eyesight instead of the brain, however most people didn't see it that way.

Ghostbur took it upon himself to become Y/N's seeing-eye dog. He missed having Friend nearby and Y/N was the thing he connected to the most after Friend's death.

After a few months of trying to get used to no longer having sight or wings Y/N was finally allowed back in their lab with a large amount of supervision from Ghostbur. While carefully running their hands across some unfinished inventions, Y/N comes across the goggles that they made at least a year ago. It immediately smarked a memory deep within their brain, the closest thing they had felt to seeing something ever since doomsday.

"Ghostbur, what color are these?" "Oh, they're blue. Blue's a really nice color, it reminds me of Friend. Do you remember Frien- Why are you looking down at those like that? Would you like some blue, it takes your sadness away! Wait dont put them on, the glass has cracks!" Y/N snickers as the ghost tries to take them away from them without being super forceful, "I'm already blind, what's the worst it can do?"

"Dont say that!" Ghostbur gasps, "We will find a way to get your vision back, those goggles might make it impossible!"

"I made these around the time you first showed up. I ran multiple tests with them and I was able to help a blind person see the world again. Sure, it was very blurry, hard to distinguish a lot of colors from each other, we have a different kind of blindness, and its been more that a year since I last tested them, but they might still work." Y/N explains, then they turn their back to Ghostbur and put the goggles on. This time, Ghostbut only makes a sound in protest.

Blinking, Y/N could feel the stimulation in their brain that they lost along with their eyesight come back. They moved their hands from the position they were in to put the invention on to Y/N's line of sight, and they could see their hands again. Fuzzy, shapeless, hands with a few bandaids and many scars on them.

"So, are they working?"

The voice of your brother brings Y/N back to reality and they turn to look at him. They had completely forgotten what Ghostbur looked like, only remembering vaguely what child Wilbur looked liked and a brief description of how Ghostbur's appearance differed for Wilbur's.

Y/N wraps their arms around the Ghost, not actually hugging but just doing the motion to where they would hug a person they could actually touch, as they tried to not cry in front of him.

(WOOOOOO THIS ENDED UP A LOT LONGER THAN I EXPECTED AND I'M NOT EVEN DONE YET, SO I SEPARATED IT INTO TWO PARTS)

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

IOTA Reviews: Rocketear

The Rocketeer is a 1991 Disney movie set in 1930's America where a test pilot gets a jetpack and uses it to fight Nazis and— Wait, what? “Rocketear”? Oh, damn it!

Let's get into the eleventh (chronologically the seventeenth) episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fourth season: Rocketear.

We start off with Carapace and Cat Noir struggling to hold back some T-Rexes brought back to life by a scientist Jurassic Park style. Seriously, they reference the movie in the same scene.

Why wasn't this the plot of the episode again?

After managing to tame the dinosaurs with a whistle of all things, Ladybug notices something's wrong with Nino after he gives the Turtle Miraculous back to her. Apparently, he's wondering why Rena Rouge (who he knows is Alya) wasn't recruited with him today. Ladybug tells him that he was the only help she needed today. In reality, it's because Alya has adjusted to her new role of supporting Ladybug behind the scenes in her new form, Rena Furtive.

And I'm not a fan of the new form. I get the camo, but it doesn't really help her blend in when her suit is bright blue. I think it's based off the arctic fox, but that animal is able to camouflage itself because it's fur matches the snowy environment. I'm sure a bright blue jumpsuit won't stand out when she tries to blend in at all. Also, the fact that Alya can just change her hero form gives even less excuses as to why Ladybug's new form is only when she uses her Lucky Charm.

Alya is struggling to keep this a secret from Nino because they don't have a lot of secrets in their relationship. Marinette says she can kind of get it because she had to keep her identity a secret from her friend and has to keep keeping her identity a secret from everyone else. Basically, she's telling Alya to suck it up because this is what being a superhero is.

So the next time she sees Nino, Alya tells him she's no longer Rena Rouge, but not about Rena Furtive, which troubles her. The very next scene shows Alya showing Marinette pictures she took of her new costume and asking her which version looks better.

You could always try reviewing Akuma fights. I heard there's one blog that does it when they're not criticizing the famous director Thomas Astruc on social media.

Yeah, in case you can't tell, Alya was only able to rent her brain for a few episodes because she really doesn't seem as understanding about being a superhero as she was in earlier episodes. In episodes like “Optigami” and “Sentibubbler”, we saw Alya use more strategy and show discretion as Rena Rouge, seemingly taking her job more seriously, but then this episode just had to go and piss it all away. I also love how the first time the animators made Alya's skin the same when she's transformed is in a single frame for a joke.

Alya thankfully deletes the picture, but Nino overhears her talking about struggling to find more content for the Ladyblog, and decides to go to the movies with her to help take her mind off things. Nino, in turn, proceeds to give the same reaction to the in-universe Ladybug movie that Astruc gives to the PV.

Apparently, that movie's already getting a sequel and it has a teaser. So was the sequel animated at the same time as the original like Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III?

Nino gets pissed the next movie in the Ladybug Cinematic Universe will feature Rena Rouge and not Carapace... even though Rena Rouge debuted first. The teaser then shows Rena Rouge falling for Cat Noir (yet another creative liberty taken by the writers or something Astruc's self-insert threw in himself), and takes it like it's the real thing. Dude, the first movie said Ladybug was afraid of cats, and the director yelled at the person it was based on for judging it. He clearly has a hard time distinguishing fiction from reality.

Alya leaves Nino early so she can go on patrol, but Nino sees Cat Noir heading out as well. He then watches a video on the Ladyblog where Alya praises Cat Noir which is totally not Astruc projecting or anything.

I don't know what your definition of a prince is, Alya, and I honestly don't want to know.

So Nino takes this as evidence that Alya is in love with Cat Noir and decides to tell Adrien, who naturally laughs him off. And just before you think we have an episode where Adrien plays the straight man, Adrien decides to visit Alya because he's afraid he accidentally charmed Alya.

Yes, because Cat Noir is so charming, girls are just fighting over him, aren't they?

We then cut to a black and white film noir monologue by Nino (dressed like a detective with a fake mustache), who decides to spy on Alya. When Cat Noir asks Alya if she is attracted to him, she naturally laughs him off, though Cat Noir is thankfully a good sport about it, even giving her a hug to apologize. Unfortunately, Nino took this the wrong way.

The next day at school, Nino takes Adrien into his “office” (it's really an excuse to reuse the boiler room setpiece), and shows him the picture of the hug. Adrien says that Alya would never fall for Cat Noir because she's always dedicated to finding out the truth and telling her boyfriend everything. What's Nino's retort?

Okay, several problems with this bit. First of all, why would Nino even tell Adrien any of this? What would it accomplish? Why not say all this to Alya while confronting her about her alleged unfaithfulness? Second, Ladybug didn't give Nino and Alya their Miraculous at the same time until it was an absolute emergency. She outright said in “Hero's Day” that she didn't have time to recruit Nino and Alya separately.

Ladybug: I'm sorry for what I'm about to do. I know I'm revealing your secret identities but I don't have time to find a good excuse to give them to you separately. Rena Rouge and Carapace, I need you both!

Nino and Alya kept their identities secret from each other until then, with Alya even keeping the fact she knew who Carapace was a secret as well. Nino didn't find out because “they don't hide anything from each other” (which I plan to talk about later).

Other than that, I actually liked Adrien in this scene. It was really investing to see him try to justify the whole secret identities rule while Nino blatantly said there was an exception. This is the kind of stuff I wanted to see when it came to Adrien doubting Ladybug, not him destroying things in his anger.

While Nino rants about how Cat Noir “stole” Alya from him, Shadowmoth sends an Akuma his way, turning him into Rocketear.

And the design he has is just boring. It's just a blue jumpsuit with some black spots that look like teardrops, a teardrop-shaped head and a visor. I think the reason this season's been relying more on past Akumas and using more Sentimonsters is because DQ is terrible at character designs. I mean, compare this suit with Aigraon from Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger (his Power Rangers counterpart is Wrench from Dino Charge).

The design does so much more with the teardrop motif, giving him a perpetually miserable face with tear lines going all over his body. Add that to a more diverse color scheme, and you have a much more visually stunning design. And this was created in real life, not rendered on a computer. I'm not sure if this is a budget thing or a laziness thing, but if it's the former, you really need to do better, animators.

The powers are meh, giving Nino the ability to fling explosive tears at enemies. It's a clever idea, and it makes sense he gets a power that parallels Cat Noir's, but I think maybe it would have been more interesting if he couldn't control the tears at all. Like, imagine if he was constantly crying like Blue Diamond, and with every tear he shed, Rocketeer could send it at whoever he felt was causing him misery, mainly Cat Noir, all while serving as a metaphor for people who blame others for their own personal issues. Better yet, make him look like the detective outfit Nino wore for the second act. It would have made him more unpredictable instead of making his tears generic projectile weapons.

Marinette and Alya see the fight and transform into Ladybug and Rena Furtive respectively, the former summoning her Lucky Charm, a projector. Is it just me, or has this been happening with Ladybug a lot recently?

Back to Rocketear, we get a good moment where Cat Noir intentionally lets the Akuma hit him so he can get a chance to resolve things diplomatically. See, this is a moment where Cat Noir's self-sacrificing nature feels heroic and not selfish like when he does it without Ladybug's permission to spite her. Unfortunately, it doesn't really go anywhere as Ladybug shows up and plays the recording Nino took (Alya found his phone earlier), while Rena Furtive uses her Mirage to give the audio to what actually happened that night.

Rena transforms back into Alya and embraces Rocketear, who apologizes to her for his behavior. And then he just... rejects Shadowmoth's power while looking like it wasn't that much effort.

At least when Chloe and Alya did it, we saw them struggling for a little longer. I guess maybe it's because Nino is motivated by his love for Alya, but I think it should have been fleshed out more. So Ladybug purifies the Akuma, gives Nino a Magical Charm, and Cat Noir is still unsure about his feelings for Ladybug at the moment, though they still pound it.

Back in his room, Adrien ponders why Alya and Nino get to know their identities while he and Ladybug can't, but Plagg points out it's because she's the Guardian. It's brief, but I do like seeing Adrien start to doubt Ladybug's judgment, and it looks like it'll foreshadow future episodes. This is a problem I've had since “Hero's Day”, and I'm glad the writers are finally acknowledging this double standard. I just hope they don't end up blaming Marinette for whatever happens later on.

Marinette, of course, apologizes for what happened between Alya and Nino, and I have to say... yeah, no. It's obviously Nino's fault here.

Nino really pushed personal boundaries in this episode, much like Marinette's friends in “Gang of Secrets”. Yes, honesty is a valuable trait, but sometimes, people have secrets they want to keep to themselves. Nino's idea of “not hiding anything from each other” is somewhat controlling, like he's demanding Alya tell him everything whether she wants to or not. The fact that he immediately assumed Alya was cheating on him without giving her freedom to make her own choices doesn't make him look good. Let's be honest, a more realistic outcome would be Alya choosing to break things off with Nino or at least lecture him about how she can do what she wants and keep the secrets she wants. But instead...

And that's how the episode ends.

Okay, Marinette just said she trusted Alya to make the right decision, but I highly doubt she meant this. Marinette strictly said Alya had to keep Rena Furtive a secret, and now she's telling Nino this despite the risk? The whole reason Marinette and Luka broke up was because Marinette had to keep her secrets from Luka, but now it's okay for Alya to be completely honest? How is this not a double standard?

This episode was just dull, and there’s not even much I can really say about it.. There were a handful of standout moments, and the stuff with Adrien was somewhat compelling, but Nino's behavior was just insufferable and dragged the episode down. The Akuma fight was weak, only lasting about four minutes at most, and while the Lucky Charm was more creative this time, the plot was just frustrating. It's really one of the weaker episodes this season.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to watch the better Rocketeer.

[scripttorture]

You mention in posts how torture doesn’t make people obedient and usually makes them spiteful (which obviously makes sense), but isn’t it realistic for someone to comply out of fear rather than loyalty? Whether that was giving up information or obeying orders or something else entirely. I imagine it depends on the person, and they would probably still be willing to turn on their torturers if given the chance, but would it be possible for them to obey orders in hopes of avoiding more pain?

This is a much more nuanced and complicated topic then we’re taught to assume.

 When it comes to giving up information it’s pretty clear cut. No, torture can’t lead to accurate information for a lot of interconnected reasons. I have about six separate masterposts covering the reasons for this.

 One of those is the antagonism torture produces. Another is the memory problems torture causes. Another is the effect that the use of torture has on organisations and the chain of command. Another is the effect torture has on torturers.

 Torture drastically increases the chances of memory loss and it also increases the chances of inaccurate memories. So not only is a torture victim less likely to talk, they’re more likely to be wrong if they do talk.

 But the effects on victims aren’t the main reason torture doesn’t work as a way of getting information. You’re assuming that torturers have access to people who have information.

 The reality is that torture destroys an organisation’s ability to gather accurate information. Most information comes from volunteers: when torture comes into play less people volunteer information. This means that an organisation which tortures is more likely to be questioning someone who knows nothing. That person is then abused until they start making things up.

 Because there’s less access to volunteered information and because humans are very bad at telling when someone is lying, a lot of these made up stories are believed. And this then effects who else the organisation arrests and tortures. This creates a sort of spiral, with lies leading to more lies.

 Additionally the torturers themselves make things worse. There’s less quality research on them, but the research and anecdotal accounts create a pretty clear picture of their behaviour. They undermine the chain of command, they lose the skills the originally had as they turn to torture, they’re aggressive, incredibly competitive and they have a… fracturing effect on their organisation.

 Basically they’re incredibly difficult to work with and totally convinced of their own importance. And this effects their colleagues. It totally divides organisations. The worst case I’ve read about involved members of the same organisation killing each other over access to prisoners.

 That’s a short run through of the main factors. Torture, in the legally defined sense, means all of these factors are in play. Plus a few more I’ve omitted to keep this shorter.

 With all of that together you just can’t get accurate information.

 If you want longer posts I’ve made on the subject I suggest looking for the ‘torture doesn’t work’ tag and the ‘torture as interrogation’ tag. You can also read the masterposts. If you want a much more in depth look at why torture consistently fails as a way of getting information I recommend O’Mara’s Why Torture Doesn’t Work and Rejali’s Torture and Democracy.

 O’Mara is a neuroscientist and goes through the effects torture has on the brain in a way that’s accessible, explaining the damage torture causes and how that destroys the evidence torturers claim to be seeking. Rejali’s book is a breeze block but it’s really a must, it is the textbook on torture in a broad sense. He ties together information from across the globe creating a broader picture of what torture does, not just to victims but to societies.

 The question of compliance under threat and pain… is more complicated.

 People can be forced to do some things. That much is obvious from a brief glance at human history and things like slavery. But it’s important to listen to what people in these scenarios say.

 And my opinion, based on what I’ve read, is that what these people say doesn’t support the idea that humans will easily obey instructions when they’re hurt or threatened. I think instead these people are making hard headed, rational choices in absolutely awful situations. I think when we don’t have these experiences of torture or slavery, it’s easy to look at the surface of the situation and assume that pain alone assures obedience. I think that happens because it’s hard for use to understand the rationale when we don’t have that lived experience.

 Let me give some examples. So it probably goes without saying that slavery goes hand in hand with physical abuse. One of the major researchers on slavery, whose data I quote pretty regularly, assumes throughout his writings that pain is the deciding factor which ‘makes’ people obey.

 But he also describes a couple of very obvious consistent patterns in the ways slavers behave. Slavers almost universally do the following things as well as using physical abuse:

Separate enslaved people from their community

Bar enslaved people from other forms of support

Make enslaved people financially/materially reliant on the slavers

Tell enslaved people that going to the police/authorities will lead to the enslaved person being arrested

Try to convince enslaved people that they will be better off if they comply, usually by framing it as a debt to be worked off with promises of riches after a period of time

 Now here’s the thing: we know from studies on cults and studies on ICURE techniques that a lot of these strategies will result in obedience when there is no violence or physical abuse.

 Given that I don’t think we can assume that violence is the deciding factor. In fact I think the evidence we have from forced confessions under torture suggests the violence may lead to less obedience and a lower ‘success’ rate then a set up that used emotional abuse or other exploitative techniques without violence.

 We have two sources of historical data that are used for statistical studies on forced confessions. One is from historical France. We think that this data set only involved torture to force a confession; no other method of coercion just violence. The rate of forced confessions varied a little in different areas but over all it’s about 10%. The second data set is from the ‘London Cage’ a British prison during the second world war. Here we know that torture was combined with blackmail, bribery and other kinds of coercion. The rate of forced confessions there was about 30%.

 And while this is just two studies, while the data is lacking… That is one hell of a jump.

 Let’s circle back to ICURE. ICURE stands for Isolation, Control information, create Uncertainty, Repetition and Emotive responses. It’s a set of techniques which can, sometimes, change someone’s beliefs when it’s applied consistently over a long time.

 Notice the effort slavers put in to isolating their victims. Notice that the behaviour pattern I’m describing means the slavers are creating uncertainty over seeking help and repeating those messages as well as messages that the victims will be better off if they just go along with it.

 Slavers will generally also try to control the information their victims have access to, taking phones and blocking access to news sources and other resources. Now a lot of slavers will transport their victims to other states or countries putting a language barrier in place. They sometimes also use emotive responses in attempts to persuade victims to comply.

 I’ve read multiple accounts where survivors of modern slavery described slavers telling them that the money they were making was being sent to the victim’s family and without it the family would not survive. (Sometimes the slavers do send small amounts to the families of their victims, sometimes they pocket everything.) I’ve also read accounts where gangs of slavers used religion and oaths taken in a religious setting to persuade their victims they’d be punished by God for not complying.

 Even with all of this, all these techniques we know can sometimes ‘work’- lots of people refuse. Lots of people disobey. Lots of people escape. Lots of people actively sabotage the operations the slavers put together.

 And if you look at that same history of slavery, that shows us people can sometimes be forced to work, you’ll see that this has always been true.

 We have records of historic enslaved people attacking slavers, forming organised militias, forming parallel societies, sacking towns, taking over an entire Caribbean island and beating off four European armies in the process. We also have records of smaller acts. Sabotage, worship of banned deities, speaking banned languages, destruction of property, aiding in the escape of others.

 What I’m saying is: this isn’t black and white. The evidence, modern and historical does not paint a clear picture of violence leading to obedience.

 Instead I believe that it shows humans are resilient, stubborn, adaptable creatures. People can survive all kinds of horrible situations. It is more accurate, more human, to assume that people make rational choices.

 Sometimes those choices involve short term compliance while looking for a better option or a way out. But we tend to hear less stories about the people who completely refuse to comply. We tend to treat that as an impossible fiction when it is a recorded historical and modern reality.

 Bringing this back to writing as a general rule the more complicated the act the less likely you can force someone to do it. Because the more complicated it is the more opportunities they’ll have to sabotage it or use it against their abuser.

 I recommend reading up on the history of Haiti pet. Then Brazil via Palmares.

 I’ll end this by bringing it back to those statistics on forced confessions in historical France. Imagine the conditions with me for a moment. Unsanitary, cramped cells. Dehydration, starvation and disease. Plus the kinds of scarring torture that are conjured up in the minds of most Western people when the word ‘torture’ comes up; thumb screws, leg irons that tighten until the bone snaps, whips.

 Picture it. Try to imagine the pain those people went through.

 And remember that 90% of them did not comply long enough to sign their name.

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[ficforthought]

On being SO DONE with M*sha, a rant a decade in the making!

After giving this some thought I'm going to go ahead and give my opinion on Misha and yesterday’s situation in public for the first time ever. I was going to just post on Twitter but since this has been 12 years in the making I have exceeded the number of tweets I can put in one thread! There’s A LOT in here, so my summary is also long. I'm aware that I will lose followers over this, I'm not looking to offend anyone but it will inevitably happen. I wish anyone leaving all the best as fellow human beings.

TL;DR - having kept quiet for so long I’ve finally reached my limit and it’s all come bubbling out. I’ve never been a fan of Misha, I’ve been ambivalent for the most part, but have never criticised him in any hateful way, that's not who I am, but after all these years of putting up with his bullshit, attention seeking and troublemaking I am DONE. Deleting his tweet containing the word Wincest and replacing it with an APOLOGY just to pander to his Minions and save face is the straw that broke the camel's back. He has consistently pushed his ship on not only fans but on other actors (despite Jensen's discomfort, and him having repeatedly made his feelings known on it), he has stood by while his Minions/Hellers have harassed, victimised, doxxed and sent death threats to people based on their FICTIONAL ships. He has pandered to their gatekeeping, constantly demanded attention in obvious and not so obvious ways, and to the best of my knowledge never criticised their actions even though he's aware of it in a very real way. Some of his Minions have now taken their shit into The Boys fandom and created negativity for Jensen before the guy has even got a foot through the set door, and how is that supporting one half of your ship?

Misha has claimed to be a victim of targeted harassment from Wincest/brother fans (not only shippers) yet his fans have said and done the most despicable things on his watch, all in the name of what he must think is entertainment, or even his idea of a ‘joke’.

Any respect I had for the man based on his humanitarian work has gone because I can only take so much hypocrisy. He and his pandering because of a desperate attempt to be woke and wholly inclusive (which is actually impossible, no matter how good intentions are) are beyond pathetic. Whilst I have never seen why people think he’s so great I have friends IRL and online who genuinely adore the man, yet they have been shocked and upset by his contempt for half of the fandom that made him somewhat famous. It's disgusting and I'm not scrolling by any more. Misha, I hope to never see you on anything J2 related in future because none of us need that kind of negativity, *especially* not J2. Be gone, foul fiend!

OK, so to the too long part. Please be aware that these are my opinions as a fan of the show, of Sam and Dean, and J2, not only as a shipper. I can separate canon and fanon, and can view canon from a gen or shippy PoV. Whether you agree or disagree with my opinion let me be clear that I do not condone constant bashing and hate of a person or character so this isn’t the start of a regular thing for me. It's possible to have an opinion and not show the same vitriol that has been following this man around for years, and that’s what I’m doing. I've not posted this to prompt more negativity, it's simply to get it off my chest and make it clear how I feel. I stand by my philosophy of ship who you want to ship, enjoy it, but don't force it on other people and don't be a dick about it…hmm, that kinda sounds like familiar behaviour, though, does it not?!

I have ABSOLUTELY NO ISSUE with other people liking Misha, Cas or Destiel when it’s for the love of the characters and the ship. What I *do* have an issue with is people who are the true definition of a Heller. I don’t see that as a generic term, don't be ignorant and think I do because I know the difference between actual ship fans and the crazies, both ships have ‘em and I want no part of either of their venom. If you are reading this and class yourself as a Heller then you are part of the problem so run along and as you are all so fond of saying, 'get help' and take your bestie king with you.

I’m stating my opinion in what I feel is the most mature way I can, because unlike many people on SM, I am an adult and can act accordingly, with forethought and without resorting to temper tantrums and bullying of other people to get my point across. I am able to tell the difference between reality and fiction, I don't tar everyone with the same shipper brush and I don't expect everyone to agree with my opinion, but as we know opinions are like arseholes, we all have them and sometimes they stink. Unlike some, for the most part in life (online and offline) I *do* stand by what I say and don’t backtrack or delete things to appease the masses. I have spent a lot of time writing this out to be as clear as possible without being intentionally hateful. Bear with me jumping between actor and character where relevant, at this point they're conjoined. I will say this before I go any further, it doesn’t end well for Misha, I don’t mince my words and if you don’t like seeing facts and opinions laid out, this isn't the post for you.

I’ll say right off the bat what most of you have surmised - I’ve never held Misha (or Cas) in high esteem but I have never *hated* on him. I have shared mild criticism of his actions and opinions on Cas over the years but never, I feel, in any way that has made me feel I have something to apologise for. I have said several times I've been unhappy about Misha crashing con panels, taking attention away from J2 when at those cons *most* people paid their hard earned money to see the STARS of the show they love, first and foremost, and anyone else is a very nice bonus. The odd appearance here and there crashing a panel is fine (and Misha isn’t the first or last person to do it), maybe take up a few minutes then leave, but when someone commandeers an entire panel, that's just not on. It's not only selfish, rude and attention seeking but also disrespectful to other actors, fans and to the organisers who work hard to make sure everything ties in to give us the best con experience we can have. Everyone gets their turn on stage, there's no need to try and hog any more of the limelight, Veruca Salt style. Oh, and if you’re reading this and not getting that reference, (a) you shouldn’t be on my blog because you’re far too young, (b) look it up, and if you still don’t get what I’m saying… well then please refer to point (a). Thank you, kindly!

There was a time in Kripke's era where Cas was - I feel - intentionally used as a pawn by the writers to divert *canon* from the ‘questionable’ relationship between Sam and Dean, i.e. Wincest focus. Prior to that people (other fans) lightened up and just accepted the fact that Wincest had been there since day one in terms of the writing of the show and the fandom. All the cast and crew knew - J2, Kripke and JDM in particular - and made light of it, never judging, never shaming and often encouraging it because they understand it’s a fun part of fandom. Wincest was present enough to be part of the not so subtle subtext, as I said people just accepted it. Kink tomato was alive and well, so was ‘don’t like, don’t read’ and we all just scrolled over things we didn’t like without turning everything into a personal vendetta and excuse for bullying others who didn’t share our views. When the angels came into the plot I think most of us Wincest fans gave the Dean/Cas innuendos the small laugh they deserved and then turned back to the focus of the show which was the brothers, as it had always been intended. Misha, however, milked those moments as much as possible which was amusing at the start but got old *very* quickly, not just for fans (shippers and non shippers alike), but for other actors, in particular Jensen who is on record MULTIPLE times showing his dislike for Destiel. He told people outright that's not how he was playing the relationship between the two characters and CATEGORICALLY said "Destiel doesn't exist" but did it end there? No, it did not because neither fans or Misha let it go, in fact Misha only pushed more, goaded fans into flogging the same dead horse as much as possible. He’s never stopped, not even when there was so much discord in the fandom, a huge wedge was driven into it because of ships, which IMO he heavily contributed to.

Fast forward to over a decade later (a decade, seriously man, let it fucking go!) he didn’t even stop when Destiel did partially go canon. I have never doubted that Cas loved Dean (Sam, too) because in SPN lore angels are made to love, even rebellious ones. I, along with many others, liked that about Cas because who doesn't love a rebel, especially one rebelling for very good reasons, and because of those two wonderful men? Sam and Dean allowed him to see beyond what he'd been brainwashed to believe his entire existence. The fact is that although the nature of that love changed for Cas, it never did for Dean and was CANONICALLY UNREQUITED because Dean was incapable of loving anyone else as much as he loved Sam. All that mattered to Dean, even when he saw other characters as "family" was still Sam…ALWAYS Sam, every step of the way. Again for those who have too much Misha shaped wax in their ears, that’s canon. Whether people choose to see that love platonically or romantically is up to them, soulmates don't always have to be romantic, either way, brotherly love won out above all else on the show. No amount of Misha screaming ‘hey look, Destiel!’ changed that, but it sure didn’t stop him trying, did it?

So now that the obvious has been stated, here's something else we all know - never once in all of the years on the show did Misha drop rallying of the troops to his precious, ego stroking ship. Never once (that I am aware of) has he called out his Minions and Hellers on their continued harassment of everyone involved in the show and other fans despite the fact that they have bullied, victimised and wished bodily harm, rape and death on people who don't see their ship and because didn't get the ending to the story that they wanted. Not once has Misha shown any remorse for the trauma his "fans" have caused, and I’m taking REAL trauma, here, not the kind Twitter stans see as ‘triggering’ - people have been driven to close SM accounts, attempted, and in some cases succeeded in taking their own lives. These Minions have openly mocked Jared’s struggles with depression and anxiety, and Misha - who claims to be friends with J2 and be supportive of them in every way  - has stood by and let it all play out, knowing full well some of the goings on, if not the full extent of how toxic these people are. We know he sees things being said online, and I have absolutely no doubt he spends time online searching his name for things that are relevant in some way to him in an effort to insert himself into a current conversation, or even start one so that attention is on him. Gotta stay relevant, somehow, right, Mish?

He has actively encouraged bullying by his actions of enabling the behaviours above, both by the flogging of the aforementioned dead horse, AND by not objecting to unacceptable behaviours. Remember when Minions and Hellers were slating J2, particularly Jared, for not posting on SM about BLM and other topics? Yeah, he didn’t ask them to stop doing that, either, even when he was tagged in things along the lines of ‘If Misha can post why can’t J2?’ etc. There have been some token protests, con vids I've seen have show his 'objections' which IMO have been done in a very tongue in cheek way, meaning that those people who needed to be pulled aside and told to change their ways just carried on, because their evil overlord didn’t explicitly explain it in terms a three year old could understand that bullying and forcing your opinion on others is WRONG. Not all of his cult are young and impressionable, not by a long shot, but many of the more vocal and vitriolic ones are.

As a father himself I wonder what Misha would do if he found out that his kids were behaving in ways his Minions are? I’m aware they’re young, but kids are cruel and bullying doesn’t just happen online. Even at whatever age they are, would he laugh it off the way he appears to have done with all of this fandom toxicity? Not bloody likely! I wonder if he’s as desperate to gain the approval of his family, friends and colleagues as he appears to be for that of his Minions/Hellers? I would certainly hope so, but that question can only be answered by Misha, himself, and I can and will not presume to speak on someone else's behalf on things in their personal life. For the record I would never presume I know what J2's answers would be on anything, however I do feel that after 15 years I have an accurate gauge on what kind of people they are so would be confident that any opinion I had on a matter aligns with their morals and ethics. As much as J2 have shared of themselves with us - willingly and under no pressure to do so, I might add - we don't *know* them, but we know enough to have an informed opinion. I can’t say the same for Misha because based on the behaviour he’s repeatedly displayed, things I've heard about from other fans as well as people I know IRL who have had direct dealings with him through cons or GISH (including some very actively in the early days when it was GISHWHES) he just hasn’t seemed like a person I wanted to follow on SM. I’ve never watched any of his solo panels, though I have watched ones with both or one of the J's, mostly being left irritated because of his behaviour. Watching the J’s put up with that shit is painful, and it’s a testament to how good they are as actors that they managed to hide at least some of their disdain for as long as they did. Microexpressions give them away, particularly Jensen, and they certainly have faces I have spent many years watching closely. Beautiful faces to go with beautiful souls, both of them! <3

I have precisely ZERO interest in Destiel as a ship, very little interest in Cas as a character anymore (though I did like him in the early days,and his relationship with Jack in late seasons) so I have absolutely no reason or desire to follow anything Misha does. That said, I've obviously been peripherally aware of some things he's been involved in because of friends, from things I’ve seen on SM and general fandom stuff. Despite the things I've already mentioned about his behaviour, up until now I have been able to maintain a level of respect for him as a person because of the humanitarian and charity work he's done. He seems like someone who really does want to change the world for the better and I am in full support of that fact, so much so that I have supported TWO campaigns relating to him. I bought one of the Super Good t-shirts for the campaign he did with Michael Sheen (a true angel!), the SPN/Good Omens x-over to help homeless charities, and I chose the design with text only and not artwork of Michael and Misha on, basically because I didn’t want to be wearing something with Misha’s face on it and I make absolutely no apology for that, whatsoever. I also bought Alex's #TheEndHasNoEnd shirt, which some of the profits went to Random Acts who do great work, so again, despite not liking Misha I still willingly contributed for a cause bigger than me, and to support Alex, who I absolutely ADORE. I'm aware that Stands aren't popular with some of the fandom, however since most of the cast of SPN are happily affiliated with them then I don't feel it's my place to either judge, or to discuss topics I know next to nothing about. But I digress, as a decent human being I have shown support tangentially to a man who I don't care for out of respect for the work he does outside the fandom. Telling you this isn’t to paint myself in a good light - I don’t need your approval, I’m a big girl, unlike some I don’t need constant validation! - only to provide background on how I’ve actively *not* hated on Misha.

Now though, any respect I had for him has come to an abrupt end, the events of the past 24 hours has seen to that. Whilst I have been annoyed at his behaviour in regards to shipping, I don't feel it's ever gone this far, or at least not that I've seen first hand. This man has, IMO, contributed to so much toxicity in the fandom by way of things I've mentioned before, he's claimed - without actually saying the words - that Wincest fans weren't interested in him as a character when he came onto the show, and hasn’t felt included because of the fans’ love of the brothers. Um, hate to break it to you, love, but when you come onto an established show that is about two people, and you’re a *guest star* you can’t expect everyone to love you. Some characters we as individuals do fall in love with straight away (Bobby, Charlie, Crowley and Rowena are good examples for me), it takes time to establish a dynamic, so if that’s how he felt then it was incredibly naive of him as an actor to expect instant acceptance from anyone. Also, why wait until after the show finished to bring it up AGAIN … oh wait, yeah, that would be to step back into the limelight in a way intended to garner sympathy from Minions and INTENTIONALLY piss off bro fans and Wincest shippers alike? How fucking self centred, desperate and disrespectful do you have to be to shit all over the finale of a show that for the most part accepted you and kept you in paid work for 12 years? Well, Misha Collins levels of all of those things, obviously.  

So, on the topics of self centred, desperate to stay relevant, attention seeking and being oh so needy, the tweet yesterday from Amazon mentioned Castiel. He wasn’t tagged in it, so I refer to my earlier comment about searching online, because how else would he have possibly seen that? It’s possible someone sent it to him, I appreciate that, but if we go off past behaviour it’s not any stretch at all to believe that didn’t happen. So, once again, having seen the tweet he took it upon himself to - oh so predictably - turn it into something relating to Destiel. When I saw it I immediately rolled my eyes and thought ‘here we go again’, but then also had a little smile because I really liked the fact that he explicitly mentioned Wincest, therefore seeming to accept that his poor old dead horse wasn’t the only one in the race. I actually mentally tipped my hat to him then because it appeared that he’s matured enough to acknowledge by name the ship that predates his inclusion on the show. Great, I thought, this is a positive thing in a sea of negativity surrounding the man and his sunken ship, because what followed was Wincest trending in the US (it may also have been other countries as well but I had to sleep!) … largely due to the fact that Hellers were responding to it, calling him out on mentioning the dreaded ‘W’ word. I’ll repeat that because it’s been a rare occurrence up to that point… the Minions were actually disappointed with their overlord for mentioning another ship. We all know what they think of it and I for one, don’t give a flying fuck about their opionion. Ship and let ship, it’s all fun (or meant to be) so we have different tastes, that’s life kiddiwinks, deal with it. I mean, you really don’t have much of an example set for you when your king has proven several times over to be one of the biggest obnoxious brats out there, but just give it a try for your own sakes, yeah? Awesome, good on you, besties!

An unexpected development - to my joy and that of other Wincest shippers - them doing that got the topic trending, only *kept* trending by the fact that were all coming online asking why it was trending. Wincest shippers barely lifted a finger, we just flooded each other’s timelines with lovely content and basked in the Hellers - and Misha - shooting themselves in the foot, which was awesome. But did the vitriol stop? No. Did he get the attention he so clearly craves? Yes. Was it in the way he wanted? Fuck no, so poor, emotionally wounded baby backtracked after seeing that his name was trending alongside Wincest because that’s *so* not what someone narcissistic to do it in the first place, wanted.

Now here’s where I could easily have just moved on with an unusually fond chuckle, giving him an ironic pat on the back and a ‘thanks, Misha’ for being the one to instigate hours of fun, but once again his despicable behaviour made that impossible. It’s been more than obvious for many years that he cares more about what his fans think than anything else to do with the show and the fandom in a larger sense, but to delete the tweet and APOLOGISE for daring to be so insensitive to the snowflakes’ delicate sensibilities for mentioning Wincest in the first place was absolutely disgusting. Stating , “I used a term that I had never really given any thought to other than, "that's a thing?! Yuck." is not only complete and utter bullshit, it’s pandering of the highest order.  

We all know he has referred to Wincest on multiple occasions, so to say he hadn’t thought about is a flat out lie, which IMO is an insult to everyone, not just Wincest shippers. Does the man have no self respect at all, why would you contradict yourself in the face of such overwhelming evidence? Instead of either ignoring all the people calling him out, or addressing it with another tweet saying ‘yeah, that happened’ or something similar he chose, I repeat, CHOSE the route of claiming he didn’t realise he was being offensive to people who felt ‘triggered’ by him using the word Wincest. He basically shat all over an entire ship and large sector of the fandom in an attempt to appease his own fan base which consists of a lot of children (or those that act like children) who have no idea what RL is like.

Once again, he’s reinforced the idea that if you shout loud enough at someone just because you don’t like something they said, they will back down and apologise for something even when there’s nothing to apologise for. If he wants to be such a role model then he could easily have pointed out that a fictional ship doesn’t condone RL incest, any ACTUAL trauma people have suffered because of RL situations, and made an effort to make sure people understand that. He COULD have used it as an opportunity to do some good in the fandom by encouraging people to build bridges, to accept that people are entitled to their beliefs and that sometimes we see things differently but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t treat others with BASIC HUMAN DECENCY because of it. Instead he YET AGAIN chose to show that he cares more about what Minions think of him, keeping them onside to constantly stroke his unbelievably fragile ego in everything he does.

It is my understanding that Misha is big on (or claims to be big on) putting positive energy out into the world, treating people with respect, helping others and accepting people for who they are, not who you want them to be… all this after YEARS of consistently practising what he preaches only when it suits him. He sends out a message that it’s perfectly OK to bully, to spread hate, to draw attention to yourself at the cost of others, to throw colleagues and friends under the bus and at the same time use them to further your own agenda and get hits for your YouTube channel. Is this really the legacy he wants to leave? Is this an environment he wants his own kids to grow up in as well as future generations? Is this what he thinks is a valuable contribution as a human being? JFC, the arrogance, hypocrisy and the need for constant validation this man exhibits is nothing short of cringeworthy… actually it’s beyond that. It’s deplorable behaviour, it’s not new, and he will continue to act like this for as long as he’s being enabled and this harmful cycle needs to end.

I have friends IRL and online who are (now, possibly, were) big Misha fans, who have supported him from either the beginning of his run on the show, or since they started watching, and this is how he repays this behaviour? He’s willfully alienating decent people (including multishippers) all to make himself look good by being seen to do everything he can not to offend people. Spoiler alert, you DID offend people, you continue to do so time and again and we’ve had enough. I can’t imagine how exhausting it must be to be such a perpetual people pleaser, but let me say it’s not doing you any favours in any way, shape or form.

Misha, you are *not* a role model, you’re *not* someone to look up to when you can't live up to the ideals you preach. You’re spitting in the face of people who have supported you even after some questionable things in the past, who gave you the benefit of the doubt because we’re all human and we all make mistakes. The key to growing as a person is not to keep repeating the same mistakes over and over, understanding *why* what you said and/or did was a mistake and making a concerted effort to make changes. I don’t ever see you doing that, you will continue down this path of only caring about Minions under the guise of caring for people in general. You are transparent, you are sad and despite the fact I’ve never particularly liked you, I didn’t speak up because I didn’t want to get involved in the drama. Well now I have spoken up and I’m saying you’re a disgrace, you have no respect for other people and nobody is fooled anymore. If it hadn’t been this tweet it would have been something else, but I for one am glad it happened so soon after the show ended so we can finally be rid of the limpet-like behaviour. It’s over, let it go for the sake of what dignity you might have left, for the sake of your family and friends and for the sake of anyone who isn’t capable of seeing through your ‘it’s a joke’ mentality.

You have been weighed, you have been measured and you have been found wanting. Fuck you and the horse you rode in on, Misha.

For anyone who made it to the end of my ramble, thank you. This has been a cathartic exercise and I’m drawing a line under it now, I don’t think I could possibly make my thoughts any clearer. I urge you not to get caught up in any petty squabbles with his Minions, let’s celebrate J2 and other cast and crew members who have shown us all respect and who I am proud to call part of the SPN family. There’s always one member of the family who needs to be frozen out for the good of everyone else.

[traincat]

I’ve been trying to piece together a few things from your Twitter and Tumblr posts alike and still can’t make heads or tales of things, so would you mind helping out a FF & spideytorch noob? 1) what is currently happening with Johnny in the comics? (I’ve fallen head over heels for this guy, largely all your doing) 2) when’s the last time he and Peter have interacted, canon wise? (And do you think upcoming interactions are likely?) 3) your thoughts on if they’ll have him come out in the near future? (has that ‘biggest change to the fantastic four’ teaser come to pass yet?) Love all your content, thank you!

I'd say no problem but then I started thinking about this current run again and got a headache. But yes, I can do that to save you from reading it, because it is very largely not good.

So I don't think it's unfair to just flat out say the current Fantastic Four run is not very good, largely due to writer Dan Slott's efforts. Slott was previously on Amazing Spider-Man for 10 years, to mixed opinions, but a large portion of Spider-Man fandom, myself included, blames him near singlehandedly for the decline in quality of Spider-Man books over those ten years. I will say, in the interest of fairness, that Slott as a writer has an incredible fondness for the Spider-Man/Human Torch relationship, and that a lot of the recent teamups and interactions between them have been written or co-written by him. So it's all not all negative here. But in general, I personally find Slott's more recent comics (the last seven-ish years especially) to be badly plotted out, messily characterized disasters that feature characters written with all the emotion of a cardboard cutout. That's me putting it nicely.

To explain this fully, you have to understand the position Fantastic Four comics were in from the years 2015 through 2018, both in the fictional 616 universe and in the real publishing world. Following the 2015 Secret Wars event (great if you want some Johnny angst in the background of your plot), the Fantastic Four were disbanded -- Reed, Sue, and their many biological and found family children were presumed dead but in reality were remaking the multiverse, unable, for a reason that was never clearly defined, to reach home. Ben and Johnny were left on Earth. They had an unspecified falling out, likely due to Reed and Sue's absence, and went their separate ways -- Ben joined the Guardians of the Galaxy and went to space. Johnny was featured on both Inhumans and Avengers books. What's notable about this period is that it's the first time since 1961 that there was no Fantastic Four book being published by Marvel. Now the real world reason behind this is both complicated and extremely petty: Marvel really wanted the Fantastic Four film rights. Marvel denied this explanation at the time, stating that the reason was sales motivated, but it was a thoroughly flimsy excuse and Jonathan Hickman, writer of 2015's Secret Wars and overseer of the current X-Men plot, gave an interview saying the decision was film rights motivated. This decision kept the Fantastic Four books off the shelves for three years, up until the Disney-Fox merger, which secured the X-Men and Fantastic Four rights for Disney's Marvel Studios. Marvel then announced that the Fantastic Four book would be returning. So that's a little bit of background as to the precarious place the Fantastic Four currently occupy in the Marvel universe -- it's worth noting that this year is their 60th anniversary, and Marvel has done very little for it. Compare this to the X-Men, whose film rights Marvel also obtained during the Disney-Fox merger, and whose books are currently dominating the publishing lineup. The Fantastic Four definitely occupy an unpopular position, one Marvel themselves is at least partially responsible for forcing them into.

But to move back into the actual content of the book -- the readjustment period Slott wrote reintroducing the Fantastic Four into the Marvel universe can be described as clumsy, at best. It's never fully explained why Reed, Sue, and the kids couldn't return to Earth, something that was explored in Chip Zdarsky's 2017 Marvel Two-in-One, which featured Ben, Johnny, and Doom on a multiversal roadtrip to try and find their family and which I on the whole recommend, despite it having an awkward ending due to being cut short by Slott's announced Fantastic Four main title.

(Marvel Two-in-One 2017 #4)

Instead, the Fantastic Four return to a Marvel universe a little different than how they left it, with the Baxter Building -- formerly the offices of Parker Industries, the company Doc Ock started in Peter's body during Superior Spider-Man that Peter inherited after his defeat and then lost spectacularly when he trashed his own company to fight nazis (good for him) -- occupied by a different fantastic foursome in a plot that goes nowhere and does nothing. This is somewhat emblematic of the early days of Slott's run -- he introduces ideas that fail to go anywhere, including Johnny's rekindled relationship with his other best friend and former college roommate, Wyatt Wingfoot, who he was seen being very cuddly with in the early issues.

(FF 2018 #1) A small group of Fantastic Four fans have argued for a while that if Marvel was to have Johnny come out, a relationship with Wyatt would feel very natural -- they're already close, with Wyatt being an important Fantastic Four supporting character since the '60s. I have some further analysis here on the conspiracy theory that Johnny and Wyatt were supposed to be in relationship at the beginning of this run but that that plot was, for whatever reason, nixed. I don't know that I entirely believe this theory, for the record -- but I do think the pieces line up remarkably well.

Anyway, that didn't/hasn't yet happened, obviously. Slott instead for the most part put Johnny on the back burner for the beginning of his run, up until the Spyre arc, which I have reason to believe is the main story he pitched that he credits with securing him the Fantastic Four title. The Spyre arc suggests that the Fantastic Four's failed space exploration during which they got their powers wasn't just to beat the commies to the moon, as Lee and Kirby envisioned (simpler days), but to reach a specific planet outside of our galaxy. When the team sets out to conquer this mission, they arrive at the planet, but are quickly captured. The planet, they find out, operates like a soulmate AU -- everyone has a fated person that they are matched to via a gold armband. Reed and Sue are soulmates (and Ben is confined to an underground subterranean with the other monsters, because this is a Fantastic Four comic) while it's discovered! Shocker! That Johnny is actually the soulmate of the one the planet's inhabitants, a winged woman named Sky, with the suggestion that this is both why Johnny's previous relationships have never worked and why he loves space exploration -- he was just trying to get to his Soulmate TM.

(FF 2018 #15) "What's going on here? Where are my clothes?" As you can see, this didn't start off super great, with Johnny being separated from his family, stripped naked, and put in Sky's bed with a soulmate armband slapped on him. Did I mention they're only removable if your soulmate takes it off for you? And that Sky has consistently refused despite Johnny asking her to? Yeah. It's bad. (I think it's important to note Johnny's long history as a victim of assault plays into this narrative, whether or not Slott is personally holding that in mind while writing, which I don't believe he is. cw in the linked post for discussions of sexual assault.) There's an additional issue here in that Slott has a history of problematic writing regarding women of color, featuring characters he's created to act as love interests being oversexualized, infantilized, villainized, or some mix of all three, with two examples of this phenomena being Cindy Moon and Lian Tang, both of whom he introduced in quick succession in Amazing Spider-Man. Slott certainly didn't have to write Sky as manipulative or controlling towards Johnny, but that's what he chose to do, and that factors into the bigger picture of unfortunate themes in his writing.

Sky returns to Earth with the Fantastic Four despite Johnny appearing unenthused about the idea and initially generally reluctant to interact with her. Apparently they went on a few dates after this and kind of made up. I don't know because I stopped reading for about ten issues in there but I feel confident I missed very little. It's hard to talk about the Sky plot without referencing Johnny's previous interactions with a character named Lyja, a Skrull whose relationship to Johnny I have a long breakdown of here. It's doubly hard, because Lyja actually showed back up in Fantastic Four during this plot. Lyja's modus operandi has remained consistent throughout almost all of her appearances, which I guess makes sense, because she literally has no storylines that do not involve her being obsessed with Johnny, and this recent story isn't any different: Lyja shows up, Lyja disguises herself as another woman in Johnny's life to get close to Johnny, Lyja gets caught and claims it was all fine because she did it for love. This time she disguised herself as Sky.

(FF 2018 #32) Not gonna lie, kind of proud of him for this one. That's one of my problems with Slott -- very occasionally, he busts out good moments, only to undermine them with the rest of his narrative.

In the same issue, Alicia Masters, the first woman Lyja impersonated in order to get close to Johnny, uses her supervillain stepfather's radioactive clay to control Lyja's mind and send her back to space, and I do think she utilized girl power when she did this. Johnny, left reeling after Lyja's latest attempts to trick him into a relationship, ends this issue by sleeping with Victorious, Dr. Doom's right hand woman.

I know she pegged him. I know it. This scene was a little controversial in Johnny fandom, because a lot of people viewed it as Johnny cheating on Sky and thought that that action was out of character for Johnny. I'm personally of a little different opinion, which is that regardless of whether or not you view Johnny and Sky in a committed enough relationship that Johnny's tryst would count as infidelity when all Johnny and Sky are bound by are magic plot soulmate bracelets, I think Lyja's involvement changes things significantly when it comes to Johnny's characterization. All of Johnny's "playboy" periods, if we can call them that, coincide directly with Lyja having been in and then left his life again, which I think makes a certain amount of sense -- it's Johnny trying to wrest control back after a situation where he had none. None of this is explicitly canon, I have to note, but sometimes in comics you have to do the work yourself. So I think this is a case of something being accidentally extremely in character that Slott accidentally stumbled into because he had these love triangles in mind, not because he put a lot of thought into it.

Speaking of love triangles! Johnny sleeping with Victorious gets more complicated when Dr. Doom announces his intent to marry Victorious -- not because he has any romantic interest in her (this engagement caused a lot of uproar in Fantastic Four because Victorious had been previously referred to as being like Doom's adopted daughter) but in order to install her as Latverian regent in his absence. I'm not going to lie, I love a political wedding. Victorious, for some reason, thinks Doom will be deeply upset that she slept with some closeted blond twink and the member of the Fantastic Four he views least as an enemy and more as an annoyance. Johnny, who Sky is currently not talking to because she "felt" him sleeping with Victorious through their magic plot soulmate bracelets, also feels nervous about Doom finding out about this, which I guess is slightly more valid. Anyway, for some completely ridiculous reason, Victorious decides the best time to tell Doom about this little indiscretion is when they're standing at the altar, which coincidentally the Fantastic Four are also standing at, because Doom asked Reed to be his best man in a not at all homoerotic little setup involving midnight swordfighting and Reed slipping Doom's emerald ring onto his own finger. Sorry to sidetrack into DoomReed territory here but it's just like. It's just a lot.

(FF 2018 #33) Also, Ben walked the bride down the aisle. :,) Look at his gigantic hand.

Anyway then Doom decides he's going to kill everyone in a completely reasonable and not at all overblown reaction to Johnny and Zora having what was most likely both disappointing for Zora and weepy for Johnny sex. And that brings us up to where Fantastic Four comics left us yesterday -- in answer to your "big change" question, that's most likely coming up in the next issue, so it hasn't come to pass yet.

Having gotten all that out of the way -- the last time Johnny and Peter interacted canon-wise was in the recent Empyre Fallout Fantastic Four, at the end of the Empyre event:

It was cute! Slott does right good interactions between them. This is possibly the Stockholm Syndrome talking. I don't know if more interactions are likely imminent -- the Empyre event was fairly recent. On the other hand, Slott does like writing interactions between them. So I'd give it about a 50/50 shot. I was skimming the letter page in the latest issue and someone wrote in asking if Peter was likely to appear in the pages of Fantastic Four again any time soon, so there is definitely a demand.

As for Johnny coming out -- I don't know. It's not a call I feel comfortable making at this moment, which I guess means I wouldn't bet money on it. I'd like to say yes, especially because I think Slott set up, whether that was his intention or more likely not, several good places in his run where Johnny could have come out. The beginning, when he's implied to be living with Wyatt again and where he and Wyatt are paralleled against Ben and Alicia. Ben's bachelor party, where Johnny laments not finding the right person -- specifically person and not woman -- and where Ben tells him to "be brave, Johnny Storm." And the soulmate planet plot, where I think could have had a very different and much better ending if Johnny had told Sky that she couldn't be his romantic soulmate, because he knows he wants to be with a man. But those are just places that I think would have made good opportunities for a coming out story. Instead, Johnny's been involved (dubiously) with three different women over the space of the last 10 issues, which is more heterosexuality at one time than he's been confronted with in the last 60 years. So my thoughts are still that it's going to happen eventually, but quite possibly not anytime soon.

Hope that helps! And that my incredibly long answer about what's currently going on with Johnny in comics sheds some light on things!

[haleigh-sloth]

I have a question but why do you think so many people are against Dabi/Touya getting a redemption arc or getting saved? Like some are against him being saved but are all down for Shiggy and Toga to be saved? I usually see the same argument and it’s frustrating! Like before I explain myself just want to say I’m not hating on Shiggy or do I feel like he’s any less worth saving but I see these arguments that leave me baffled. So the arguments I have seen before is some people don’t think Dabi/Touya can be redeemed or saved because he has murdered 30+ people, but like Shiggy has probably killed the same amount of not more people so that logic doesn’t really cut it. So why does it make a difference? Like why are people so against Dabi/Touya being saved or redeemed?

Well, I'll start this by saying that Shigaraki has ABSOLUTELY KILLED MORE PEOPLE HOLY SHIT DUDE. It's not even up for debate 😂 that boy flattened two cities with the touch of a hand. Shiggy is my favorite hands down and I'll defend the boy til I die but he has done so much more damage. That's kind of the point to his arc--actually. But anyways~

Content Warning of abuse below the cut a bit further down--

So with that--I've wondered the same thing you're asking. Why is Touya getting so much hate? Why not redeem him? Well, there's a few reasons that I have seen:

Endeavor- This is the first and foremost reason I can see for Touya having so many antis. This is something I can't grasp or fathom--Why do so many people like Endeavor? Or more like--why do so many people want to see an abuser thrive and his victim be put down? I can understand wanting to see an abuser better himself AND wanting to see the victim thrive, and I can see people wanting the abuser to be put down and the victim to thrive. But to just want the abuser to come out on top? No. Fuck you. (not you anon). So for whatever reason that I cannot fathom, people can't stand the idea of Touya surviving, being saved and redeemed, because it means that Enji has failed (which he already has but--again I really don't understand that side of the fandom and quite frankly I don't want to). So yeah, Endeavor has a lot of ridiculous fans. Hawks- I've already talked about how ridiculous some of the Hawks-stans are. I'm sorry but---they're fucking ridiculous. Some of them need to step away from their computer, go outside, breath some outside air, and shut the fuck up. And let me tell you---we sometimes joke about how the hero-stan side of the fandom lacks critical thinking skills and can't read past the surface--but I want to disagree with to an extent. I can tell you right now, Hawks's stans saw THIS:

And they knew. Seeing Hawks remain in the dark while Dabi walked toward the light. They knew what this was foretelling. And they didn't like it. And then this happened:

And they DEFINITELY did not like that. And then Dabi went and made fried chicken out of him and they found more reason to hate him with all their being. Hawks was kind of set up to die heroically--and even though his arc is pretty bad right now, I still think that at this point that’s the best ending for him. For me, he’s gone too long without even remotely thinking of changing his ideologies, and has been backing Endeavor unquestionably for a bit too long now. It’s just not looking good for him survival-wise. And his stans either SEE this very clearly and are in denial and need something to hate in order to deal with it, OR they really just aren’t looking as deep into the story as they need to. Those panels I used above though honestly tell it all. That being said he very well may survive and not have any consequences from his low point at all--but then he gets thrown in the “BNHA’s shittiest written arcs” pile. But whatever. 

Also--shoutout to the blogs I follow and people I talk to who genuinely LOVE Hawks’s character but like--aren’t ridiculous about it and don’t harass people in their inboxes about it. Who also try to understand his character and not just make him out to be a uwu baby that never did anything wrong. TRUE Hawks-stans if I ever saw em.

Shouto--This is FAR less common than the other two reasons, but I have seen a few people who think this. They love Shouto (understandably--he’s a fluffy boy who needs a hug from his big brother Touya), but they think that Touya is going to be Shouto’s “final boss”, or his mortal enemy or something. Which--idk if they just refuse to read into Shouto’s awesome character on purpose or not, but he is not about to go out there and try to kill his big brother, who he never got to know, who he KNOWS suffered because of their father, and who is very very clearly in physical, mental, and emotional pain. Again--Shouto-stans are a  far less part of the problem. But I’ve seen this misunderstanding of Shouto’s character go around a few times. 

This next one is also big, and kind of falls into the same category with Endeavor up top--but it’s such a huge issue that I’m seeing that it needs its own paragraph: People don’t understand children’s behaviors, abuse, abusive family dynamics, and just child psychology in general. Child psychology is hard to understand--but also very simple. It’s hard as an adult to think back to how black and white the world was when you were a kid. Your parents were your safe place--they were your guardians. Or rather--they were supposed to be. This isn’t always the case though. And the Todoroki family exhibits a lot of realistic aspects of abuse. Even though the Todoroki backstory was very messily written--one thing is absolute: Endeavor emotionally abused his child. The issue is that Shouto’s and Rei’s physical abuse was shown FIRST in the story--and THEN we were shown what really happened with Touya wasn’t so easily identified as abuse (I mean it is--to me, but not to everybody). And people got stuck on comparing Touya’s and Shouto’s childhood instead of viewing them as two completely separate crimes Endeavor committed against his family. And they misunderstand Touya’s behaviors. Peep back at when I said that your parents are supposed to be your safe place--well, for Touya, Enji WAS his safe place, his guardian, his world. And then suddenly all of that disappeared without reason (good reason I mean). And that takes a serious toll on a child. I could honestly go on and on and on about this topic in particular but it’s not necessary for this ask. The point is---people don’t think Touya was actually abused or that he suffered as a child. They seriously lack an understanding when it comes to stuff like that. And they aren’t shy about showing it to the rest of the internet. 

The last reason which I think kind of encompasses all of these reasons: People don’t understand redemption arcs--because they’re not your run of the mill Heroes vs. Villains story. It makes it to where it’s not clearly obvious whose side you should take. I guess people don’t like that---but I love it. Why not take BOTH sides?

You get to have more fun this way imo. You get to watch and see how the two sides come together--rather than just stick to one ideology til the end. I think it’s because people don’t like having their ideals, beliefs, and values challenged. It may be personal for some people--but forgiveness is a touchy subject as well.  And I also think a lot of people very much think that the rules of our reality should exist within fiction. People forget that fiction exists for us to escape reality--I don’t know why this is so easily forgotten. But what’s cool about fictional stories is that everybody can have a happy ending--no matter how many atrocities they committed, people they hurt/killed, because guess what? NOBODY ACTUALLY GOT HURT! 

But anyway---these are the conclusions I’ve come to regarding why Touya has so many haters. Some are legitimate reasons (the last two I listed) and some are just outright ridiculous (the first three I listed). 

I’m not bothered though. I would LIKE to say that when these villain-saving chapters come out I’ll laugh hysterically at all the villain-haters’ reactions---BUT I already blocked almost all of them. 😂

[touchstarvedsam]

Why is it so hard to understand the concept of codependency? Is not nice, is not romantic, it doesn't mean you're someone's soulmate, is ugly and sad, and it means you can't live or let live, it means you don't care about yourself at all, because everything you do is because and for another person. Is mental illness and Sam an Dean did not deserve it, they deserved to live for themselves!

I am having a lot of trouble trying to read the tone of this ask, anon.

But listen, the entire show is based on Sam and Dean’s psychotic, irrational, erotic codependence on each other. So I don’t know what to tell you if you hate that part. Why did you watch the show? Why continue to watch the show if their codependency comes off as a mental illness to you?

Sam and Dean didn’t have a perfect childhood. Dean was raised like a little soldier, told to protect his little brother from the moment John handed Sammy to him. Dean protected Sam as much as he could growing up, tried to give Sam a childhood for as long as he could, until smart, sneaky, curious little Sammy found John’s journal and learned about the things that go bump in the night himself.

They spent a lot of time on the road with their dad, and a lot of time sequestered in dirty motels together while their dad was out hunting. Their codependence stemmed from that. Is it healthy? Not really. But if you wanted healthy, why would you watch Supernatural to begin with?

Supernatural is literally about Sam and Dean’s codependency. It’s about how through thick and thin, through fights and make-ups, between angels and demons, Sam and Dean will always choose each other. It didn’t matter that the fates were against them, that God was against them. These two defied everything that tried to stand in between them. They said “screw you” to God, and all the demons, and all the angels, and chose each other, over everything. Time and time again.

Ruby and Castiel tried to tear them apart in season 4. They “broke up” for a bit, but in the end? Dean went back for Sam. Late, but he did.

Zachariah tried to tear them apart in season 5, manipulating what Sam’s heaven would have really been like and showing them only Sam’s moments without Dean. But Ash helped them, got them back on track. Sam and Dean are soulmates, whether you don’t think that’s true or not. Ash calling their heaven “Winchesterland” should be proof enough of that. Castiel even told Dean that if he keeps driving on the Axis Mundi, he will find Sam. If that doesn’t scream soulmates to you, I don’t know what does.

Castiel tried to keep them apart in season 6, the whole soulless bullshit. But even soulless, Sam went to find Dean. It took him a year, but he finally brought Dean along with the Campbell hunting crew. Even soulless, you can’t tell me that Sam wasn’t drawn to Dean. He may not have “cared” but he knew he should care.

Everything in this show has been trying to tear Sam and Dean away from each other and every time it’s the codependency that yanks them back together. But if it wasn’t for their codependency, the show wouldn’t have lasted half as long. If Dean didn’t sell his soul or Sam didn’t try to sell his own, or Dean didn’t temporarily kill himself to speak to Billie to get her to bring Sam back, would the show have been half as good to you? Tell me honestly, would you have liked it as much if Sam and Dean were just your average Joe brothers, not being forced to watch each other die practically once a year for fifteen years?

Codependency like that in real life, yeah, I would consider a problem and would hope for them to get professional help if it’s potentially life threatening. But this is Supernatural, and it’s fiction. People in this fandom really need to start learning how to separate reality from fiction. We don’t watch TV shows to relive the norm. We want the codependency, the subtext, the angst. In real life, no, but fiction is our getaway. Fiction is a way of coping with the shitty world around us. And if my way of coping is with two brothers so codependent on each other, you can barely tell where one ends and the other begins, then that’s on me. It’s my getaway, my safe space.

Sam and Dean, in the end, lived the way they wanted. Yeah, they chose each other over everything and everyone else, but that wasn’t Chuck’s doing. Chuck wanted them split up. Chuck wanted them to suffer. But nothing could sway Sam and Dean, not forever. And that’s what I love.

[cant-think-of-anything]

I think part of the reason that there’s such a dissonance between what kind of character Matthew is ~supposed~ to have and what kind of poor traits shine through, especially in his treatment of Alastair, is not just because of CC’s poor handling of alcoholism (and, in my opinion, mental health issues and depression) but also because: Our first introduction to these characters happened a long ways before some major changes to TLH.

Namely… Alastair and Cordelia were basically white in CC’s original planning. There’s just no way around that. Their flower cards, where they’re not just whitewashed but purely white, prove that (and they STILL haven’t been updated, by the way.)

Also, Alastair’s hair: in CoG it was dyed blond, and CC wrote it off implicitly as a racism thing when she decided he was Persian (which I guess happened after the short story where we met Alastair and before TLH) , which would have been fine it if it was an arc written better. Except, I don’t think she realized that it would make Matthew’s comments about Alastair inherently and obviously racist, being a white author. And I doubt that it will be dealt with and named or even acknowledged outright in the final TLH installment.

Kind of the same thing with Cordelia. I’m not saying POC can’t have like red hair because obviously POC don’t come in a prepackaged set of five or six traits that are all configured randomly, but something has always rubbed me the wrong way about the way that CC writes the majority of her POC and especially WOC as exotic. I mean, Kamala as a character is to me a special favorite (even though CC did her dirty and didn’t do a good job portraying her character or intersectional identity) but I rolled my eyes so hard when she had lighter brown or “amber” eyes in canon or officially commissioned art. With Cordelia, I know CC once said she uses henna to redden her hair which is great for her, and I guess I have less of a bone to pick with that because it’s semi(?) realistic, but still. Also the fact that so much of her description as a beautiful person comes from her hair. Again that’s cool, and women of color should be loved wholly including being loved for the parts of them that they freely change (such as Cordelia’s hair) but… the proportion of the fixation on her hair as what makes her lovely rubs me the wrong way sometimes. I feel like it’s sometimes an out from CC making the ~scandalous~ decision that a woman of color can be beautiful because of the traits she is born with. Idk it’s just for me I had this long standing repulsion towards my colorings and my facial structure and white girls would tell me I was whiny about it and then I finally began to piece together things like “Eurocentric beauty standards.”

Going on a tangent slightly, but something else that bothered me was when Anna insulted Cordelia after buying her those dresses and everyone kinda treating it as a compliment? And just cause Cordelia, a fictional teenager, didn’t get mad about it doesn’t mean readers of color can’t see the underlying racism behind “Cordelia looks MUCH better in these dresses which are SUITED for her skin tone.”

I think that narrative could have been handled much better: if it was Cordelia picking out her own clothes as an act of maturity and self-realization and ownership, if Cordelia herself said (in a different way lol) “Damn right I can wear lavender ruffles if I want to and crimp my hair but I’m not going to let white fashion prevent me from outshining everyone because dark skinned women INVENTED jewel tones.” And I think some people will argue that Cordelia’s context makes this too self aware of a development but I would say that it would have been a powerful part of her development outside of her relationships, especially considering that she’s supposed to be a main protagonist. Full arcs for the win baby!

But even aside from all that what bothered me about Anna’s dresses was the fact that it was a white woman showing the “truth” or the “right way” or “saving” a woman of color, a trope which I don’t think CC intended but committed nonetheless. I think from a white author POV the thinking was “Anna is such a free bohemian who lives true to herself and she’s going to help Cordelia become that way too,” which irks me because I feel like that just worked against CC in terms of POC rep and also because that same ideology is used in an attempt to make Anna’s treatment of Kamala justified even though Anna as an out person, with racial and economic privilege and the support of an extensive and powerful family network, pressured and tormented Kamala into coming out.

I have a lot of thoughts on that relationship, mainly: it shouldn’t have been dragged out this long because from the beginning, Every Exquisite Thing, it was clear they were looking for different things. And if CC had left it at that and let them go on their separate ways after a week of knowing each other that would have been fine: Kamala can’t do an out and proud relationship and Anna doesn’t want secrecy, so they’ll develop on their own. And then later Kamala’s pursuit of Anna in the actual TLH books was I think meant to be a thing about “the lengths you’ll go for true love” but it felt forced. Honestly… It just feels icky. like this woman of color is just so hung up on this white woman who abuses her repeatedly and can’t handle her own misogyny and internalizations. And I hate that because both had such awesome potential! To me it’s less that I dislike Anna ( I’d need a whole other post to explain that) and more that I dislike CC for wanting so bad to claim sapphic rep but not wanting to put in the effort to portray it effectively- and pretty much all that entails is writing the relationship without acting like it exists in a pseudo-vacuum where the history and realities of interracial relationships and queerphobia don’t exist in the way we obviously recognize and experience.

And characters like Cordelia and Alastair are amazing and have so much potential; I think the true origin of the problems with their portrayal is that they weren’t really intended as POC or even queer representation in the first place. I don’t know if Cassie would have taken a different approach to her characterization had she known Alastair would be a brown gay man when she first introduced him, but I hope it would have at least made her more conscientious of the inherent application of colonialism and racism in her storytelling from that point onward.

I want to finally add that I’m not saying any portrayal of racism is bad. I’m saying that the racism in the story is not part of a conscious framework that critiques racism appropriately. I think CC wrote the beginnings of the narrative, decided she was going to develop the diversity point content, and then either didn’t look back at the older content to analyze it and the other (white characters) through a new lens of race and outsiderness and queer personhood, or she looked at it and didn’t know what to do with it, or looked at it and didn’t care.

Sorry this got so long! Thanks for listening.

- A.

I feel like CC handled everything poorly in regards to characters who had a lot of potential.

The fact that Cordelia and Alastair are both originally white and it's so obvious in the way every bit of racism is handled by the characters. Matthew's comments in CLS are very important and they should've been handled with the same severity that Alastair's words were. CC changing the characters to POC was a big decision and when she did so she should've went back and actually read her own material. I can assure you that it will not be handled in CHOT, my expectations for CC recognizing the importance and gravity in the words she writes regarding racism or any of her "implied racism" bullshit have gone to the ground.

Because while golden eyes are obviously so easy to write when discussing discrimination obviously racism is out of the question /j

THAT'S EXACTLY IT, women of color in these books are so pathetically rare that on the rare occurrence that she does write them they should all be given these features that aren't as common in POC and written as more beautiful because of those features. I read CHOG after I became more appreciative of my ethnic features but if I had read this a year or so ago? Or even if I had read it after just feeling insecure in general? It would've been awful. The implication is that the lighter features in POC are the most beautiful, with Cordelia's red hair being put on a higher pedestal than her dark eyes and Kamala's eyes being focused on more than her hair (because I literally went back and counted the numbers to prove it and it's exactly what happens.)

I'm sure Cordelia's hair is stunning, but it's the way that when she's described (or more accurately being sexualized) it is just her hair and body that is shown, not the color of her skin or the color of her eyes.

God the pastel thing pisses me off so much. It's not even that Anna tells Cordelia that she would look better in darker colors it's that she says it suits her skin tone. Implying that anyone with brown skin should be barred from wearing pastels. And Kamala? In the few times she is described, she's wearing dark colors or champagne gold, never light blue or purple or pink WHICH HONESTLY SUITS HER PERSONALITY. It's also the way that the dresses Anna sent her are described to be more revealing- it's weird. Anna barely knew her when she started dictating everything that Cordelia could put on her body.

“Damn right I can wear lavender ruffles if I want to and crimp my hair but I’m not going to let white fashion prevent me from outshining everyone because dark skinned women INVENTED jewel tones.”

I literally would have loved that. It recognizes that she doesn't need to follow these "rules" on what to wear but still shows her choosing what she wants to wear without making all the darker skinned readers feel like they can't wear a certain color.

I think what some people fail to realize is that these books are also aimed at upper elementary and middle school and a middle schooler with dark skin reading something like that? In a book with characters they love? It's going to be so harmful

Someone else mentioned that CC said Kamanna's relationship was complicated because Kamala didn't defend Anna: Defend her FROM WHAT? Literally what is there to threaten Anna?

These books are filled with tokenism and then praised for it. The idea of Kamala X Anna has so much potential but they're portrayed in such a toxic way. Throughout the last through books Kamala puts herself through so much guilt and regret and turmoil just for Anna to literally use her, blame her, and cast her aside. And it's so fucking annoying because it pushes this idea that this woman of color who was terrified and in an extremely vulnerable position is in the wrong for choosing her safety and presents them as guilty and shameful for doing such a thing.

I would disagree, the portrayal of racism is bad, because it is used at random points in the story and never brought up again, if you interduce racism take it seriously it's not the kind of thing you're meant to half-ass in a book thousands of people will read

I agree on everything else though, so much of these books are incredibly harmful and they are presented to a young audience so it's overall just a gross situation

Thank you for the ask though! I loved answering this, if you ever have anything else you're more than welcome to come back <3