#problematic fave

[brunnhildeps]

Wenduag from Pathfinder: WOTR is the character of all time. She is a freak who crawls around in a cave and eats flies and worms. She is a submissive and is into every kink you can imagine and is ALWAYS horny. The writers have her tie this directly to her trauma and the fact she is evil. She is a SA survivor. She is the only character in the game to identify that the commonly used word to describe her species by other races is a racist slur. The game continues to refer to her and the rest of her species using that slur in quest text, her character sheet, and even dialogue from the main character. She kills racist people on sight but claims she did it because she just loves killing people, because in her mind acknowledging that racism against her hurts her feelings is too much of a show of vulnerability and she would actually RATHER you think of her as a mindless rampant killer than a person with feelings. She comes from a moneyless society and genuinely thinks you can just walk into stores and steal shit. Her signature weapon is a bow fashioned from the spine of the demon who once enslaved her people. She is one of only two WLW romance options in the game and she will only take you if you agree to let her sexily infect you with a drug that gives you the same maniacal bloodlust that she has. She is evil and pathetic and she's my favourite character in the game and possibly of all time. She deserves more love and attention because the evil woman lovers of tumblr should be going insane over all this. She's like Catra and Harrowhark and Vriska had a child that's a deformed cat/spider/person abomination who gets turned on when you call her your "silly little cat".

[screuxluse]

[Implied Gravecest?? Idk stfu]

Keepsake💝

I don’t care what anyone says, Coffin is peak,, the characters are so complex and unapologetically awful, I love it

Anyway,, a result of my mental rule of “only draw my most consuming of hyperfixations” 🥰

No im not neurotypical OR mentally well

{Speedpaint idk}

[klaipeda-witness]

[tulacastrej]

“Everything is a ‘war crime’ these days!

Enslavement of prisoners? War crime.

Forced displacement? War crime.

Collective punishment? War crime.

Do you know what Morgoth called all of those? ‘Funsies!’

I am building a nation for His emancipated slaves, give me a fucking break!” —Adar.

[4rielle]

Ocean O’Connell Rosenberg they can never make me hate you.

[glassofoj-twitter]

Bastard Bunny

[burberrycanary]

This quote from CATWS came up in a recent discussion and I've found myself continuing to think about it:

Nick: You know, I read those SSR files. Greatest generation? You guys did some nasty stuff. Steve: Yeah, we compromised, sometimes in ways that made us not sleep so well. But we did it so that people could be free.

The language here is vague, which I'd argue is a deliberate technique the MCU uses. Are they talking about everything the SSR members of Steve's generation did that Steve, like Fury, read about from files long after the fact? Things Steve might have been aware of—or partially aware of—at the time but not directly involved in or occurring under his command? "Compromises" Steve was personally involved in?

And what nasty stuff are they talking about? Developing and using atomic weapons? MKUltra? Or just the inherent nastiness of warfare, even when conducted within legal limits and according to international standards?

I'd argue that the text here is designed so that viewers with different political and ethical beliefs about warfare in general and American international projections of power in the 20th century in particular—as well as a range of preferred interpretations of Steve Rogers as a character and as an American propaganda figure—can take the reading they like from an inherently ambiguous text.

That's similar to how we see Steve's actual involvement in WWII through a brief power-fantasy montage and a hagiographic public exhibit at the Smithsonian—and yet the details in both of these parts of MCU canon are hard to square with the actual historical record or make even internally consistent. That leaves a lot of gaps for the viewer to project what they want onto Steve Rogers.

Because, in my view, that's fundamental to how the MCU version of Steve Rogers was written. These techniques—vagueness and strategic lacuna—allow audience members with opposing, even contradictory, core political beliefs to all be able to walk away feeling like Steve Rogers agrees with them. It maximizes the potential global market for this product.

But because of this, it's frustratingly difficult to ground any fleshed-out, particularized interpretation of Steve in canon. At the same time, this is also an opportunity for fans and fannish engagement: that's a lot of white space. For better or worse, there are a lot of different interpretations of Steve that are equally compatible with canon evidence. I don't see the point in trying to argue that one particular reading from among this range is the most correct, since we all choose how to resolve the internal contradictions, what to weight more heavily and how to fill in the gaps.

Steve is a character built around having moral authority but deliberately not tied to many specific moral positions: "I don't like bullies." Good as far as it goes. But as we've seen in contemporary politics, who is considered the bully in a situation is tragically and disturbingly manipulable. (That I lose sleep over the scale and success of this manipulation is not the point of this post.) And yet I think this problem is baked into the propaganda nature of Steve Rogers as Captain America, who represents the American military fighting "bullies" abroad. This problem becomes more acute once Steve comes out of the ice.

But to circle back to the quote that sparked these musings, even WWII—almost universally viewed as America's most righteous and morally justified war—contained a lot of ugliness and moral compromises. I struggle with the implications of Steve Rogers as the fantasy of war as a system that an individual can participate in without moral compromises if, on an individual basis, you are a good enough person. That's not how systems work, especially not authoritarian systems. And propaganda is a fantasy with political teeth. This is my particular interpretive cross to bear as someone who has come to love this character deeply. These concerns drive how I personally fill in the lacuna of canon. I don't claim it's the text; it's how I'm making the text meaningful for myself. Ultimately, I'd argue that MCU Steve Rogers is a powerful fictional figure because he's a doorway to exploring these big, interesting, important ideas about history and morality that can be both uplifting and troubling. To take only one of those two sides and call it a complete truth is to ignore either the power of ideals or the reality of history.

I think it's telling that the MCU came out with major non-ambiguous writing for Steve only once they'd reached the end of this economic run with the character—no, he really is a guy who wants to go back to the American mid-century, which he thinks is a "beautiful" life, and wow is that inescapably taking a political stance. And this unambiguous writing choice ended up permanently alienating a segment of fans, myself included. I don't watch MCU films anymore. Writing choices the MCU made for Steve to remove the core ambiguity from the character that let him support a wide range of readings is one of the two main reasons why I've stopped watching MCU films.

Ironically, in the pursuit of maximum shareholder value, Disney accidentally created something interesting across this series of superhero action films for a global market. And yet this multi-national corporation of very questionable politics and morals—made up of individual actors with their own politics and agendas—can't actually go back and change the Captain America trilogy, which as texts remain ours to read and interpret and explore, even if they can send Steve Rogers back to the past and keep on trying to rewrite his story. Except it's already out there.

So here perhaps is the comfort: we, the audience, always get the last word.

[aclowderofcatboys]

Izzie Hands telling us that it's never too late to uncover and embrace your authentic self

[autistic-ben-tennyson]

In Defense of Shinji/Rei

Out of all the pairings in the Evangelion fandom, Shinji/Rei is one of the most controversial and least popular, especially here on tumblr. It did have some popularity at one point but that has died down in favor of Kawoshin and Asurei. It’s a ship that I, and many others, feel is often mischaracterized and dismissed due to its more controversial elements but one that is honestly very emotional and deserves less hate in my opinion, as do it’s shippers who people also have a misguided view of. Fandom in general has become more moralistic and puritanical in recent years. It’s like no one learned a thing from the SU fandom discourse where people were bullied or called homophobic for liking a certain pairing over the other.

Argument 1: she’s his mother/sister

The most common criticism of the pairing is that it’s incest and that their relationship is that of a brother-sister or mother-son. First, Rei’s whole arc in the show is that she’s not just a clone or copy of Yui or Lilith. She’s her own person with her own desires which is why her loyalty to Gendo wanes as she becomes more of an individual. Her DNA also isn’t that similar to Shinji and only a small amount of Yui’s was used. The rest was affected by Lilith hence the differences in their appearance. So there is a little bit of blood relation but it’s not on the same level of say Bwen or Pinecest. Incest is terrible because it’s a betrayal of family trust and abuse but Shinji and Rei met as teens and were not raised as siblings, nor did he know of her origin until Ritsuko explained it.

I’ve also seen the argument that their bond is sibling-like or Shinji views her as a Madonna/mother figure. Anno has stated that he intended there to be a “love triangle” with the pilot trio and show’s proposal described Rei as having “learned about feelings when she fell in love”. While that info comes from Reddit and may not be reliable, it does challenge the idea that there was no intention for their dynamic to be romantic.

Next, antis really take that elevator scene out of context where Shinji was complimenting her on being like a mom while ignoring him telling her she’d make a good housewife. The rebuilds and manga make their connection more blatant but it was always there. Misato, Toji and Kensuke all tease Shinji about his crush and the two act as friends after warming up despite their icy first interactions. There may be some maternal aspects to it but it’s rather simplistic to dumb their bond down to a family connection. It seems antis argue that they’re siblings because the romantic implications are uncomfortable and antis don’t want to admit that they do have feelings for each other.

Argument 2: it’s misogynistic and queer erasure

Okay, this is a less common argument against it but one I’ve seen from popular Eva analysis writers that view Kawoshin as the only valid pairing for Shinji. I’ve seen it used against Asushin and Marishin too. This goes hand and hand with the idea that Shinji views Rei as a Madonna and is misogynistic. I have a lot of thoughts about the “Shinji is an incel misogynist and Asuka did nothing wrong” discourse but that’s for another day. He’s not a perfect uwu soft boy but fans seem to base his entire characterization off the hospital scene in rather single issue Eva analyses that cherry-pick certain scenes or dialogue.

The argument that it’s queer erasure is one I’m starting to despise. Yes, there are homophobic dudebro fans who hate Kawoshin but not everyone who prefers a “straight” pairing is anti gay. Shinji could still be bisexual and be in a m/f relationship. I’ve also seen some ship him in a polycule with Rei and Kaworu. Plus, not everyone has to interpret the show or character the same way. The writers made it so people can view Kawoshin as romantic and Shinji as queer, but never demanded that be the only possible interpretation.

This kind reminds me of something I’ve occasionally seen in the Ben 10 fandom too. A few fans, not all of them, treating the wholesome gay ship as the only good pairing because of the problematic elements in the m/f ships or because they view the male protagonist as a misogynist. The “male character is sexist or a bad boyfriend so let’s make him gay” is also a fandom trope that kind of irritates me. Not every ship has be gay or a girlboss romance either.

Argument 3: they’re kids and you can’t ship them

This is one of the least common criticisms but one that I’ve occasionally encountered. First, they’re 14 which is around the time a lot of teens start dating. Second, romance =/= sex and child/teen characters can have romantic feelings for each other. Yes, ship wars over fictional kids can escalate but there’s nothing wrong with just liking a pairing. This post about Chihiro and Haku’s bond from Spirited Away kind of applies here too.

My thoughts: why do I love this pairing?

I first fell in love with this ship because I watched the rebuilds first on Amazon Prime and didn’t know the series was on Netflix because my account, embarrassingly, still has parental controls on it. I know they’re not everyone’s cup of tea but I liked them. Shinji was a character I really connected to and so was Rei. Their relationship got me a bit emotional and the scene where Shinji attempts to save her had me on the edge of my seat, while the scene where Shinji accepts Rei Q got a tear out of me as did the apology scene in 3.0+1.0.

If I had to compare them to any other pairing, which I’ve done before, it would be Hodaka/Hina from Weathering with You which also is a bit divisive and a bit of a tearjerker. Ironically, EoE is one of Makoto Shinkai’s favorites and he considers Anno an inspiration. Everything from their bond to Hodaka’s character and Hina’s arc of a blue haired girl, blackish-blue in Hina’s case, that’s lived a difficult life and who’s only purpose is to be a sacrificial lamb, learning to pray for herself is a lot like Shinji/Rei, down the ending of WWY being a lot like that of 2.22. The scene where Hodaka gives Hina a promise ring is also a little like the “smile” moment from Episode 6/1.11.

Conclusion

In short, Shinji/Rei isn’t a bad pairing and is overhated and misrepresented by many in the fandom. It’s fine to dislike it or prefer another ship but one can do so without chomping at the bit to paint its shippers as homophobes, misogynists or people with incest fetishes or Oedipal complexes. Many of us like it because it’s one of the least toxic relationships in the series and is honestly a very powerful story. Are there some questionable elements in it? Sure, but you can like a ship even if it’s not up to golden moral standards and expecting every pairing to be unproblematic is ridiculous. Real life is much more grey than what moralistic fans claim.

[pararave]

I finished first season of The Boys... This is the the aftermath.

My greatest apologies to everyone whose eyes were hurt.

If you actually liked that feeling (who am I to judge?) there's more fish boy memes under the cut

shhh he is thinking his deep thoughts

[enlitment]

I'm allowed to have one (1) problematic fave... I whisper to myself as I add yet another unhinged historical figure to my evergrowing collection

[amandolinabee]

Mr. Milkshake is a former band/theater kid on a power trip, reading that Kier bot to filth with an impromptu roast, serving cunt, with a FULL marching band! Ain’t nobody doing it like Seth…slay drum major king. 👑

[byayavich]

Hes got the power of castling and anime on his side

[pursuecrazylife]

No, you don't understand it's been over 5 years that I've been waiting for a new Robron Affair Era, and we might be actually getting it now? Are we not living in the darkest timeline anymore?

My Body is Ready. Bring it on, Robert

[areyouscaredyet]

just watched a new show #blessed

[outtheoiseaux]

This dude was SO aware of what he was doing the entire time. there’s no way he was locked in alpha wolf instinct state like the masked man was, this bitch REMEMBERS