#she wasn't bad to him or abused that power but it was something that constantly weighted over him in the relationship cause he knew

[wings-of-fire-confessions]

This fandom is actually so horrible when it comes to the multiple abuse victims in the series, because most of them are viscerally hated by the fandom for really stupid shit.

Winter is constantly labeled as a toxic abuser and like. I can understand not liking how he treated Moon, or any of the jade winglet in early arc 2 for that matter. What I do not understand is people ignoring that he is actively bettering himself just so they can keep hating him, or even just ignoring why he's like that to begin with. He's not mean because he likes being a jackass, he's mean because he's been taught that showing any care for other dragons, ESPECIALLY dragons of other tribes, is considered weak. It's something he has been trying to fix, but people would rather just keep calling him an abuser than acknowledge he is changing

Peril gets called an insane psychopath who doesn't deserve love which, first of all that's GOTTA be some form of ableism. Second of all, no fucking shit she is the way she is, the dragon who raised her manipulated her to believe she's a monster who will never be loved by other dragons. No fucking shit she got attached to the one dragon her age that showed her kindness, she thought that wasn't possible!! Also another case of the fandom chooses to ignore her healing just so they have a reason to keep hating her. "She's toxic and obsessed with Clay!!" It literally says in the god damn book she's so used to having a dragon to control her, and she is actively trying to stamp that habit out, why do we keep ignoring this

Boa is by far the worst victim of this because the fandom treats like scum of the earth not because of who she is, but because of one fucking decision she made. A decision she made in a state of panic. A decision she made because fuck, why SHOULD dragons have such power that can be used for evil so easily? Boa's entire EXISTENCE is an example of a dragon misusing their magic, why are we surprised she thinks the world is better off without it? She's not a bitch who thinks she knows better than everyone else, she's a terrified abuse victim who genuinely believed animus magic would bring the destruction of dragonkind. And look. I get the decision to remove animus magic was a stupid one. But can we please just acknowledge Tui was the one who made that stupid decision instead of pretending Boa is this awful person and the worst character in the series. Because she isn't. She's not an asshole. She's not a bitch. She made one bad decision and the fandom acts like she's satan incarnate

Im sure there may be more examples, these are just the biggest that come to mind

.

[movedtodykedvonte]

Have you got any specific hcs about queen and spamton?

I have a few as someone who is obsessed with the story of the cyber world before we get there in-game.

Most mansion guests are invited by Queen after their success is seen or she becomes interested in them. Spamton was unique in that he actually pitched himself and bigshot autos to her

She was of course intrigued by this overzealous barely 5-foot ad she never ever heard of and was like "LMAO Let's See What You Got."

Queen quickly grew fond of how bumbling but determined Spamton was, kinda like a Cosmo and Wanda-esque relationship (both dummies but in different departments)

Spamton wanted to prove he could sell to anyone even the Queen herself and was shocked she actually let him in. Thought she was gonna be more strict only to see her put on wheelies and fall face first into a plate of spaghetti code.

Immediately knew there was no way to fuck this up and kinda got a crush.

Spamton and Queen weren't a thing in the traditional sense, more so buddies that were odd and didn't question each other's oddness so they got along really well

Like if Spamton asked if a shopping cart could make it across the battery acid pool with them in it Queen wouldn't think twice before ordering a cart and having the Swatchlings set a ramp

Of course, there was a rumor on what they did on private meeting nights or if the gifts they exchanged were because of profits and honor the Queen or y'know...

Drinking buddies, Spamton has a surprising tolerance for his short stature and the Queen loves any excuse to pour a big glass of battery acid.

Spamton let her vent to him. It was rare someone backed up her feelings of not liking her position and Spam of course could understand and console her

Liked to take her on rides in his Cungadero and Queen liked how average it felt like she related to her citizens more. It was a normal night on the town with someone who knew it and truly lived as a cyber citizen. She liked getting stuck in traffic with him or him almost hitting another car. She felt vulnerable and not completely implacable but not unsecured. He liked that he was finally meeting someone's expectations.

I feel like the Queen was aware of him being off as an ad but she enjoys that part of him. Like it makes her feel like she's succeeding as a Queen when even the off-citizens can prosper

Was not aware of the phone and just thought Spamton had a finicky client thought she should've asked more questions when his downfall came

Honestly, he was more like her blorbo than anything else

Like dude could get away with a lot but he never pushed his luck

She was his girl boss slay queen u_u,

If she asked he would make a car model that's whole purpose was just to blow up despite that being awful for profits

When she had to kick him out, she offered a temporary apartment or condition to let him stay if he wanted to be something more mundane. For reasons, he wouldn't explain he declined

She lets Swatch sell the bowties cause she can't seem to justify completely erasing him from the mansion.

She also kept a pipis but you'll be hard-pressed to find where.

Spam doesn't rip the poster by his dumpster completely off cause he considers it the only official picture they had taken together

To be honest I ship and don't ship them. Like they weren't in love but they were two objectively weird people who think alike but have completely different backstories on to why. They could be open and be themselves around each other even if there were things they couldn't share with each other. It was more like those two weirdly intimate friends who everyone thought were a thing only for you to ask and they both fake vomit about it. They still joke about the idea.

[heretherebedork]

I will admit that the relationship between Day and Night and their mother is definitely falling... into a bad place for me. Because there is nothing about how much she's hurting Day or how she literally didn't feed Night until Day pointed it out or how she's happy to lock her disabled son up if it means she can keep an eye on him rather than risk him having a life she doesn't know about... There is no point that that show truly lets us feel that pain because, each time, the scene is suddenly filled with that family loyalty and love.

There were a few scenes that came close but, each time, it never quite went there. Day's mother was never acknowledged as truly being awful.

The show obviously wasn't on her side but it also wasn't against her. And that's the hardest part sometimes.

Night's words about beef stew being his favorite and only Day acknowledging that he knew it? Their mother only admitting it was 'also his favorite' long after that? Day being literally cut off from the world entirely by his mother and getting a phone from Night?

They kept touching and then backing off, almost facing how abusive and awful she was but never quite admitting it because Night was able to get Day away from her again and again.

It's right there but it's not there.

I love this show, do not doubt that. I still love the characters and the story being told.

But it genuinely feels like a return to older shows where the nature of the familial relationship is always in favor of the parents regardless of what they do. Day's mother is wrong but the show can't just say or show that she's genuinely wrong and has to constantly soften it with moments with Mhok.

It was so close. We saw glimpses and then it would be softened again and again, each time, softened by something else or softened by the very nature of their relationship.

(It's been the same way with Mhok's pain, honestly and I am sad because I have spent the entire show waiting for Day to have a chance to support Mhok and it has never happened and now I don't see how it will since all of Mhok's problems have basically been solved. Why does he have to support Day?)

Okay, breaking my own parenthetical to bring up that this would have been a great time to stop the narrative that Mhok needs to support Day and instead have Day looking into his own future career as a blind man and rejecting the narrative that Mhok has to support him but instead focusing on making sure that Day had equal power in their relationship and that we could see more of Mhok's struggles that we started the show with so well.

It is still a beautiful romance and so much of the story is so well told but there is still so much softening of the pain that should have been sharper and deeper.

[eddo-tensei]

The Power of Love according to Season 5 of Miraculous

Something disturbing dawned on me concerning...a lot of the development in Season 5 and it comes down to one thing: Love.

At first, Andre and Felix getting redeemed while Chloe gets sent off to the worst fate the show would allow didn't make a lot of sense. The only thing I could get from the writers was just that "Chloe bad, so everyone else good." It was stupid, but it wasn't insidious. At least, not that insidious at first. And then the finale with Gabriel happened and while it took me a while to process my frustrations with this, something finally clicked. Not only concerning that, but some of the other developments I've seen.

Felix getting another chance to the point of JOINING the heroes in the new universe seemed like nonsense until you look at what happened before that. He was someone who Astruc went out of his way to bury in the narrative and was exclusively causing trouble for everyone up to and including GENOCIDE...until he showed his love to Kagami. Suddenly, his actions are seen as righteous and his backstory of being abused by his father was justification for his actions. You see, he loved Kagami and he also apparently loved Adrien too because they were "the same."

Andre was basically just some corrupt politician who was also a pathetic snob. Then when Zoe came in, we suddenly get all of these humanizing bits about how Chloe totally mistreated him (because apparently, not having the guts to say no to your daughter is mistreatment) and when he divorced Audrey, he gets Zoe because he's someone he could be happy with. A true familial love unlike the one he had with Chloe.

Chloe, meanwhile, doesn't love anyone as far as the writers are concerned. Any genuine connection she might have in either the platonic, familial, or the romantic sense, whether it'd be to Adrien, Sabrina, Zoe or Ladybug, are shown to be either fake or so utterly shallow, it doesn't count as "love." With that, everything she does is absolutely reprehensible and doesn't deserve a shred of forgiveness even if it's clear she's a neglected child who needed help. BUT, because she "doesn't love anyone", she doesn't get redemption and deserves to be sent away with a parent who doesn't love her either. Same with Lila, she doesn't love anyone at all and in fact, just jumps from family to family purely to keep up her manipulations.

Finally, we have Gabriel, who had done nothing but sheltered, belittled, and outright ABUSED Adrien as well as commit a multitude of horrid crimes throughout the series. His actions constantly escalated in awfulness throughout the series, even showing that he doesn't care if he destroys the universe to get what he wants. Yet there was always this trait he possessed. His love for Emilie and that ended up coming to the forefront in the finale. Marinette, who had Gabriel dead to rights, decided at the last moment to try and appeal to his humanity because she knows he loved Emilie and in her mind, that love is enough grounds for her to offer him one chance to step up and help. Then when Gabriel opts to betray Marinette and starts the wish, he tells her at the last moment to try and help Adrien remember all of the times he "tried to be a good father," which is apparently an indicator that he actually LOVED Adrien too. THAT ended up being why Marinette decided to lie about Gabriel by saying he died fighting Monarch and went as far as to try and tell Adrien to remember him as a good man. All because she knew Gabriel "loved" him.

This tells me something distressing. Now, the concept of "Love Redeems" is something I'm not at all against and is in fact common in a lot of stories I like. However, it's what Miraculous does with this concept in Season 5 that angers me. The message of Miraculous ends up giving in its grand finale for the Agreste arc isn't that love can help people find the way to kindness. It's that anything you do can be justified as long as you do it for "love." It doesn't matter if you purposely get a cab driver in trouble, attempt to sabotage a date that your crush is in, put together a project that tries to commercialize air, betray someone to help a terrorist, commit genocide, cause untold amounts of damage to your town and beyond, or even destroy the universe! As long as you love someone, everything you do can be justified. Except when we decide that you don't love ANYONE, then we'll do everything in our power to show that all of your connections don't count as love so you can have the worst punishment we could possibly muster. Regardless of intent, that's how the writers ended up describing the Power of Love in Season Five of Miraculous and that's wretched to me.

[bonefall]

So what is Sparkpelt's relationship with Firestar going to be in BB rewrite since she isn't going to be Firestar but female? I'm assuming she's going to be completely different looking from cannon Sparkpelt too.

[ID: Better Bones AU's version of Sparkpelt. She is an auburn tigerclone with jagged stripes, a cream beard and mane, and raptor claws.]

BB!Sparkpelt is so different it'll make your head spin. GoodBYE Fireclone Sparkpelt, HELLO Tigerclone Sparkpelt

Also I decided that the KEY Tigerkin Family Trait is going to be raptor claws. A large index claw, and pointed talons on the back toe. They also tend to be large, tiger-themed, and have 'beards.' It's sometimes remarked that they bear a similarity to Thunderstar!

BIGGEST CHANGE, which I think is pretty well known by now, is that Sparkpelt is NOT Squirrelflight's child. Her mom was Jessy, from a brief relationship that ended in a brutal cat divorce. Squilf remains infertile, she cannot have children.

Instead, they are Mentor and Apprentice. Just as close as a parent and child.

Below the cut: Sparkpelt in,

Bramblestar's Thorns

Squirrelflight's Horror

BB!TBC and ASC setup

Bramblestar's Thorns: The AVoS-era replacement for the loss of Alderheart as a POV in that arc. Sparkpelt gets a POV alongside her brother covering her early life.

Her mother Jessy is a genius inventor. She joined during the SE, ThunderClan's Tempest, along with Fernsong and Stormcloud. Her name was briefly Sweetbright.

She had a massive fight with Brambleclaw shortly after having their children, which escalated and she wasn't willing to stay if he was going to treat her like that.

Alder was taken back to twolegplace. Bramblestar kept Sparkkit.

Spark loves her dad but...

He is an emotionally abusive person. Your relationship with a person like that is always unstable.

"He's not always like this." She wants him to be better, she blames herself for upsetting him, she loves him, he makes her feel like dirt, she doesn't want to be near him, she feels bad enforcing boundaries...

To give Bramblestar credit where it's due, however, he taught her very well about their family legacy. From Tigerstar all the way back to Oakstar, that they have a long line of pride and ambition.

Firestar, in these stories, was presented as someone who saved them from disgrace. By opposing Tigerstar and giving Brambleclaw power, he was a hero to them as well.

She's named after him, too. Firestar was Bramblestar's beloved mentor.

This pressure of legacy was something shared by her childhood best friend, Hollykit, child of Fallenleaf and Cinderheart.

Spark had her issues growing up, and resented Jessy massively for leaving her and taking her brother. When Alder came back because of his visions, she turned a lot of frustration onto him

Him coming back felt like she suddenly couldn't be so angry at Jessy. She had to be nice about the person who ripped her brother away, broke their family, and even turned Alder against her with how he defends her

It's not accurate or justified, but that's how this emotionally repressed teenager expresses complicated emotions.

In a moment of clarity, Bramblestar personally chose Squirrelflight as Sparkpaw's mentor. He knew that she would be the person his daughter needed, someone who would teach her to stand up for herself, and to do the right thing.

...But unfortunately most of the time Bramble does not have that level of insight. He rues this decision constantly, convinced that Squilf is intentionally turning his daughter against him.

Squirrelflight's Horror: The replacement for Squilf's Hope

This book is about Squirrelflight reconsidering her relationship with Bramble, when the Sister Situation happens. Ultimately it ends in Squilf going on trial in StarClan, less because of her 'transgressions' in life and more because of Fire Alone as an ideology being tested.

But this isn't about Squilf this is about Spark.

Similarly to canon, Hollylark suffers a horrible poisoning and passes away as their kittens are born prematurely.

Sparkpelt is shaken badly by this. They were childhood friends, they were expecting a litter, like canon she experiences postpartum depression.

Squilf wins her trial, but desperately decides she needs to get home because her apprentice can't lose a mate and a mentor at the same time.

I don't want to end this SE on the note that Sparkpelt is finally moving on from the death of Hollylark... I don't think she can "get over it" quickly the way canon implies.

In general this part of Spark's life is much more delicate. She needs more time, recovery is slower, there's a lot more pain here. But she is loved and supported through it.

BB!TBC and setup for ASC when it comes

By the time of TBC, she's finally recovering. Her relationship with her kittens has improved.

When the imposter happens, it threatens to destroy everything she had built.

She gets covered in scars from a dog attack, and is eventually exiled.

Finchpaw follows her, making a name for herself as a brave Firekin descendant who opposed a tyrant.

In this arc, a lot of Firekin act as a 'unit,' this family tends to think alike and work closely because of their shared legacy. Squilf, Spark, and Finch are in lockstep as major rebel figures.

Flamepaw is left out of this, because he chose not to follow them.

When Flame eventually rejects his name in ASC, a major contention he has is that "MOM ISN'T EVEN FIREKIN WHY DOES SHE CARE"

The answer is, that rejecting the Firekin side of himself is like killing the part of him that is Hollylark, and rejecting a family she feels accepted into and part of.

THAT SAID; I do not rewrite arcs until they are done. Details of ASC are sparse and only fragments. I need to know its conclusion before working backwards to make that conclusion stronger.

And that's BB!Sparkpelt! Very different from canon, but I love the gal.

[thispatternismine]

ATLA live action impressions part 2

Following on from last night's post, here are my impressions of eps 5-8

Still really loved it. Gonna be tarred & feathered for this but I actually like it better than the animated show

Highlights:

Ozai giving Zuko credit for finding the Avatar. There's this weird idea in the fandom that Ozai never intended to take Zuko back. Even though we saw him do exactly that at the beginning of Book 3. Yes he set an impossible task, but when Zuko (apparently) achieved it, he was like 'ok yeah cool - you have met my standards'. Sure, there's no way Zuko would have continued to meet those standards if he'd stuck around, but Ozai did actually keep his word. The fact that he does it to make sure Azula knows she's overstepped & remind her she's replaceable, is an especially nice touch

Getting to see how Azula is treated by her father. I've seen way too many people try to claim Azula was never abused because she wasn't literally set on fire like he was. Never mind that she avoided that fate only because she was able to meet his standards. And having to constantly strive to meet the standards set by someone who thinks 'find a guy who's been missing for a century' is a suitable task to set his kid is abuse.

Another annoying tendency of the fandom is to flanderise Ozai into some diabolical caricature who spends all his time thinking up new ways to torment poor Zuzu, so having that scene of him banishing Zuko was a nice touch. He genuinely believes he is being a good dad & raising his kid to be strong (note: This isn't me saying Ozai is right - I'm saying he thinks he's right.)

The 41st Division 😭

Iroh & Ozai interacting with each other

Gyatso!

I spy some female soldiers! A problem with the animated show was that it's all well & good deciding that the Fire Nation has female soldiers, but bias is a thing & 99.9% of the time if you ask someone to draw a soldier it'll be a man. Yeah sure they all stayed to guard the Fire Nation that's why we didn't see any till Book 3 suuure

"Anything you need." "It has to do with Koh." "Anything but that." DYING

Aang's whole speech to Zuko about how helpful his notebook was (let's be real Iroh probably sighed & told him it was a waste of time so this was the first time he heard 'Hey good job on the Avatar research!') & the way they bonded before he unwittingly set Zuko off

"Quit it before they think there's something wrong with you. More than there already is."

"The Firelord deems your performance... below average." OOF. Pretty sure that's the worst thing you can possibly say to Azula. She'd much rather be told she sucked outright than just 'meh'

Waterbender Yue

Non-arsehole Hahn

Using Kuruk lore from the Kyoshi books!

I like the changes to the NWT siege. Having the spirits' mortality be an occasional, temporary thing to gain an appreciation of life that occurs during a full moon when the powers of those who will protect them in that state are at their peak, makes more sense than permanent vulnerability that relies on nobody finding out. Also never made sense that a naval officer was stationed in a fucking desert & was able to just take time off to go through a spirit library, so having Zhao find his info from the Fire Sages works better IMO. I do hope we'll still get the spirit library though

Ozai's lil eyetwitch when Azula backtalked him like if you agree

Haven't mentioned yet but I love the costumes in this

Also never mentioned Momo, the Real Hero of ATLA

Sokka continues to be awesome

Lowlights:

June calling Iroh cute & fawning over him. Normally I'd think it's unfair for the live action version of a character to be held accountable for what the animated version did, but this leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Like og!Iroh's groping of June being treated like a joke has been called out many times so they fucking had to know what they were doing

Why isn't Azula's fire blue? We got like 1 second of it & that's it. Maybe consistent blue flames are a power up she'll obtain later idk

[philtatosbuck]

it’s so gross to me how c*roline stans have been running with this narrative that Elena is a horrible friend to Caroline and attacking her for getting involved with Damon after he r*ped Caroline while giving Stefan a free pass when Damon is literally Elena’s abuser too, and Elena was horrified and outraged by what Damon did to Caroline and did everything she could to protect Caroline when Elena was literally a teenage girl unfamiliar with the supernatural world being preyed on by two 100+ vampires and oh yeah DAMON WAS ELENA’S ABUSER TOO like literally what was elena supposed to do Damon was constantly inserting himself into her life and every time she’d reject him he’d do something like kill her brother like she had literally no power against him. Stefan was the one who could have done something about Damon and constantly chose not to but this gets completely ignored by fandom. also funny how the “elena is the worst” crowd had nothing to say about Caroline sleeping with the guy who killed Tyler’s mom (except for the people attacking TYLER for being upset lmao)

Listen, I'm 80% right there with you. You've hooked me. You're gonna get a whole essay out of me.

There are five (major) issues to tackle here. Let's start with the first one, which should be the most simple to understand.

Damon's Ongoing Assault Issue.

We all saw what Damon did. We all agree that him compelling Caroline removed her ability to consent to it. We are all aware of that. Here's the thing. In character, no one ever addresses more than the feeding and manipulation. Not even Caroline herself. We, as the audience, know the issue. But the issue presented in character is never as clear cut as "Damon raped Caroline, and she rightfully hates him for it." They never go there, and we know why. This also unfortunately means that Caroline never once says that's the reason she hates Damon so much. We're given the "he manipulated me, he fed off of me without my consent" which is still bad, but it's nothing he didn't do to anyone else. He killed Alaric multiple times. He killed Jeremy. He threatened and attacked Bonnie. He's killed Vicki and Mason and everyone else, and this is after what he did to Caroline. If he gets away with all of that, why wouldn't they forgive or tolerate him for something as 'natural' as feeding? By not acknowledging that his compulsion removed Caroline's consent, they never have to acknowledge that what he did was rape. And that means they never have to say Damon did anything worse to Caroline than he did to anyone else. Specifically, we also never see anyone call out the fact Damon compels Andie to be okay with what he is and to let him feed off of her while in a relationship with her as well. Alaric in particular never calls this out despite the fact he's an adult who should know better than the teenagers how wrong it is, because by that point, they've all reached a place where they're damn near complacent in what Damon does. But anyway, without them outright saying what he did and calling it what he is, Caroline seems very... obnoxious with her dislike for him, while everyone else has gotten over it. It kind of leads us into the next one.

The Stefan Issue.

You're completely correct. Stefan should have been the one getting Damon away. Both Elena and Stefan knew what Damon was doing to Caroline, and Elena demanded he deal with it. And he did. To do that, he used Caroline as a way to subdue Damon. While people often talk about how Stefan took Caroline under his wing, it wasn't before he repeatedly used her. Even after that, he uses her when it comes to Klaus and to Tyler. But focusing on the Damon subject, Caroline never once acknowledges that Stefan knew (which she knows) what Damon was doing to some extent or holds him responsible for it, or snarks at him about Damon as much as she does Elena. She all but outright absolves him of any wrongdoing as soon as he becomes her mentor. You see it in the way she personally roots for Stefan whenever it comes to the damned triangle, her own desire to prop him up overriding any and everything. Even after Stefan hurt Elena herself, she was still very aggressively team Stefan. This is partially because she's basically Julie Plec's self insert, and partially because she sees Stefan as the good brother, despite the fact he above all is the one who primarily excused and defended him during that time. People will not admit that Stefan is complacent in Damon's actions because they're obsessed with a 'good brother, bad brother' dynamic. On the flip side, people who do acknowledge Stefan's part of it claim Damon is better because he "owns up to what he is". The truth of the matter is that they're both assholes.

The Elena Of It All.

Like you said, Elena was rightfully disgusted and terrified of what Damon did to Caroline, and fucking immediately told Stefan to deal with that shit. For a bit after that, she (and Bonnie) were doing their best to keep Damon away from Caroline. Here's where the issue lies. Like I said before, we, the audience, know everything, right? Did we ever see a scene where Caroline tells her exactly what happened with Damon? This is part of the issue I mentioned with 'Caroline never outright says it'. All Elena has to go on is bruises and bitemarks. And she is mad about that, mad about the fact Damon fed on her without her consent, but that's all she thinks happened. She does not know Damon is her rapist. And yes, that is enough reason for Elena to hate him and be mad at him, but look at all the things I mentioned above. What did he do to Caroline that he hasn't done to others who, frankly, mean more to Elena? As bad as it is to say it, as far as Elena knows, there's nothing special about what Damon did to Caroline.

Part two of the Elena issue is that while you're right, while Damon was her abuser too, it gets wonky because of the sire bond and because of her eventual feelings for him. At some point in season one, Caroline is asking for the necklace back, and Elena goes "why? so you can give it back to Damon?" which is half a joke, half not. So already, Elena is joking about the situation. Which, Caroline doesn't remember everything. Elena knows that. Look, you can essentially take it one of two ways. One, Elena's trying to make shit seem normal because they haven't told Caroline about the supernatural, while feeling out why she wants it back. Two, she's being cruel. It honestly depends on how you view her character this early on. I'm not gonna debate about that, whatever.

Anyway, later on, in season whatever the hell, Damon jokes "have fun with blondie, I know I did" and Elena laughs. That? Was bad. Even without knowing the full extent of what he did, it was a fucked up thing to laugh at. I love Elena, and it was fucked up. You'll never see me denying that shit. Damon even fucking teaches her to hunt in the same way he picked Caroline out and it isn't called out, in canon.

Primarily, people's issue with Elena, is that it seems like she co-signs all of Damon's bullshit from even before they were together because she gets with him. For them, it's like Elena is immediately acknowledging and approving of everything Damon did because they're in a relationship. Some people acknowledge Stefan and Alaric do this as well. Some don't. Oh well.

I don't ship delena, or stelena. I think Elena and Damon's dynamic was terrible. I think her character changed when she got with him, for the worse. I openly admit all that, and you can take it as I'm biased if you want to. I personally don't think two people getting together means they cosign each other's bullshit, but whatever.

But the main issue lies in season one. They believe Elena should have done something to stop Damon from what he did to Caroline. What, exactly? I don't know. Damon was trying to compel Elena to fucking kiss him in season one and she smacked him immediately. She wanted him dead for what he did to Caroline. She said as much. I couldn't tell you what else people wanted her to do. By the time she had some kind of power against him, he had done bigger and worse things and yet he was one of their only allies with knowledge of the supernatural so they needed him. So, bluntly, Caroline's thing got pushed to the way side. One thing I see people mention is that Elena stopped Bonnie from personally killing Damon when they found out Caroline got turned and you can make your own opinions about that but Damon did not do that. Katherine did. He did deserve to die, but Elena didn't want Bonnie to be the one to do it. Opinions and reasons vary, but she also didn't let Damon kill Caroline (by directly putting herself in harm's way to protect her), so... whatever you want to think about that, think it, do it, bop it, I don't care.

My opinion on Elena being a horrible friend to Caroline is that she's not. At the end of the day, Elena is probably one of the people who treated Caroline best, if you step back and look at the whole thing from an objective point of view. People just do not do that.

I do think there's a certain point where "Elena couldn't do anything" stops being entirely true, but it's long after what happened to Caroline. And it's nothing that Caroline herself couldn't do after she became a vampire (much sooner than Elena did).

The Caroline-Klaus Issue.

Preaching to the choir, dude. People will go on all day saying how dating your friend's abuser is wrong (fair) and then say Caroline is better because she Just fucked Klaus (despite the fact they WANTED them to be in a long term relationship anyway). I, personally, don't see how the fuck that's better. I also don't see a point in "morality" arguments for this fandom, but let's just write it out. Fucking the guy who murdered your boyfriend's mom and his friends is better than dating a guy who manipulated your friend into doing his bidding and feeding on her (which as is as much as Elena knows)? Debatable.

People will often excuse this as "Tyler chose revenge over her" as if Klaus did not murder his mother and the fellow hybrids. If the roles were reversed and Liz had been murdered, there'd be a different talk. But hey.

Finally,

The Caroline Issue.

Caroline not only serves as Julie's self insert, but she's the self insert for a lot of this damn fandom. You see it in fics, where they either change her personality so she's more like Elena or Bonnie, and Elena/Bonnie is the friend who can't keep their mouth shut or is always commenting on their friends' lives or spilling secrets.

The Tyler thing? Caroline's a girlboss for telling Tyler to get over it! after she slept with his mother's murderer. But Elena's a terrible friend and "trying to make it all about her" when she tries to sympathize with Caroline over Liz's death and turning her humanity off. Caroline's a queen when she slutshames Katherine and Rebekah and literally any female character she doesn't like who she speaks about for more than two seconds, but when Elena throws it back in her face that Caroline INTENDED to sleep with Damon before finding out he was a vampire (which she did. It's why he got invited into her house), she's just so awful. This, in addition to the fact that Elena was under a sirebond, and Caroline is just regularly fucking like that.

You see my point. Anyway, make no mistake, what Damon did is an issue, but it's only as big of an issue in fandom because Caroline is the golden girl to them. They completely ignore the fact Elena has no full knowledge about what went down. They ignore that Stefan or Alaric should have been taking charge against Damon. They ignore that Caroline never so much as utters a peep about exactly why she hates Damon besides him being a "manwhore". Anything they can use to villainize anyone, but especially Elena, where Caroline is concerned? They will. Facts be damned.

[moonykat]

Lestat was emotionally abused and neglected by his partner for over 7 years. That wasn't okay. Louis said it himself, he would push and push and push. He would constantly remind Lestat he was not important to him, etc.

Louis was physically abused by Lestat. That wasn't okay either. At all, Lestat was way more powerful than animal-eating Louis, so there was physical power imbalance there. He was thrown off from the skies ffs.

Do I think either of those actions were right? No. Do I justify Lestat's or Louis' actions? No. Do I think Lestat deserved to be neglected by Louis? No. Do I think Louis deserved to be beaten the way he did? Fuck no.

I do believe emotional abuse can hurt a person as much as physical violence, yes. And I do understand why the events that happened went down the way they did. Storywise, the events make sense. Do I like or agree with them? No. I hate them. But they make sense.

So although I understand that people will be angry about Lestat's violence, I also think they will fail to recognize that Louis was also violent to Lestat, but in a different way. Again, neither of these things justify their actions, but both of them were harmful to the other at some point. I think the show could've done a better job at showing the toxicity going both ways. They tried, but still if you're going to have a final scene like that, then you better give the audience an equally hurtful scene going the other way, as they clearly wanted to do but failed to achieve with the way Louis treated Lestat.

What I honestly dislike about the episode is the lack of proper trigger warnings at the beginning of it, and the forced inclusion of this "reason" for Claudia to do what she did in the books (it changes everything completely because her actions in the book were always extreme and kind of undeserving. Lestat did nothing near as bad to deserve being "killed" by her) when her motivation in the books would've been strong enough to move the story forward. And lastly, that last scene served no purpose to the story, it had no reason for being so graphic and gory, they wanted (and I think this is why they didn't use trigger warnings) the shock factor.

If they were always going to portray this relationship as endgame, if they had Louis say he doesn't consider himself a victim, and then they choose to go down the emotional and physical domestic violence route, it makes everything else fall flat because now people will just see him as a victim in love with his perpetrator. Making Lestat say he loves Louis as he holds his bloody body close made me flinch because there's no way anyone will look at that and then wish for them to be together again. Like, even I felt weird watching that bit. It also leaves no room for the audience to feel the true impact of Claudia's actions, because now it'll just be a survivor success story, and that is not how it was intended to be seen in the books. But okay, let's say the TV show has something planned, and you know what? I am open to see what they do with the last two episodes. They don't have to be healthy for each other, we know they aren't of course. But for the love of god AMC put some fucking warnings at the beginning if you wanna run wild with stuff that people are not at all expecting in the show.

[eyesanddragons]

Sorry if this is a weird question but like. What are your thoughts on the whole Darkstalker/Peacemaker thing? Like I get that Kinkajou was trying to help but I feel like erasing all of his memories and experiences was. Kinda an iffy way to do it? I'm trying to figure out if this is something other people think or if it's just me.

It bothers me immensely and I don't like it! Actually I hate it! I talked about it before but I hate it so so much, it's a terrible way to resolve the plot and it goes against all the themes and there's some serious tone dissonance with how Kinkajou reacts and the reality of the situation and it's chock full of horrifying implications- I don't like it.

Uh...I'll try to say something more coherent uh- I think the Strawberry scene has a lot of problems, especially in the way they treat Darkstalker.

Darkstalker is a Lost Cause. Darkstalker could of never Been Better because he Couldn't Be Better, he's inherently bad, somehow. His soul was corrupted by his magic, and such.

They even alluded to this in Darkstalker Legends, his opening has him be ominous and mysterious as he hatches from his egg...when he was a baby.

This, bothers me. It's ignoring the impact Arctic had on Darkstalker as a child and attributing it to inherent evil. Darkstalker isn't bad because he was treated in a way that caused him to grow up in an unhealthy way, he's bad because he was born with a lot of power.

What the strawberry scene is saying, is that, since Darkstalker was just, born more evil. It is right to rewrite his mind. All the other people he did it to? That's bad (though the treatment of Fierceteeth is a...whole other issue) but if He was affected by it? It's fine, because Darkstalker is Evil.

It's another situation where WoF Is being frustratingly black and white about a serious issue.

Arc 2 is about being forced into a box you don't fit in and/or being outcasted because you don't fit and the trauma resulting from that. It's about what society wants from you and how that affects people. It's about preconceived notions and how that affects others. It's about focusing too much on what someone is rather than what they do.

Qibli is worried about not being good enough and lies to protect himself because the last time he wasn't good enough he was sold off, Winter is an abused child dealing with not being Good Enough for his kingdom (and his family), Turtle hides to protect himself so that he doesn't have to live up to any expectations, Moon is isolated from everyone due to either being a Nightwing, or not being on the volcano and has to deal with hearing other people's thoughts and the Future weighing on her the entire time. Kinkajou is constantly underestimated due to being a Rainwing. And Peril is trying to reconcile her bloody past, with who she actually is, with who people think she is.

When Darkstalker rewrites People's Minds he is literally forcing people to be someone else. Darkstalker was literally gonna do a genocide because he had a preconceived idea about Two Entire Kingdoms. Darkstalker expects the Jade Winglet to be like his friends.

I don't like him and I really think they should of just made him Evil and Bad instead of trying to do whatever this is.

But in WoF canon he is not pure evil, he is a product of his time, a reminder of the mistakes made by the people around him. He is a genocidal manipulator because of the abuse he suffered and the multiple tragedies in his life.

Darkstalker, Having his mind rewritten, against his Will, goes against Everything! It goes, no, Darkstalker would always be like this. That Darkstalker couldn't of been prevented, that some people are just inherently evil.

So uh yeah, I don't like the strawberry.

[some-pers0n]

ooh unpopular opinion time!

Mindreaders shouldn't have been able to mindread just dragons and scavs. It either should've been dragons only or most animals being able to be mindread by more powerful mindreaders. Seems pretty silly to have scavengers be the one exception, when, like, a lot of animals do still have emotions that can be mindread; they just don't have the same complexity as humans for the most part.

Turtle comes off as far more transfem than transmasc imo. Transfem Turtle is an under-appreciated headcanon in the fandom.

Deathbringer literally treats Glory the same way Undauntable treats Wren. It's just seen as cute and romantic with Deathbringer because Glory likes him back.

Darkstalker is a sympathetic villain and that doesn't make him morally grey in the slightest. You can sympathize with a villain while still acknowledging that they're pretty much pure evil.

Oh, on a related note, AUs where Peacemaker discovers he's Darkstalker aren't actually overrated. There's just a small minority of fans who like to say that it goes against the message of the book, when these AUs are often purposefully about pointing out the flawed messaging. And I have trouble believing Foeslayer would be a good mom to any of her dragonets, especially to the dragonet enchanted to be her "do-over" from the guy who killed her husband.

Luna's tapestry thing never really bothered me. What upset me was seeing the giant jump in character from being extremely ready and willing to fight to essentially being made into a pacifist because they needed to keep to the stereotypes.

Freedom was a bad choice of character plot-wise, but a lot of the people critiquing her just seemed to be picking on that she wasn't the perfect ever apologetic abuse survivor. Of course she's going along with what her abuser says, who's literally trapped her in his mind as a hatchling forever. At the same time, her pretty much suicide wasn't very impactful because... well, we never got time to get attached to her. She was just thrown in at the end to be a big emotional moment, and that's not really how character deaths work.

Yeah I agree with the mindreader bit. I'd love to see more unique and interesting bits with that.

I do love any sort of trans Turtle headcanons. Maybe I'm stupid but I just look at him and go: "he has no gender" and becomes just like me fr. Trans fem Turtle is so cool though,, oh you can do so much with that.

Imma be blunt and say I do like Undauntable and Wren's sort of dynamic, but as platonic. Same goes for Glorybringer. Take out the flirting and replace it with playful banter and make it platonic and you're golden. Glorybringer in its current state? Ehhhh....no thank you...

Precisely that. I love me my villains and objectively terrible characters who I WILL make relatable and hold traits the readers can identity with. Does that make them even remotely morally grey? No! It just means they have more complexity and depth than a piece of paper.

I refuse to believe Foeslayer, or Hope now, could go back to a somewhat normal life with Peacemaker. I've been itching to write a oneshot about that for a while. Also, good stuff with the other things. I just woke up and can't formulate thoughts as well lmao.

The tapestry thing bothers me a little cause it seems like Luna constantly harks back to it at the worst and most distracting bits. Not that much though. I just think it's funny to point at how much she mentions it. But, yeah, her character was pretty rushed.

On the topic of rushed characters...oh my god Freedom....you could've been so much better... But, yeah. People critique her and make her out like she's bad because she's not a perfect abuse victim who's always good. She's not that great of a character cause she doesn't have a natural and smooth arc of becoming redeemed and good. It just kinda suddenly happens. Also just because something made you cry doesn't automatically mean it's good.

[dowhatteverer]

If they're a male character who treats women like shit, you RWDE folks will stan the hell out of them, huh?

You literally cannot come up with any other criticism of us outside of projecting the show writers' misogyny onto us because you can't come up with a good retort to our criticisms so you fall back on using buzwords to demonize us.

Look, I don't know what character you're specifically talking about, my blog is mainly centered around Ironwood, and I just posted an edited screenshot of Whitley, so I'll just go over peoples reasons for liking these male characters you've decided we shouldn't like and why we're not misogynists for doing so.

Adam Taurus- let's get something very clear, no one likes Adam as he is in the show. No one likes that he abused Blake, no one likes that he was a faunus supremacist, and no one likes his terrible voice acting. The reason people have still held onto Adam and go out of their way to rewrite him is because he is the embodiment of the show's disgusting opinions on race and the concept of fighting back, and is the main face of the white fang plotline.

Illia? She turned to Blake's side after getting talked out of violent protest, so she can't be a representation of violent protest being necessary. (And it was necessary canonically, According to Blake, the only reason the faunus have most of the equal treatment they get now is because of the white fang moving to a more violent approach) Sienna was a gorgeous character design that existed for four minutes before she was unceremoniously killed and Adam was once again cemented as the big bad. Forgive us for wanting a well written racism plotline rather than a poorly written abuse plotline.

If you're bitching about Ironwood here's the deal, I only like Vol 2-7 Ironwood, because I view vol 8 Ironwood to be an entirely different person. Let's see what sexist things vol 2-7 Ironwood did? He flirts with Glynda in his first appearance (kind of, all he does is say "Glynda! It has been far too long) and she walks off annoyed.

Flirting with a woman does not inherently make a man sexist? JAUNE went out of his way to not hear a no from Weiss and Weiss was treated like the bad guy by her own friends because she didn't say yes to a boy she wasn't attracted to. That's sexist, but I bet you guys don't think it was that big of a deal do you?

Ironwood is mostly shown to care about the opinions of the women in his life, encouraging young women like Ruby when he tells her that going after that masked woman and trying to prevent harm was exactly what a huntress should do. And he defaults to Winter's opinion constantly because he respects her and views her as essentially his second in command. If you're going to bring up the Winter Maiden, I don't know if you can blame Ironwood for providing Hospice care to an old woman with dementia as well as keeping her safe from the villains who want to murder her and take her powers, as well as putting the woman he believes is the best possible fit for the job in charge of taking care of her needs so she when she passes, Winter can take the powers.

Any sexism in that plotline is inevitable because the Maidens are kind of an inherently Sexist concept for the show writers to add onto the story.

Ironwood treated Penny just fine until Vol 8. What we're told and what we're shown in volume 7 is inherently contradictory ("Ironwood says I don't have time for friends" *Ironwood literally lets her hang around these people all the time and have a goddamn party with them*) so that's up to interpretation. I personally think that him keeping Penny on a tight leash in the Beacon arc because of her status as a government funded synthetic person who is also meant to be a weapon, and whose discovery could get Atlas in big trouble and might compromise her safety (which it did for the record) is personality reasonable, BUT I don't agree with it. I think that Penny deserves to be her own person with her own friends, and who can get the chance to live a happy normal life. And her relationship with Ironwood and his overprotectiveness is a big theme in my Remnant City AU.

Ok, so, for laughs. Let's talk about Whitley. I don't know about you, but I feel no need to be nice to people who have never been nice to me even if they are women.

The only women Whitley is shown to be mean to in anyway are his female family members, and if I was ever in his position, I would probably hate them too. His mother basically abandoned him for his entire life and became a neglectful alcoholic, something that every child should have the right to be pissed about. Winter and Whitley barely interact. Winter never mentions him or worries about his safety, and Whitley is not obligated to be kind to someone who clearly doesn't give a shit about him.

As for Weiss? He and Weiss are literally raised in a narcissistic abuse situation (as in the parent abuses the child to further their own goals, not necessarily that the abuser IS a diagnosed narcissist, I just feel the need to clear that up) where their father pits them against each other.

Whitley has also been left by Weiss with his abusers without her giving a damn about him after already being gaslit by his father into believing that Weiss is his competition and not a loved one. Even when Weiss's told that Whitley has been abused by his parents as much as she has, and the reason he hates her is because she chose to leave and never think about him, cementing in his mind that she never cared about him, Whitley couldn't even get a goddamn sentence out before she was threatening him with a military grade weapon designed to kill monsters three times his size.

I don't understand why the show writers thought it was the abused child's job to redeem himself in the eyes of someone who he thinks (with very good reason mind you) doesn't love him or care about him just because she's the main character, and I definitely don't understand why the FNDM took this interpretation and ran with it. But accusing Whitley of treating women like shit because he didn't immediately roll over and do everything he could to appease them when they never even looked in his direction with anything other than a glare? Shut up.

[utilitycaster]

Humbly approaching to ask for elaboration on the “whose the problem” post for tm9 and bh’s, as well as those exceptions. If I could make exception guesses it’d be Caduceus ( boy who’s only kinda as special as he likes to think he is) and Fearne (girl who wonders why her parents left and then turns out her granny gaslit her and fucked with her lifespan.)

I'm going to answer this but first off you are hereby forbidden from using the word "gaslight" until you understand what it fucking means. It is not "deceived"; it is very specifically trying to make someone believe that they cannot trust their own sanity. Fearne has no doubts of the latter and there's no indication that Morri attempted to do that. The word you're looking for is "lied." She didn't tell Fearne she was crazy for missing her parents. She literally just lied about some things. It's not, you know, good of her to do; but it's absolutely not gaslighting. For actual gaslighting, please see Beau and Caleb's stories below. I also don't agree on your take on Caduceus, honestly; but that's beside the point and you are right that he and Fearne are two of the exceptions.

Anyway the exceptions to the former are Caduceus and Jester, who separately both came to their own conclusions that they were obligated to be the solution to a problem that did not necessarily exist, even though that wasn't something their parents told them they had to be (and even was something that worried their parents).

The rest of the Nein are pretty easy to cover. Fjord was explicitly told he was worthless and had been cast away by his family by people who were literally using orphans as sweatshot labor for the mob; and was bullied by other children. Beau was constantly told by her father that her ideas were stupid and that he'd wanted a son. Caleb was manipulated into becoming a tool of an evil wizard who was in turn a useful tool to those more measured and powerful (but also evil), and then left to rot when he actually felt remorse and had an understandable breakdown over his deeds. Yasha was constantly pushed towards a leadership position under the absolute control of her harsh and unloving adoptive mother and told that her feelings for Zuala were inappropriate because they were not with her sanctioned match. And Veth's background seems comparably tame next to these four examples of actual abuse, but the bullying she received was severe enough that she thought of herself as not particularly good at anything, even when her husband insisted she was actually fantastic.

Meanwhile in Bells Hells, and granted, we don't have the full picture so some of this is a little presumptive; Fearne and Orym are the exceptions, as Fearne is a slightly spoiled fey who has only just realized her grandmother might have had possessive intentions, and Orym is, by design, just a guy.

It's vaguely implied Chetney's actions against Oltgar may have been a complicating factor, and the nature of those actions is unclear and changes that part of the answer (ie, if he unionized against Oltgar, kicking him out is unjustified; if he murdered him, then like, I get where they're coming from even though I support Chetney's Wrongs) but also it's not a bad idea to tell a werewolf to leave and get their shit together due to the immediate danger.

Laudna is tough because, as I've said before, she's considered weird but fine in cities so I don't quite know why she keeps getting kicked out by villagers, but if we go by Hollow One canon, she does bear necromancy vibes and while trying to burn down her cabin is excessive, there is a reason necromancy is one of the few true taboos in magic. Attacking her is unjustified, but I can understand people wanting her to leave. (But also, this is one where we are either missing backstory...or should be missing backstory).

FCG is, well, a murderbot, but also from what we saw of Dancer, she was a rough and impatient person with a lot of problems of her own, but genuinely liked him. It was FCG who decided they were without a soul and less important than other people.

Imogen is interesting, actually, because I'm making an educated guess here, but, while she refers to things getting bad in Gelvaan shortly before Laudna came, we don't actually know what happen. My thought is that it's one of the following: either she heard people's thoughts and didn't have the tools to realize that like, we all have gross and terrible thoughts all the time and don't act on them, because intrusive thoughts and bad days are real and it's not inherently hypocritical to say, be nice to someone who annoys the shit out of you while thinking 'they annoy the shit out me.' So in that case it was her own cynicism and inability to understand she's perceiving things no one would ever share with her or even fully believes that made her feel hated. It's understandable, but it's also, ultimately, her making that choice. Alternatively, given how freely she does use her abilities and telepathy and telekinesis despite her dislike, she weirded everyone out and they felt invaded and responded in perhaps unkind but also understandable ways. I'd love to find out which it was!

And finally, Ashton. Ashton explicitly says that they've been somewhat complacent (not saying yes to people) and willing to just drift. Because the thing is, on the grand scale, yeah, nothing good has happened to them, but on a small scale, they've experienced real camaraderie in Bassuras and with the Nobodies, and it's implied that Laudna, Imogen, and FCG haven't had that kind of friendship before, it's not entirely clear with Fearne, and Chetney hasn't in a very long time. Ashton's story currently is someone kind of realizing that while other people around him have absolutely sucked, this is the area in his life where he rebels in little teenage ways but doesn't actually fight back or try to get out.

[hello-nichya-here]

How did Cersei get away with still being known as Cersei Lannister despite marrying a Baratheon? Do you think her hatred of Robert was part of the reason why she kept her last name or was it purely a matter of a Lannister being proud of being a Lannister?

Short answer: The women don't really have to take their husband's names in Westeros, but Cersei did do some shit that she shouldn't have done and she only got away with it because the Game Of Thrones is very real and her family was a major player.

Long answer: The women don't really have to take their husband's names in Westeros. For exemple, Catelyn is sometimes called "Catelyn Stark" since she married Ned, had his kids, lives in Winterfell and, more importantly, eventually supported her son in being king of the North.

But her name is still Catelyn Tully, and people still call her that, because house Tully is pretty important and has a good reputation. She'd only stop using that name/allowing people to call her that if her house was shit (like house Frey) and marrying a Stark made her sound more important.

Cersei still calling herself a Lannister, even while married to the freaking king, would not be seen as disrespect.

What should have, and did have, people wondering if something was wrong, was the identity of her children being overwhelmingly Lannister. And I'm not just talking about their looks, I'm talking about shit like Joffrey's banners having a stag and a lion in it, and the Lannisters trying to claim the red comet is a sign of the Gods blessing Joffrey's reign, even though he is a "Baratheon" so the comet should have been gold.

And while Cersei's name is not a rebellion on her part, plenty of things she did clearly were. She did get pregnant with Robert's child once, and had Jaime find a woman to, in her own words, "clean her." She made it clear to Ned that she took advantage of Robert's drinking to only ever have sex with him in ways that couldn't possibly get her pregnant, and in one of her POV's she is bragging to herself about "eating his heirs." And yes, that is both about her pride as a Lannister (who is fucking another Lannister) and about her resentment of Robert for being a terrible, straight up abusive husband.

While there's no way people could know all that, they could still notice that not a single of her children looks like their supposed dad. Ned literally only realized it once Sansa and Arya, two children, pointed out that even in personality Robert's supposed heirs had nothing of him. The fact that whenever Cersei went into labor, Robet wasn't there with her but Jaime was, didn't fucking help.

Having your honor - aka the the list of men of you slept with - questioned as a woman in Westeros can be a permanent stain not just for the woman's reputation, but for her family's as well. When your husband is the king, that can lead to a death sentence.

Yet the Lannisters, not just Cersei, were constantly trying to be seen as just as important as the Baratheons, or even to completely over-shadow them, which just screams that their ambition goes beyond just having one, or many, of their own marrying into royalty - they want to be the royal family, and Cersei and Jaime in particular wanted to replace Robert's lineage with their own.

In all honesty, they have some pretty strong Targaryen envy; They want to be so powerful that nobody can tell them what to do. They want to be so scary, that no one dares to revolt against them because it would be stupid. They want to be the legendary figures that changed Westeros forever. They want those damn dragons. And yes, Cersei and especially Jaime want to get away with incest.

So, how the hell did they all get away with their shit for so long?

1 - Robert was a drunk idiot. He does not give a fuck or even notice much around him, he just cares about drinking plenty of good wine, fucking some young whore, and not having Cersei bothering him. And he also had the bad habit of not listening to people telling him shit he didn't wanna hear (usually things that meant him having to deal with the bad side of being king instead of just enjoying the benifts). Can you imagine him reacting well if someone interrupts his fun to express their concerns about how Cersei made their kids wear red instead of gold in a feast?

2 - The crown was in debt to the Lannisters. Can't question their loyalty, otherwise they take the money away, AND use said money to destroy you - like, say, having all the guards turn against the hand of the king and getting him arrested for speaking out against the queen's bastard being crowned, right after said queen tore the letter the king's last wishes in front of everyone and nobody could do anything about it.

3 - While their behavior was weird, most people didn't realize just what was going on until Stannis spilled the beans on Cersei's kids being all bastards - full Lannister bastards. One would need to be around Cersei and/or Jaime (and sober), as well as look at the Baratheon family tree to fully connect the dots. Once that story was out, it became not just a case of one family trying to usurp the throne, but also of treason against the king AND a scandalous, taboo, illegal affair between the queen and her brother.

4 - While Cersei wanted to make sure Robert would have no heirs, pretty much nobody but Jaime supported her on that, otherwise Tywin would have found a way to get rid of Stannis, Shireen, Renly and any other baratheon as well, so Joffrey "Baratheon" would be the only choice. The head of the house was playing the long-game of having their family spending years, and years, and YEARS getting more and more entwined with royal family and it's business until they were royalty themselves, not the game of "let's secretly replace the royal family with our own by cucking the king" so while one would easily call the Lannister ambitious, very few would immediately call them traitors - and with little evidence and, once again, a king like Robert, that could backfire real fast.

5 - The Lannisters are not the only snakes around. You had people like Varys and Littlefinger, who would keep or expose people's secrets depending on what was convenient for their own goals and decided that the Lannister incest didn't need to come to light (at that point), and plenty of noble families like the Tyrells who could turn a blind eye to everything they knew because they don't care who is the true king, they just wanted a king one of their own could marry.

So yeah, Cersei, in a subtle yet not at all subtle way, showed she had no love, and more importantly, no loyalty towards her husband, the king. And if she wasn't a Lannister, or if house Lannister had played the game in a slightly different way, there is a pretty big chance that she would have paid the price for that a long time ago.

[dirtytransmasc]

when I agreed to Tumblrs terms and services, I also agreed to find the most traumatized, skrunkly, saddest, repressed and depressed, prettiest, morally reprehensible yet completely blameless little guy in every piece of media I consume in my lifetime and I must defend him with my life no matter his actions.

I watched house of the dragons, and I'm now fighting for my life to defend this little shit;

Listen, hear me out, if anyone had intervened at one of many important points of his life or shown him (or really any of Alicent's kids, cause from the looks of it, she never truly loved those kids) any amount of love or attention OR treated these kids as anything more than political pieces; this little shit may have been more than an attention seeking brat.

his whole childhood he was bullied by his big brother and his cousins (who he was constantly told were scum beneath his boots, which first off a child should never have been involved in moral politics like that at such a young age, but knowing what he did had to feel even worse when his cousins poked and prodded him), the only person who seemed to give the tiniest shit was his bitter mother, his own father played dumb to his abuse and neglect. his entire childhood he was taught that your worth was in your strength and ability, in your smarts, your dragon. so when he was always behind his brother, his cousins (the bastards), when he never had a dragon, he was made to feel lesser then. he was taunted by his own parents for acting out against the mistreatment.

Then when he makes a stupid, childish mistake (he was definitely in the wrong, but also, it kinda makes sense why he did it, he was young, stupid, and so desperate for anything to make him seem worthwhile in anyone's eyes, even if it wasn't his parents), of stealing laena's dragon from her girls, and he subsequently engages in a childish fight where more childish decisions were made that cost him his eye; he was once again treated as nothing more then a political piece, in a political race, that he is set to lose. he lost his eye and the discussion at hand became that of politics and infighting amongst a drama that had festered between his mother and aunt since they were young. what happened, from him takin the dragon to him losing his eye and everything in between never mattered, it was what stabs could be taken against either family that mattered, how Alicent could hurt Rhaenyra. it was proven once again, he as a person, didn't matter, he was just a pawn.

he grew up with no sense of self, seeing as the only people of worth were higher on the food chain, so he spent his time trying to attract any sort of attention (good or bad), and having his eye set on the race, wanting to bring himself higher so he would mean something. he was stupid and childish because he was never taught to be another way. he inherited his mother's bitterness and his father's naivety, he hid behind a mask of confidence, fighting ability, and study's. that's how he survived, that's how he had always survived, and it never worked. throughout his time on the show we see the small bit of kindness, sense of self, and humanity that remained at his premiere at around 10, be snuffed out and smothered over the course of the show. he was miserable

I think what he did to Lucerys was intentional, but in the way a child intends to kill another. deep down, I don't think that was his intention, not really. his want was surface level but it wasn't until after the deed was done he realized the true impact of his actions. they were no longer words or thoughts, it was an irreversible action that I believe his felt remorse for.

had anyone intervened in his early life, ever so slightly, I think aemond had the chance to be good and beautiful; but he was cursed from the womb, just like his brother, and just like the rest of his family. power corrupted him because he was taught power was your only value.

~~~

I am fighting so hard for him, I am truly pulling things from my ass. I don't know why my chemically unbalanced brain has taken such an affinity to him, I shouldhate him and his smarmy little attitude. but he is just my little guy I guess, my poor little meow meow.

there were so many points in the show where I was just yelling at the screen because it was so clear to me how he could have been saved from a life of angst and anger and no one stepped up to give him a chance. I was just sitting there, begging someone to hug him or something, show him he was more then just his power. had I been their aemond would have been raised right, he would have been good and kind.

[nerves-nebula]

TW: VRISKCOURSE IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 2023

Feel free to ignore

Ding ding the witch is dead (the witch being vriska)

But honestly while I do agree that vriska represents Tumblr better I'm glad she lost because since I read homestuck for the first time 5 years ago I always found her kinda boring?

Like she only becomes interesting when interacting with other characters, like Terezi's whole thing with her, John/June's complicated feelings towards her, the many times she assaulted tavros and how that affected him, her relationship with Meenah (honestly I'd argue that Meenah is more interesting and spend less time with her than vriska, and she's still a dick so trust me the issue here is not unlikeability)

People act like she's the peak of unlikable female characters but she's just a popular girl that bullies others because her mom sucks, I already dealt with plenty of those IRL (especially during the time I first read HS), the machinations of her mind really aren't that complex, the only thing interesting about her is her powers.

Otherwise she's just a plot device

Basically what I'm saying is that there are unlikable female protagonists out there that are more interesting

Then again maybe her making me respond in this way is the point, maybe the point of a Tumblr woman is to make you wonder why anyone finds her interesting but I dunno I only been here for 6 years what do I know?

i mean i think that the way shes mean is why people hated her so much, cause she was mean in a way they found Too Close to real life. she wasn't unlikable the way a fictional character is SUPPOSED to be, she's unlikable the way your worst friend who ruined your life for years was, hah.

i dont really have a horse in this race as far as the Tumblr Culture goes, cause idc that much. but I do have an interesting relationship with her character so I might as well share it here.

I have particular affection towards Vriska because she reminds me A LOT of my older sister. which you might think is a bad thing and it sort of is, but its more complicated than that.

SEE my oldest sister basically had to raise all of us, on top of dealing with some weird emotional incest stuff with our mom (our mom would call her her "little husband" so it wasn't great) and worst of all she had to protect us from our oldest brother who was and still is an incredibly violent and volatile person. so she'd basically get beaten up all the time protecting us, and if my oldest brother was picking on one of us she'd antagonize him to get him to beat her up instead cause she could take it or something.

ANYWAY she's gone through a lot of trauma processing now and I love her and everything she stands for, but she was kind of a cruel kid/teenager. which makes sense, our childhood was a never ending hellscape of fighting and injuries and abuse, especially for her. So she did what she thought it would take to keep us (relatively) safe, including some rather abusive tactics to try to stop us from appearing weak, and she also lashed out cause she was like 13 raising 4 kids and constantly fighting 1 bigger kid

Anddd the thing about Vriska is that she's also a teenager and she's also been abused and she basically doesnt trust anyone else to NOT screw up (which is very much like my oldest sister too, but you cant really fault the controlling nature when everything was so high stakes hah)

soooo fsdfdsfsdfsadfds like,, my oldest sister wasn't a very good person until a bit into her later teens. So I can't really hold Vriska to like a Worst Person Ever standard because to me she doesnt represent a person who was awful to me and who I stopped being friends with or whatever. She's like a child version of my oldest sister, and that child deserved to be cared for instead of thrown into the hell that she was. I would wrap her in a blanket if I didn't think she'd stab me for it or something.

ANYWAY that's what I feel about this fictional character.

plus i love abused characters, what can I say. she was never my favorite but i did always wish the best for her hah.

[fate-magical-girls]

2, 13, and 19

2. A compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

Illyana Rasputin and Janet Van Dyne do the deed with their significant others standing up. Jean Grey and Ororo Munroe do the deed with their significant others mid-air. Dani Moonstar only ever tops and she looks good doing it. Also Koriand'r from DC is mostly a top, and given her preferred partners are Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Roy Harper, and Raven, they probably love her topping. Hal Jordan is extremely versatile, and I bet he spends a lot of time being sandwiched between Ollie and Dinah, neither topping or bottoming.

13. Worst blorboficiation

Hank Pym has it bad. Yes, he's pitiable and affected by his BPD, but he genuinely did unforgivable things, and to this day refuses to handle his BPD responsibly. I genuinely don't think it's out of character for him to backslide into nasty behavior or mood swings once in a while because he keeps himself in a state where he's constantly at risk for it. My hope for him is that if Marvel brings him back, he'll follow his daughter's example and do the responsible thing for himself and his loved ones.

In DC, there's also Bruce Wayne. Everyone wants him to be Batdad, but they never acknowledge that there is something deeply wrong with Bruce's brand of parenting, where he can't establish a proper bond with his kids unless they're in costume going through life and death situations.

In Transformers, probably Starscream. Comes with the territory of being a pretty boy plane.

19. You're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like...

Hank Pym, as well as the Hank Pym/Janet Van Dyne couple from the comics. Not the MCU, but the comics. The original canon, where they divorced because he abused her. I can't really forgive Hank's mistake, even accounting for his BPD, and I think there should be more focus on how the incident wasn't just Hank's mistake, but also trauma for Janet. Outwardly, she's recovered from it better than Hank did, but that doesn't mean she didn't suffer during the Court Martial of Yellowjacket, and the focus shouldn't just be on Hank's atonement, but also the impact it left on her. Even so, Hank is complicated and despite having some very despicable flaws, also has a very kind and compassionate side to him, so he's interesting to think about. Janet is more of a straight girlboss, but she also has a nasty streak, being a somewhat out-of-touch old money billionaire. They honestly shouldn't be together, but somehow keep gravitating into a relationship. I really, really like thinking of them as a couple that love each other, but also hurt each other, mostly due to Hank's behavior. It's fun in a terrible way to write them having a functional relationship but always teetering on the edge of some sort of toxic codependency because they enable each other at the worst possible times. I have so many terrible, bizarre dead dove headcanons concerning them.

They've probably banged in every corner of all the Avenger HQs, even in incredibly public spaces. Given their powers, sometimes they just shrink and do the deed in plain sight of their friends, but nobody notices them because of their tiny size, except for people with enhanced senses like Tigra or Wolverine.

Hank seriously has a body mod fetish because the two women he's been with both have animal characteristics, and for Jan, he himself implanted her with her wings and seldom-used antennae. He also marks every celebration by gifting Jan with modifications to her powers. However, he's too scared to actually admit this, much less get any tattoos or piercings for himself. He just settles with playing with Tigra's fur and tail or Jan's wings.

Jan likes novelty and insists on bringing something new to every intimate encounter, be it a new position, new food, or new place This is why she insists on having a tryst within every new Avengers HQ within 24 hours of joining. There's also at least once where she and Hank wore Hawkeye and Mockingbird's actual costumes (not cosplay) and ducked into a closet together.

Jan still has MASSIVE trust issues regarding Hank, and so she enjoys kissing Hank while he's unconscious or hospitalized and unable to move. She thinks it's the safest way she can express her desire for him, even though she's aware of the consent issues, and on some level she's ashamed that she feels the way she does. At some point they should just do a trust exercise where one of them closes their eyes and the other person touches them unannounced within the next five minutes. But during her turn, Jan would be the one pushing the envelope by doing things like hair-pulling, biting, and even bending fingers back, all to see if she can actually trust Hank not to react.

Hank has definitely called Jan Maria more than once, and she likes it because it means he sees her on the same level as his oh-so-perfect first wife. They've also visited Maria's grave together, where Hank would get so overwhelmed by emotions that he and Jan would always make out at least once before visit was over, sometimes going even further.

Sometimes Hank gets hypomanic and really, really needs Jan to help work off his energy. They usually have the decency to duck into a closet, but there's also times when Hank's sat Jan right in his lap when the Avengers are at the meeting table and asked the other Avengers if they like what they're seeing.

The short period between Secret Wars and Rage of Ultron was probably the most toxic their relationship has ever been. Hank came back from being almost forever lost in the space between realities with Avengers AI disbanded and Avengers Academy shut down. Jan had been abused and abducted by inverted Alex Summers and fought him off to escape back to the Avengers. This is probably gonna need a new ask to talk about all the horrible ideas I have for that time period.