#shes the antagonist for God's sake you should be more angry about the more morally good supporting character

[assmaster-8000]

you guys do realise getting mad about sparkle 'slutshaming' aventurine is baseless when the fandom has been calling men whores and sluts pretty much since the inception of smutty fanfiction? why is it suddenly a problem if a character does it but not when real fucking adults call many 16 year old characters a slut? would you really be this angry if sparkle was a man and aventurine was a woman too or is that scenario a norm for you?

(also, if you genuinely believe she was slutshaming aventurine i feel like you have a very bad case of tunnel vision because its not the act of doing sexual deeds for sundays favor she's talking about. she's taking a jab at if aventurine did something outlandish and out of nature to pwomise his widdle corporation wouldn't hurt penacony (yea right wise guy type of tone). i feel like any other hyperbole would have gotten her point across. if anything it feels like she's making fun of his inability to be vulnerable or be on the end with disadvantages because aventurine is always big on being in bets and deals where he has the power)

((and yes im aware sparkle is the type to make discriminatory jabs at people given the sigonian situation and her masked fool status but again it does not necessarily mean this is specifically targeted at his sexuality because it's just very out of place))

also, if sparkle DID use a slur against romani people

why are you more upset at the character than the company?

you do realise sparkle can't code her own dialog, right? there's real people at the hoyoverse company building making her say these things. whether or not it makes her a good or bad villain doesn't matter because you're just targeting a fictional character instead of holding hoyoverse responsible. you do realise that by wringing your panties into debating about sparkle, you're just overlooking the real cause of it? it's like green shopping and carbon footprints all over again. we're so focused on pointing fingers at all these irrelevant figures that the true heads behind it get away scott free.

if you're upset about the use of the slur which is very much understandable so i mean this specific sentiment in the most genuine way possible; highlight hoyoverse's role in this. you already know hoyoverse does a bad job at handling cultures outside of their own so it's not like it's something outlandish to hold against the company.

[vacantgodling]

character questions for the btaf crew!!! 1, 4, 5, 6, 10

thank youuuuu 💛💛💛 rapid answers gogogogo

1. What motivates your character?

biscella: love

eduard: love (derogatory)

sjaak: love (for better or worse)

azelie: love, defiance

silvano: sadism probably.

luis: the idea of purity (he’s a cult leader p much so take of that what you will)

maritxell: luis’s will

rosita: luis’s will and “love” (derogatory and questionable)

gust: to eradicate vampires from the world by any means necessary (also kinda cult-y)

dalal: gust’s goals by any means necessary

florissa: to stay alive and hopefully escape

4. Does your character care about their reputation and/or how others perceive them?

answered this for some of them (eduard, biscella, sjaak and azelie) but for the rest:

silvano: 2/10

luis: -100000000000000/10

maritxell: 10/10 regarding luis, 0/10 for anyone else

rosita: 6/10

gust: -100000000000000/10

dalal: 9/10 regarding gust, 3/10 for everyone else

florissa: 5/10

5. Is your character more of a family or friends person?

the casavantes (luis, maritxell, rosita, eduard, azelie, and silvano) are are more family people bc they’re p much a vampire cult as ya do. the wolves (gust and dalal) are the same.

biscella cares about both equally.

sjaak cares more about his friends because he has no family.

florissa cares about HER family back home that she’s been taken away from. she has some care for the werewolves around her but not enough to abandon them if she got the chance.

6. What, if anything, sticks out about their appearance?

pain and suffering that you asked this LMAO i still don’t know what these characters look like too hard cuz my brain is kind of focused on making sure they’re somewhat historically accurate as well. However, i’ll give you the current defining characteristics of what they look like or their Vibe for now (which is subject to change)

biscella: dark curly hair, a long narrow nose (think india), tan skinned

eduard: pale asf, red eyes, black hair

sjaak: dark skin, afro-centric features, curly hair.

azelie: black hair, olive skin, pale green eyes

luis: pale asf, red eyes, dirty blonde hair

maritxell: pale asf, red eyes, long dirty blonde hair. scars around her mouth.

rosita: pale asf, red eyes, wavy blonde hair. scars around her mouth

silvano: luis 2.0 but younger looking

gust: he’s always wearing a hood or shroud that hides his face as well as a braided turban

dalal: has her hair covered in a scarf of some kind

florissa: long dark hair, several beauty marks across her face and neck

10. If your character is an antagonist or something of the like, do they self-justify their actions? If so, how?

did this for eduard, sjaak, and azelie, so let’s do the other VILLAINS—

luis: of course he self justifies; he doesn’t believe in god but if he did he himself would be god. what he says goes, and it doesn’t matter if he contradicts himself he’ll kill you if you point it out. he rules the casavantes estate with an iron fist and he has killed for it.

maritxell: all of her actions are deemed acceptable under luis’s command and if they are that’s how she justifies them. it doesn’t matter if they’re right or wrong if luis says, it goes.

rosita: she doesn’t like… self justify in the traditional way. she Knows she’s jealous and angry and that is her justification to herself, but she knows damn well if eduard wasn’t in the crypt she wouldn’t dream of acting this way towards biscella

silvano: he operates on sadistic radical equality. there is no division of the sexes in his mind and to him everyone should be treated as the same: a sack of flesh used to further the cause. it sounds good on paper until you think about what that entails 💀

gust: vampires need to be eradicated for the good of humankind is what he preaches and sure to some extent he may be correct. However, the steps and methods and lengths he uses to get there are questionable and bordering on morally reprehensible; but for the sake of humanity—

dalal: she doesn’t self justify so much as she acknowledges that in order for humanity to be safe she has to get her hands dirty. she, like azelie, is aware that she will have to do bad things to further her goals, but she doesn’t excuse what she’s done. she just hopes that what she does will lead to a good outcome and impact.

[aquagenesis]

i cant stop talking about seifer.

like i just don’t understand, in everything it’s emphasized that seifer is the parallel to squall.  the game opens up and everyone and their mother is telling squall he doesn’t care, he’s cold, he’s abrasive.  zell and selphie specifically comment on how rude he is; when he goes after rinoa following their inability to get into the broadcast station one of them tells him to back off because he’s going too far.  cid tells him strength isn’t enough to be a SeeD.  laguna is another parallel to squall (as his father) because while laguna throws himself into things because he thinks he’s doing the right thing, squall holds back and would rather criticize others for not doing enough.  laguna has kiros and ward, seifer has raijin and fujin, neither of which are “worse” than seifer.  both friendships involve the “friends” supporting their main character friend wholeheartedly and consistently being worried over them.  raijin and fujin don’t accept seifer would be executed and are the only ones to bother to go looking for him, out of concern for what he might be experiencing alone.  when seifer turns away from them it hurts them because they just want him to come back and abandon garden and everything together, because seifer has never been one to obey authority and now he IS.  even though laguna gets them lost in esthar and ward loses his voice entirely, ward and kiros spend their last (known) minutes apologizing to laguna for not being able to keep traveling with him.

everyone else in the game who isn’t just A Party Member and is otherwise observed to be “fine” has people they are friends with and close with.  squall doesn’t.  he’s an outsider and when people attempt to be friends with him, he shuts them out.  the only other party members who don’t have anyone are irvine and quistis; irvine is alone because of some heartbreaker sniper garbage (you’re a womanizer OH) and quistis is alone because she can’t connect with her peers due to being an instructor of people not much younger than her but too young to be close to more mature faculty.

squall intentionally goes after people about things he thinks they should be insecure about and gets angry when they don’t “realize” what they’re doing that’s wrong.  squall falls into the same Toxic Masculinity/Don’t Idolize This category that characters like rick sanchez and walter white fall into, where they’re successful but for all the wrong reasons.  rinoa is like eighteen and she was born into a galbadia-occupied world where resistance members are being tried and persecuted for trying to get timber’s independence which was taken from them.  squall takes her inability to know what to do when she SAYS she never imagined they’d be able to get this far as an individual fault, never apologizes, and it’s written off as “well she needs to learn how to do whatever” when in reality squall had no right to talk to her like that.  because she’s right; he just blindly follows orders and puts himself on a pedestal of moral superiority because “he isn’t the one who messed up”, because he doesn’t DO anything he’d have to take personal responsibility for.  he tells rinoa what she SHOULD be doing and then when she’s like “oh really?  okay i’ll go with that” because he has combat experience and training he takes that opportunity to rip into her because “she can’t make decisions on her own”.

rinoa specifically goes through a LOT of shit because squall refuses to make the first move for the majority of the game.  rinoa is always the one who steps in to protect squall and squall has nothing to say but criticism because “she should have let him die.  she should have carried out the mission”.  seifer steps in to protect squall and instead of respecting his memory squall decides to make it about his existential crisis rather than the fact his classmate who tried to save his ass was executed.

and this would be fine; seifer is allowed to have negative character development.  but seifer never receives sympathy or empathy for the fact he was brainwashed and taken away from everyone.  seifer broke the rules of garden and everything for the sake of protecting people he didn’t think would be able to make it out alive.  seifer says, “they’re gonna get killed if they wind up against the whole galbadian army” because cid dispatched 3 new SeeD members into a situation he knew was far graver than “heehee just free timber” as though it would be so easy.  seifer knew garden was a sham from the beginning and even when the narrative flips to say “yeah garden is actually the worst thing”, it’s not “oh shit!  we were after the wrong guy!” it’s “well seifer should have done a better job of relaying that information”.

seifer knew squall wasn’t ready to be a SeeD.  seifer knew SeeD was basically a pass to do whatever you wanted.  seifer knew making squall the leader of a squad when he’s insufferable and difficult was a bad idea.  seifer told zell so many times to be quiet even before he threatened the president and because zell was so caught up on “god i fucking hate that guy” he led to seifer being brainwashed and the war getting more tense.

edea knew if quistis or anyone else would be able to talk to seifer the brainwashing wouldn’t work; that’s why she incapacitated quistis when she ran in on the scene.  seifer was taken advantage of against his will and then had literally no way of getting away; his “romantic dream” was with rinoa, not being edea’s “knight” or whatever.  the fact squall had the audacity to call him a lapdog and whatever else is just so fucking stupid because the game confirms brainwashing was happening.  squall has a massive fucking ego problem and he isn’t forced to come to terms with it until the world is literally ending and him and rinoa almost die in fucking space.  rinoa girl you deserve so much better than a man you need to teach compassion.

like it’s not even inherently bad final fantasy had a protagonist who was entirely self-serving because yeah squall does eventually learn he’s a fucking dick.  no wonder you’re worried about being a memory because what the fuck would anyone say about you.  seifer got called heroic and noble and it drove squall so crazy because it was all retrospective he stormed out of the room screaming “I WON’T BE A MEMORY” which is so fucking tasteless.  quistis is looking for just friendly support because she was demoted because of seifer and squall and squall tells her “well other peoples’ problems aren’t mine”.  squall finds out rinoa might have been looking for seifer and he really gets so worked up until he finds out she was looking for cid at the party, but then gets mad again because seifer introduced them.  but it just doesn’t make sense to have the antagonist be the parallel of someone self-serving.

like don’t even get me started on the fact that like, squall and rinoa wound up being together in the end, because yeah rinoa deserved better than squall.  she deserved better than to have her boyfriend who she was in love with dangled in front of her with no way to get him back.  she deserved better than to have to fight someone she loved for her life because her boyfriend was taken from her because of some stupid “preserve the garden!” agenda when garden didn’t take her seriously until seifer introduced her to cid.  rinoa had no obligation to stay with squall outside of he was assigned to her and he treated her like shit for so long.  she wanted seifer to be with her because seifer gave her courage and made her feel like she could do anything.  instead she had to help squall through several character arcs because “she needs to stand up for herself” or whatever and it’s like, your boyfriend SHOULD be giving you hope that you can do what you want to.  it’s not a bad thing seifer’s the one who gave her that.  she didn’t “rely” on seifer, he was strong and self-assured but canonically hates pity so he would not “pity” her.

and like as far as i remember and am playing, squall doesn’t even hate seifer.  he thinks he’s a dick and full of himself but boy are you sure calling the kettle black.  seifer didn’t respect quistis because she was a coward and relied on her role as “instructor” to berate and punish him.  that’s part of the reason she was demoted, because she couldn’t be fair.  seifer never missed and that’s why they had to shove him into the antagonist role, because they needed to take away the person squall was living in the shadow of for him to realize HE was the problem and not everyone else.

if seifer had been on the mission to assassinate the president they never would’ve gotten on the damn train because he would’ve been smart enough to say “hey rinoa if this is such public information i don’t think he’s gonna be on the train, let’s not put all of our energy into this as the main plan”.  squall went along with it and then got nasty because it didn’t work.  squall single-handedly let everything get so fucking bad because he was too scared to maybe be “wrong”.  he’s lucky so many other people were willing to go down for him to succeed like very genuinely because if i was on that boy’s team call me the next seifer almasy.

[calamity-bean]

Hi! First of all, I love your meta for Turn amc. It brings me a lot of insight into things I would have missed the first time around. I saw a post recently that equated Anna and Hewlett having screentime this season to be as horrible as Arnold or Simcoe given prevalence in the show, and I can't get it. Some ships aren't for everyone, but I get frustrated when Hew's name is thrown together with men who have been abusive when his and Anna's relationship is built on complete and total respect.

Thanks for your kind words about my meta! I gotta say, I’ve started all sorts of different ways to respond to this. It’s difficult because even if I’d seen the post you refer to (I don’t think I have), I don’t feel comfortable talking about anyone’s post behind their back, as it were. It’s also difficult because in the end, I think it’s best if we just try not to let ourselves be bothered by such things. We all get to like and dislike different things— which is as it should be— and nobody is ever going to understand every other person’s preferences. (Nor do we need to understand them.)

With that said, I sympathize with your frustration in a general sense. And ultimately, I think the best way I can respond is simply to offer you some positivity by gushing about just a FEW of the reasons that I love Hewlett and his relationship with Anna so very, very much.

I love that, as you said, this is a relationship built first and foremost on mutual respect. Heather Lind herself described it in those exact words. I’ve loved our brave, sad, lonesome Anna since the very beginning, and all throughout the series, we see her suffer continual disrespect at the hands of so many other characters: Richard, who sees her as a whore; Selah, who sees her as a possession, and Simcoe, as a prize to be won despite her objections; Abe, who broke her heart supposedly for the sake of honor yet still seems content to keep her as a piece on the side, who remains jealous and possessive of her even when she’s cut off the affair, who refuses to respect her wishes and her autonomy; even Ben and Caleb, who each at different times doubt her abilities on the basis of her sex. And then there’s Hewlett. Awkward, unlikely Hewlett, who first finds himself attracted to her because he’s so struck by her courage. I fucking LOVE that, you guys. So many fictional romances are based on nothing more than lust or some vague sense that Designated Male Lead and Designated Female Lead are in love, never taking into account actual personality traits, and I love love love that Anna and Hewlett’s relationship is developed by scene after scene of them actually, like … talking. Hanging out. Getting to know one another. Stargazing while having an intellectual discussion about morality and science. Playing the harpsichord. Collaborating on military strategy — and god, how beautiful that despite how little the other Culpers seem to value her input half the time, Hewlett trusts Anna and takes her ideas seriously. Because he respects her, dammit, just as she respects and admires him for being “a man of honor, of intellect, of kindness.” His proposal explicitly cites his respect for her, and her apology in 3.08 cites her respect for him. I love that even in season 1, when they were nothing to each other, he’s curt and impersonal with her but never cruel; I love that even in 3.08, when he has every right to be angry and hurt, the rudest thing he does is sit down before she does. I love that even when Hewlett was pretty much just an antagonist, he was never a villain, and I love that his relationship with Anna has allowed us to explore both of these wonderful characters in such new and interesting ways. It’s been so unspeakably rewarding to see them both grow so much as they’ve opened each other’s eyes — and ours — to the moral complexity of this war.

Neither Anna nor Hewlett is faultless. Nobody is, especially in times of war. But he has never mistreated her, she has mistreated him only to save his life, and they have both sacrificed dearly for each other. Not because either of them demanded or even expected sacrifice, but because they each cared about the other’s safety more than their own happiness, their own reputation, or showing blind loyalty to their side in the war. And I love that they have gone from being near-strangers on different sides to caring about each other so much.

Not liking Annlett is fine. Not liking Hewlett is fine. I have no desire to tell people what to like — nor to demand that they not express their opinions, positive or negative, on their blogs. But in my view, Annlett has deeply enriched the thematic complexity of Turn, and at the very least, I don’t see how any canon-based analysis could come tothe conclusion that it’s somehow wrong to enjoy this ship or to want it to have screentime this season. So let’s just shrug, carry on liking what we like, and remember all the reasons to love Hewlett and Anna and their relationship. And I for one will continue hoping for oodles of Annlett in season 4.