#so it touches on very specific things with regards to characterization that if you are one to overthink things they would be fun to play

[roobylavender]

What do you think about Mike Baron's run of Wally? /gen. I have never read it but it seemed like a total mess.

i think most people would agree with you lmaooo. i'm personally not a fan and i don't think it's particularly crucial to read. but at the same time it's what lays the groundwork for who wally is in the immediate aftermath of barry's death so having that context before you dive into the loebs run can be very useful. my main gripe is that baron continues to write wally in the same vein that wolfman did so he's a conservative and a bit of a dickhead. but the latter part is forgiving to an extent because as i already mentioned barry is dead so it's not like the dickheadedness comes out of nowhere in this particular context (as opposed to whatever it is wolfman thought he was doing in new teen titans). all in all i would say it's not hard to read. very short number of issues and aside from those writing gripes the drama is kind of insane to follow (eg wally's relationship with tina mcgee. who is married and ten years his senior. yikes! also the stuff with his mom being a horrible persongjkfjglsf) so it scratches an itch in your brain to say the least

[funhouse-mirror-barbie]

Nuanced and Multifaceted Conflict vs. “Good v. Evil” in fiction

So. This is another thing I’ve wanted to talk about for a while. I promise I won’t always be focusing on Helluva Boss in my critiques, and I actually have quite a few other series I want to talk about.

There’s a big chance that I’ll be saying everything other people have already said, but I can’t help but WANT to talk about this specific character in regard to the story’s conflict. I think that it’s important to recognize when a character is written to be a complex person, and when a character is written to be an enemy to be defeated, and how not following through with your set-up can affect your story.

And HB does that A LOT in my opinion.

So. Let’s get into it. This time I’ll be talking about complex conflict between characters vs. black and white conflict, and I’ll also be touching on story set-ups and audience expectations.

I want to talk about a character who could have really made some of the internal character conflicts have so much more depth and intrigue. I want to talk about Stella Goetia

*as a side note this post is MUCH longer than I intended but I really wanted to get into a lot of the background and reasons for how Stella’s character development has actually completely changed what HB’d story conflict could have looked like. I’ll try and sum up everything in the end in a TLDR for y’all

So. Most of the reviews of her character I see talk about how she’s been “ruined” by the writing team revealing that she’s always been very abusive towards Stolas

I have to start off by saying I actually don’t think that Stella or her portrayal was “ruined” by the writing direction her character has been taken in.

In fact, this critique bothers me, because it doesn’t really get to what I think the actual root of why people are disappointed in Stella’s characterization, and the type of conflict that now exists between her and Stolas.

The main reason I believe people are unsatisfied with Stella is because they believed that her character was being set up for a complex and nuanced conflict between her and Stolas, and then that turned out not to be the case.

A quick disclaimer- I do think it’s possible to subvert audience expectations about story and characters in a satisfying way. But it has to be done in a way that respects the audiences intelligence and willingness to think about the story.

If your plot-twist, unreliable narrator, subversion, or what-have-you is done well, the audience should be able to either figure out what’s going based on the little information you’ve given them, and if they don’t, the change or subversion should still make sense and CLICK in hindsight.

Otherwise, your subversion will end up feeling cheap or confusing. Or worse, like a lie.

And this is one of the MAIN issues I think people have with Stella.

As the audience, we were NOT given enough information on her or her character before it’s revealed that she’s just “evil” and always has been, apparently since she was a literal child.

Again, I don’t think it’s an inherently bad decision to have a flat or pure evil villain. I’m fine with Stella being one, even if it’s less interesting to me personally.

But it’s definitely very different from what was initially implied and set-up, and the audience can pick up on that.

Before S2E1 “The Circus” we see Stella a total of 3 times in person, with one time being a flashback.

I’m going to go over those times to analyze if anything set-up in Stella’s appearances points towards her being. Well, totally and irredeemably awful and abusive I guess.

The very first time we see Stella is in the same bed with Stolas—Octavia calls for her parents, both Stolas AND Stella. Stella grumbles and refuses to get up and tells Stolas to go. This doesn’t immediately strike me as a sign of her being a terrible person. That exact scenario is present in a lot of family comedies, kids’ movies, and sitcoms.

Nothing about this screams that Stella is a terrible parent or an abusive partner to me. It just tells me she’s tired and doesn’t want to get up, which again, is not uncommon.

The next time we see her, she’s yelling at Stolas, and she throws a servant at him in anger.

Now, there’s no excuse for this, her behavior here is not okay, regardless of her feelings. But we understand why she’s acting the way she is--she’s furious with Stolas for cheating on her. At this point with the information we have, it’s also very reasonable to believe her feelings have been hurt.

Later Octavia talks about how her parents didn’t used to hate each other, and the way Stolas’ tries to explain their failing marriage to her comes across like his relationship with Stella is one that’s always had difficulties that they have tried and failed to overcome.

None of this information is enough to really convey or hint that Stella is and has always been abusive or evil. It shows that Stella and Stolas have a very rough relationship, and that Stella most likely has anger management difficulties, but you have to do lot of extra work to come to the conclusion that Stella is completely at fault here.

The next time we see her though, things have clearly escalated, because it’s revealed that she’s one that hired Striker to assassinate Stolas.

Now. Usually. Yeah. That would be a HUGE red flag. And I mean. It still obviously is.

But, and I never thought I’d use this uno reverse card, this is one of the few times where the explanation of “But it’s hell, what did you expect???” actually makes sense to me.

Because yeah, it is hell. It’s the end of episode 5 when we learn this, and our protagonists have killed and assassinated multiple people. Taking a hit out on people really doesn’t seem to be that uncommon of a thing in hell.

Even the next scene after the reveal that Stella is the one who hired Striker makes light of how serious this is, by showing that Stella was basically yelling her assassination plot right to Stolas’ face.

This is played for laughs! I genuinely am not sure if the writers intended for this to be foreshadowing of Stella’s abuse or not because if so, they turned her attempting to kill her husband into a joke!

If you cannot keep your themes or tone consistent, how is the audience supposed to follow your story?

There is subtle storytelling, and then there’s tacking information and character points later on in your writing. And this can have two causes.

Either your audience has to do the work of story-telling for you and make up their own reasons for what’s happening to make the story coherent OR they will be disappointed and dissatisfied by the final product.

I think that’s the main reason why S2E1 of Helluva Boss felt so jarring story-wise, and why Stella, to me at least, suddenly felt like a brand new character.

Like I haven’t been this confused by a character being suddenly evil since Hans from Frozen.

(like seriously why the hell did they put this scene in if not to just trick the audience. This isn’t giving us any plot info it’s only giving us contradictory info on his character. Like I talked about before, Hans’ heel-face-turn doesn’t feel like a twist. It feels like a lie.)

Okay so, how does any of this actually affect anything? Who cares if Stella is evil, that doesn’t automatically make the story bad!

Well. Yeah, of course not. Ironically, having the main conflict your story being a battle between “Good v. Bad” characters is neither good nor bad. It’s just a story decision. And ultimately at the end of the day, the writers of Helluva Boss can choose to tell their story however they’d like.

But, depending on how this is executed, good v evil stories can be a lot less interesting than morally grey or complicated conflicts and characters.

I am more interested in the version of the story where Stella and Stolas are imperfect and messy people. I am more interested in the story where Stolas has an affair to escape being in an arranged marriage, and Stella overreacts by arranging a hit on her husband (unless calling out a hit is normal in hell, but we can’t know b/c there is no baseline for what is considered normal in hell)

I am so much more interested in the story where Stolas and Stella are both depicted as being in the wrong, as being incredibly hurt by each other’s actions, and as not knowing how to repair their broken relationship for the sake of their daughter.

That story feels very real to me. It’s one I want to engage and invest in.

I want to see if these characters can grow to accept their mistakes and learn and change for the sake of Octavia and having to co-exist with each other, or if they’ll slip back into mutual destruction and toxicity.

But that’s not the story we’ll get to see, because it seems like the writers are more interested in keeping Stolas from having to grow as a character. And because of that, Stella has been turned into an evil obstacle that must be defeated, instead of a nuanced and real person.

I also feel like I have to say. I know I would be MUCH less frustrated by this if I hadn’t seen an HB crew member talking about how their show is similar to Bojack Horseman.

Because. It’s just not. I’m sorry, I’m not saying that to be mean, or condescending, or rude, but the way characters are written in Helluva Boss is almost completely black and white at this point.

Regardless of the writer’s intent, the vast majority of the choices they have made in Season 2 come off as explanations to excuse the protagonist’s mistakes, and give them a “get out of being potentially in the wrong” free card.

Compared to the writing decisions in Bojack, which almost always has characters confront their wrongdoings, for better or worse, HB honestly feels like it’s the Anti-Bojack.

It would take a TON of character development and time to make HB’s characters as interesting, fleshed-out, and as real as Bojack’s are, and at this point that’s I don’t think it will ever happen.

Again. Having black and white conflict is FINE. It is a choice in story telling that can be done very effectively. But if you are making a black and white story where one side is always terrible and evil, and one side can do no wrong, you can’t act like you’ve written something that is deeper and more emotionally complex and grey than that.

And the first time the writers gave Stella more than 3 sentences to string together, they made it very clear that any chance of her being a more complex and engaging character was being tossed out the window.

————

TLDR:

The main reason people are upset about Stella being shown as abusive in S2E1 of HB is probably because the initial depictions of her didn’t give us enough information on her character to tell that she was just evil/a terrible person.

The way the story was written in S1 to set up the possibility of a very interesting and complex conflict between Stella and Stolas, and when it was revealed that she’s just. The worst. There were people that were disappointed by this, because they expected more.

Audiences actually aren’t idiots, and when you subtly foreshadow something and then completely change things, that can be frustrating.

It’s MORE than okay to write a straightforward good v evil story, but it depending on the way it’s written and executed, it may not be as interesting to mature audiences as a more morally grey story would be.

If you can’t write characters confronting their flaws and being in the wrong, please don’t compare your writing to Bojack, I mean. C’mon.

[none-house-left-grief]

can i say that as a butch lesbian seeing so many people turning a butch character into a trans man or giving her top surgery feels very invalidating its like people connect being a masculine woman with being a man and it's not a good feeling. i know its not done to hurt me or women like me but y'know. why aren't as many people turning non butch characters into trans men? y'know what im saying? we're not the same thing

Hey, fellow butch here. I personally like to see and draw Gideon with top scars because I myself have chest dysphoria and it feels good to see something I want for myself in a character I already feel really connected with. I understand the feeling of frustration when people characterize or see characters in a different way that just doesn't resonate with you, but personally, I haven't seen a single instance of people making Gideon a trans man specifically. Trans man is not the same as transmasculine, which a lot of butches identify as/with.

I don't understand the purpose of sending me an ask like this. Are asking me not to draw or reblog art of Gideon as transmasc? Are you just venting out a frustration you have? In either case, just go touch grass. I'm not your dad, I'm just some guy with a blog and like 2000 followers. I don't want to come off as mean but you are responsible for curating your online space and for regulating your own thoughts and emotions. I won't tell you not to be upset but I will say this: I have never seen a character in popular media that has top scars and is also butch. I like seeing people do this because it is a representation I simply just don't get. It's okay not to like it or agree but you need to understand that people do it for a reason. It's not to invalidate you and your identity, but to make themselves feel seen.

Btw, cis women can get top surgery too. It's not specifically about making butches into men (which feels a little TERF-adjacent to say ngl), it's that many butches (who are by nature gender non-conforming) do irl get top surgery (and HRT, bottom surgery, etc). A lot of us use masculine names, pronouns, etc, but that doesn't mean we're trans men. That also doesn't mean if you do feel connected to womanhood, feel at home in your own body, or are in general the more normative cis butch that you're not a real butch. Groups aren't monoliths and butches are very diverse and unique. Nobody can tell you who you are or what to do with your own body, so it feels unrealistic to tell others what to do in a similar regard (not to mention Gideon is not real so it literally doesn't matter)

[thief-of-eggs]

I love the way you write Alastor and the way you write Luci. I know so many writers who maintain a very specific stereotype about aroace people, e.g. “Ew don’t touch me, you’re gross and I want to kill you because i would rather DIE then be touched” or “haha this character hates every single type of affection and is snarky because of it” and it’s just so icky to me… like yes some aroace people hate touch but they don’t hate other people, arocas people can have friends

yes alastor is snarky, it’s not because he’s aroace. he’s just a bitch (said with love) and his sexuality shouldn’t be used as his only personality trait,

idk if any of that rant made sense but I js wna say how much I appreciate the way you write and characterize Radioapple :3

Firstly- thank you so so much, this is so amazing to hear!!! It means a lot to me to have a canon aroace character, which is why I love diving into/embracing it in the fics I write!!

100% as you said, Alastor is a bitch because Alastor is a bitch, nothing to do with his sexuality. He’s a bit self centered, a bit harsh, a bit inconsiderate- but that’s just him and his sparkle. Not his sexuality.

And as for the hating touch- I wish more people understood how asexuality and aromanticism is a spectrum! It’s not a one size fits all! It’s huge!!!

Personally, I like to think that Alastor doesn’t particularly like touch due to past trauma, as well as sensory issues. I don’t think it’s all to do with his aromanticism (I think he’s more the type to be indifferent to romantic things, not repulsed by them) But I do think his touch aversion is real, just not stemming from his aroace identity.

And of course, I’m not in Alastor’s head (or Vivzie’s) but I like to think that touch is OK with Alastor, so long as it is on his terms- and I think “on his terms” includes those people whom he’s given either silent or spoken permission to in regards to touching him. Which is a huge difference from “I hate all forms of touch and I’ll kill you if you touch me”

We see with Mimzie and Rosie and Niffty that Alastor is OK with touch- he lets them initiate touch and he doesn’t bat an eye. Which is why I think so long as he’s comfortable with them, then touch is somewhat permitted. He may not feel the same sort of butterflies or attraction etc through touch- but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t enjoy it for what it brings to him!

I think it’s a big trust thing, and I also like to think it changes day to day. What’s alright on one day may be too much on the next. But I also like to think that Luci would be 100% understanding of that.

As you said- it’s not just all or nothing with aroace people, and it sucks that that streotype exists. At its core, asexuality is a lack of sexual attraction- but that says nothing against physical touch in general. And aromanticism at its core is a lack of romantic attraction- which again, says nothing on physical touch!

Not to mention, love is such a complicated, multi faceted thing. Aroace people are not incapable of love. Aroace people are not stony beings who do not crave reassurance and human connection. We just crave it differently than others.

[embermc]

It’s actually such a shame that book-accurate Frankenstein adaptations are so difficult to come by, specifically ones with accurate representation regarding to Victor himself. I feel like, as much as the creature has been flanderized over time into this unintelligible green dude, Victor has also just become a caricature of a person he never was. Of course, there are things that would need to be changed with adaptations to other media or that, with a more modern audience, maybe should be changed (im looking at you, sister-cousin-wife subplot), but I feel like there’s something important lost when I keep seeing adaptations with Victor as some old guy with multiple degrees creating the creature in his old gothic castle.

In my interpretation of the novel, it’s always been so integral to the themes of the narrative that Victor is a naive college student stepping out into the world for the first time, convinced his opinions on things he barely knows anything about are more logical than those of old academia, and who is wholly unequipped for anything that’s about to happen to him because he’s a teenager. His initial panic and abandonment of the creature shifts to such an extreme degree when it’s no longer interpreted as something done by an experienced adult in his field, but rather an (already unhealthy) college kid who just completed his first real experiment and then quickly realized how in over his head he actually was when it turns out so vastly different than anything that had ever been done before. So much nuance is lost from his characterization when you remove the detail that he begins his experiment as a seventeen-year-old boy who has just lost his beloved mother and experienced death for the first time, who then becomes determined to never let this grief touch his loved ones again. Of course, he’s still very ambitious and self-aggrandizing during this process, but to make this his entire character by removing his naive youth is doing a great disservice to his writing, in my opinion.

[theodysseyofhomer]

this is not to single anyone out, but i have a lot of new followers, and i would just love for you all to know... the search function on my blog is operational. if you search for epic the musical, you will find that i have dabbled in it. it is slightly annoying to be asked over and over whether i've heard of it, even by lovely, enthusiastic, friendly people.

i have another reason for not answering those questions, which is that when someone is being enthusiastic and friendly to me, i don't want to be mean to them. but if i'm going to speak from my heart as an odyssey lover, i don't think epic the musical is that good. it doesn't especially interest me as a standalone piece, but i also don't find it provides much insight on, or compelling points of comparison with, homer's odyssey. i'm glad you're all having a good time! please stop asking me about it.

bullet point review below the cut, for those who are more curious about my opinions.

things i like about epic:

astyanax's murder doesn't get brought up a lot in stories that are sympathetic to odysseus. it's optional when adapting the odyssey or the iliad, but i am definitely of the opinion that odysseus did it, and even if he didn't, he convinced the other greek leaders that it needed to be done.

the athena/odysseus duets.

i found the reframing of polyphemus' blinding compelling, where he's doing the same thing he does in the odyssey for a different reason. i also liked that the audience doesn't learn his name until he reveals it to polyphemus. that's a neat touch.

earwormy as hell.

the fanart! i saw odysseus fanart maybe 3 times a year before the troy saga dropped. i'll take that trade (for my sanity when i try to navigate the tags).

jorge seems to be invested in odysseus/penelope, which is like the bare minimum to hold my attention, but still.

anyhow jorge seems charming; all his videos and interactions with fans seem nothing but excited about what everyone can contribute. commissioning wolfy to animate a trailer? widely regarded as a great move.

things i don't like about epic:

as gutsy as i think it is to start with astyanax's murder, the main thing to me is not whether his hands physically threw the baby, but whether he is in some way responsible for it. more than that, astyanax's death isn't divinely mandated: it's a ruthlessly pragmatic preemptive strike against vengeance that the greek leaders are afraid of. it's 100% human. so framing it around zeus, known troy stan, forcing odysseus to do it and he feels so so bad about it ????????

baffling to me to start with a moral conflict about infanticide, and after committing it, odysseus is still like... maybe kindness is brave? maybe i'm not a ruthless person? please be serious. you murdered that baby.

(been talking to @littlesparklight about this but you could have started out with some version of sophocles' ajax, a death caused by the gods that odysseus actually is complicit in when he didn't necessarily want it to happen. i digress.)

don't like the way the fandom talks about astyanax, specifically, as if odysseus raising a kidnapped trojan boy whose people were destroyed and whose mother was sold into slavery in another land is ever going to be a fluffy au and meanwhile odysseus did very much murder that baby, so!

the songs are not... good. like i said, they're earwormy, but that's also because they're repetitive and predictable. the lyrics are distractingly bad at times, not only from a character perspective, but in the sense of using words wrongly or awkwardly to try to fit them into a rhyme scheme.

i like the reframing of the polyphemus episode. not so much the aeolus one. at that point, you have odysseus doing the opposite of what he did in the odyssey for opposite reasons, which makes him a character bearing no resemblance to odysseus at all.

and this happens while other characters (mostly gods) try to drag him kicking and screaming into his actual homeric characterization.

like, odysseus is haunted by the war in the odyssey, but not because he regrets what he's done as a moral injury. he chose violence on purpose. the gods did not force him to be this person. it's a narrative throughline that serves only as a bid to make odysseus more sympathetic.

... and in doing so, strips away his agency — in sacking a city, in lying and obscuring the truth with his crew (his lies are more than a quirk that endears him to athena, they have consequences!) — some might say his personality. i do have sympathy for odysseus, even at his worst moments morally, because i find his character as a whole compelling. you don't need to try to absolve him of these things! they tell you about what kind of person he is! they are evocative (and provocative) already! take them away and he is boring, because he is not choosing to do anything.

the new wave of odysseus fans seem unable to handle homeric odysseus' complicated aspects and character traits, and to a degree i blame this on the musical characterization. it's allowed to be its own thing, certainly, but now i regularly get people arguing about whether he's a good person when all they know is something epic made up and that was never the fucking point, anyway.

are we really going to pretend he didn't have sex with circe and calypso at all

[dairy-farmer]

Sorry if you've already touched on this, but what are your thoughts about the discourse/discussion about Tim in the comics and Tim from the lens of A03/fan fiction?

For example, I hear a lot from old comic fans about how the series with Tim dating Bernard was doomed to fail bc 'the writer wrote him like her fanfiction version of Tim and not the real character'. There was a lot of discourse with canonical announcing Tim as queer, and that's kinda all these older comic book fans seem to keep coming back to. Idk, there just kinda seems to be an underlying feeling of misogyny towards the female writers and anti lgtbq vibes that it's hard to hear like a real arguement against the series.

I guess as a long time a03/Fandom person, I'm so used to just creating another little reality for the things I disagree or want to explore with a character, that it's strange to see people so upset that Canon doesn't flow the way the want.

it's no problem!! and i haven't really touched on the newer comics all that much mostly because i also don't particularly like them, not for any specific reason-they're decent enough but i don't really think they're 'tim'-but i do know what you're talking about. on twitter and tumblr i see a lot of different takes regarding tim and how he's written in this newer robin series.

for starters: i get what you're talking about where criticism of the comics might partly because of anti-lgbt attitude. especially since tim getting confirmed to be bisexual made A LOT of people mad (including ppl who arent homophobic but are mad that it wasn't THEIR favorite robin who got confirmed queer like dick, jason, or damian etc). comic bros and even casual comic fans who had never even heard of tim or even gave a shit about him were now furious. and while there might be ppl with genuine critiques- some of hatred of the way tim is written in the newer comics you really have to take it with a grain of salt because it very well could be comic bros hating because "robin isn't gay".

same with the writer, meghan fitzmartin. in general, women DO have an uphill battle when it comes to working in comics because it is very male dominated. and it's no secret that a lot of comic fans are opposed to women writing in comics. so misogyny, and even jealousy also plays a role with how much criticism is ACTUALLY warranted. but that doesn't mean a woman in comics isn't allowed to be criticized if they do a bad job or do a botched execution when their job is supposed to be making good, enjoyable, stories that do justice to the characters. i do think meghan may have some decentish ideas but whether she genuinely has the writing chops to deliver on those big ideas is well...iffy. but then again i genuinely don't keep tabs on comic writers or they're projects so maybe that will change.

when it comes to the critique of tim being written like a "fanfiction" version and not a "real" version of him i do see what they mean.

when I think of fanon tim I think of all the mischaracterizations that have been popularized. a coffee obsessed gremlin that doesn't sleep who is deeply insecure and agonizes over his place in the family, thinking he doesn't belong. people LIKE that tim is portrayed like that (in fanfiction) otherwise that characterization wouldn't be so pervasive in fics (there's also the possibility that a lot of ff writers DON'T know any better because many don't read comics but they do read fics and so they base their portrayals solely off what they read in fics resulting in this racoon eyed, coffee loving character who they believe to be an actual portrayal when it's really just someone's idea/exaggerated interpretation of tim).

i really don't see a lot of that in meghan's writing, the issues with tim's writing with her are different. if anything WFA is the one that really have the 'written as a ff character' vibe. but that series is also SUPPOSED to be deeply unserious as a fun slice of life universe where nothing goes wrong for anyone ever as a soothing balm for the oftentimes depressing stories in batman comics.

but in meghan's writing I also don't see a lot of what i consider to be core tim values. is she the best writer for tim? no i don't really think so. but there is a certain degree of understanding for his character. I see the comics and I can recognize that it's tim. so it's not offensively OC.

a lot of complaints seem to stem from his relationship with bernard being too much of a focus. people say how tim does too much thinking about him when...he was a lot worse in the 90s with steph. I remember getting so irritated when entire comics of robin would be narrated by steph or about her, i'd be like 'I want to read about ROBIN and his adventures, not steph, why is she even relevant?'. but tim's relationships to other people are a core part about him so you just have to take it.

the part that i think is justified in critique is in talking about whether her writing of bernard dowd is good. that is a much easier thing to answer. and its that its not good writing. in fact it's a pretty bad, inaccurate portrayal of him given how he was written when we first knew him. he's sort of been...sanded down? kind of remade into some new, almost unrecognizable character that fits into what she believes would be a nice, wholesome, gay partner for tim. which is an issue for me because we have seen and know what tim is like in relationships. tim had tension with, disagreed with, got annoyed with, fought and argued with his other partners like stephanie and ariana. but he also enjoyed himself and was happy with them. there was a balance there of good and bad because tim's unique situation of being robin made it so there had to be good and bad. with bernard it's all very passive and easy. they don't argue, they don't really fight, or have any struggles in their relationship when trying determine compatibility. avoiding tension in the relationship when tim has a track record of it makes it almost seem like she's afraid of the risk of portraying a gay relationship in anything less than a golden light. which is not good writing. BUT it is also very NEW. so maybe that will change (but there's a similar problem with jon kent and his bf so idk)? i personally believe kon would've been a more ideal partner with their shared history, chemistry, tension, the fact that fans have wanted it for decades, and the fact that it would've been such a good addition to the arc of self acceptance for kon's character. and many of the issues that tim being with bernard wouldn't be a thing because tim and kon famously don't see eye to eye 100 percent of the time and so their relationship would struggle and grow as they go from friends to romantic partners.

ultimately in my opinion to write a truly good tim drake you need to be able to accurately portray the thing that made him such a great robin: his heart of gold. tim cares about doing the right thing SO much. he cares about helping people. he's not some cold, unfeeling calculated computer who uses people as pawns and abandons his morals at the slightest inconvenience or seduction to the 'dark side'. and he's not some coffee drinking hacker man that is 20 steps ahead and smug about it.

tim worries about people, he's upset at injustice, feels guilt at not being able to save people, is judgy, sometimes a brat, sarcastic, gets angry at people for throwing their lives away, gets very invested in things that catch his interest, is too curious for his own good, nosy. he lies through his teeth and then bats his eyes in sweet as pie innocence. will think VERY rude thoughts about people but will bite his tongue because he's a nice boy👼 but sometimes things slip out. he is somehow simultaneously able to be the 🥺 and 😈 emoji at the same time. his odds of making bad decisions increase by 100 fold if in the company of other stupid teenagers.

now i write tim as a very exaggerated version of that core self. that's what a lot of ff authors do. they choose a handful of traits they like best about him and spin entire fics about it. i don't think writing tim as a fanfiction version of himself is a bad thing because some fanfic is genuinely better than the source material and that comes from being very good at understanding the character. the tim of today can't be written the same way he was in his golden age, the 90s, because a lot of his struggles and hurdles that he dealt with in those comics are over. they're done. tim can't be 30 years old and still wondering if he's doing a shit job as robin. tim IS a good robin and he should be able to acknowledge that (funnily enough one of his clear acknowledgements of that is often wiped away by fics- that being the titans tower scene where jason asks if tim thinks he's the better robin and tim, without hesitation, says yes) a lot of older fans are clinging to problems that tim has already resolved. he's not thirteen and insecure about his abilities. he's not on his first relationship with someone (but he is in his first relationship with a boy). he's not still learning how to navigate his relationship with batman and the rest of the family or struggling to come to terms with his civilian and caped life. do some of those things still trouble him on occasion? yes but they're not the main focus anymore.

tim has to have new problems, new challenges, new growth.

i had some hope for new tim comics.

would i like to have seen more tim centric material or at least good stories. and often times in the new tim comics tim was exactly the same at the end of the issue as he was at the beginning. tim struggling with his identity is something that made an appearance in 90s comics a lot but I think for the newer ones that it would've been better received/more interesting if it were...written better?

idk. i don't know a single comic fan that loved every detail of their fav's comics. was it the best run? no. but it was okay enough i guess. it was lukewarm, not standing ovation worthy but also nobody should be throwing tomatoes at the performers either, it just earned a polite clap of acknowledgement which i don't think is a very bad thing but still i hope we get something better!

[who-is-page]

Just letting you know an issue with a post you reblogged to the alterhuman community. Referring to the DSM-5 as “the Bible of psychiatry” is inaccurate, it has wild ableism throughout along with a host of other issues (for example it still characterizes asexuality as a disorder) A ton of psychiatric organizations have expressed opposition such as British Psychological Society, American Counseling Association, Society for Humanistic Psychology, Association for Women in Psychology, Society of Indian Psychologists and more. (Just to be clear I’m not anti-endo I just have an issue with the DSM-5)

I believe that reference is because it's the way some professionals describe the book such as DSM: A History of Psychiatry’s Bible by Allan V. Horwitz, and I certainly heard my own family member who had a Master's degree in the field refer to it as such when I was a kiddo. I also don't think Orion's post was exactly intending to be a long, storied discussion about the ways in which the DSM has collectively failed us-- I think it was just drawing a point that the DSM is considered to be very important by many psychiatrists, and ergo here's why what it says regarding this specific thing is important. Not touching on everything else to do about it, just this one thing. Trying to view it as commentary beyond that is losing track of what's important. Forest for the trees and all that jazz.

And, I-- I'm going to be honest, as a scholar of religion it makes my head spin that you think the bible is, comparatively, not full of absolutely bizarre and distasteful shit??? Because rest assured, it is immensely, absolutely, intensely fucky-wucky. It is not a squeaky clean book. There is So Much To Unpack There. Calling something "the Bible of [x]" in NO WAY absolves that thing from containing some extremely questionable materials, because holy crap just look at the Bible.

[bicheetopuff]

Hi! I just read your reply to mhatheoriesbrainrot's ask about Bakugo and staying true to manga. I'm an anime only and am curious about what you meant regarding Bakugo's character development. I'm still on the fence if should I read MHA's manga or just stick to anime.

I'm placing my whole trust into you. So if you think that it's more worth it for me to read the manga myself then I accept your opinion and thank you for your time. But if you think that it's not worth it to read the whole manga just because of this (not mentioning that anime hasn't covered all of the published manga) then I'll be glad if you could explain how anime "messed up" Bakugo's character development. Thank you so much in advance ❤️

I’m glad you trust me! However this response will kinda be based around my own experience with the manga and anime. Personally, I think reading the manga was just an overall more enjoyable experience and I highly recommend it but I’ll still explain myself.

I’ll start off by saying I’ve only been into mha since the end of last year. There’s a lot of things I didn’t get to see “live” so to speak and I didn’t get to feel frustration or malice towards the studio when they did weird things in other seasons or movies so I was kinda late to the party but I’ll still voice my opinion on everything despite that.

The first three seasons of the anime are great. There’s a few parts here and there where Bakugous characterization specifically is kinda wonky but I think that’s mainly the result of the anime studio putting on kid gloves. To be more specific and to answer part of your question, I’ll elaborate.

During the Quirk Apprehension Test after him and Deku race

(This screenshot is recycled so excuse the highlighted part)

In this scene he thinks to himself about how he uses his quirk and actually shows curiosity about Deku. Kinda keeping a close eye since he’s still not sure how he made into UA at this point. There’s not really malice coming from Katsuki here.

However in the anime, this scene he says out loud “my quirk has more uses than anyone else” making him seem a lot more arrogant than he was. At this point in the story, it was only a few chapters in so yea he was arrogant and cocky but that part of his character has never been a constant. In the anime it’s a constant.

Another scene would be from the sports fest arc right before him and todoroki fight. He goes into the wrong waiting room and kicks the table in front of todoroki out of frustration but, in his own way he reiterates what Deku told Todoroki in their fight (it’s your quirk not his; don’t fight with half of your power; don’t quote me on these, I’m going off memory lol) but in my opinion the anime made this scene seem more like an angry and comedic gag instead of a reaction stemmed from Katsukis frustration with Dekus growth. It’s one of the few times we see Katsuki attempt to mimic Deku to get what he wants and failing and the anime doesn’t make that part very clear.

This one isn’t really a scene but Katsuki is not a casual touch kind of guy and doesn’t just let people touch him. But the anime kinda forced Kirishima onto him where he’s constantly touching him casually? This isn’t like a bias thing cuz it also happens in season 5 with Deku. In the manga when they’re all in the car with endeavor and he complains about having to be so close to Deku and leans really close to the door. The anime changed that and actually made Katsuki lean more onto Deku.

And then there’s the final exam arc where him and Deku have to fight All Might and a lot of his dialogue just gets… cut out. Also after their match Deku sticks around with Recovery Girl to watch what’s left of the other matches (this arc was formatted differently from manga to anime. Instead of each team taking turns, every test was happening at the same time and Deku didn’t watch a majority of them. I think the anime mainly added that format so Deku could see Uraraka freak out about Aoyama accusing her of liking Deku).

It really doesn’t get irritating until after the end of season 3 with Deku vs Kacchan 2. I have no complaints about DvK2, I actually really like the animated fight, it’s mainly how the anime studio deals with Katsukis character after DvK2. He doesn’t have anger outbursts anymore and he actually becomes almost playful with Deku. He worries about his well being and he helps him train with no complaints (more like aggressive criticism) but in the anime they kinda made it so training with Deku was more of a burden for Katsuki in season 5. Him acting annoyed and bored in the one scene we see them training together but in the manga… it’s not that different but the manga kept the playfulness there.

There’s a particular part in season 5 that’s a lot more obvious than the other things I talked about and that’s match 4 of the class A v class B exercise. Manga to anime contradicts each other. 1) before his match starts in the manga he says “follow my lead” but in the anime he says “stay out of my way” which contradicts what he says later on about helping him when he’s in trouble and him doing the same for his team. And 2) there’s this particular scene after Monoma notices Bakugous change in attitude.

The pan to deku was completely cut out. So it just seems like senseless praise from Kirishima in the anime. It’s not connecting the two dots that Bakugou is changing and that change ultimately stemmed from Deku.

I’m mainly pointing out some of the differences because you asked but I personally don’t care all that much about what the anime studio does because the manga will always be home base for me. However I’m assuming you’re also wondering about the second episode of season 6 which is what everyone’s been talking about.

This… did kinda disappoint me.

I can’t compare this from manga to anime cuz this entire scene is filler. It wasn’t in the manga and didn’t really have any business being added to the anime. And that goes back to the anime putting kid gloves on the story, none of the characters knew what was happening at the hospital. They were told to evacuate the city incase of a fight. And them finding out about the hospital this earlier is gonna make another scene kinda… lose its sense of dread.

But the way they handled Bakugou specifically in this scene was just kind of gross and contradicts him learning the importance of saving people throughout season 5 and season 6 is supposed to be a really important developmental arc for him. He’s so important in this arc and his attitude changes a lot so him whining like a brat about having to evacuate civilians feels like 2 steps backwards. He doesn’t think he’s better than everyone anymore and he hasn’t for a long time. So it just feels like a throw back to season 1x

There’s other things I could say about the anime like how Uraraka also isn’t done Justice and their inability to take serious topics seriously. The studio focuses more on “hey don’t forget this is a shonen” instead of being faithful to the source material and they just use Bakugous character as comedic relief and have no idea how to characterize him accurately (same with Uraraka) unless Hori is involved (which is why I think the first and third mha movies are garbage). All of that might be a different post but might not be because I don’t really take the anime seriously anymore.

Tl;dr

The anime is the manga with kid gloves. They put the story through a strainer and can’t keep up with characterization very well because of how complex Hori likes to write them. If you want the story unfiltered in its full glory, I highly recommend the manga.

I hope this helps calla but whether you wanna read the manga or stick the anime is completely your decision. The anime isn’t bad by any means it’s just a different experience from the manga.

[poisonouspastels]

Anon forgot time exists. I would really love to hear more about Groda's transition from antagonist to basically house cat! Her character really fascinates me and I love a good redemption arc.

Hey no worries at all!! I've actually been talking to Atlas a lot abt Groda lately (he's #1 Groda fan I'm pretty sure) so I can actually copy/paste some of the stuff I've talked abt previously! And to anyone who needs to do some additional catch up reading, I talk about a lot of her past history here, and a bit about more recent (but also still past) events here. But!!! Talking about her (rather long) transitional period specifically, that pretty much started the moment that she got (unwillingly) taken home by the main 4 players after her defeat. Given she held Rana hostage for a few days, among other things, fair's fair. The main focus point though was after everyone getting back to somewhat decent health, Herobrine using his magic was able to find a way to block Groda from using it on her own, hence creating a longer term solution than just having her tied up forever effectively. Groda, without her magic, is a goddamn sitting duck. No Wardens, no turning people to stone, no way to fight back other than a half-hearted slap fight at best. Unfortunately her loss of the ability to use magic ALSO means almost no one could understand her anymore. Previously, thanks to her magic, the Galactic language was basically auto-translated to the players as Commonspeak (her lips actually wouldn't fully sync up with words she spoke, something that was noted by Rana during her time stuck with her in the caves), but now she'd only be reduced to Galactic at its purest form. Fortunately due to Herobrine's self-taught learning of the language (albeit a VERY butchered version of it being self taught), he at least was able to still understand her and communicate in some regard. Or perhaps you could consider that unfortunate for him, given the only weapons Groda had left to use was her words, and he had to be the brunt of actually understanding that and teaching her Commonspeak. On the contrary, soon after this revelation Rana would try and learn Galactic to try and make Groda more comfortable with the current circumstance and maybe feel more motivated to put in the effort. She's not very good at it, but it's the thought that counts! Groda did pick up rather quickly on Commonspeak though, since it and Galactic aren't too far apart in translation. Once she picked up enough on the language to be able to communicate basics (and maybe curse words she would pick up on from Alex), she would soon be getting her hands dirty for once in her life and actually doing field work with Rana, not only to carry her own weight in chores but also to get her more in touch with the new world and being an actual PERSON after her long lived royal life. With time, learning more of Commonspeak and taking in the world around her with the people who were willing to even TRY and help her change for the better, she started to realize more and more how badly her actions managed to inadvertently fuck everything up. How much the world had changed because of what she unleashed, and the weight of her actions fully dawning on her. Which I give this important note of Groda's characterization to:

She gets better slowly with time of course, its all just taken day by day and she learns more and more to do things for herself and to help those around her. I think one of my favorite turning points for her though is when Rana and Herobrine bring home a Sniffer egg they found in some old wreckage at sea. (Sniffers being a species in this instance that went extinct because of the Wither being unleashed by her) Groda is dumbfounded to see the thing even intact at ALL, and hesitant to hope that it may still harbor life at all, but she does take it upon herself to care for it until it does indeed eventually hatch! She names him Bear :)

Thank @beegswaz for the art of them together im obsessed with it Another important arc for her character, arguably the most important one is when she's spotted by the Wither Cult and is eventually pursued directly by White Eyes upon her finding out that Groda is still alive. Upon the (deadly) confrontation between White Eyes and the main 4 + Groda, she shows her truest colors:

After the dust settles, White Eyes is brought home much like the same way Groda once was (albeit unconscious this time around) and a way to free her of the Wither's influence will eventually be found. And though the mere sight of Groda brings her to a rage even now (very understandable), Groda takes some solace in the fact that she for once can think with 100% unbiased confidence that she did the right thing.

[cyanide-e-pistachio]

Shuake Spicy Fic Recs✨

Hi everyone! I’ve noticed a lot of amazing Shuake fic rec posts, but not a lot when it comes to the spicier variety 🔥 so I’m gonna link a few of my favorites! When it comes to Shuake, I like dynamics of all varieties and read a lot based on mood. So I’ll try to divide these as best as I can!

What are my credentials, you may ask? I'm just a simple gal who likes to read and write :3

If You Want Something Deceptively Wholesome - The Joy of Asking for It by Stealth_Noodle (One-shot, 6k words)

A post-canon, established relationship fic that is simply a wild ride through and through, ending with a lovely little domestic scene that warms the heart <3 I love this author's writing style and how they make everything so engaging!

If You Want a Good Top!Goro Fic - Advantageous Positioning by coleslawed (One-shot, 7k words)

Starts off with a really captivating cold open, has a fun mini-character study of Akiren, and has a good, assertive Akechi! I remember really loving how this author could write such compelling prose.

If You Want a Good Top!Persona 5 Protagonist Fic - We'd Feed Well the Land and Worry the Sheep by cookietosser (Multichapter, 34k words)

This is an older fic, but still so good. If you want a confident, doting Akiren, this is the fic for you! It's set during Sae's Palace arc where the two start to bond through nap dates, things escalate quickly, and Akechi has a bit of a crisis about it, lol. Aside from the smut, this is also just a great fic overall and a true classic for me!

If You Want a Great Switcheroo - change places! by bangandawhimper (One-shot, 6k words)

I guess if I'm preferential to any dynamic, I love switching, and this one has that in spades. An unspecified AU fic where Akechi tries bottoming for once, much to his (initial) irritation. There were some moments in this fic where I genuinely laughed out loud.

If You Want Something Actually Hilarious - spin cycle by androgenius (One-shot, 6k words)

Again, another fic where I genuinely laughed out loud several times while reading. Akechi and Akiren are neighbors, and a lot of hilarious shenanigans regarding a washing machine ensue (and not in the way you'd think, you heathens!). The writing style makes it an absolute joy to read.

If You Want a Good Amount of Plot - Bullet with Butterfly Wings by CloudMenaceBird (Multichapter, 127k words)

If you want a good plot to go with some incredible smut, this is one of my favorites. It's just an amazing post-canon shuake fic where Akechi wakes up in the Velvet Room and manages to find Akiren again after the events of Royal's final Palace.

If You Want the Oddly Specific Category of “Two People Who Have No Idea What They’re Doing but Pretend to be Experienced Anyways” - what matters most is how you bring joy to life by futuresoon (One-shot, 8k words)

This is simply a classic, through and through. Pretty much everything by futuresoon is, but this is my personal favorite of theirs. I have nothing to say other than this is probably my favorite characterization of Akechi, and that all the subtleties in this work are *chef's kiss*

If You Want WHOLESOME WHOLESOME WHOLESOME - Fools Rush In by Atalan (One-shot, 35k words)

I actually read this work recently, and being. Simply. FLOORED by how good this fic is, and how much it establishes in a one-shot. Essentially, Akiren and Akechi speedrun their entire confidant on the day they first meet at the TV Station, and it has a delicious way of writing that "instant connection" vibe. And it's incredibly wholesome. That is all.

If You Want a New Fav - Good For You by Chaoticconstellation (Multi-chapter, 14k words)

This came out just recently, and it is a new favorite of mine! A wholesome fic where Akiren and Akechi agree to try an experiment to see if physical touch improves Akechi's mood. It features a very touch-starved Akechi Goro who needs (and gets) a hug.

If You Want a Classic - To Catch a Tiger Cub, One Must First Enter the Tiger’s Lair by AyuOakhay (Multi-chapter, 77k words)

This is my personal favorite Shuake fic ever! I don't know what draws me to it - maybe it's because it has a little bit of everything I like! And despite what the tags may suggest, it does have some surprisingly sweet moments. It also inspired my current work!

And there you have it! I have more I can think of and other oddly specific categories, so I may do a Part 2 one day! 💚

[lovingoverwatchguys]

Soldier 76 and Tracer [warning: long post]

A lot of this boils down to headcanon, because this storyline is clearly incomplete (and will probably be expanded upon later...hopefully) and also is often implied rather than said aloud, but I really do think Soldier and Tracer have the kind of father-daughter dynamic in canon, the same way people give him and Dva one in fanon.

At this point, I think it’s pretty well-established that Jack wants to look out for Lena’s safety. Consider what he says when you select her in the Uprising event:

(This line truly touches my cold, dead heart.)

And when he sees her get killed in-game: (I believe the ‘seeing teammate get killed’ voicelines were taken out of the game because there’s already so much audio clutter. Which is understandable, but a bummer, because there was so much relationship insight in them)

Plus the iconic:

A lot of the time, people have the idea of the new generation of Overwatch being the ‘kids’. The thing is, while someone like Cassidy might have been Overwatch’s kid, I’d say Lena was Jack’s kid in particular. He quickly takes a liking to her, and she admires him a lot. I think she even still would defend him. In the London Calling comic, despite her polite smile, she doesn’t seem to like the public perception of other Overwatch members:

When you look at someone like Angela, who clearly holds resentment or at least regret towards Overwatch’s fall, versus Lena, who seems to remember it fondly and hate how people perceive it...it’s clear to me that she still believes in it. And not just in the abstract sense of ‘likes its original ideas’; she believes in how it was, including the leadership.

Including the Strike Commander. 

As of right now, we haven’t gotten a ton of canon material regarding the relationships between the characters between the time of Retribution and the Zurich explosion. We have the Ana comic where she ‘dies’, but that doesn’t really go very deeply into anyone’s mindset other than Ana herself. The scraps we have at least seem to imply that Lena fit right into the Overwatch ‘family’. 

With that thought in mind, I wouldn’t be surprised if she formed a bond with the Strike Commander, even with the bubble he put himself in. She was certainly at least in touch with the people closer to him. She also seems to be quite familiar with Ana. 

I think Jack cares about Lena and has a specific protectiveness of her, moreso than the other ‘next generation’. Like some kind of father, if you will. (Also, the gay and lesbian thing might be a coincidence, but it’s still worth considering...)

Now, let’s talk about parallels. (Thank you to @lenaperseveranceoxton for inspiring parts of this post, echoing a lot of how I already felt, but giving a couple new details I hadn’t thought of, in this post )

There are a lot of things about Soldier 76 and Tracer that are similar, and I don’t think this was an accident or excessively basic characterization. And I think Jack picks up on this. (I’m unsure about if Lena does)

Now, I could talk about how he refers to her ‘potential’, but I think the biggest piece of direct evidence here is this part of the Uprising comic. Lena comes to try and convince Jack to put troops in London, despite the fact that many governments are very deadset on not doing that. (When you think about it, that probably does mean he put his surrogate daughter over the law...be gay do crimes moment.)

The thing that informs Jack to make the decision to send troops into London is this after his conversation with her: 

The implication I got was that Tracer, with all of her spirit and belief in doing what was right, reminded Jack of himself when he was younger and more idealistic. It reminded him what he originally created all of this for.

And while this is hopeful and all, Jack does eventually lose that type of idealism (well, to some extent, but I already went off about that elsewhere). Meanwhile, Lena is left with it.

Now, there’s also Vincent and Emily. Lena is still with Emily, and her decisions are often influenced by her caring for her girlfriend. Lena will do things to protect her and retain their happy relationship.

Meanwhile, Jack split with Vincent over his job. Unlike some people, I don’t think Jack is still in love with Vincent as a person; Vincent represents the life he gave up for the Commander position, and how sad he is about that. It’s not even about who Vincent is now. Who knows if they’d even still be together? What it’s about is living a life with a family and not constant stress. Something simpler.

So, Lena is someone who hasn’t given up that life yet. But she’s still young enough that she someday could.

But all of that just leads me to the speculation that Jack doesn’t want Lena to go into this, because he fears that she’ll end up the same way he did. The idealistic person getting their dreams crushed by the cruel world of politics. He wouldn’t want her to be part of new Overwatch, because he thinks she’s putting herself in danger.

You know what I think would be cool? If ultimately, that was what pulled him back into this whole fight once and for all. Obviously he has plenty of reasons to want to go back, but I’d love if what pushed him over the edge was protecting Lena and feeling responsible for keeping her from what he went through. It’d be a nice parallel, and a moment where he could show how much he genuinely does care. And most importantly, it would show that he still has something to learn from the younger people. I think that’d be a good growth moment for him, and could even be a nice theme for the audience.

Okay, maybe I also just want them to have cute moments together. Maybe I want him to try and take her fishing or some other lame old man thing. Is that so wrong?

In conclusion: sometimes a family is a gay old man, his lesbian daughter, and her cute girlfriend.

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Please Stop...

//Okay, so I'm sorry to bring some heavy stuff so suddenly, but I need to make an honest request of some of you guys.

//Now, you know that I love and cherish you all. I appreciate you as a fanbase, and I will always be here to make content for you all. You know full well that my relationship with you guys as my followers is important to me, and I will always take your opinions into account with my writing.

//However, lately, I have been getting many asks and messages along the same lines, and I'm so sick and tired of it that I need to address it. I'm really sorry it got to this point, and to make matters worse, it's over something really dumb as well. But regardless, the only way I can get it to stop is by addressing it.

//Now, I'll admit, it's not a frequent problem, and it's only some of you, but it's still enough that I need to bring it up. And it's in regards to Junko's characterization in the last part of Phase 2, and the rest of Phase 3.

//Now, to provide a bit of context, when Junko first made her debut on the blog, AI and ghost notwithstanding, it was around the same time that the Naegibowl started to become canon.

//Now, in relation to that, when it comes to the relationships on the blog, specifically the romantic ones, most of them I decide on my own and hint to, but there are a few, with Hinazumi, Togahina, and the Naegibowl being the biggest examples, that were sort of prompted by the askers.

//And the blog has been better because of it. I get to play around with relationships that I didn't really understand before, and now I do, and I'm all for it. I like to listen to my audiences feedback, and I learn and adapt from it. Normally, I trust you guys' judgement.

//With all that being said, please...

//Stop. Asking me. To pair JUNKO with MAKOTO.

//Even as a joke, no matter what you say, I'm not planning on adding anyone else to the Naegi harem. While I definitely ship Makoto with a few people outside of Kyoko, Sayaka, and Mukuro, those three are his biggest and best ships, and I think it's fine as it is. I am most assuredly NOT going to be adding Junko to that.

//A lot of this stems from quite a few asks I had where people asked Junko if she would join the Naegibowl, even if just to fuck with Makoto. And at the time, I had Junko reply with "no."

//And for some reason this upset a lot of you?

//Let me be clear on one thing. For those who are saying that Junko WOULD do something like this; i.e. flirt around and come onto Makoto purely for the sake of bothering the other girls...

//I agree.

//And I plan on having her do that quite a bit in Phase 3.

//The reason why I had Junko say no at the time is because Junko coming onto Makoto would have severely taken away from the tense moments that were happening at that point. As a reminder, Junko showed up right before she was about to set off a nuclear bomb right underneath the Future Foundation's feet.

//I'm personally very proud of how Junko's introduction turned out, and I feel adding that touch would have ruined it.

//Junko definitely feels like the Joker in how she could get a bit fruity and flirtatious with her arch-enemy, something that I've always loved when Joker does; acting like he and Batman are ex-lovers or something, because it's fucking hilarious. However, the comedy side of that comes from how Batman has so much hatred for the Clown Prince of Crime, that that's exactly what it is. He's the joker. It's a joke.

//But with how many of you guys have been bashing on about the idea of Junko joining Makoto's cuddle puddle, I'm starting to think that you SERIOUSLY want her in it; and I genuinely cannot believe I have to explain this to you.

//Being on the same coin still means that Junko and Makoto are on two different sides. Their fundamental values are opposed, as much respect the two have shown each other as adversaries. And the thing about Junko's character is that she can't be in any sort of genuine relationship because it's LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE for her to CARE about anyone.

//And I know what some of you might say to this. "What about Monaca and Nagisa? Monaca utterly traumatized him and the other Warriors, so why are you vouching for them to get together?"

//Because Monaca reformed! Or at least she's trying to.

//Monaca Towa is still a slimy shit, and let me make it clear that Nagisa will never forgive her for what she did to him and his friends. But he, as a mature young man, understands that Monaca has her own issues. She's sick and tired of being dragged around in a game of Hope Vs Despair that doesn't concern her, and she basically went off to space to rehabilitate herself.

//The reason why Monaca's personality is the same is because she's still a pretty fucked up kid. But she's NOT Junko. And she doesn't want to BE Junko anymore, as much as she still probably loves the Ultimate Despair. She wants to be a different person, regardless of whether she's despised or not, but either way, she wants to leave her crimes and atrocities behind. But Junko hasn't, and probably never will.

//I also should point out that, yes, Makoto can be brave, move on, live the rest of his life with Hope, and whatnot, but even if it's easy to forget with how smart-headed and strong-hearted he is, what Junko has done to him has utterly TRAUMATIZED him.

//Even if they have a sort of mutual respect as adversaries and rivals, it doesn't change the fact that they absolutely hate each other. Junko ruined Makoto's life, and the lives of everyone he cherished, and what's more, she's NOT done yet.

//If I had them be something more, and even if it made a little bit of sense, once you see what Junko is going to do to the Lucky Student in the latter half of Phase 3, you're going to regret it.

//So please, I'm asking this genuinely, for both the lovers and the haters. Regardless of where you stand on this, I will do my utmost to bring you the sort of content you want, but here, I have to put my foot down.

-Mod

[mynamesaplant]

It Changes, like Water (CH. 6)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Summary: Akari has just met Gaeric for the first time and is still a little rattled by the experience. Ingo tries to reassure her by telling her a story.

Content Warning: Blood, bodily injury, and wild animal attack

Notes: I've made this in honor of Monsoon-of-Art and their PLA mer au (and just a touch from a different au where Gaeric acts as Irida's guardian). Many of the scenes in this fic are directly inspired by their work, there mer stuff more specifically. I've been a big fan of them since I started playing PLA and I've only grown to love all their characterizations of some of my favorite characters in all of Pokemon.

The last one! Woo~ If you've made it this far, thanks so much for the read. I had excellent inspiration and the power of Lexapro and ginseng giving me strength to write the first new fanfic I've done in months. Between school, work, and trying to sort out my depression and anxiety with medications, its been rough. Writing is one of my favorite outlets, as is Pokemon - not having the motivation or time to do much of either… well, I'm just glad to have them back.

Thank you so much to the community of writers and artists in the PLA and Pokemon fandom at large for inspiring me everyday to make more of the content I love. You keep doing you, guys.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy! Don't like to read on Tumblr? Read it here on AO3.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ingo finished his story and Akari did not look remotely convinced, the mer grimaced.

“I know Gaeric has a – ah, reputation, but from what I gather, he has come a long way since he was a young man. He can still have a poor attitude regarding strangers, I know that firsthand. His devotion to Pearl clan can be a little misguided, but it is just that, devotion.”

Ingo realized that, again, he was making it sound as though he was excusing Gaeric’s destructive behavior. He didn’t condone it, although he knew some others did. The Galaxy Team’s presence and the mystery of the frenzied nobles seemed very closely linked in the eyes of many, even Melli had gone so far as to begrudgingly praise Gaeric for his grit. When Melli was saying something nice about the Pearl clan, that was when you knew something was wrong.

“What I am trying to say, Miss Akari, is that Gaeric has had his own identity crises in the past. He is not a stranger to misrepresenting himself or acting untrue to his ideals. He no longer permits himself to be that way. He was young once, he raised Lady Irida for a few years and continues to be her mentor – I don’t think he has it in him to harm a young, inexperienced pup like you in the way you’re thinking. So please, Akari, do not think so poorly of Gaeric.”

This plea gave her pause, absently scratching the rough coral exterior of the flute with her nail, its blue color matching the darkening color of the sea as dusk turned into evening. Ingo was asking for her understanding, but more importantly to put faith in him and his clan. In her heart of hearts, Akari knew that what she was doing was wrong. She was lying to a lot of people just to satisfy her own curiosities and desires. Now she had dragged Ingo into her brew of lies. He was asking for her trust, and she trusted Ingo just as much as she trusted her captains or Professor Laventon.

“I’ll… try. He’s not nearly as nice as you.”

“You caught him at a bad moment. Gaeric is nocturnal.”

Oh, so she woke him abruptly. That explained his grumpiness at the very least, she would also be pretty upset to be woken up abruptly by some stranger. Akari also knew for a fact that she looked terrifying before taming her hair and washing her face in the morning. His actions… She couldn’t condone his actions, but there were things that the commander did in the name of the team and Jubilife that she found questionable. There was a lot more grayness to the world, Akari was coming to realize. She hopped off the rock she had seated herself on and asked Ingo to run her across the cavern, where a narrow path between the boulders led out to the forest about a mile from Jubilife.

Ingo knew her fears were at least temporarily assuaged but knew more moments like this would crop up with more interaction with the clans. He would do his best to keep Akari at a distance, but between his clans’ own concerns for him and his mental/physical wellbeing and both clans insatiable nosiness to know more about the small pup that followed him around occasionally, he knew it was practically hopeless. His goal now was to soften the blow as best he could for all parties. It was a precarious position, but Ingo had been treading fine lines for many years now. Who knows, there was the remote possibility that this could be a unique experience for positive change in the clans and humans.

Only time would tell and that was just as unpredictable as the ever-changing sea.

<<Last Chapter || First ||

[sissorcraft]

how would you defend badlands rumble vash /gen i haven't watched the movie but i've heard some Things about it (derogatory) and i'm genuinely curious what's wrong with him that would warrant defending like what are his issues

ok heres the thing right. first off i do recommend watching the movie if u get the chance and just going in open minded right. bc i heard a lot abt it too before i watched it and most of it was bad but if u just sit down to watch it and enjoy it for what it is its a genuinely fun movie. but there are Problems.

the main thing that puts people off of it is the way they characterize vash, which i completely understand, bc there are times it genuinely doesnt even feel like vash. if u watched the 98 series, they take some of his more womanizing traits we see there and amp it up to like 1000, specifically w amelia. its. weird, to watch, yes, and it comes across as ridiculously ooc, like hes literally all over her flirting w her touching her its weird!! its smth thats clearly done for comedic effect as is the case in a lot of anime, unfortunately, even tho its. not funny

but if u try to look at it w the perspective of what we know of vash as a character, theres some reasonings we could see for this behavior. given the plot and setting of the movie, vash very likely believed it to be a good idea to stay close to amelia, but also not allow her to get close to him, hence playing up the flirting as reasoning to follow her while keeping her annoyed w him and not thinking any deeper abt why hed be following her around specifically. and w all the bounty hunters around in the movie, vash revealing himself as the legendary vash the stampede would be disastrous. so u could def say hes playing up his pathetic silliness to ensure no one really takes him too seriously which is smth we see in every iteration of vash

like i absolutely agree blr vash is Weird for all that but i also see a lot of it as like. not him being weird for the sake of it like he has goals w doing the things he does. obv no one has to agree w me bc at the end of the day they very likely wrote him how they did in blr to be """funny""" and there werent any ulterior motives at all, this is just how i choose to interpret the movie bc vash is absolutely smart enough to put things together that would lead to him feeling he should stay close to amelia

and i also think the weirdness should not lead to people just refusing to watch the movie, which ive seen a lot of. which is a shame, bc a lot of the things they do w the movie are really good and interesting! it doesnt go as in depth w it as trimax does, bc its only a movie w limited runtime, but blr does touch on some of the main themes of trimax, mostly in regards to vashs rigid morality and the consequences thereof. and i personally enjoyed the vashwood dynamic, it was a lot more reminiscent of their dynamic in trimax than 98 imo

like at the end of the day vash is still Like That in the movie yes but i still think its worth watching and i personally enjoyed a lot of what they did w his character excluding that. i just think hes neat and more people need to give him and the movie in general a chance

[azurillturtle]

someone had the bad taste to praise the martian where i could see it, and no one actually pays attention to me here and i'm free to be as unhinged as i want, so HERE WE GO: the no-holds-barred explanation of why i hate andy weir with a burning passion and why he's representative of greater problems in the scifi industry.

full disclosure, my only experience with him was reading 1/3 of artemis, which was more than enough for me to declare i'm never touching his works again. it was more than a year ago now, though, so i can't remember everything that upset me.

disliking andy weir is not an unpopular opinion! as far as writing craft goes, you'll generally hear people say that he's not a very good writer. this is partially about that and partially about other stuff specific to me that i didn't like.

as far as i can know, the martian was about a guy stranded on mars having to survive on his own. first person, snarky narrator. very popular. the narrator, whose name escapes me, was very well liked. because it was his first real story, and because there was really only one character on his own, i think a lot of the problems in his writing weren't immediately obvious.

unfortunately for me, the one we tried to read was artemis, widely regarded as the weakest of his books, probably because it shows off exactly how bad he is. and from artemis, this is what i concluded:

andy weir is a scifi writer for people who don't read much and want to feel like they're smart.

there, i said it.

unfortunately i am very much not that target audience. i read enough scifi/fantasy to have a good idea of what goes into a book that i like or dislike; i read enough to drop books that i think are terrible because i've developed standards. i'm also a science major who doesn't usually read hard scifi because i know enough to spot inaccuracies that drive me out of my mind, or at the very least, break immersion. ("that does not work that way.")

weir, for all his "experience," has enough inaccuracies in his writing to earn sideways looks from me. so that's part of it: his "problem solving" isn't realistic enough to be engaging. if it's enjoyable, that may be because you don't immediately spot the flaws in his reasoning.

weir is also a terrible writer. the first thing i said to my coworkers about artemis after i gave it up was that i don't think he's ever spoken to a woman in his life. this is a common criticism. i hear there are only two women in project hail mary, and only for like two seconds, presumably because someone pointed this out to him. they have the same problem.

quite unfortunately, artemis is told from the perspective of a woman. a... twenty-seven year old woman. who i legitimately thought was sixteen based on her maturity and behavior. this is part of a larger problem, which is (from what i've heard), that weir can only write one character voice, which is the protagonist of the martian, which is weir himself. so all the characters cracking snarky sex jokes in artemis were the same person. like, no wonder i was creeped out by the dude making sex jokes to artemis's protagonist in front of his legitimately teenage daughter.

yeah, so, okay--the protagonist of artemis is Mark Anthony or whatever his name was cosplaying as a twenty-something woman. along with not knowing what a woman is, weir's attempts at characterization are atrocious. jazz is always going on about how smart she is, and everyone's always calling her smart, as if we're supposed to believe their words over her own actions. i'm sorry, no. you can have everyone praise your character for being "smart," but if the entire book is a series of her poor life choices, then she's not reading as "smart" to me.

the third point i'd like to make about his writing is that his plot, at least for artemis, is paper-thin. i'm going to spoil the plot, since i sincerely hope no one is going to read it after this post. as part of a get rich quick scheme, said Skeevy Rich Dude hires jazz to sabotage some idk machines mining the moon's surface??, because then the owners will have no choice but to turn to him and he can become rich.

because, you know, if all of your equipment explodes, surely no suspicion will fall on the person who stands to benefit the most from this.

surely.

but no one ever questions the wisdom of this. it's never brought up. i feel like an actual sixteen-year-old could have pointed out the problem here. alas, in this book, major plot points and the reality of how people will act aren't even thought out.

another part of why artemis is generally regarded as weak--and this is extremely hilarious to me--is that weir doesn't know how to write dialogue. at all. every conversation was stilted and full of sex jokes, like that was the fallback when nothing else could be said. this is something that was not immediately evident in the martian, probably because mark anthony (...watney?) was alone and had no one to show off weir's absolutely horrid dialogue writing.

as an example of why there's also like... quite a bit that just read as weird or gross? partly again that weir has never seen a woman in his life, partly that he doesn't know what a real person is. anyway, jazz is a Strong Independent Woman, which in weir's world means she has a lot of sex. this leads to as scene where she asks a Weird Guy Acquaintance for a favor and he says, sure, but in return, can you test something for me? i'm working on a reusable condom, so i want you to try it the next time you sleep with someone.

because you know. this is a conversation that is Totally Normal to have with someone.

what the hell, weir.

unfortunately i did not stop reading there.

i quit when andy weir made it clear he does not know how and why laws should exist, and (by wider extension) the underpinnings of a functional society and how to worldbuild.

this will lead into my last point, but to briefly summarize what infuriated me so much: jazz says offhandedly that there are no statutory rape laws in their moon society. the age of majority is different for every culture, you see, so rather than come to a consensus, they decided it was easiest to go without. if anyone does anything creepy to a girl, weir says, that girl's brothers and father will come beat up the guy, and the problem solves itself.

that was the time i threw the (digital) book in the (metaphorical) trash can, because this is one of those passages that speaks volumes about the author himself.

i shouldn't have to say this, not when there's so much recent discussion about age of consent and child marriage laws, but oh my god no that's not how it works. set aside the vigilantism for a second here, that's not what i'm focused on. laws like that exist to protect the vulnerable. not everyone will have family they trust to come to their defense. not everyone can tell such things to their family. by having no laws, you are saying that it doesn't matter what happens to them, because "it's too hard to come to an agreement between different cultures."

laws are not about convenience. laws are about guarding the safety of the population.

on the one hand, it's another example of weir not thinking through the repercussions of his plot and worldbuilding. on the other, it read so much like something written by a privileged white man, not the Muslim woman protagonist, that to me it says something about andy weir himself.

and that leads into my last point, which is disliking andy weir not because of whom he is, but because of an underlying problem in the writing and publishing industry. it's a known fact that white men have a distinct advantage in publishing, especially in SFF. heinlein held strong for a long time. GRRM waxed poetic about the good ol days at a fairly recent disastrous WorldCon. it was still fairly recent that the Hugos started to see a more diverse group of nominated authors.

and then there's andy weir, who had publishing deals based on the strength of his first novel. andy weir, whose second and third books were optioned for movies iirc before they even came out. andy weir, who is not good at plotting, and not good at worldbuilding, and not good at inventing more than one character, and not good at writing women, and not even always accurate about the science.

why does andy weir of all people get those movie deals?

and would he, if his name was something other than andy weir?