#that's why the whole current arc is about saving the villains

[lgbtlunaverse]

A group of misfits outside of society

So I saw this post the other day talking about how toga is never truly treated as "the girl one" in the league despite, after Magne died, being the only female member. And it got me thinking about how no matter how endearing the protective found family dynamics in fics are, she's never actually treated like the baby of the group either. After mustard is arrested in basically their first mission, she is the youngest member by several years and the only one who's still a teenager.

But if you look purely at the league's interactions, you wouldn't really be able to tell? No one tells her to stay home for dangerous missions, no one babies her, she's never dismissed based on still being a child either.

This becomes especially obvious in her friendship with twice. Twice is only like a year apart from aizawa in age, and toga is in the age range of a highschool sutdent, but if you compare the relationship the UA kids have with aizawa to the one toga has with twice, they could not possibly be more different.

Jin and Himiko are not a mentor-student dynamic. These are two people finding understanding in each other when they've never gotten it anywhere else. Jin looks out for her not because she's under his care, but because they're friends. And Himiko does exactly the same.

Objectively it's... obviously kind of a bad idea to let a 17 year old go out into life threatening battles without even the minimum protection the hero students are offered, but the league is a supervillain group. They're committing murder and doing domestic terrorism. None of these people should be here, this isnt't safe for any of them. What this highlight is just what the league is for all the people in it: a place away from society. Not just from stigma around their quirks or from hero-worship, but ALL societal norms. Including ideas about gender and mental illness and about what teenager should or shouldn't be doing. That's why it attracted people like Magne, Twice, and Himiko.

[elexuscal]

Scholomance: A Series In Conversation With Harry Potter

(and often, that conversation is 'fuck you') So I've seen posts (and made some myself), talking about how Scholomance is a response to Harry Potter, perhaps the most recent being this addition to a reblog chain of alternatives to the HP-series in light of Rowling's raging bigotry. For folks who aren't familiar about the series, I think it's very possible you'll go "oh yeah because they're both in magic schools, sure". Or even "yeah all YA-adjacent fantasy in the last 20 years is influenced by Harry Potter, duh".

But no. I mean, specifically, the author Naomi Novik is a known fanfic writer who has spent years emersed in fandom, and I think she wrote the series in part as a response to critiques of the HP series. Some of this is more tongue-in-cheek playing with fandom specific tropes and ideas, but others I think are very insightful responses to how Rowling ended up creating a world based on British hegemony and replication of the status quo. Which isn't to say that the Scholomance series don't stand on their own-- I think they do!-- but if you were someone who grew up playing in that space, it'll have a whole other layer for you. So, whether you've read the series, or are curious and want a spoiler-minimal break down, here's my thesis, starting with:

Harry X Draco

The two leads, El and Orion, are designed to parallel and reflect common tropes given to Harry and Draco in the HP fandom, though not necessarily in a one to one. Beyond the rivals-to-lovers romantic pairing, we have… El: The protagonist, struggling against the perceptions of a prophecy, the social outcast, Angry and Scowly (Harry) Takes on the roll of the apparently-evil nascent dark wizard who secretly has a heart of gold (Draco) Orion: the golden boy, the hero (Harry) Latin name, Comes from a powerful and established family, parent is a major villain, silvery-blonde (Draco) Their relationship arc requires El to unpack that Orion's upbringing was not necessarily happy for all it was privileged, while Orion needs to recognise he had privilege in the first place, and other people had to struggle where he didn't-- which are common arcs in Draco/Harry fics.

HP Adults Are Useless

A constant (sometimes joking, sometimes serious) complaint of HP, was how the adults were functionally useless, requiring the kids to constantly save the day. Honestly, I think this is just one of the fundamental elements of the genre: YA fiction will have Young Adults do the plot stuff.

Nonetheless, Scholomance has an elegant solution to the accidental byproduct of making the adults seem idiots and/or negligent—the adults can’t help, because there are none in the school. Even once they graduate, it’s not so much that adults are useless per say; some are in fact quite helpful! But many of the most powerful have been co-opted by corrupt corporate systems, and those who haven’t are struggling with intense trauma that makes them unwilling to rock the boat.

Man, The Way HP Treats Muggles-Born Is Kinda Whack

Sure is! Scholomance amps this up even more. Magical kids born of non-magical parents don’t last long. This is because young wizards are basically yummy mana snacks for monsters. The one “muggleborn” kid we hear about getting schlorped up by the Scholomance is said to have died painfully and messily due to any lack of knowledge, equipment, or allies. It encapsulates the failings of the current system.

Why Don’t Wizards Help Muggles?

As an extension of the last point, wizards in HP consistently treat non-magical people with disdain at best. At worst, they actively hurt them, as evidenced by stuff like innocent civilians suffering brain damage due to repeated memory wipes. They certainly don’t do anything like use their magic to help cure disease, duplicate and/or transport food, or provide clean energy, all of which seems easily within their power. The reasoning for this is pretty unexplored (bad blood from witch trials?) and seems kind of laughable given that the average witch or wizard should be able to easily overpower the average muggle. Again, Scholomance has an elegant solution here: magic just doesn’t work around non-magical folks.

Rather, magic is powered, deep down, on the belief that it’ll work. And deep, deep down, normal people don’t believe magic is real. Monsters become weak in their presence; spells fizzle out. Indeed, a smart strategy for survival as a wizard is to hide yourself deep among non-magical crowds. Otherwise, mana is expensive. Even if you could cast a cure-cancer spell in a mundane hospital with confidence it wouldn’t just fail, that would be prohibitively mana-hungry for all but the most secure Enclave wizards.

How Can There Be Any Material Poverty In The Wizarding World?

A lot of the HP books are obsessed with class. Like the Weasleys are poor. Really poor. They seem to struggle with basic expenses for food and clothes, let alone stuff like school supplies. How does that make any sense, when over the series, we see ability to near instantly repair items, replicate food, etc?

In Scholomance, poverty has nothing to do with material wealth over mundane things, like food and clothes. Indeed, it's explicitly said getting money is trivial. The currency is mana, which is what you need to cast any spells... Which is what you need to not get eaten by monsters.

HP’s Wizarding World Has So Few Jobs!

An oft-repeated critique of Rowling’s worldbuilding is that there were like, five jobs (teacher, cop, merchant, healer, and government official).

Scholomance’s worldbuilding focuses hugely on the wide variety of careers available in their world, with everyone very preoccupied with what job they’re going to take, since it actively impacts their survival both in and out of high school. We hear about maintenance workers, water sanitation, food scientists, doctors, artificers, gardeners, and more. That said, everyone who graduates ends up being a skilled martial combatant, cuz if you aren’t, monsters eat you. Ouch. … this probably has an impact on why wizard society, at large, is so combative and dog-eat-dog.

Why Are HP Spells Only In Latin?

All the spells the students learn in Hogwarts are Latin. IIRC, we might see some French and Nordic spells when other schools visit in book 4, but we get pretty much no world building an explanation. Why Latin? Out of universe, of course, it’s because it has associations with sophistication and academia and lost knowledge. By why in-universe? Do spells simply not work in English? What about other contemporary languages? Why would that matter at all? Do languages become magic if they're old enough? What's the logic here? Scholomance answers all of these questions. Different languages have different schools and philosophies around spell crafting. While all contemporary languages have their own spells, anyone who wants to be competitive needs to learn spells from other languages, both modern and archaic. “The Language Track”, which El is on, is necessary for those who want to become particularly flexible and skilled spell-crafters.

Actually, HP’s Global Worldbuilding In General Is Either Non-Existent Or Downright Shitty

Sure fucking was. As a refresher for those who never read the books or have just forgotten, the HP series is pretty disinterested in questions of what the so-called “wizarding world” looks like outside Europe, or even Britain. We get glimpses of French and Nordic wizards, as mentioned. We hear about dragons from a variety of countries; we know there’s “curse breaking” on Egyptian pyramids. That’s about it. On the official HP extended lore site “Pottermore”, Rowling began to write short stories and other material to fill in the gaps. These were bad. Really bad. Things like there being a single wizarding school for all of China. Or the Indigenous witches and wizards of the Americas apparently not being very good at magic, until European wizards came, taught them how to make wands, and set up the first school on the continent (which every kid, presumably including Indigenous ones, go to.) Wow. Again, Scholomance-- both the series and the titular school-- is designed to answer these critiques.

Why is there only one magical school? Because it was an incredibly complex and mana-hungry construction project. Why is it so British and American in its design? Because those were the main builders/funders, and they intended to keep it for themselves... Until they realised they needed to put more kids in there to up the chances for their own childrens' survival. But while Britain and America have an outsized impact on the school, they are not the only major players. International politics is a huge theme of the series, with Enclaves from all around the world fighting for power and influence. China in particular is becoming a rising star, and is pressuring for more seats in the school, or else they might break away and make one of their own. Everyone is bracing for an international wizard war that seems liable to start any moment. Our protagonist, El, is of both Welsh and Indian descent, notably both nations that were colonized by the British. As the series goes on, that colonization becomes a major theme, arguably the one that underpins the whole series. In order to counter this, El needs to cultivate friends and allies from all around the world. While I think it's telling that her first real friend ends up being a Desi-American girl, her core team ends up including folks from China, Germany, Malaysia, and more. All of these nations are shown to have their own cultural backgrounds and approaches to magic. Notably, the powerful ancient magical tome that holds the promise for potential peace, the Golden Sutras, are rooted in Indian culture, just like El.

Harry Potter Is Pretty Heteronormative, Huh?

Sure is. And while there were critiques of this even when the books were coming out, its failure there has become much more damning in hindsight given Rowling's descent into becoming perhaps the most politically active and powerful transphobe on the planet. Sadly, I don't believe Scholomance has any explicit trans representation (though let me know if I'm forgetting something). I will say, though, that on top of having some background queer rep, El is bisexual, who has an on-page sexual relationship with another young woman. (I adore that whole relationship so much frankly, but it's kinda out side the scope here, so I'll leave that aside for now).

Status Quo

And then, the crux of it. Harry Potter, for all the series presented itself as a counter-cultural rebellion against a fascist take over, ends right where it started. Voldemort is defeated, sure, but none of the systems that led to his creation and rise to power are dismantle. Harry grows up to become a wizard cop, marries his high school sweet heart, and has three kids. Without spoilers, Scholomance ends on a much more open note. There is no single villain to defeat. Fixing the system is a long, hard, slow process. The powers that be will try to block El and her allies at every turn. But she's still determined to try.

... PS

My Immortal

Galadriel Higgins is a goth who puts up her middle fingers at preps. The end.

[gay-disabled-characters-showdown]

LGBTQ+ Disabled Characters Showdown Semifinals Poll 1

Please be civil in the notes. We will block people if we feel it is necessary. A character being canon LGBTQ+ and disabled was not required to be in this competition. Please check qualifications and propaganda before asking why a character is included. This is not a competition of who is better representation.

Check out the other poll in the semifinals here.

Yang Xiao Long-RWBY

Qualifications:

She is canonically wlw (has been for years but specifically kissed and got together with her now girlfriend in the latest season) and uses a prosthetic arm and has been shown to struggle with PTSD due to the traumatic nature of losing it during the show.

Canonically had her right arm chopped off, uses a prosthetic. Has PTSD. Is canonically in a WLW relationship.

She has a canon girlfriend and canonically has a prosthetic arm and PTSD

She's canonically sapphic (part of a recently canonised wlw slowburn relationship) and is an amputee (due to events from the 3rd season finale) who wears a robotic prosthetic. She also suffers from PTSD which is explored in the show

Propaganda:

I will keep on submitting Yang to relevant brackets until I die. RWBY has plenty of strengths and weaknesses with writing, especially Yang's recovery arc, but instead of forcing her to push past her trauma and enter the battlefield immediately, we see her struggle with it, take time to process, and not be pushed into repression and when she chooses to wear her prosthetic, chooses to train to ready herself, and chooses to seek out her family and save lives, she isn't perfectly healed, as no one is. The show depicts her having flashbacks due to sudden loud noise, shaking hand the first few times she has to fight for her safety instead of training with her dad, and snapping at friends when they bring up Blake, the person she lost her arm trying to save (who, near immediately after ran away due to feeling she was endangering those she loved, furthering Yang's already present abandonment issues.) It isn't done perfectly but the intentions and general message sent are extremely positive and honest. She struggles less as the show progresses, and there are opportunities to consider herself less for being disabled or "become whole again" but she explicitly refutes these ideas and says that's she's better because of her failures and losses, and isn't any less whole. Her becoming disabled is also extremely tied to her being LGBT, because, as previously mentioned, she lost her arm protecting her then friend and partner, now girlfriend, directly after the villain who cut her arm off told her love interest that he would "destroy everything [she] love[s]. (Camera pans to Yang, he looks at her.) Starting with her." LIKE. He attacked her BECAUSE Blake cared for her so much and Yang ran to her defense blindly BECAUSE she loved Blake so much. When they reunite, they struggle with communication because Yang feels Blake is seeing her as weak, and through several things, mostly a climatic battle against the man who severed Yang's arm, they affirm each other as equals. I can go on but this is already too long. YANG SWEEP!!!!!

Yang lost her arm while protecting her best friend and future girlfriend from said girlfriend's abusive ex. Had a whole arc about learning to live with that loss and dealing with PTSD. Is totally devoted to and in love with Blake Belladonna and is just the sweetest but most badass character in the show.

She's one of the main characters, and just finished a 10 year slow burn romance. Plus, she has both physical and mental disabilities, but is never treated as lesser or incomplete.

Yang Xiao Long was one of the first examples of a sapphic character I ever saw in animated media with her character journey in the show being an iconic part of my teenage years and current young adulthood. The loss of her arm after a traumatic event in the show's 3rd volume was one of the big shockers of the show that nobody saw coming. Since then the show has done an amazing job in exploring both the mental and physical effects of her losing a limb, gaining a prosthetic arm and the recovery journey. Her character also has a major arc regarding handling her PTSD from both this and her past most notably in the 5th and 6th volume. Her character also has a slow-burn romance with her teammate and fellow main character Blake Belladonna which is one of my fave romances ever (it has everything: canon soulmates, friends to lovers, sunshine x grump,battle couple etc..) that has recently became CANON BABIEE!!! There are MULTIPLE characters in RWBY with various disabilities that are handled well in the narrative but i would say Yangs definitely the top FAVE!

Eda Clawthorne-The Owl House

Qualifications:

She has a magical chronic disorder which has flare-ups, is mitigated by taking medication (potions), and has similar side effects to many real disorders such as fatigue, greying hair, and physical impairment (drains magic, a natural ability of *most witches). Unlike in other stories however, her condition is NOT ever completely cured. It does evolve and become more manageable over the course of the story, but she still experiences symptoms from it. Eda also loses one of her arms later in the story. She does get a replacement hook, but it is never shown whether she has a functional prosthetic or not. Most likely, she only has one fully functioning arm after this. As for being queer, she is in a relationship with a nonbinary person and is all but confirmed bisexual (has a secret box with the bi flag on it seriously why else would she have this). Also the owl house has a Lot of queer characters in it and I mean. just look at her. I would be surprised if she wasn't queer somehow.

Bisexual, and has a curse that affects her day to day life

Bi & lost arm and has a chronic illness metaphorically

Propaganda:

Has canonically dated both men and a non-binary person. Her curse affects her ability to use magic (and at one point outright stops it), which is very important in witch life. Said curse also causes her body parts to fall off sometimes. Many have said her curse is like a metaphor for depression but really it's more like a magic version of a physical disability (although I wouldn't be surprised if she actually also had depression).

Uuuuh she’s great and stuff idk I can’t propaganda well sorry

[l-in-the-light]

Law didn't know about the kids in Punk Hazard

This will be an unpopular opinion, because fandom loves to think Law is so shocked here because of Strawhats crazy antics. But I believe that the actual reason why Law looks so horrified is because of the kids. He didn't know Caesar was experimenting on kids and right under Law's nose. He spent months there and yet he didn't know.

How is that possible? Because Law had to agree to two conditions so Caesar would allow him to stay on that island: 1. give up his heart in exchange for Monett's 2. not be nosey about Caesar's research. And if Law would break that deal, his heart would get crushed at any moment. So why would he break the deal before he would figure out how to get his heart back? He stayed there for months and I doubt he needed to stay there for that long, he was just stuck there because of that stupid condition. And yet soon after he found out (thanks to Strawhats), he reacts like this and betrays Caesar:

I still have no idea who Caesar reminded Law of. At first I thought "Doffy, right?" but Doflamingo despite being manipulative never had to actually drug people not to leave his side, that's exactly why he is so scary in the first place. My current bet is Vegapunk, for two reasons:

1. Everything Caesar does or did is implied to be a copy of Vegapunk's inventions, just worse quality: artificial zoan fruit dragon = smile fruits, that's why Caesar knows how to "respawn" devil fruits as well, don't think it's his own achievement. Also we're being fed to a lie for the whole duration of Punk Hazard: Caesar isn't the only person capable of producing SAD, Law reveals it on Sunny on their way to Dressrosa: "he only found an use for Vegapunk's lineage factors" - which means any other scientist could have done the same as long as they knew the method. At first Vegapunk was also part of the illegal science group of Punk Hazard, which means both him and Caesar did experiments on humans (prisoners, Kaido, Alber, but not kids, but it's still experimenting on humans). All things considered it doesn't have to be a stretch that Law might mean Vegapunk here, after all he did read a lot about world government's experiments that were previously done on Punk Hazard (he did share a bit about gigantification for example and that was also an experiment Vegapunk was involved in!).

2. It could have been Judge, but I don't think Law ever met him. His surprise at seeing Stealth Black for real was enough of a proof to me, he never met any Germa before.

Remember Flevance and all the kids dying? Or Law's novel when one of the first feats Law does after forming Heart Pirates together with Bepo, Shachi and Penguin is to rescue people from pirates? I even think it mentions "rescue kids" specifically.

Staying on Punk Hazard and having a deal with Caesar who experimented on kids and Law having no idea about it must have been a big blow to him. He probably thought he's partially responsible for that. And despite the fact we don't see much of his emotions in that arc, we do see two little hints of it:

Overreacting much? He didn't really need to cut them up, seems like he released his anger there.

This one's easy to miss. He eats while looking at the kids, gulps his soup in one go and throws away the bowl. For someone so calm and composed that seems like such an uneccessary display and has like nothing to do with his talk with Smoker. But if we compare it to a certain someone having a flashback to his trauma, it all suddenly makes sense:

I see the parallel here, even though it's subtle.

In summary: Law wasn't a cold bitch, he was actually genuinely traumatized after Punk Hazard. That line between "good" and "evil" the marines painted feels even more symbolic, all things considered. Law believes himself to be a villain there and hates it.

Bonus: Yes, I remember that Law told Strawhats to forget about the kids when they told him they want to save them. He probably thought they can't pull it off or maybe he still felt bound by his deal with Caesar. Instead of being a counterargument I feel like it just makes the whole thing worse: he thought there's no way to save them which in turn for sure made him feel even worse about himself. He ended up being what he hated the most: the government's decision of not even trying to help Flevance and dooming it, just like Law himself doomed the kids.

Strawhats literally saved his heart a little bit there, in Punk Hazard. Didn't help him feel better about himself, but made him believe slightly more in miracles.

[llamaisllama777]

THE DAILY*/WEEKLY* TSAMS, FEMNAF, EAPS SHOW!

We finally meet the Sun and Moon of this world, Nova and Frost!

I love how animated and expressive they are in this episode. All the little movements are just... MMMM!

But I have an odd feeling about them. I like Nova and Frost, but who dropped them off there? The Glamrocks said it was someone gross looking???

Gross looking?

Purple skinned Michael Afton maybe?

Who knows? But that's my current theory.

🤣🤣🤣 So many swears! I love it.

Can I talk about Femnaf real quick?

I love how mature this show is, both in the storyline sense and the humor sense. Not only are the storylines more intense with the whole Roxas thing going on, but also the humor, they swear, and sometimes they don't even censor it and I kinda love that. Never in my days did I think I would hear Davis or Flora drop an F-Bomb without a loud [BEEP] cutting it off in the middle. I love this show, so much!

And lastly...

BABY ECLIPSE!

@nadinescholtes

You're famous! That's the model! It's the baby Eclipse model! He's so cute!

This makes me wonder if we'll see more baby models like Baby Jack and Baby Ruin or Earth show up in the shows.

But can we also talk about how I feel like Eclipse is gonna crashout soon?

Like the ruin virus is going around and instead of immediately launching Eclipse's device into space, nuking the virus (and likely Rusty) but instead he's on his own cause Ruin doesn't want to see his boyfriend die.

I get why Ruin is doing it and I do think they should try to save Rusty before killing him...

But...

I'm also on Eclipse's side. This virus is dangerous! It could turn them all into psychopathic serial killers and make Eclipse go back to his old bad self.

They need this virus gone now!

And yet, basically, everyone is siding against him. And now this...

Either Eclipse is gonna crashout and have a small villain arc again cause the virus in him will be expedited by his own rage and aggression or Eclipse will leave this dimension for a bit and tell them all to [BEEP] off.

Frankly, I don't blame them.

11/10!!!

I love Nova and Frost!

[seriousfic]

"You're an anomaly! You were never meant to be Spider-Man!"

"Wait, what? People are meant to be Spider-Man? It's not just random chance?"

"No!"

"Because I thought the whole thing with so many different people being Spider-Man or Spider-Woman was because it was random--"

"It isn't! People are meant to be Spider-Man!"

"Okay... why?

"What do you mean, why?"

"Basically you're saying everyone who becomes Spider-Man is the Chosen One, right? And they're prophesied and the prophecy is canon events...?"

"...essentially."

"So who's, you know, choosing people? God? What if it's some powerful villain like Thanos and it's all part of some evil plan?"

"It's not!"

"How would you know? And to what end? Why does there have to be a Spider-Man? What does that accomplish?"

"It's simple. Spider-Men keep universes from blowing up! And they keep them from blowing up by having canon events happen! Canon events like someone they're close to, who is also a police captain, dying while trying to save a kid!"

"Seriously?"

"Yes."

"But seriously."

"What's the prob--"

"That seems pretty arbitrary for the fate of the universe to hinge on. Aren't these things usually... virgin sacrifices, seventh son of a seventh son, that sort of thing? And what counts can be either your FATHER or the father of your current girlfriend? That seems really... I mean, that's loose as hell, isn't it? Does it have to be a police captain? What if it's a special agent in the FBI, does that count? A lot of countries don't even have police captains. In the UK, they have chief inspectors. Does that count?"

"Well, if a police captain IS going to die but quits his job, then that averts the whole thing with no universe implosion."

"WHAT?"

"Yeah."

"WHAT?"

"Look, it's..."

"So you can just trick the fundamental forces of the universe like you would pretend to throw a ball with your dog and REALITY ITSELF will be fooled by the person who has fated to die CHANGING JOBS?"

"Look, we're getting off-track here. The important thing is that you're an anomaly! You were never meant to be Spider-Man!"

"Yeah, you said that--why do you think I care?"

"Well, you know... it's a shocking twist..."

"You kind of obliquely mentioned this 'people are meant to be Spider-Man' thing five minutes ago and you've been trying to kill me ever since. I really haven't had time to process this. It has nothing to do with my characterization or sense of identity at all. I've really only been interested in this Spider-Society thing as a way to get into Gwen's pants?"

"Really? That's your only investment in the chief plot point of our movie."

"Yeah. I just don't give an eff. My triumphant character arc is me not caring about this thing I've never cared about or had any reason to care about, ever."

"Look, could you just do me a favor and pretend to be emotionally devastated by this? This is our Empire Strikes Back, 'Luke I am your father' moment. You're supposed to be rocked to the core."

"Uhh... I suppose I could be pissed that Gwen betrayed me for not immediately explaining all of this and instead waiting a few hours to explain it in a calm, safe environment? Which I suppose would be the best way to prevent a bunch of unnecessary violence, but she probably should've somehow guessed that you inexplicably hate me for not being a real Spider-Man... wait, if I'm not a real Spider-Man, how come the canon event thing applies to me? And does Peter count as Gwen's Uncle Ben? But Uncle Ben was Peter's father figure, while the Prowler was trying to kill me... is it just someone you know dies? Is that as precise as FATE needs to be? Or did Gwen not have the canon event--"

"You can't expect this to be fully thought out."

"We're spending two and a half hours on an incredibly long first act. The entire point of first acts is to establish the stakes and set up the conflict. If after two and a half hours, people still don't know what the plot is, you're bad at writing."

[nathandrakeisabottom]

what are your thoughts on nathan and elena? recently read something about how their relationship isn’t healthy and yadda yadda — curious to know what you think!

Hello, friend! What AREN'T my thoughts on Nathan and Elena is the real question!

For starters, here's my Why I Don't Ship Nate and Elena Essay post, if you haven't checked it out already! It's a pretty beefy read but I think covers most of the bases without (I hope!) feeling like a bad faith criticism. But if you were secretly hoping to incite me into another spiral...

You won.

★ Why I Don't Ship Nate and Elena: Part 2: An Emotional Addendum (or Nathan Drake Has No Character Arc) ★

Hello, friends. Let's take a journey.

My biggest issue with Nate/Elena is that their entire dynamic (and Nathan's full series character arc as a whole) rests entirely on Elena "correcting" Nate into a different, more palatable version of himself, largely through the moralizing and dampening of his love for treasure-hunting. And the fact that a lot of fans find this journey romantic and his “arc” justifying the means.

While this dynamic precedes this scene by both several games and several scenes, let's start with UC4. The game takes a great effort to section itself tonally: Nate tuning out Elena for the fantasy of adventure in the living room painting, his initial smile at Sam’s “No, we are.”, Nate’s typical light-hearted wise-cracking during the Rossi heist and rambling excitement upon opening the new cross. There’s a constant, nostalgic, palpitating sense of fun. Nate is having fun, and the game wants you to know that.

However, at the motel scene where Elena confronts Nate in UC4, we have the most obvious example of two opposing sides of Nate. Every game (except perhaps 1, but check out my earlier post for why there’s issues with that) without fail contains at least one instance of this exact interaction: Nathan makes a discovery regarding his current mission, he excitedly monologues, he has a huge grin, gestures wildly with his hands, there’s a clear and obvious joy there, a purpose, this could be the greatest—

But then Elena interjects, and all of that falls away. His smile drops, the music changes, she looks on, disappointed, and we are meant to understand that Elena does not approve of this. And not only disapprove of it, but we are meant to understand that what Nate doing (and feeling) is wrong. In context of this particular UC4 scene, the two argue, Elena leaves, and where Nate started the scene excited and passionate, he has now ended guilty, self-hating, and lashing out at the others around him.

While folks have argued that Elena helped Nate become a “better person” (i.e. inspired him to give up treasure-hunting, again, something both Elena and the game itself seek to moralize for the audience), the game fails to provide us with any substantial or believable change. While real life change is a slow, steady progression, here, it is abrupt and immediate as it serves the story. One scene, Nate is giggling on a bicycle and rambling excitedly about history. The next, him and Elena argue, she (whether for very reasonable reasons… or not) guilts him, and suddenly Nate is grumpy, short-tempered, discouraging, and lashing out at the others around him. He then remains in this state for every scene until he encounters Elena again.

What I think is so interesting about this scene is that it's one of the few times we see Nate truly angry. Compassion is one of Nate’s defining personality traits. At the end of the day, it’s what makes him “the good guy”, despite everything else. True, he is a complainer, but he is rarely, if ever, actively resentful towards someone else. His fight with Sam is one of those rare exceptions, where Nate brushes off Sam’s “What about what I put on the line? The last 15 years of my life?”, and for the very first time prioritizes his own resentment over another person (reminder: this is the guy who continually tries to save his own villains). And at the height of it all, Nate’s greatest fear: that he is risking losing Elena (and specifically, Elena’s approval) by letting Sam’s excitement about treasure-hunting bleed onto him. Thereby, losing the only thing that tells him whether or not he’s a good person. He grabs Sam, he screams at him, he blames and guilts Sam in turn, it’s a side of him we really don’t see of him in previous games.

This is the extent of what his guilt does to him. An abrupt guilt that was not present before Elena appeared in that hotel room.

And what angers him most? What offends him most deeply? The belittling threat of going back to a normal life with Elena— and Sam’s framing of it as the clearly weaker, easier, less meaningful alternative. Like Nate is playing house with Elena. Like it’s not his “real” life, it’s waving the white flag.

And Nate bites back tenfold. From here til’ Elena saves Nate after The Sam Twist (tm), he is Grumpy. He is the Ebeneezer Scrooge of video games. Because the game tells us, often through Elena, that he’d be a piece of shit if he wasn’t. So he has officially dropped his treasure-hunting ways and been workshopped into a better person. Relationship problems solved.

Except… What is that…?

Well, what do you know! The literal second he makes up with Elena, Nate is back to loving and yearning for the adventure. He has been pardoned, he has made his confession, and therefore feels he has been given the moral permission to (however briefly) enjoy the adventure again. There’s a youthfulness to this moment of him inspecting and savoring the sight of the pirate ruins, a curiosity, a quick-lived reversion to his former, more passionate, monologue-ing self. But just as quickly, it’s repressed. You can literally see the exact moment in the second gif where he emotionally reels himself back in. That flicker of guilt. Like he’s already saying goodbye to it.

Next, Nate and Elena go to Libertalia and find the dining room full of poisoned pirates. Once again, Nathan finds himself deepest within what he loves most. And again, the second Elena comes back into view, he forces himself to restrain. He tells himself "no, this is wrong." There is an entire conversation, a self-conflicting argument, in his head through this gif alone. The moment of loving and being excited about something… and the moment of telling yourself it’s wrong to be excited. It’s wrong to love. And in this scene, he resigns himself to apologize for it, and to accept and revel in her forgiveness once more.

Now, the story tells us, he has officially given up his commitment to adventuring and has chosen Elena for good. They have officially patched up. There are no more loose ends between them. They are in love (for some off-screen reason) and Elena finally understands him (took you seven years too long, but okay, girl). Happily ever after.

Except, no. Sam steps in for one last curveball. Avery’s map to the treasure.

It’s been nearly 4 games now. Nearly 40 hours of story and gameplay, all telling one unifying theme and story. And at Nathan’s final crossroads, his final temptation, the chance to prove the final evolution of this “better person”— a person above instinctual desires— that Elena has built him into, the game shows us that he has hardened, restrained, and for lack of better word, fixed himself. He frowns disapprovingly, squares his shoulders, the camera POV reflecting a yearning, but in the end, conclusively regretful look. Now that Nathan feels he has properly trained himself to regarner Elena's affections, everything is fortified against his passions once more. The game tells us he has changed.

However, what this scene DOESN'T show, is how Nathan ACTUALLY reacts:

(Apologies for my quite audible reaction. That's my boy, that’s my guy, that’s my man, c'mon now.)

And a reminder, not only is this one of the very last scenes of this game, it's also one of the very last scenes of the entire series. Still, still, still. Nathan's first reaction to adventure is joy. Everything afterwards is self-correction. It is guilt. It is him negating who he naturally, inherently is. All in service of keeping Elena's and Sully's affection, because he doesn't believe he'd receive it otherwise.

Anyway, to me, Uncharted 4 is also a metaphor for Catholic guilt. Dimming your light to satiate others is not love, it’s obedience. Good night, everybody.

★

[thelunarfairy]

Hey! How are you? I wanted to share a thought with you! I posted it on Twitter, but no one paid attention! :(

I think Kou is going to have his "villain arc" in this new timeline!

My evidence is what Kou said during the PP arc: "If Mitsuba were alive in this world, then it wouldn’t be so bad... I would have been so happy..."

He is willing to sacrifice his current life for Mitsuba's happiness.

He only gave up on this idea because it was just a "fake", not Sousuke who came back to life. However, in this new timeline... Sousuke never died. He is happy and well, and moreover, he is a great friend of Kou.

If Kou gets his memories back, he might not be willing to leave this world, especially considering Mitsuba's current situation in the old timeline.

I do believe that Kou could become a "villain" in this new arc, quite similar to Hanako's situation during the PP.

But how could we blame him? His mother is alive, his father is present, and his dear friend is happy. He has everything he ever wanted! Why would he give it all up?

I’m a certified Mitsukouer. So let me know if I mischaracterized it at any point."

Ahh, how sad that people didn't pay attention to you there :( but don't worry, we'll have fun here! Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me! 🧡

So, your line of reasoning is perfect. JSHK has a defined and recurring theme, "sacrifice for someone you love".

Something so ingrained here that a good part of the characters have already thought about doing this at some point.

Although they are similar, each case involves some different reasons and situations, which result in the same thing "sacrifice or not".

Kou is confused, at one point he was the exorcist who should hate all supernaturals, like his older brother. And he had this thought that was weakened after he met Hanako, because he realized that spirits can be people who were "good" in the past.

This intensified when he met Mitsuba, when he realized that a classmate of his died, without anyone caring about him. Without having friends, without anyone remembering him.

The story of Mitsuba's loneliness is sad, it's touching, and Kou feels guilty at one point for having neglected it, even though he wasn't.

Kou realizes that Mitsuba was just an ordinary boy, like him, and he has a stronger connection than he does with Hanako, because Hanako has a more mysterious past, because he's still suspicious to him, but Mitsuba doesn't, Mitsuba has always been there,

But Kou hasn't seen him.

So, the predefined ideas, the things his brother said about supernaturals are confusing him.

He doesn't see Mitsuba as a supernatural, he sees him as a friend, at least initially, we know that his feelings are stronger than that, but let's take it one step at a time.

Mitsuba became someone important, to the point where Kou decided that he would give him happiness, including giving up many things for him.

And here we have the comparison with Hanako's behavior.

When Kou wants that new reality because everything he loves is there, when everything he wanted was within his reach. Would he fight for that reality for Mitsuba?

And does Mitsuba want that?

The difference between Kou and Hanako is that Hanako rarely gives up on the people he loves and acts wrongly to get what he wants.

Would Kou do the same?

He promises a lot, but does little.

Teru made that whole speech saying that he was weak because of that, not only him, but Hanako himself said that Kou said he would save Nene, but Hanako was the only one who looked for an alternative to save Nene.

Kou doesn't know what to do, so he usually chooses the easiest way.

Even if he wanted to stay in this reality, he could easily be influenced, as he was by Hanako and Natsuhiko many times.

For Kou to become a villain, he needs more development, he needs to show that he fulfills what he promises, regardless of how he will do it.

For now, Kou is just the confused and scared boy who doesn't know which path to follow, he is hard-working, but his effort is still not enough to save anyone, not even Mitsuba.

And he knows it.

Adding this to the fact that he has a kind heart, he needs something very serious or big to happen for him to develop. At some point he will say again that he accepted that his mother died, that Mitsuba from that reality could be saved in another way.

At least, if he cares about Hanako, maybe he will make that choice. And having Nene by his side to influence him, he will probably choose to go back to how he was before.

HOWEVER

It would be a good possibility to imagine that he will develop in this arc and will fight for this reality, he would fight against Nene (not literally) to keep the people he loves by his side.

It's something I want to see, Kou developing.

Come on kid, show me that you can fight for what you love!

It would be interesting.

[maxwell-grant]

Reverse Unpopular Opinion: Noriaki Kakyoin

I really like that he's a bastard, might actually be my favorite thing about him. He's designed to be "the thin and sensitive one", he's made to be pretty and attractive to an extent the others aren't, and of course he's given a very sympathetic and tragic backstory and death, but a lot of the time the spotlight's on him, he's kind of a mean jerk but in a really understated fashion that makes it funny. There is a line of succession among Araki's pointedly villainous heroes that starts with B.T and is embodied in the current protagonist Jodio, and I think Kakyoin is in there, predating the likes of Rohan and Giorno. It's not for nothing that he is our first villain Stand user, and why they make a point of contrasting his charming honor student personality with his horrible gross tentacle puppet power.

I also like that this ties into his prideful personality, and the reasons why he's tagging along to defeat DIO. He's a guy who's grown used to being disconnected from people and ostracized and self-reliant (much of what I love about Death 13 retroactively is that it's hitting Kakyoin hard with this before we understand why this is a personal button for him, and it's not a beat that would work with the other Crusaders), having maybe the closest bond with his Stand that we see among the Crusaders, and his dynamic with DIO is interesting to me because he blames himself for falling victim to DIO more so than he blames DIO for it. It comes up more prominently in the D'Arby fight and the finale that he's pushing through not just a deep fear, but also a form of self-hatred whenever he thinks about what DIO did to him. He feels ashamed and humiliated and even abused, even knowing about DIO's power and the flesh buds and having seen others in his situation, seeing what happened to Polnareff and Enya, and it doesn't really dissuade him from this thinking.

It's that whole speech he gives to Jotaro in his debut about how evil is determined by who wins and who loses: people tend to forget it because he's being brainwashed, but the flesh bud doesn't alter personalities like that, Polnareff refutes this in his first encounter. That wasn't the fleshbud, that was Kakyoin talking, and he'd come back to that sentiment later. He lost to DIO, nothing else mattered, he was the loser and thus the evil one. And so he wants to make up for it, to stand up to DIO again and not give in, to be freed from him. He's constantly putting his friends first during the journey but at his most personal, when he's steeling himself, he thinks back to that and swears to overcome it. People talk a lot about how Kakyoin was a mega hit with the female demographic because he's pretty and charming in a way the sweaty buff men aren't and because he makes a good pair with Jotaro, and okay sure that's part of it, but I think the fact that his arc being that intimate, that tragic, and panning out into a story about overcoming abuse and standing strong in the face of your abuser, even if all you can do is save others from him, that was the secret ingredient. Intentionally or not, that stings pretty deep.

But mostly I like him because he is a bastard, and he's the character who's not supposed to look or act like one, so the fact that he is makes it better. "Tricking your friends into feeding a baby his own shit" is not a beat that would work with the others, or even something you could land, no matter how evil the baby was, if the guy doing it wasn't capable of selling it as a cool and funny and karmically satisfying thing to be doing.

[honeybeelec]

Yo, a little while ago I drew some Uraraka fanart and reblogged an entire analysis based on what she was wearing here. But here's a repost of it just in case 👍

Alright, since mha is coming back in full swing, i thought I'd share a little something I noticed back when I was drawing this little doodle. So, spoilers for season 7/manga spoliers past chapter 327!!!!

Ok, so at the start of the year back in January, I started getting back into mha, back when promo posters like this one were being released for season 7

And so I drew Uraraka based off her design in this poster. However, while I was drawing her, the whole time I was wondering "what's up with her little button up. I swear I've seen it before, and it's gotta have some kinda deeper meaning".

I remembered I recognized it from Uraraka and Deku's talk about Toga and Shigaraki in chapter 342, setting up for the final battle where the heroes have to save their respective villains.

But in the context of the scene, I was wondering why it was so so important for her to be wearing that button up shirt over her hero costume? Surely it wasn't just "oh she's a little cold, obviously she would want a little shirt to wear to keep her cozy". There had to be a meaning!

And then, a certain vision popped into my head of where I'd seen Uraraka wear it before. But I wasn't sure if I was imagining things or making things up in my mind, so I went back through season 3 of mha during the training camp arc and found episode 44 - Roaring Upheaval, where Uraraka first encounters Toga.

And Bam, I'd found my culprit. The reason she is wearing that shirt during her talk with Deku is to show how much she has been thinking about Toga and to visually show those thoughts by bringing back an article of clothing linking to their meeting.

I gotta love the time and thought Hori puts into crafting these characters and their arcs through words and visuals. And as always, I will be crazy over togachako and their moments together.

Anyways, I'm currently working on some fanart for these two for season 7 coming up since I'm done with school for the semester, yayyy!!!

[itsnothingofinterest]

So I know this is the farthest thing from a lot of our mind with the current fight; but it's been a while so I want to talk again about my faves in the League, & their heroic foils, and how their saves have been going so far. Because looking at how the past few fights have been concluding, well I just don't think the saves have been going as well as some of us hoped.

Dabi is heavily damaged, still suicidal, and still hates his family. That’s not great. Dare I say I’m afraid I gotta give Shoto a fail for that one. I can't really say he's saved his brother in this arc if he effectively ended in as bad or worse a state than he started.

I know some people read Touya & Shoto wanting to argue more as a guarantee that the whole Todoroki mess will get sorted off-screen; but I take that as no more than a sign they need to talk far more on-screen.

I thought Uraraka was really close, but it turns out she kind of, technically, drove Toga to suicide. No matter the noble intentions on all parties involved, I gotta give that a fail.

Toga coming out of this wanting to save Uraraka is good, but this level of self-sacrifice is not. And her complete lack of faith in hero society even with Uraraka’s influence is also of note, especially given how much evidence points to her being justified in feeling this way.

And Shoji…barely talked to Spinner (or rather Spinner could barely hear him and then just moved on from the conversation), so he's largely unchanged from their meeting. And what he said to the rest of the crowd, that prejudice will stop if they're all nice & inspiring enough, amounts to what heroes already do. It's also what Shoji did as a kid in his backstory, and it kind of proved proved his plan doesn’t work. I'm afraid in terms of saving your opponents, that’s a fail all around. Sorry buddy but you can't keep doing the same thing and expect different results.

So we’re 0 for 3 here with generally few solid signs of further progress after the war arc. All three of these hero kids have talked down a mob, stopped a bomb, or halted an army of clones; impressive feats for some future pros well on their way to standing with their predecessors. But they haven't really saved their villains, and they don't looks like they're really surpassing their predecessors as much a lot of us expected they would by now. Or much as I think they need to.

It's a big reason why I'm still holding out hope for that My Hero part 2 I keep talking about; so it'd give everyone a lot more time in the character development oven so the kids can get better at talking to their villains and addressing their real problems. Even if I were confident in Deku doing better at saving Tomura than his peers did their foils, I’d still be hoping for a part 2.

[delawaredetroit]

In what ways is Izuku “rebellious”? It changes with the tide and the vibes, sure, but from what I recall of the manga Izuku never really gets very far in the process of stepping outside of his society and his role as a Professional Hero.

For all the thematic stuff going on about saving people, most of his attempts to actually act out turn into self destruction and a vague sentiment that he’s learning something about recklessness. Hell, even in the current arc, he literally abandons someone who ‘looks like they need saving’ (Eri) because his work supervisor said “this isn’t the time for that attitude”.

His rebellion is mostly in just, not giving up ideological priorities in bad situations? He enters fights he shouldn’t and makes risky moves because his priorities don’t focus on himself so much as the people around him. And even then, the story doesn’t tend to reward him beyond the bare minimum — saving kouta arguably cost him too much to also save Bakugou, or the whole post-jakku arc rife with people Izuku can’t save despite his whole ‘world on my shoulders’ thing there, or when he focuses so much on todoroki’s trauma in the sports festival that he loses sight of his actual ‘win the sport festival’ goal.

I guess my main thought is a bit lost in the weeds now, but… I dunno, “rebellion” just feels like too strong a word for Midoriya. He doesn’t fit in the world he lives in but nothing about it feels intentional on his part so much as the hand of the author setting done tracks for a narrative theme.

I was going to trash this one because if you have an issue with language that someone else put in an ask, you should take it up with them and not me. But there are a few points I want to address here.

I take issue with your point that "[h]ell, even in the current arc, he literally abandons someone who ‘looks like they need saving’ (Eri) because his work supervisor said 'this isn’t the time for that attitude'”. Izuku had to physically held back by Mirio in that scene and Eri had to run back to Overhaul herself before Izuku relented. He was never shown agreeing with Sir Nighteye on his analysis of the situation.

Rebellious is not quite the right word for it, which is why I made the distinction that Izuku isn't much of a rule follower. This story is largely from Izuku's perspective and he has multiple biases. I've discussed it a bit here how Izuku often acts outside of expectations because of an unconscious lack of faith in the existing hero system. The reason "rebellious" doesn't fit Izuku is not because he doesn't often act outside of the rules, but because he does not perceive himself as acting outside of the role of a hero.

The basis of their society is that everyone has a quirk they suppress. The best train to become heroes and get permission from the government to use their quirks to help others/defeat villains. Izuku inherently violates those norms in multiple ways: (1) by moving to help others without a quirk, (2) using his quirk on multiple occasions to save without a license, and (3) attempting to save/understand villains.

[sapphic-agent]

Ranking MHA Arcs

Vs. Hero Killer Stain: A 9/10 arc. It had great tension, character development, character interaction, and villain. The friendship between Iida, Izuku, and Todoroki felt 10x more genuine than it ever did with Bakugou. The only thing I would change is maybe make Tensei not so virtuous. Maybe he made mistakes in the past or contributed to toxic hero society in some way. Perfect way to develop both Iida and Izuku

Shie Hassaikai: Again, just a great arc. Great villain and tension and love how the LOV are involved but aren't the current enemy. I love Mirio and his sacrifice for Eri was done perfectly, and him rejecting OFA made me love him even more. One of the only arcs where anyone cared about how Izuku was doing (love Iida and Todo forever). The only reason I'm putting it at #2 is Nighteye being a pretentious prick who pissed me off the whole time.

Battle Trial: One of the only arcs where Bakugou's actions aren't depicted as okay. Also calls out his behavior by making him lose because of it. Izuku's actions are recognized wholly, both what he did wrong and what he did right. Back when Momo was analytical and sharp. Also, evil Iida kills me every time. Just a pretty solid arc overall, good balance of tension and humor. There's only one thing I hate and it's that Izuku felt so guilty that he told Bakugou that he inherited his quirk

Meta Liberation: The only saving grace of season 5. The LOV was so well-written and Shigaraki's progression into a leader was so well done. I would have made it top three if it wasn't for Shigaraki's autonomy immediately being taken away by him wanting AFO. Kind of ruined the whole point of the arc

Entrance Exam: I had to make it top 5. It perfectly captures what made early MHA so great. It's so inspirational to everyone whose dreams have ever been discouraged. Some things could have been handled better which is why it isn't higher, but in general I love it

Sports Festival: I've talked about what I do and don't like about the Sports Festival before. There were a lot of good and bad things about it. Uraraka and Todoroki had great development, Izuku's and Tokoyamk's were okay, and Momo's was terrible. But what really keeps it out of the top 5 is the Bakugou pandering. It's the first arc that really starts to do this and it really ruins what could have been a really good arc

Hideout Raid: Again, the only reason this isn't higher is because it's so centered around Bakugou. If it wasn't just an arc pandering to him and his "development," it'd be a lot better. But I'm putting it at 7 because of the awesome fight between All Might and AFO. Easily one of the best in the series. And how that saved Bakugou was pretty damn cool ngl

UA School Festival: Gentle Criminal is tied for my favorite MHA villain with Stain. Not only is he relatable as fuck, his quirk is so unique. He was just so enjoyable. The festival was cute, though I felt as though this arc could have focused more on Eri's trauma. It's great that the festival was something for her to look forward to, but there could have been more done here. Also, Aizawa blaming his students for the other students being resentful and making them take accountability. Also, Bakugou being good at the drums for no reason

Paranormal Liberation War: As far as major arcs this one is okay. I feel like some parts of it were too drawn out, but it wasn't terrible. I liked Dabi exposing Endeavor, and Mirko chasing down Garaki like a bat out of hell was funny. Hawks' fight with Twice was also very impactful. BUT it also felt like a lot of the pros were useless. Like, Mount Lady struggling so much with Gigantomachia felt odd. She should have been more effective imo. I also wasn't a fan of how Midnight died in the manga, that felt unnecessarily brutal

USJ: This arc does a great job of introducing Shigaraki... And not much else. Like, I don't think it's bad at all, but it was a little boring. It does get points though for Tsu casually drowning Mineta, little moments like this make it watchable

Quirk Apprehension Test: The only reason this arc isn't lower is because of Izuku proving that he belongs at UA as much as anyone else. That was a great moment for him. But the QAT is quirkist and honestly just mean-spirited. Why would you humiliate a student in front of their classmates like that? Not to mention that Aizawa was blatantly singling him out with it. Just the beginning of Aizawa being a bad teacher

Provisional Hero License Exam: I struggled where to put this arc. Because honestly? It was good for the most part. I liked seeing how the kids each handled their tasks and opponents. Bakugou failed (I know I've said that this is undercut by Todo failing too, but it's still satisfying) and it really got into the nuances of rescue work. I liked it... Until Deku vs Kacchan Part 2. This fight ruins the entire arc for me. Bakugou fails because he couldn't stop being a dick for 2 seconds and decides he's allowed to take it out on Izuku? Then he trauma dumps on him while playing victim. And then coerces him into a fight. And then is rewarded from throwing this temper tantrum by being given what he wants (knowing about OFA). This was the arc where my feelings towards the series really soured. I really debated putting it at the bottom, but I didn't want to dismiss the good things about it so easily

Forest Training Camp: Only good thing about this arc was Izuku's fight with Muscular and his relationship with Kota. But after that it's Bakugou making bad decisions and everyone else having to suffer for them. I do appreciate Kota slapping Mineta though

Dark Hero: Just... So much potential. But it feels like we never really go below the surface with Izuku. This is supposed to be his arc and it barely focused on who he is. He should have spoken with the vestiges more. Also, while I can understand where they were coming from, 1A ambushing and then antagonizing him was terrible and Bakugou's bum ass apology was even worse. The only reason it isn't lower is because of my unhinged love for Lady Nagant. She's one of the best written characters in the series and I adore her. Unfortunately, it feels like Hori doesn't allow her to influence the overall story

Pro Hero: So this one is just... Weird. I mean, I don't think I hate it? The fight was pretty cool. I love seeing Hawks' quirk in action because his use of it is so creative. I don't like him and Rei being used to prop Endeavor's development though. I just don't think this arc was that good

Joint Training: So I mentioned this in a reply somewhere, but Bakugou's flawless win felt so unearned. He hasn't put any work into getting along with others and working with a team (all the "progress" he made was others- Izuku- doing the work for him). The fact that he didn't so much as struggle like everyone else was just bad writing. Momo losing even though she did put in the work to learn to strategize better and cover her bases just felt like a slap in the face to her character. Every time it feels like Hori wants to do right by her character, he ends up making it worse but had no problem propping Bakugou up every five minutes. I liked Uraraka being the unsung star of this arc, Monoma's team underestimating her and then living to regret it was nice. It's one of the only times the progress she's made as a hero is ever acknowledged. This arc didn't do a good job of making me care about Shinsou though, no substance to his character. Monoma was pretty entertaining

Endeavor Agency: Boring ass arc. It wasn't funny or entertaining and had zero character development for our main characters. Natsuo is antagonized for calling out Endeavor and poor Fuyumi gets yelled at by Bakugou in her own home for sharing her feelings. And then Izuku's bs "i tHiNk YOurE geTtINg REaDy tO fOrGiVE hiM." Like I love him but wtf is that line? Hori trying to force Endeavor's redemption down our throats

Final Exams: This arc is all kinds of bullshit. Sero takes a hit for Mineta and is incapacitated and fails. Yet Bakugou is continuously uncooperative, attacks him teammate, and is also incapacitated and passes? Not to mention it's all on Izuku to be the one to teach him how to work with others when that's supposed to be Aizawa's job. Every other match was also useless. The only one that has real development and interaction was Tododoki and Momo. Todo gets humbled and learns to stop acting above his classmates (even if he didn't do this with the intent of being harmful, he still did it) and Momo gets more confidence and agency. But no one else really learned anything or improved. This arc just proves how bad a teacher Aizawa is tbh

Remedial Course: I feel like this arc is evidence that Bakugou would suck as the main character. I was bored to tears during the entire thing. It felt like forced Bakugou and Todoroki interaction first of all. And truth be told I didn't know that kid was supposed to be mini Bakugou, I thought he was representative of Monoma. He was nowhere as bad as Bakugou was as a kid and felt a lot more chill. Also looked more like Monoma. Idk if this is how Hori wants us to see kid Bakugou or what but we know this isn't how he was. And then Bakugou gives him this whole lecture only to turn around the next arc and still treat Izuku like shit. Fucking hypocrite. Camie telling him to shut up was the only good thing about this arc (stan Camie)

And that's the list! I'm only doing these arcs because they're the only ones I've read/watched completely. I don't want to make judgements about the next three arcs without fully knowing what I'm talking about. Though the leaks for the Final War don't bode well for its ranking.

So what do we think? Agree? Disagree? Let me know!

[gay-disabled-characters-showdown]

LGBTQ+ Disabled Characters Showdown Round 5, Poll 5

Please be civil in the notes. We will block people if we feel it is necessary. A character being canon LGBTQ+ and disabled was not required to be in this competition. Please check qualifications and propaganda before asking why a character is included. This is not a competition of who is better representation.

Check out the other polls in this round here.

Yang Xiao Long-RWBY

Qualifications:

She is canonically wlw (has been for years but specifically kissed and got together with her now girlfriend in the latest season) and uses a prosthetic arm and has been shown to struggle with PTSD due to the traumatic nature of losing it during the show.

Canonically had her right arm chopped off, uses a prosthetic. Has PTSD. Is canonically in a WLW relationship.

She has a canon girlfriend and canonically has a prosthetic arm and PTSD

She's canonically sapphic (part of a recently canonised wlw slowburn relationship) and is an amputee (due to events from the 3rd season finale) who wears a robotic prosthetic. She also suffers from PTSD which is explored in the show

Propaganda:

I will keep on submitting Yang to relevant brackets until I die. RWBY has plenty of strengths and weaknesses with writing, especially Yang's recovery arc, but instead of forcing her to push past her trauma and enter the battlefield immediately, we see her struggle with it, take time to process, and not be pushed into repression and when she chooses to wear her prosthetic, chooses to train to ready herself, and chooses to seek out her family and save lives, she isn't perfectly healed, as no one is. The show depicts her having flashbacks due to sudden loud noise, shaking hand the first few times she has to fight for her safety instead of training with her dad, and snapping at friends when they bring up Blake, the person she lost her arm trying to save (who, near immediately after ran away due to feeling she was endangering those she loved, furthering Yang's already present abandonment issues.) It isn't done perfectly but the intentions and general message sent are extremely positive and honest. She struggles less as the show progresses, and there are opportunities to consider herself less for being disabled or "become whole again" but she explicitly refutes these ideas and says that's she's better because of her failures and losses, and isn't any less whole. Her becoming disabled is also extremely tied to her being LGBT, because, as previously mentioned, she lost her arm protecting her then friend and partner, now girlfriend, directly after the villain who cut her arm off told her love interest that he would "destroy everything [she] love[s]. (Camera pans to Yang, he looks at her.) Starting with her." LIKE. He attacked her BECAUSE Blake cared for her so much and Yang ran to her defense blindly BECAUSE she loved Blake so much. When they reunite, they struggle with communication because Yang feels Blake is seeing her as weak, and through several things, mostly a climatic battle against the man who severed Yang's arm, they affirm each other as equals. I can go on but this is already too long. YANG SWEEP!!!!!

Yang lost her arm while protecting her best friend and future girlfriend from said girlfriend's abusive ex. Had a whole arc about learning to live with that loss and dealing with PTSD. Is totally devoted to and in love with Blake Belladonna and is just the sweetest but most badass character in the show.

She's one of the main characters, and just finished a 10 year slow burn romance. Plus, she has both physical and mental disabilities, but is never treated as lesser or incomplete.

Yang Xiao Long was one of the first examples of a sapphic character I ever saw in animated media with her character journey in the show being an iconic part of my teenage years and current young adulthood. The loss of her arm after a traumatic event in the show's 3rd volume was one of the big shockers of the show that nobody saw coming. Since then the show has done an amazing job in exploring both the mental and physical effects of her losing a limb, gaining a prosthetic arm and the recovery journey. Her character also has a major arc regarding handling her PTSD from both this and her past most notably in the 5th and 6th volume. Her character also has a slow-burn romance with her teammate and fellow main character Blake Belladonna which is one of my fave romances ever (it has everything: canon soulmates, friends to lovers, sunshine x grump,battle couple etc..) that has recently became CANON BABIEE!!! There are MULTIPLE characters in RWBY with various disabilities that are handled well in the narrative but i would say Yangs definitely the top FAVE!

Ballister Boldheart-Nimona (Film)

Qualifications:

He has a boyfriend (and then they have a sort-of-breakup but they're back together by the end) and he has a prosthetic arm.

He’s gay and missing an arm.

He’s explicitly gay, in love with a man. He loses his arm then builds himself a prosthetic while on the run like a badass.

His boyfriend cut his arm off :( he uses a prosthetic now.

His arm got chopped off after being falsely accused of killing the queen, he spends the rest of the movie with a prosthetic metal arm. His arm was also chopped off by his lover, Ambrosius Goldenloin, during said false assassination.

His boyfriend cut off his arm

Canonically has a boyfriend and built his own prosthetic

Qualifies by both being canonically disabled (amputee) + canonically gay

Propaganda:

Please plz plz vote for him

His boyfriend cut off his arm. He made himself a prosthetic. He used his arm to block someone’s sword. He kissed his boyfriend. He has sad wet cat eyes, which isn’t relevant but still. He has them.

He’s so GOOD even though he’s having like the worst day ever (specifically talking about movie but webcomic also applies). He has the biggest wettest eyes how can you not root for him????

People love him! He kinda looks like a sad, poor little cat. A real soggy wet kitten man.

Let's see. He and Ambrosius are lovers, or at least boyfriends, from the moment they're introduced. Ballister gets his arm chopped off by Ambrosius during the false assassination. Ballister spends the rest of the movie trying to convince Ambrosius and the kingdom of his innocence, with a metal arm replacing his missing one. It originated the phrase "Arm Chopping is not a love language!" Did I mention he's a main character too?

Is a science nerd, built his own prosthetic arm with his non-dominant hand, accidentally adopted a trans chaos demon of a 1000yo being

A knight, Nimona's best friend and father figure of sorts, but the plot mostly revolves around him- Ballister is framed for murder and has to hide while trying to figure out who framed him and how to prove he's innocent. Nimona becomes his sidekick (he didn't want one, she just showed up at his place one day like a very chaotic stray cat) and together they form a great duo against the corrupt government. This is complicated by Ballister's ex Ambrosius, who accidentally cut off Ballister's arm and is a bit brainwashed by government propaganda. Oops. You should watch Nimona it's great 💞🦈

The qualifications and propaganda paragraphs correspond, @foulfirerebel is the fifth submitter, and there were at least 7 others.

[pluckyredhead]

just because you just answered an ask about kon stories i am still made at the superboy man of tomorrow for setting up such an interesting arc with kon feeling superfluous to the superfamily, and clark not even noticing for a while that he’s left the planet, for such a supremely average comic and kon hand waving clark’s single attempt at an apology like it didn’t matter.

I one hundred percent agree with you, but I also feel like...it's almost not the Superboy mini's fault it was mid, because...what the hell kind of character development are we going to get out of any miniseries? Especially in the 2020s, where all miniseries are like, Issue 1: Introduce the concept; Issues 2-5: Nonstop action!; Issue 6: I guess we have to wrap things up now? There's no room for any kind of character or relationship growth because contemporary comic book storytelling simply isn't structured that way.

I did a deep dive into 80s/90s Superman comics a few months ago, and one thing that really struck me was how much time they spent on character. There were a billion subplots and every supporting character got one. Every issue told me not just what was going on for both Superman and Clark Kent, but what was going on with Lois, Jimmy, Ma and Pa, Perry, Perry's wife, Perry's terrible son Jerry, Cat Grant, Pete Ross and Lana Lang, Jose Delgado (MISS U JOSE, COME BACK TO ME), Professor Hamilton, Lex, and usually a handful of other antagonists. Pete and Lana didn't even live in Metropolis or Smallville or hang out with any of the other main characters, and the comics were still constantly like "Better check in on Pete and Lana!" And it never felt overfull, because the comics were structured to keep the central plot moving forward while always juggling multiple narrative balls, so that when, for example, Superman finished saving Cat from Morgan Edge and Intergang, the latest Jimmy plotline would be ready to take center stage.

I'm mostly enjoying the current era of Superbooks because I like seeing all my blorbos, but I'm frustrated too, because they finally have the whole Superfamily all hanging out all the time and they haven't actually done anything with it but let them all strike a dramatic pose on a splash page once per issue. (And, I guess, hint vaguely that various characters feel insecure - Kon, Jon, Kara, Karen - but never ever ever let those hints become satisfying stories.) Between Superman and Action Comics (especially when the latter was still an anthology book), they absolutely have the page count to tell a story about whatever villain Clark is currently fighting...and also Lois's struggles to lead up the Planet while Perry is in the hospital, and also Jon adjusting to not being the baby anymore in the face of his own lost childhood, and also Kon coming to terms with the Lex side of his DNA, and also Kara getting to do literally anything interesting, and also Kenan adjusting to living in America (...is he???), and so on. They're just letting a limited story bloat to fill the page count, instead of adding more story.

I mean. I cannot imagine picking up a Superman book in 1989 and not knowing what a character's job was or where they lived. Where the fuck do Kara or Kenan live? Is Jon living at home? How did the Kents fit two extra children in their apartment, then? What the hell does Jon do all day if he gave up on school after 20 minutes? If Kon is still in high school as that one terrible backup story implied, why is it not a problem for him to go into space for weeks or spend every day in Metropolis? Is Kenan commuting from China? Do Kara and Natasha have jobs? WHAT DO THESE PEOPLE DO WHEN THEY ARE NOT SPLASH PAGE POSING???

Anyway. All that was a little beside the point of what you asked, but I think my point was: we're never going to get anything satisfying with Kon (or Jon, or Kara, or anyone else) until a) he gets to take up space in an ongoing that b) is concerned with something more than fighting the latest villain or Shocking Revelations.

[greenfiend]

humbert humbert anon here

i saw that you reblogged henrysglocks response my my initial ask and i appreciate their response, but when i sent that ask to you i was especially looking for the perspective of someone whos not a henry stan to get answers from both sides.

you said youre not an expert but i disagree. a lot of your posts are really good and i think you could do costume stuff a lot of justice. anyway if you fully agree with henrysglock that’s cool but i was definitely looking for multiple perspectives on the topic.

Honestly, it means a lot that you want my perspective! That’s really flattering of you to say. I will do my best here for you. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m very much a “big picture” thinker, so I always try to connect why certain decisions are made and how it affects the main message of the entire story.

Which is: All you need is love

My post where I explain the exact way that Mike and Will’s love has been set up this whole time to save Hawkins talks A LOT about this. Click here <- for that post.

I kind of go back and forth a bit when it comes to Henry/Vecna’s role in the story. I feel like there’s still a lot left for us to discover. One thing is for sure though: killing him is not the answer. This isn’t the type of show for that. This show is about how choosing love is always going to be an opinion… no matter how far gone someone might be… it’s never too late to turn things around. This is what is going to happen with Henry. It has to be.

I know many scoff at the idea of a redemption arc. Labeling him as an irredeemable villain, diagnosing him as a person with Psychopathy/Anti-Social Personality Disorder (which is a whole other issue that I won’t go into here) etc. I know people these days are quick to “cancel” others for their bad deeds and not allowing them to grow and I hate it… I hate it so much. I guess it really hits home for me personally too because my job involves working with people who have extreme trauma and dark pasts. People who fall in between the cracks of society. Those are looked down on and judged the most. I always hold onto to hope that they can turn their lives around… there’s nothing I’d love to see more.

I will explain my current thoughts on his role in the story here though and how you may be right regarding his costume being a nod to a predatory character.

Cycles

So, I do agree with Henrysglock about Brenner’s style appearing a tad more like Humbert’s. Which makes sense. Brenner is definitely a predatory character! He exploits children for his own gain, and has CSA imagery surrounding him. Brenner preys on Henry, without a doubt. The First Shadow really shows us this. And Henry? He represents determinism. He believes it is inevitable that he will become a monster like Brenner- so he does. He preys on children too, but in a different way. He becomes his “papa”.

Looking more into Humbert’s style… there’s another character I noticed bares a resemblance. Lonnie.

Lonnie is a predator as well. He dated a teenage Joyce while he was 25, then decided he would prefer “the younger model” aka… Jonathan and Will… Now. I do believe that Lonnie became Will’s father (he isn’t Will’s biological dad…)- just like Humbert became Lolita’s father as well. Which… 🤢

I don’t think Brenner nor Lonnie will turn things around though. They choose to be monsters. Henry will choose to be human again, and his love for his sister and father will probably play a major role in his decision. That’s probably why we haven’t seen much of Henry’s dynamics with his sister or father yet.

Thank you for your ask!