#the way none of the antagonists are one-dimensional

[nb-n0v4]

GUESS WHAT I SAW. RAHHHHH THIS MOVIE WAS SO DAMN GOOD. Anyway we all new this guy was gonna be my new Guy(tm) words cannot explain how much I fucking love everything about this movie and this character and and grrrr it’s so GOOD AAAAAAA 

also more eye-strain-y version under the cut

[treehuggerthegreat]

something i really need to get off my chest even if i just post this privately is That i really dislike ‘caretakers’ in whump writing. or ‘whumper’ i feel like it makes a character (even if they’re just a hypothetical one) feel very 1 dimensional and it makes me so OKAY JUST HEAR ME OUT!!! whumpee i don’t mind much, it makes the prompt or what your talking about a little clearer. But it feels like it’s putting it into a box and making sort of roles which makes it feel less like a prompt and more like we’re in an omega verse fandom and i mean this really lovingly and affectionately and no hate to any of yall. I have a vast amount of characters and i write stories and books and I can say with out a shadow of a doubt, not ONE of them fall under ‘whumper’ or ‘caretaker’ because i develop them as their own individual character. Not even my antagonist are ‘whumpers’

So one of my main antagonists literally burns cigarettes on the MC and abuses the MC. Tries to kill her on her 18th birthday. Shes her mom, and the main character PHYSICALLY cannot leave that situation with out getting the authorities involved until she turns 18. Mom sounds like an ass, she beats ‘whumpee’ up! why would i NEVER call her a whumper? because she’s a whumpee by that logic. Her mom was extremely emotionally abusive, and half the time not fully there. Her shitty ass dad got murdered in front of her when she was just a kid. but Her mom isn’t a whumper either, because she too would be considered a whumpee. She was a world renowned flapper girl, everyone loved her. she LIVED for the fame and her face in newspapers. But behind the scenes she was actively ignoring her distant parents as they continued to try and marry her off. She was then forced into the marriage when she got pregnant with the guy (much so against her will which is why she killed him.) and ever since she’s been delusional and not fully there. It’s generational abuse.

more ramble under the cut + extra clarification on what I’m trying to say

okay but that’s just generational abuse right? There are other whumpers in the real world! Yeah i guess there’s sadists and serial killers, but like, there’s SOOOO much more guys.

I have a mini antagonist, he’s in highschool and he’s meant to be the toxic narcissistic ex of one of my characters. But he’s falling apart trying to get attention, he’s not fully aware of the damage he IS doing. Ass he may be but again behind the scenes he’s constantly fighting with his dad who refuses to do anything around the house and who is also transphobic (she’s bigender but i’ve been using he to make it less confusing right now) and now she has to take care of her little sister and act like a whole ass mom. As a sophomore. In high school. Not only that but her mom died, so she has to struggle with that. She’s just an annoying ass teenager, she doesn’t understand how to treat people or how she’s supposed to be handling what she’s dealing with. But getting attention and being liked at school? now that’s the shit. That’s like drugs for her. But to what lengths does she go to get that extra validation? He uses his boyfriend almost like an accessory. He’s not considerate of his feelings, and most likely doesn’t understand what a relationship is SUPPOSED to be.

Unless you’re making a sociopath character, which i LOVE a good sociopath character, you have to treat them like they also have humanity. Most of the time villains don’t just. Do shit to do it, they have some sort of background that lead up to this!!! And also even then with sociopaths they’re their own individual characters separate from the people they hurt!!! and also NONE of these are end all be alls and all characters must be developed this way!!!!

just my advice and stuff <3 i love all of you out there and i can understand why using certain roles and terms are the go to, and i’m not stopping you!!! i just really wanted to give my two cents so i can possibly help other writers!!!

[velvet-vox]

Oropo; the ideology of power behind being god: Part 1

This is for @secret-engima .

One of the things villains tend to do or want in fiction is becoming god or just having a god complex due to their insane power (examples down below):

Bill Chyper, big nihilist with unimaginable godlike powers that uses them for his own amusement and entertainment.

Flowey, a time resetting rogue experiment that wants to become god through manipulation and brute force.

The solver of the absolute fabric, the mechanical equivalent of the antichrist in his show, who plays himself up as the god of his universe.

All of these baddies have in common their insane power level as their main feature and seek to cultivate said characteristic in different ways.

Bill Chyper is a multi dimensional super being that burned down his own world and seeks to do it again in a new one to satisfy his sense of boredom caused by his insane godly powers; Bill although probably quite sadistic by nature considering the fact that he destroyed his own world, sees himself as a God, but doesn't think to highly of said title nor does he seek even more power and just limits himself to benefitting from its advantages.

Flowey is actually the reincarnated body of a traumatized, dead child that has risen to the temporary god of his world through the ability of rewinding time and wished to gain even more power through the absorption of souls so that he could finally break free from his unchanging existence and solitude. In his case, although Flowey already had the powers of a god, but didn't view himself as one so he decided to gain even more power than the one he had.

The Absolute Solver, (this part will be reviewed at a later date) although very mysterious and with an ongoing story going on, seems like a shared IA eldritch entity that can have various hosts each and every one active at the same time with a priority system and has an hive mind identity of his own that gives it a shaky sense of self and seeks to spread that self across the universe with his reality warping powers. The solver is portrayed as the devil while being viewed as god by the human researchers and this leads to an interesting dichotomy in the solver's sense of self.

But while all of this is pretty interesting on its own, I believe there is one villain who took the idea of power and becoming god and took it to a whole new level by building an entire philosophy, ideology and theology around it.

And that villain is none other than the Eliotrope Oropo from Wakfu, the main antagonist of season 3.

For starters even though Oropo in the actual season isn't as competently written as Nox and Qilby, the idea that he had baked into his DNA would have made him by far my favourite Wakfu antagonist, and one of said unique ideas that make Oropo so different from many other fictional villains is his unique spin on the "I want to become/am god" baddie mindset that he has developed.

You see, from the very start Oropo is an extremely powerful being but not an omnipotent one like Bill, more in line with the base form Absolute Solver and seeks to gain more power like Flowey.

But where he starts to differentiate himself from the others is the complex world view that he develops around the idea of power and godliness. You see, Oropo is a clone of the main character of the show that had his entire race of copies sent back in time to the beginning of everything and had to watch every single one of his siblings die with the gods being uncaring to their situation which sparked in him the idea to replace them. But while a normal person would think that he'd limit himself to just obtain more power and then become the only god of the world, what actually happens is that, in an attempt to prove himself better than the gods, he builds his own new pantheon made out of abandoned demigods and builds up a tower meant to represent his doctrine from which he'll replace the gods once the time loop ends.

And that's what's really fascinating about Oropo, it's his complex idea of what being a god is like; he doesn't limit himself to just being powerful or gaining more power to obtain everything he wants, no, he has to build a pantheon, a doctrine, his own mythology and have other people who share his ideology to rule alongside him in the hierarchy that he has envisioned complete with his own set of rules and roles which must be obeyed by everyone.

Next part>>>>

[evilhasnever]

man the replies and tags on my last reblog are so wild... people are so adamant that jgy and wwx have NOTHING in common, as if it offends them personally that the protagonist and the antagonist are intentional parallels to make a point about society (and not about their individual morality)

"jgy did it for himself" (nothing wrong with wanting to be respected/ not insulted everywhere he goes)

"jgy killed people for ambition" (no, he killed people for self preservation + everyone in the jianghu kills people for less?)

"jgy married his sister and killed his son" (the in/cest was accidental, he married her to protect her reputation instead of repudiating her, and he ALLEGEDLY killed his son, but this accusation is only raised by notorious gossip sect leader Yao in the novel, so ymmv)

"jgy never helped anyone else (unlike wwx)" This one is just WILD? Even ignoring all of the above, this one just shows you have not been paying attention to him. What about that time he won the war for the Sunshot forces, saved NMJ's life in Nightless city, saved Lan Xichen in hiding, rebuilt the Cloud Recesses, built the Watchtowers that saved thousands of commoners over the years (many more than some random night hunt by the gentry ever had), and single handedly gave a decade of peace and prosperity to the jianghu?

That is not to say he did not commit atrocities to protect himself (again, he was hardly the only one to do so) but... way to absolutely ignore all of the significant, enormous good he did. He saved so, so many more people than anyone else in the story. Tenfold, a hundredfold more. I have to assume not much thought was spared to JGY's motivations to have such an incomplete and two-dimensional view of him... I encourage you to think past the villain bias and go back to the actual story to fact check (and for what it's worth, if you've only seen CQL/The Untamed I assure you you don't have all the facts!)

The salient point is that mxtx makes these parallels between wwx and jgy on purpose, and none of it is about who is "good" or "bad" and what is "deserved". You do the story a disservice by flattening it to good vs bad., and besides it simply does not work if you read it that way: if the story were simply about good people winning and bad people getting their due, how do you explain what happened to XXC, WQ, WN, etc?





[strangestcase]

I could write an extremely long list of the reasons why the pop culture depiction of Hyde as unequivocally a monster and/or a whole self-aware entity overtaking Jekyll makes me upset.

The one I've only now realized, however, is that it robs Hyde of agency, and thus makes him a much less compelling character.

If you portray Hyde as a monster to be vanquished, an evil to be defeated, a violence that has to be stopped, does he even get to choose what he does, what he is? A lot of adaptations do this, to some extent- most have Hyde be either killed by another character (usually as self-defense, and I can't blame them), or have Jekyll decide to do what, in the book, couldn't bring himself to do (kill himself to destroy Hyde).

Hyde choosing to die, deciding that it will spare him of the shame and indignity of being executed, and, even worse, of being sent to the gallows by Utterson, might have been an impulse decision, but do you really expect Hyde to think things through? As Jekyll puts in in the final narration, a panicking Hyde is a cornered animal, and whatever happens to Jekyll is ultimately the choice of a cornered animal with very little options, none of them a dignified death.

I wouldn't say it is a redeeming act- Hyde is selfish. He is centered only on himself... on theory, at least. According to his thought process, it's either dying, or having to watch his best friend hand him over to the authorities, and then dying either way, and he's not having that, not when they're axing down the door and might be in physical danger anyway.

Hyde might be a monster, but there's enough humanity in him. And that's what makes him a compelling character and an effective villain to begin with; we're not talking about a force of pure evil that just so happened to awaken in Jekyll's body, we're talking about a privileged man that has realized nothing holds him back when certain conditions are met, and as it turns out, what he is in that state is a monster. He's not human like us, emphasis on like us.

Here is where you have to distinguish Hyde-as-a-concept (what he is) from Hyde-as-a-character (who he is). Hyde-as-a-character is the antagonist. Hyde-as-a-character is Jekyll. Hyde-as-a-concept, however, is... harder to jot down.

If you write it down that Hyde-as-a-concept is The Bad Guy, an evil taking residence in Jekyll, that's all he's going to be. "Evil" is where his character starts, not where it ends. I'm not saying that all adaptations make this mistake- even if you decide all he is is evil, you can still make him a compelling character and a great villain. But the point here is, if Hyde-as-a-concept is not Jekyll, if he is not a person with a background and a fully fleshed out personality behind all that eeeeeevil, he is just the monster of the week, and all he's narratively good for is either keep terrifying everyone or be defeated.

The fact that the OG Hyde-as-a-concept isn't defeated, that he isn't a monster to vanquish by a third party but a metaphorical entity (addiction itself!) that Jekyll has to battle, manage, and subdue, as part of his arc, even if it's one of decadence, gives him depth. It's somewhat ironic that precisely because Hyde isn't a "real" person (being Jekyll's persona in a Watsonian sense and Jekyll's struggles with addiction and what it means to be a bad person in a Doylist sense) he is a more real presence, a fully fleshed character (...no duh since he's Jekyll, in a different font), and a person with agency rather than a two-dimensional boogeyman.

[skydigiblogs]

honestly thought i would have a lot more to say about adventure 02 but like

i just finished episode 50 and the jist of my thoughts really are "yeah this is better than i remembered it being"

overall, an extremely ambitious follow up to digimon adventure, balancing a lot of plot points and an attempt at having a more cohesive storyline than "bad guy of the arc but suddenly it's apocalymon." in 02, most of the bad guys lead from one to another, in a way that seems much more intentionally thought-out than everything up until the dark master's arc in 01. even the one-off antagonists (dark ocean and demon's crew) played into the larger narrative, and weren't necessarily treated as one-offs so much as chances to expand the scope of the lore and use it to the narrative's benefit.

(although i do think it's a bit sad we never saw follow up on demon going "oh, you all are going to regret sending me to dagomon's ocean SOOOOO much")

also a lot of lore. so much lore. 01 introduced the fact that homeostasis has a bunch of agents that look like gennai, but a2 kept suggesting they're all copies (put a pin in that for my tri rewatch, much as i am loathe to rewatch that one). there wasn't any elaboration, but it is an interesting idea, and unfortunately i understand why it was kind of hastily noted and dismissed (the world tour arc had a lot to get to).

also the dimensional makeup of the digimon franchise got a lot more fascinating in 02. in 01 gennai mentioned that the gate could lead to all kinds of different places, but 02 actually takes that a step further in the lore, showing us the dark ocean and the dimension of dreams (even mentioning that the latter is pulled from by the digital world).

but it does maintain some of the problems i had with the original adventure in that i do wish more of the kids got to see their mega forms. :/

(i know tamers fixes that somewhat, then frontiers backpedals, but. you can't get me to rewatch frontiers lmao.)

furthermore, it does kind of suck that we're still left to wonder about ken's adventures in the digital world. we see ryo and millenniumon in his flashbacks to the adventures, but for audience members who missed out entirely on the wonderswan games, it makes it so we have to trust wormmon's word that ken was a kind person in the past. it's shown to an effective degree in the show, especially with his flashbacks to his childhood after the chimeramon arc.

it also makes narrative sense that they didn't feel the need to go over a story that's already happened, because that likely would have taken too long for 02, which already had so much going on. but maaaaaan. i do not want to play the wonderswan games, frfr (though i know there are fan translations out there for 'em).

i do love ken's arc though, as frustrating as him struggling with self-doubt is to watch. i'm glad the writers didn't make it seem too easy for him to forgive himself, because that's hard even if you weren't the vessel for like. All That Shit. i'm giving this boy a weighted blanket and hot tea.

tl;dr: compared to the oftentimes fever-dream like qualities of 01, 02 feels a lot more narratively focused in its story, and i think that really works to its favor. not a flawless season, but none of the digimon seasons are. a successful sequel to 01, much more so than i remembered from my last rewatch of the dub in 2020.

[morsking]

especially after the events of olympus it is paramount that fgo players understand that they are not above the narrative, and the story's antagonists will never be as cartoonish and one-dimensional as they might think they are. their motivations, their thoughts, and their goals will always be more complex than the most surface level reading, and often you will not know what they are right away. passing judgment upon them is stupid, the decisions they've made come from far more gray and far less lenient circumstances. it's always been that way. you are not immune to making those same choices. that's the point. from the earliest days of the fate series, way back during the original vn era, one of the most compelling and prevalent ideas within the story was you might have something in common with your worst enemy. you might have also walked down their path had your roles been reversed. you cannot say you could have objectively done better or worse simply because you have the benefit of hindsight and because your experiences were different. shit, ubw smacks you on the head with this by making its main protagonist and main antagonist the same fucking person.

this is especially evident with the crypters. everyone wants to brand them as insecure, jealous, holier-than-thou mass murderers. this is disproven as early as lostbelt 1. kadoc didn't take part in the bleaching of the earth's surface. he says explicitly that when he woke up from cryostasis, the world had already been bleached. he wasn't truly jealous of you, he was taking out the trauma of being denied a purpose and then dying out on someone like him. had guda been in his position, they would've reacted the same. he cools off in lostbelt 2, which is why he is kinder and happy to see your gaze has regained some measure of resolve.

ophelia, akuta, and pepe also reinforce this. none of them took part of the bleaching, and they killed no one. the bleaching was all the alien god. the lostbelts were all the work of the alien god. the only thing here that matters is that the alien god chose wodime as their emissary, and the other crypters were expendable. kirschtaria did not accept this. he would not abandon his friends, his comrades, his family. the choice was to cooperate with the alien god or die. could you have seriously, in all honesty, chosen differently? could you, knowing the entire earth was doomed by a product of its history, honestly have decided to keel over and taken your loved ones down with you? could you look me in the eye with zero bullshit and zero hesitation and tell me to my face you wouldn't have chosen to cooperate if it meant you had an opportunity to turn things around so none of those billions of deaths were for nothing and the world wouldn't belong to the being behind that destruction?

the lostbelt competition was a foregone conclusion. everyone knew kirschtaria was going to win, because the contest was designed that way. the alien god only intended for kirschtaria to win, and kirschtaria knew this. which is why he used his connection to the crypters as leverage. the other lostbelts were never meant to survive, they were kirschtaria's way of keeping the crypters out of the alien god's watch. that's why kadoc, pepe, and beryl weren't killed by kirschtaria when their lostbelts went SNAFU. it is an immensely cruel thing to do to all those worlds and all those lives, yet would you have done differently? if the lives of your loved ones were at stake, if you were being surveilled at all times with a gun to your head ready to pull the trigger at the slightest disobedience, would you have been so reckless as to put the people you cared about in harm's way? because that's what kirschtaria's position was. the alien god was ready to crush kirschtaria's heart if he broke their contract, and tipping off the crypters that he intended to do so would've gotten them all killed.

ultimately, that's what drives the conflict between chaldea and the crypters. the shared need to survive pitting them against each other. there is no guarantee chaldea can restore proper human history, and wodime could not take that chance when he had a plan of his own and the clear methods with which to accomplish it. a new world, a new humanity, free to make new mistakes and reach new heights, free from the grip of the gods, free from the grip of the systemic forces that plagued not just the lostbelts but proper human history itself.

and i need to stress that the story isn't trying to justify the deaths (if we can even call them that, in all likelihood) of 7 billion people by trying to say "maybe wodime was right!" what the story is saying is that, if there was a staggering loss of life, what alternative would humanity have to even have hope of moving forward? through lostbelts 1 - 4, you may be helping these worlds die peacefully, but you are still letting them die over the chance that you might restore proper human history. your success is an uncertain inkling, yet you have no choice but to move forward and accrue suffering to make sure NONE of those deaths are in vain. you are not judged for it, because the story knows there is no right or wrong answer to this kind of conflict, and the same principle applies to the crypters.

need i remind you that olympus ends with people being crushed by buildings, abandoning all hope, quivering and perishing in absolute terror as the only world they've ever known crumbles around them and the only beings that could save them were killed by your hand and by your order because there was no other way out. it is a gruesome death, an unsightly death. and it is brought about by your actions, and it is a terrible burden. and it is the exact same burden carried by kirschtaria, because he was a member of team A tasked with safeguarding humanity, and he failed. he does not claim that proper human history is full of too many mistakes to salvage because he is above them. he claims so because he also made mistakes in his own limited existence and doesn't want that for whatever humanity can still exist in the world he means to make.

and you know what? kirschtaria even understands what you’re doing. he is the only one who can. he cannot agree but he understands. which is why he never denies you the opportunity to prove yourself. he opposes you, challenges you, dares you. but he never denies you. he says “you think you can bring back proper human history? prove it. prove you have the conviction necessary to bear it and beat me with it.” and then you do. because he wanted you to, because he believed in you from the very start that you could do it if you set your mind to it because kirschtaria wodime for better or worse believes in mankind, and you do too.

so, tl;dr you and the crypters are the same do not be so arrogant as to pretend you are better than the story and you are the perfect blameless unbiased judge of everything ever because you look really stupid doing that

[trigunwritings]

So I have some THOUGHTS about episode 9 now that I finally was able to watch it, so I’m gonna ramble on about them below the readmore

- The brief flashback to Knives and Vash playing the piano together was interesting, not only in that it means both of them are fairly talented on the instrument, but also because it means the song that Knives has been playing in the times we’ve seen him has been only one-half of the full thing perhaps? I’m sure there’s something quite symbolic about it and how it pertains to the brothers being so interconnected, so I wonder how that might show up later 🤔

- Though I would have preferred to get some more depth to Knives via the scenes with Tesla (since that both showcases the stark difference between their viewpoints and establishes a really good reason for Knives to fear/hate humans so much) I did like that we got to see a direct act that shows the audience just how little the common population thinks of plants as anything more than tools

- “We’ve hit the production limit. They put too great a load on the plants, it cut them off from the higher dimension. They can’t maintain their bodies.” <- I have no clue what the hell that’s supposed to mean but, as the person becoming known in this fandom as the feral plant headcanon-er, I am VERY interested to see if they’ll ever elaborate on that since the manga/first anime never did. *shakes the Stampede series* LET ME KNOW THE SECRETS OF THE INTER-DIMENSIONAL ALIENS

- The ‘Last Run’ scene in general was fairly disturbing, but I know that was the point in order to hit home how Knives so far has interacted with humans (the mental pain had to be horrible, given how bad the distress of a single plant had affected Vash)—but who was the man he was with? Was that supposed to be Conrad? Has Knives already started up his cult?

- Even though Knives totally murdered some dudes, he sure did look cool while doing it

- “Outside of human control, plants use up all their energy in one burst and die.” / “So you bought into that nonsense… No matter how comfortable, chains are still chains.” 🫣

- WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON WITH VASH’S ARM

- “Is that… a gate?” WILL SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN THAT AT SOME POINT THANK YOU

- I find it interesting how Vash losing his arm was not from the direct influence of Knives—either his Angel Arm doesn’t exist, or its a wildly different kind of power. Either way, Knives having to make a split-second decision to remove his brother’s arm in order to keep that ‘gate’ (looks like a black hole to me tbh) from swallowing up everything is a really neat twist on intention.

- I saw a post recently joking about Knives being utterly obsessed with his brother and I thought it was hyperbole. I SEE THAT IT IN FACT ISNT. Knives you are a lonely fucker I swear to god.

- Last episode I was so confused on the timeline and was worried that they had shortened the time between the flashbacks to the present day—and I’m super happy to be wrong! Putting Luida and Bradley in cryosleep in order to prolonged their lives was a very creative way to keep those characters interacting with Vash.

- Meryl being SO surprised and impressed by flowers really hit home that they straight up DON’T exist on Noman’s Land…. which, jesus, that was a surprise. I assumed at best sickly little potted plants might have existed, but none? Very interesting…

- Roberto being pessimistic is really hitting home that I know he’s going to die soon and will likely be replaced with Milly in the following seasons. I really enjoy the way his character pairs with Meryl’s energy and positive realism 😭

- Ngl Zazie the Beast is lightly growing on me, mostly as a neat antagonist since they represent the native species on Noman’s Land before anyone else arrived. Wonder if their alliance will alter at any point…

- “Outside of human control, plants use up all their energy in one burst and die.” / “So you bought into that nonsense… No matter how comfortable, chains are still chains.” 🫣

- Totally thought Luida was going to die either by Vash (accidentally) or Knives (purposefully).

[duncanxtrent]

Alright season 2 thoughts below (Spoilers obviously)

Scary Girl was funny, but disappointing at the same time. I really wish she was at the very lesst somewhat antagonistic rather than just being a comic character. But I enjoyed her screamtime if nothing else

Chase had the exact amount of screen time he deserved, which is to say little to none. While pne dimensional jerks can be annoying, they gave him enough screentime that he was funny without becoming annoying. Perfect

Millie was upsetting. I really thought she could have done a bit better this season but she just kinda stayed lazy. Its kinda frustrating.

Emma was also upsetting. She once again had incredible potential to do better but Episode 4 just threw her in the trash. Even when it was so clearly Priyas fault… Upsetting.

Nichelle was ROBBED! Perfect character tbh but she got out WAY too early. I wouldnt have even been upset if she didn’t win but 5th eliminated was WAY too soon. Undeserved in my opinion.

Bowie was perfect this season. Didnt stay too long, had an interesting arc while he was here that built on his first one, and he was just fun to watch! Slay the day away my king.

Ripper was better this season. I do think him being a simp for Axel is… odd but he wasn’t annoying by any means. Maybe he could have done a little bit more than Axel but otherwise he was fine.

Axel on the other hand was SIGNIFICANTLY worse. She had so much potential to be a good competitor but Ripper just fucking dragged her down to his level. I am shaking crying and screaming how could they do this to her?!

Zee was also perfect honestly. Had a qorthwhile arc, didnt stay longer than he needed to, and didnt really harbor bad vibes to anyone. I do think his final episode could have been handled slightly better but I enjoyed him nonetheless.

MK I was sad to see go but she was fun! Her antics were up to 100 and were so much fun. Shes the Duncan of the season but somehow so much better?! Its honestly amazing how she did it! I likes her.

Once again, Damien was ROBBED! My boy was set for that finale. He was so fucking close, but he failed HARD! I expected Julia to steal the immunity idol but even still it sucked. Poor Damien, youre a finalist in my heart.

Priya overstayed her welcome but she wasnt bad I would have personally had her early merge or pre merge but her relationship with Caleb wasn’t uninteresting. But it did feel unnecessary. There were better options.

Caleb was alright IG. His arc between Julia and Priya was interesting character wise but I just couldn’t find myself rooting for him. He just didn’t interest me enough. Sorry Caleb, you just weren’t enough IG

Julia was AMAZING! She was such an asshole the whole season and played the game so well, so seeing her finally lose was ROYALLY satisfying. That and her and MK being lesbians for the whole season. That was hella nice.

Raj and Wayne make me wanna scream. They werent bad, and its not upsetting in the fact they did well, but its the fact they had virtually NO CHARACTER outside of each other. Wayne and Raj claimed to miss Damien after the show but they rarely interacted with him. Wayne claimed to try and be buds with Julia, but she hung out with Priya more than anything. Maybe its just the lack of Daily Life and the focus of Priya and Caleb, but I was FURIOUS when Wayne won. And hes my favorite character!

Overall, this season’s writing was dogshit. The elimination order wasnt bad, but the writing left me feeling incredibly disappointed. I just hope theyll take criticism from Season 2 and make the writing of season 3 better.

[maypearlss]

𝐨𝐜 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 : 𝐝𝐮𝐤𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝

my #1 fear is that duke becomes the babygirl of tni!, because trust me guys, save it for logan and tommy. anyways, i both love and hate duke? he's super fun to write... and he's the worst. but he has his moments... but he sucks. the duality of blond men. i'm very curious to see what you guys will think of him! let's go!

despite duke's vicious presence on stage, his name has been synonymous with charisma from the moment he first walked in front of a crowd and dedicated overconsumption's hit song "red hot lovergirl" to his girlfriend, nona. fierce, charismatic, confident: that's duke strickland. or, at least, duke strickland as the world knows him. those around him know a much different story.

duke's devil-may-care attitude is, by and large, a mask meant to cover his insecurity. nobody really knows the cause of it—by all accounts, duke's wealthy, rock 'n' roll life is as easy of a ride as it possibly can be—but nevertheless, it's obvious to anyone who considers themselves close to him. it's no big deal; most people are insecure in some way. and, as everyone knows, duke is a nice guy. harmless.

isn't he?

𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 ⋆｡°✩

full name: duke alexander strickland

age: 22 (1985)–tbd

birthday: february 18th

pronouns: he/him

sexuality: heterosexual

ethnicity: white american

occupation: lead singer and guitarist for overconsumption

love interest(s): none

likes: nona, performing, attention, cheeseburgers with fries (with mustard, no ketchup), gaslighting may

dislikes: may, his siblings, open-toe shoes, being ignored, cats

height: 6'1

build: muscular, broad-shouldered

hair: long, wild, blond

skin: light, suntanned, with soft freckles

eyes: bright turquoise

noticeable features: a faint scar running vertically down his right cheek

𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 ⋆｡°✩

⋆ you could be mine - guns n' roses

⋆ i wanna be your man - l.a. guns

⋆ love gun - kiss

⋆ too fast for love - mötley crüe

⋆ kickstart my heart - mötley crüe

⋆ all in the name of - mötley crüe

⋆ detroit rock city - kiss

⋆ live wire - mötley crüe

⋆ it's so easy - guns n' roses

⋆ any way you slice it - kiss

⋆ wild side - mötley crüe

⋆ locomotive (complicity) - guns n' roses

⋆ bitch is back - l.a. guns

⋆ king of the mountain - kiss

𝐟𝐮𝐧 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬 ⋆｡°✩

he's one of the middle children out of six and he routinely pretends that all five of his siblings do not exist, especially his oldest sister, barbi

he had red hair in my initial design for him before I decided on may having red hair instead

he hates being cold but he's cold 90% of every day

his nickname in my brain has been "duke dickhead" for as long as he's been a character

he was originally way more of a one-dimensional mustache-twirling "look at me, i'm so bad, let me evil laugh now" antagonist, but i think he's much more fun and interesting to write the way he is now

his arc is probably the one I'm the most excited to write

yeah, that's duke! he's such a problem :D my favorite thing about this post is that now that it's done, i can work on the posts for tommy my love <3 also, feel free to yell at me in the comments to actually work on plotting this, because my brain hasn't been braining recently and i need it LMAO

[kitschycartoons]

Fluppy Dogs (1986)

Warnings: None! this movie is ridiculously inoffensive Why did you choose this? Magic pubbies... cute What is this thing? Fluppy Dogs is a childrens book turned 45 minute pilot by Disney. This aired on Thanksgiving of 1986 so, tis the season. Unfortunately, the ratings for the special were very low, and Disney decided not to pick this up for a full series.

The good! Multicolored puppydogs with magical powers? sign me up. This movie was before my time, but kid me would've gone completely wild. Look at them, they're so cute, even though their design is a bit samey across the cast. They could've changed the dog breeds up a little, but oh well. A friend of mine noted that they look way better than Pound Puppies, and he's right. This would've been preferable.

[apologies for this deep fried quality, but you get the idea] Also, I like the name. Fluffy + Puppy = Fluppy, it's goofy 10/10 The special was animated by TMS, so the animation is top tier, no notes. The soundtrack is nicely done by a symphonic band(?) It follows a lot of familiar musical tropes for a children's show in the 80's, but it was kind of nice to hear again, even if it gets a bit repetitive. The bad! You can tell Disney was aiming at a Care Bears ripoff and this is exactly it. There's nothing that makes the Fluppy's stand out. They make you fly if you pet them, and they go on magical adventures through inter-dimensional doors. Care Bears worked because they were more cohesive in their mission and powers. They fly on in and help kids with their problems. Fluppy's? they show up in our world and wreak havoc because they got lost going on a magical door adventure. There were points where this almost felt like a parody show from Saturday Morning All Star Hits, the way the Fluppy's made Jamie (our self insert kid protagonist) play hookey from school and messed up his house. They put it back together, but still. When Jamie tries to put his foot down, Stanley (our Fluppy protagonist) tries bribing him with "Well don't you like going on adventures, Jamie?" It really felt like Charlie the Unicorn. Unlike a lot of cartoon reviewers, I give one dimensional villains slack. They can have a purpose and be fun if done right. But this antagonist was a snoozeball. An evil rich animal collector trying to capture the fluppies. Tell me you haven't heard this one before. He had one relatable scene though:

Pictured: Me when puppy. Also, look at this thang:

Its smug aura mocks me. I do not like this. I signed up for puppies. Get it out of here. This may be my 90's kid-now-old experience talking, but I could never stand a character who's purpose is to do nothing but be disruptive. You don't see these characters anymore, and my working theory is that people my age are making cartoons now, and they couldn't stand them either. Rating: 5/10

It's a perfectly average 80's kids special, and perfectly harmless. It's made by disney, so zero risks were involved here. But the cartoon quality is high. You can (coughs) find a full version on youtube. I doubt it's being put up on Disney+ any time soon. But the 2017 Ducktales gave them a little shout-out, and I think that's very sweet.

[bylertruther]

if you come into my inbox with an argumentative tone and try to lecture me on the complexity of will byers i'm just going to block you lol. if you want to have a discussion, we can absolutely have a discussion! but i'm not going to sit there and read your paragraphs where you try to tell me that i see him like a one-dimensional character like i'm not acting a fool sounding like an insane woman crying and screaming and begging people to stop reducing will to just one thing. also i didn't know that "effeminate" was a derogatory term and that's on me! i spoke to someone about this a few days ago and she corrected me when i was saying feminine and i didn't think twice about it because i just assumed she was right and no one else said anything either. but even then, feminine is not a bad thing. will isn't feminine, he's still Very boyish the same as the others, but you can't deny that he has more stereotypically feminine traits, gets bullied for these things, gets called slurs that are aimed at "flamboyant" men, and he HAS repeatedly been the damsel that everyone has to rally together to save more than once. none of these are bad things. will is still an EXCEPTIONALLY complex character and i am literally always begging people to see that. furthermore, these "stereotypically feminine traits" are literally his strengths. they're seen as good things, the things that save his life and the lives of everyone around them, the things that everyone loves him for. the only people who view these traits as negatives are the antagonists, like the bullies and lonnie. like. it would be bad if he WAS one-dimensional, but he isn't! and the narrative doesn't assign any judgement to this! again, it's the antagonists that paint it in a negative one-dimensional light, but we're not supposed to view it that way. he's just will. and there will always be people who cling to extreme stereotypes, but those extreme stereotypes started rising in popularity after noah grew up and became "larger" than his screen partner, so YES, these two events are absolutely related and that's a big issue. your body composition does not say anything about the kind of person that you are. like... why is this such a divisive thing to say lol

[antiquepearlss]

Deconstructing Hestia: A Lore Olympus Analysis

I originally hated Hestia, not through fault of her own as a person but as a character. I still slightly believe Hestia was kind of screwed over in terms of personality, turning a loving deity into a catty one dimensional antagonist. But looking at her character more, I appreciate her characterization. I think she may tie with Demeter for the best LO character.

I want to deconstruct how more, intense, fans view her. I see many posts, fanfics, comments, about how Hestia is an awful person. She's a hypocrite who goes against Persephone. She will oppose Hades and Persephone and probably not hold her peace at the wedding.

I don't see it that way. Hestia seems like a woman who has everyone's best interest in mind, even if it comes off as wrong.

Many people dislike her due to her actions early in the series. She takes Persephones fur coat. At first glance its seemingly very cruel and upsetting, but the bonus chapter in volume 2 explains these actions. And honestly, I would've done the same in her shoes.

Apollo manipulates her into thinking Persephone isn't following the rules of TGOEM. Of course this gives her group a bad image. If Perse keeps wearing that coat it insinuates she's sleeping around, essentially spitting in the face of Hestias establishment. (I wouldn't be surprised if this was just a retcon rachel made due to the backlash hestia received but I digress.)

This also explains why Hestia didn't approve of Persephone hanging out with Hades without a chaperone, she has every right to be suspicious of their actions. She had every right to be suspicious of Persephone, if she is aware of her history with Hermes and Ares. This reaction isn't due to her dislike of Hades or Persephone, it's just a precaution. A necessary one considering Persephone kissed Hades a few episodes later.

I honestly don't understand why people think Hestia and Hades dislike eachother. Hades states that he was into Hestia at one point and one panel shows her caring for him. She even shows up at his house to make food after waking up from a coma. I genuinely think, if Rachel writes it right, Hestia won't be against Persephone and Hades' relationship. If so she would've made a stink about it after seeing Hades and Persephone leave the same bed.

Hestia seemingly cares alot for Hades and despite popular belief. She cares deeply for Persephone. And while her comment to Hera was catty and a bit ooc imo (but it makes sense seeing as how Hera never made a public statement against Zeus' ruling. For all the Olympians knew, Hera went along with the arrest warrant) she cares for Hera and Demeter. I don't like that Demeter called her a snitch, because I fully believe Hestia would've hid her.

I don't like this choice in wording "groomed", but I think it is apparent that Hestia cares for Persephone and sees alot of potential in her. She doesn't even worry about the fact that Persephone is hiding in Hades' house, she's just relieved to see she is safe.

Another gripe I see about Hestia that bothers me is people saying she's a hypocrite for being with Athena. TGOEM is about not having sexual relations and focusing attention on the good of others. And theres nothing that insinuates that what Athena and Hestia have is a sexual relationship. It upsets me that people think relationships are inherently sexual. For all we know, Hestia and Athena have a purely romantic relationship. We've seen (1) doodle of them kissing, and their flirts aren't sexual. And yes they seemingly share a bed but once again, that does not imply sexual relations. Cuddling, watching tv, and sleeping happen in beds. None of these actions are sexual.

Also I mean, her design is pretty great. I love that she's plus size but not shown as lazy or ugly. I love her orange tones and her peach hair. And her yoga hairstyles and loose but fancy clothing are very charming.

Hestia is not without her faults, but I'll give Rachel credit where credit is due, she wrote an amazing character (even if unknowingly)

I know the fandom hates her for no real reason (aside from the fact that stans seem to oppose literally any character who isn't a simp but whatever) but I hope that this essay changes your mind and we can all appreciate this amazing character

[ladymelisande]

You have started watching The Glory!!

Without getting into the spoiler zone, I'll just say that this drama will get under your nerves for a while but be incredibly satisfying eventually. KES never disappoints.

Another thing you will notice while watching the drama is how appalling the villains are. Especially the main one. She is terrifying but loathsome and yet, a very consistent character with a role to play within the story. Not once will she feel cartoonish or two dimensional because such people do exist in real life.

Watching her reminded me of how the writers of a certain other show chickened out and ruined their female villain by turning her into a mopey mess 🤭

I'm sorry for not answering this when I watched, dear. I consumed that drama like a drug and needed some time to process it but now I might go for a rewatch.

But yes, KES never disappoints. I love how this drama came after TKEM and all the idiots complaining that it was too cheesy. KES came with it like: You want dark? I'll give you DARK.

And yes, once again she goes well on how she writes the villain. None of this supposedly 'morally grey' rubbish that gringo writes can't even write well. The villains are villains because they are bad people and these bad people were real. The protagonist is an anti hero, yes, but because she is an anti hero doesn't mean she is the same as them. That's something the idiots in HOTD seem incapable to write.

Also, the complete lack of that fake 'urr urr women can't dislike each other without me interfering'. Like no, one of the prominent themes of this show is how mothers condemm their daughters. Both the antagonist and protagonist have terrible mothers and Dong-eun us allowed to not forgive her awful mother. I swear if The Glory was an American show, her mother would have suffered a sudden 'tragic' death and then Dong-eun would have to have a montage of how her psycho mother was 'sweet once upon a time'.

Song Hye Kyo surprised me because one of the reasons I was kind of meh about her casting is that I didn't like her much in other dramas, but here she was incredible, she should play more anti heroes. Also, the way the main villain is both written and acted is *chef kiss*. The actress is also... Normal. No stupid crying about why her character is disliked, nope, she worked for that character to be disliked. That's how a good actress replies to the audience disliking her villain role: Yes, thank you, that means I did a good job.

Anyway, this drama is the best cure for HOTD idiocity.

[lethargicwizard]

Alright I think enough time has passed but nevertheless; Spoilers for Black Panther Wakanda Forever!

to start off I really enjoyed the film, I know "MCU writing" has become something of a meme recently with how formulaic it can be and how you can practically predict how the dialogue will go for most of the movie but Wakanda Forever's themes of grief and loss along with how it carries a more mellow/serious to even melancholy tone over the better part of its run time makes it a very refreshing change from what I usually expect from Marvel. I'm not saying to abandon that style entirely but save it for the more snarky characters in the Marvel gallery.

while I am and always have been of the firm belief that you should never just make characters a different race or ethnicity as opposed to creating original stories and characters the talokhans are the exception that proves the rule, they have an interesting and fleshed-out backstory that makes them feel unique and original as opposed to if they just copy and pasted on Mayan designs to the original Atlantans, I'm a sucker for the sort of tribal futurism that has become indicative of this series making them feel like what might happen if you left an isolated Mayan civilization alone till the present day. The fact that they went through the trouble and chose to create a brand new underwater civilization as opposed to the same overused trope of Atlantis is delightfully refreshing and the fact that they based it off Tlālōcān the Aztec/Mayan (present in both mythologies) paradise realms for those who died violently from phenomena associated with water is just a cherry on top. As far as antagonists go I think they're top-notch, the fact that they are a very clear foil to Wakanda itself and don't so much feel like villains as they feel like people trying to protect their way of life also considering the relationship between Black panthers and Namor as well as the respective kingdoms they rule over in the comics they seem like the obvious choice, not to mention the fact that no one would believe that any force from earth could touch Wakanda aside from a nation of equal standing. The city of Talokhan itself is an absolute masterpiece and not just for the iconic tour scene accompanied by "Con la brisa" but for being the only underwater civilization that makes use of three-dimensional architecture given the fact that they are in a medium that allows for it: which gives me the pleasure of awarding it the

"Greatest Fictional World-building/ Fictional Architecture Award"

not to mention that that was undeniably harder to film given that it had to be filmed underwater. And to that end, I wouldn't be opposed to seeing a slice-of-life comic run detailing daily life in Talokhan or in Wakanda for that matter. However, my absolute favorite thing about the Talokhans was that they were able to recreate the same magic for the Latine community as the original Black Panther did for Black people back in 2018 giving Latine and indigenous actors a chance to be on the big screen and shine with all their glory, plus a new hand sign out of it.

Characters:

Shuri: Her journey through the film was an incredible ride watching her deal with grief, wrath, and heartache throughout made her standout and not feel like she was just in T'Chala's shadow, watching her stumble and slowly but surely become her version of the black panther was great. The fact that she still jokes around and still has fun in the movie feels very relatable since life can't slow down for grief and healing and sometimes little sparks of joy leak out in sadness, I think her journey as queen and as a protector and i look forward to seeing it all

M'Baku: Once again an absolute joy to have on-screen, his comedy, shit talk, and lines are second to none and in general just heightens the quality of the film. His range as a character surprised me this time while he's always been belligerent but honorable his ability to empathize as well as the respect and recognition he shows towards Okoye and Shuri in this film gave me another layer of respect for his character, Winston Duke's performance was all around top notch.

Namor: This rendition of the character is without question my favorite, and while that's not really saying much coming from someone who's always thought of Namor as one of the most yee-yee head-ass characters to ever exist from the dumb ass Hermes feet to usually wearing some scale covered briefs/speedo/ male striper wetsuit, I enjoyed his design this time around. The boxer briefs, armbands, footwear, collar piece, and piercings do so much for his design to be unique and so him (at least in this origin). Tenoch Huerta does a magnificent job as the character capturing his infamous condescending nature yet still making him charismatic and enjoyable making him feel sympathetic and caring as a leader. As far as his moral affiliation and alignment goes I never thought the anti-hero title suited him all that well at least in this rendition of the character, both he and the black panthers fill this odd niche as leaders of nations for how they fit in a moral scope since they are always juxtaposed from what they feel and what they need to do for the sake of their people. Above everything else, my favorite part about Namor in this film is his fight choreography; as much as I loath the foot wings (the wing loading you'd need on those alone...) the way they allow him to kick off the air like a platform is one of the coolest locomotion choices I've ever seen giving him this sense of agility and maneuverability that is unparalleled in universe and in any other media, not to mention his intelligent use of his speed, strength, and velocity in his unarmed combat makes his style feel fresh, unique, and tailor-made for him. Also, he makes the second example for my thesis that water-themed comic book characters are significantly better with facial hair.

(i loved Okoye, Attuma, and Namora too but there wasnt much else i could say about them still love them, their performances and their actors tho)

All and all I love this film quite a lot so much so that I'm actually considering buying this upon release, that after credit scene and memorial to Chadwick Boseman simultaneously feel like a kiss on the forehead and a punch to the gut and I almost cried several times in. this film

[misrepresentedmorallygrey]

PROPAGANDA

Caroline Propaganda

"this is a new opinion to me personally. However i do like it. Caroline Bingley was a Mean Girl TM to the Bennets, it is true. but like she was only really wrong about Jane and Elizabeth, and that motivation was jealousy and self interest (towards a socially acceptable goal). Jealousy because they were getting attention from her boys, Charles and Darcy, and self interest because she had a plan to secure Darcy's hand in marriage which did not involve either Jane (or Lizzie) getting married. Yes she was rude in leaving Netherfield and dismissing Jane when she got to London. But none of this actually justifies how much hate is directed towards her by the fandom. She was just trying to do what was expected honestly and she wasn't even the worst offender in the story. That would be Whickham. Even Lady de Bough and Mr. Collins are arguably worse towards the Bennet family than Caroline and Caroline is matching her sister in almost all of these offenses. We forgave Mr. Darcy for his part in convincing Bingley to leave, why not Caroline? it seems like she made her amends. AND Caroline even warned Lizzy about Wickham when not even Darcy, who had kinder feelings towards her and more credibility on the issue at large, did!"

Helene Propaganda

"while already being a character whose narrative purpose was basically to show how much leo tolstoy hates women, the fandom makes it so, so much worse, playing up her supposed "villainy" over that of even what tolstoy writes. constantly i've seen people say that she deserved being threatened and almost killed by her husband because she's? a bitch, i guess? like her husband literally throws a marble slab at her and yells "i'll kill you!" at her and tolstoy implies that if hélène hadn't run away he literally would have and i've seen people say that they wish he had solely because their marriage made him unhappy, when the marriage wasn't her choice either. later on in the book, she aids her brother, anatole, in an attempt to elope with the female protag and i've seen people say that hélène was Worse than anatole, the one trying to elope w/ an engaged girl solely because he wanted to sleep with her, because hélène should have "known better" while anatole was just a stupid guy... do they not see how fucked it is to excuse a man's direct actions and blame it on a woman for not stopping him? any defense of her character is constantly met with people saying that she's one-dimensional and not worth defending because she's meant to be an antagonist — without looking at the fact that she's written that way because she represents what Tolstoy, a misogynistic old man, hates in women. with literally the slightest shred of context it's obvious that she is not the villain tolstoy makes her out to be. how a fandom in 2023 shares the same beliefs abt women that a man in the 1860s does is completely baffling"