#this fandom may be dead but i gotta rant

[theriness]

WIP(Dead Plate)

Work in progress of a dead plate animation. I know vince cant taste but lemon juice soaked into fluffy breads gotta be better than rock solid bread, i also know thst he would never be so bad at baking but i wanted to follow the lyrics. I may have drawn him a bit too expressive here, but hey im very new to these characters. Im not even sure if im gonna join the fandom yet(edit, im in the fandom, i have been dragged in by all the edits and fanart, played the game too) . I just had to make this tho, sudden burst of motivation. Song does not belong to me, characters belong to the creators of "dead plate" nothing but the animation belongs to me. Anyways, sorry about the long rant, enjoy i guess.

[renthony]

May we see rant you mentioned about art, fandom, and capitalism?

The way I see it, fandom as it exists now is a result of people coping with capitalist alienation from art. It's a way to reclaim what capitalism is trying to take away from us.

There are plenty of critiques of things within fandom, but "fandom" itself, to me, has always felt less like a unified thing and more like...a broad concept. There is no singular "fandom community," even surrounding individual pieces of media. There are endless small communities surrounding countless different things, all curating their own experiences and values, that may have absolutely nothing in common with each other beyond "we all enjoyed something about [x thing]."

I think of "fandom" as a philosophy that nobody can truly "own" art, even the artist, because the artist can't control what people take away from the art.

The legal ownership of stories has been made infinitely complicated due to things like convoluted laws around copyright, public domain, and corporate ownership. Companies can own the rights to someone's art, and even their image, well after they die (see: Marilyn Monroe).

Transformative art, adaptations, reinventions, and organic collaborative storytelling have all been commodified. Even in instances where countless people contribute to a story and a character, to the point where it really should be considered public domain, the "intellectual property" is still "owned" by a corporation.

You can't just put out your own version of a thing because everything is Owned By Someone, and it will always be Owned By Someone even after the original artist is long gone. It takes longer and longer and longer for things to legally enter the public domain, because corporations hoard the copyright as long as humanly possible--even going so far as to lobby for legislation that extends it. Looking at you, Disney.

As an author, I'm forced to monetize my writing because if I don't have an income, I can't eat or pay bills or go to the doctor or do anything I need to do to function in our capitalist society. If I didn't have to reckon with capitalism, I could just drop my stories into the world and say, "here. I made a thing. Play with it however the hell you want. I need no money for it, it's something I want to share for fun. Keep my name on the original, but otherwise, go nuts. Make your own. Rip it apart and redo it. I don't even care."

As an artist, I deserve compensation and credit for my labor, but I don't think I "own" my art. The art is out there for people to engage with however the hell they want, and interpret through their own experiences and worldview, and I don't really get to dictate how they do that.

But in the reality I live in, I gotta protect my intellectual property. If someone took my characters, totally rewrote The Queen of Cups, published it, and started making money on it, that would really fuckin' suck. I gotta eat, and I need compensation for my work so that I can afford the aforementioned ability to eat.

(That said, in case it isn't clear: if at any point you feel the urge to write fanfic based on my work, you have my blanket permission. I love transformative work. Art is meant to be shared and interpreted and reinterpreted and loved!!!! Please just don't take money out of my pocket while you do it. Capitalism is hell for us all.)

To give a broader example: why the hell isn't Superman public domain? There have been more Superman writers and artists and actors than I can count. Everyone knows who Superman is. People write their own Superman stories and make their own Superman art and everyone has their own personal interpretation of Superman, so why the fuck is there a single entity who "owns" Superman? Both of the original creators have been dead for over twenty years.

Why does a faceless, soulless corporation get to decide who and what Superman is, when he's clearly grown beyond being A Single Unified Thing that can be owned by A Single Individual Person? Why is the concept of Superman still something that can be "owned" when he was first created in 1932, and hasn't been the sole creation of the original writers since well before I was born?

Why can't I put out my own Superman story and have it be just as interesting and valuable and legitimate as any of the countless conflicting Superman canons owned by DC? What gives a Superman story legitimacy? What makes it "really" Superman? What makes the DC corporate office the sole right to decide any of that? They didn't make Superman any more than I did! They just own it! Why is that a thing they can own?

There's also an entire discussion around fandom existing as a way to fill in the soul that capitalism strips out of art. That's a big part of it. Capitalism sucks all the heart out of things in order to make it Maximally Profitable, and the end result is a hollow shell that the common people are left to fill in themselves. Even if the original artists had more to say, and wanted to give their art that soul, capitalism allows uninvolved CEOs to step in and say, "nah, I own you and I own your art, and I don't like that part, cut it," and the artists can't do a goddamn thing about it.

There's a ton more to discuss about the topic, and plenty of nuance, and things I haven't even gotten into on this post, but my core belief about fandom is that it exists in direct relation to capitalist commodification of art. You can't have a nuanced conversation about fandom without also talking about capitalism in the arts.

[bcacstuff]

The abuse of every woman in his sphere started and has gotten to this level because of his indifference and inability to shut the perpetrators up. He never did it when his co-star was constantly attacked and bullied in his name and won't do it for any woman he may or may not be with. Quite often he instigated and approved the dissing of C while fully aware that would only embolden his followers, which it did. Fans are to blame for their own vicious behavior but S also bares responsibility because he never stepped in to stop them. One word from him would have gone a long way. Instead, he used fans and every woman close to him for self gratification and personal gain.

It's an interesting discussion and maybe even an important one. I try to see it from both sides, or perhaps even there are 3 sides involved. Put myself in their shoes, imagine their motivations and see the pro's and cons and potential consequences of their actions.

In no particular order:

The women involved You don't need an eyeglass to see which women he's interested in. About all of them expose them in a way that, mildly said make people think it is justified to call them all kind of names. Of course it isn't justified to do so, we're not living in the middle ages and there's no need to crucify them. But I have to admit, looking at the IGs made me often sigh and think, why do you think it is necessary to expose yourself in that way? I know, you can be proud of your body, and I know showing off your T&A (if you have them flaunt them) is gaining more attraction then when you're looking like a secretary with spectacles in a nice little suit with a skirt up to your knees. Sure.. but it's a 'certain' kind of attraction. No sweat, I don't mind some skin, but have to say, sometimes it's just a little too much.

Next to that, we are often lead to these ladies, either by a follow of him or people associated by him. Blame it on him... or... what about how we find our confirmation not because of a picture of them both but simply because the women are posting their whereabouts and leads us to find and connect the dots. A beach house in Hawaii, the restaurants and night clubs in Paris and then someone's getting papped. Yes, okay, should they not post? Well even then, in this last case no posts at all, and still...

In any case, it doesn't justify vicious behaviour in anyway from 'fans'.

I have to add to this chapter that C is of course in no way to put on the same level as the above described women in relation to S. She was attacked and bullied simply because she didn't go by the narrative that part of the fandom put on her. So that's another story than the above women. I wanted to make that clear.

Sam He's bares responsibility and he keeps making it a show which gives prominence and terrible optics. (I quoted both of you Anons, you put it down very eloquently).

There were tacky posts, the in bed with Eddie the cat and the pancakes in the kitchen of the house C lived in before, I can see how this has put people on a (wrong) track and instigated discussion that were not beneficial for his co-star but for him they were. Were they innocent, like he didn't think about it? Even though he shows he's not always sharpest knife in the drawer, he surely knew how this would lead to shenanigans.

The Hawaii show, ugly. All the way, his responsibility as well as that of GM posting daily records to us. It was very amusing to watch the whole show (gotta admit) but at the same time seeing how she got abused was horrible. Perhaps you can say this was one of the times he did speak up with his 4 page rant. And he did mention how people associated with him are affected and receiving dead threats. Though what was his motivation, not only the abuse but (and perhaps most) because he was in jeopardy himself, being called out about his covidiocy which he never addressed appropriately. So I would say, wrong timing and in that 4 page rant throwing everything in but the kitchen sink was not really standing up for others, or shut the perpetrators up. These are some examples, there are absolutely more. But I'm afraid that would make me write a whole book.

I also wanted to go into 'his indifference and inability to shut the perpetrators up'. Now I can see how you can go back and forth on it. When is it time to speak up, do you not give extra air to this when you're going to speak up about it. And if he speaks up, is he admitting at the same time his 'brief hookups' (and I put that between quotes because you can have numerous interpretations of what it is)? If he speaks up is it really going to shut those perpetrators up? I don't think it would shut people up, but I do think it shows the support of the people affected. Also in case of his co-star, you named it Anon, a number of times showing approval in a passive aggressive way. He never spoke up about the dissing of his co-star. I felt astonished a number of times how he retweeted persons (his fans) that obviously are the same that dish her and bully part of the fandom that do not praise him into heaven but have a more realistic view on him and question things from time to time.

The 'fans' It's one thing to discuss things here on Tumblr, and that includes me and my blog. You could accuse me from exposing these women that eventually leads people to their IG. Well, actually only this last one, and apart from that I posted some videos of his Paris trip with AM. It's not an excuse, but if I wouldn't have posted it, someone else would have. I wasn't even here during GM, and AM got named on another blog. At least I try to have a decent and open discussion on this blog and put things out here as they are. What we don't do is tagging them or him and nobody is forced to come here and read about it, including him and all the women involved.

However it's a whole other game to go to their IGs and leave horrible comments, have vicious discussions and even go into racism. I simply can't understand in anyway why people are doing this, how they can sleep at night and feel good about doing it. It's disgusting, and never justified to do so. Not in any way. Not even when you say the women involved and S have their responsibility too. That still doesn't justify these terrible actions. I can not see it in any other way. The consequences of these actions are that people are hurt, things only get worse and even can lead to something very unintended. If you haven't seen 'The most hated man on the internet' yet, go and see it. Then you know what I'm talking about.

End conclusion We all are part of this, we all have a responsibility in it, and we should all think about the consequences of our actions, we, them, and him.

[colorful-white-ideas]

I agree with what you just said about this place, basically Bill's fandom and I use that word loosely, being dead AF. It's, he, is so boring lately. It took me awhile to really mean that bc I wanted to hope his light would come back again. But he doesn't seem to care about his fans or even himself anymore. Have you noticed he wears the same black outfit (black shirt black pants or jeans) all the time now? He only manages a smile when he's not with you know who. And yet he keeps showing up with you know who. If he can't bother to care why should his fans? I just hope his acting hasn't suffered like his life has. I loved watching him in pretty much anything. Dude can act and it comes naturally. That's something other actors would kill for.

I see hes trying to give some content and trying to look good, younger ( thus the rings and earring , and all that dark clothing) BUT is not enough. He is always hiding , the news that get to come out its because fans are looking for them ... his team is most of the time silent. There is no hype around him , not even in this fandom ( not as it may have been 4 years ago x example) and next year is key , he will have at least 3 movies out in different times of the next year.

Sorry for the following rant it's just to get it out of my chest. I won't talk about that anymore from now.

I want to also say something since sometimes I get some ask that I later erase with the typical " you just hate you are not with him".

Im not stupid , I'm not in love of someone I DONT KNOW. Also I have nothing personal against Alida M, I don't know her personally to hate her. But I DO HAVE A PROBLEM with wasted privilege.

The reason why I started to like Bill and - why not- his family is because you can see they all worked to get what they want. They may have had it easier in some ways but they always wanted to go beyond , try something else to make a name on their own. I admire that. They are not the classical nepo rich kids.

A is the very opposite. She wanted to be a public persona and that's fine but only promoted her rich kid personality while traying ( in interviews ) to portray herself as a working woman. I hate fake humility. It's ok if she just wanted to be a socilite ... why lie ? why say you are an actress but don't look for more projects? why dont take classes? and if its not for you then why not USE THE POSITION you have to build something else? There is alot to do for the industry : casting, writing, make up, production, etc. She bragged on her personal social media acc about the wrong things. Contradiction at it's finnest

A contradiction that reflected onto Bill later on , the humble funny likable guy aware of his upbringing disaspeared before our eyes , he sounded in interviews more and more cocky and selfcentered. He claimed being private but at the same time was being recorded on intimate moments very often. We started to see him stressed , tired ,a shadow of who he was.

There were no changes... 'till now. I gotta acknowledge her attemps to change, also what Bill is trying to do to save - idk - his image and maybe his family too ¿? . Still the damage has been done

Anyway i'm just one among millions in the world , if I or all the people in this fandom leaves , new ones will arrive. We are replaceable.

I wish him luck in whatever he is trying to do.

And yes he can act , thats the only things that keeps his fandom slightly breathing.

[merevide]

i have zero thoughts in my mind except this specific photo of helena. she slayed (literally)

[tundrainafrica]

Why I love LeviHan (a rant)

So I'm pretty new to the LeviHan community and I just wanted to rant about how much of a work of art this fucking ship is even though I have no idea whether Isayama did it on purpose or not. But damn, this ship literally introduced me to the drama of shipping fluff and AUs --- two genres I used to avoid like the plague because never have I felt such adamance for a ship to set sail in YEARS since Percabeth back in high school.

To give some background about myself, the past five years, I was no fan of ships. Like literally, I tried to avoid shipping fics like the plague (for any fandom) because I was like "come on war racial war, zombie like monsters? Who has time to fall in love?" A lot of non romance shows don’t leave time for a relationship to develop and we literally just get a time skip where suddenly they pair people up together and I’m like woop good story but yo how the heck did they end up together.

In real life, I also did get into a healthy relationship with a guy, a slow burn after five years type and I thought yeah I've seen how I want a relationship to develop and now imma be picky as fuck with ships.

I did end up picky as fuck with ships but Isayama with the minimal screen time he actually gave this ship to set sail with probably minimal intention to actually confirm their ship got me climbing into this ship while it sunk canonically after chapter 132 because holy fuck ISAYAMA YOU MAD MAN.

Let's talk about how they were introduced. Trost is destroyed. Titans are impossible to kill then whoop. We get a group of weirdos and outcasts who can somehow kill titans like crazy.

Strong titan slayer dude.

Strong titan slayer girl. (Hange is female to me.)

Cool commander dude.

Cool interesting characters. Eren's dream team since episode 1. Two captains. Constantly together. Erwin is their glue. Nothing suspicious about that. They work together. They're too busy fighting Titans to actually be considering a relationship right??

Besides, Hange and Levi are just way too different like

Levi is like *slash slash slash I hate titans u ugly* *slash slash slash eww titan blood* *slash slash slash kill Titans they're all monsters* 

Hange is like *slash slash slash oooh titan blood* *slash slash slash dont kill them i wanna dissect them* *doesn't slash* titans make me horny.

Like sure we could argue opposites attract but there are more cases where opposite personality dating would probably backfire and with the idiosyncrasies of both parties at polar ends of the spectrum it just didn't seem possible for there to be a spark? Like logistically they would tear each other's hair out if they were stuck together in a relationship.

At that point, Erwin being the middle ground between both captain weirdos, I couldn't help but think shipping Erwin with either of them would have been the more realistic option.

Season 2 had its fair share the first two scenes with Levi picking her up and the carriage. Didn't see anything too sparky yet and yes the last scene where he could tell who she is by her knock. (but yes sparks flew in hindsight).

Season 3: Erwin the glue gets trapped in capital due to political reasons and only one arm. Two captains forced to combine forces to manage the survey corps in peril. They get their bonding moments like torturing some dude together and reflecting over the untimely deaths of Hange’s squad. (and maybe Levi’s squad too)

They separate while coup d'etat happens because their skills were needed elsewhere. They got to save Eren and like hours later in the cavern Levi was especially concerned about Hange when she got shot by the hook back in the cavern like you don't see that concern with any other character except maybe Erwin. (But it can be argued that maybe all the other people he ever loved died too fast he never got the time to be concerned.)

All the way until the battle of Shiganshina Levi is usually with Hange.

When he’s not with her, there’s a reason (usually Erwin’s orders.)

When he's not with her he's thinking about her.

Then Erwin their magical glue of a commander does die and the captains gotta stick together even without the glue because they're the last two surviving people in the old survey corps.

It's apparent Levi hates the changes made to the survey corps because he still keeps the green cloak which everyone kinda abandoned. So it can be argued that Hänge was also that last bit of fresh air Levi had of the olden days.

So

they're

together

in

almost

Every

Friking

Scene

Like you can't blame them. Levi is anti social and traditional survey corps type.

Hange is still reeling from the loss of Erwin and her quick rise to power as commander.

They may have differing personalities but they had the same history. They both know loss, bloodshed and battle the survey corps brings that no one else probably understands to the extent they do.

And we get the bombshell of this scene.

Hange literally proposes to him that they just run away to the forest and just build a life for themselves and the cold harsh brazen Levi doesn't outright reject it.

He instead acknowledges what he knows about her that she'll never do that. This only confirms that they know each other too well, that they have a bond that exists between them which cannot so easily be replaced by anyone else.

And then a few chapters later

Dead.

And sure yeah Levi didn't cry but like yo, the way Levi handled her death is worse than crying. We have never seen Levi react to a death like this.

Levi is holding on to the hand which touched Hange’s.

Levi just sits down in the middle of a pivotal scene and where he might end up fighting any minute coz like what's life he literally lost everything he could have lived for.

Like sure people who don't think LeviHan is canon would say “He’s injured. He’s tired.” 

Just a few chapters ago though we got him ready to fight

 "That’s the last person left of course it would break him more than anything"

That's the point. They're complete opposites they've been together for years and even if the chemistry wasn't there before, even if they would never have gotten along at all, personality and logistics-wise, they were placed in a situation where their glue Erwin died, everything of the life they knew before, all their loved ones in the survey corps died and now they were left with the responsibility of managing what's left and being the only two people with a shared history.

That literally set up one of the best places for a fucking romance to bloom. Yet the war and the circumstances just made it so hard for them to act upon it yet somehow the manga and anime were peppered with this cool understanding of

Yo I want you.

like maybe when we retire let's keep in touch and I dunno have babies or something

But yeah yo we gotta fight.

Then Levi be like “Yeah babies be a good idea?” (Titans don’t love you. I love you.)

Death foreshadowing

Then Levi

Is

Fucking

Broken

Like we've never seen him before.

Wow isayama the madman didn't need to build this masterpiece of a relationship from love at first sight, to confessions, to placing them in unnatural situations for sexual tension.

He built a subtle relationship out of necessity, out of the need for some humanity in this dark world. Two people placed at the lead at the forefront of this war, willing to adjust, willing to change and work despite their differences because they needed that warmth, they needed the reminder that there exists happiness and hope in this world which transcends all that bullshit they have experienced to that point until her death.

I really wish I could experience that epiphany again with another couple.

I applaud the subtlety of this relationship and the natural development of one of the best ships I have experienced in a long while.

[lovecolibri]

SaL anon here and my friend, my bestie, my pal, you have to STOP posting about Buddie fics that are tens of thousands of words long. I am trying to get through my S2 refresher watch but it gets completely derailed when you post something and me, thinking I'll just read a few paragraphs to see if it's good, find several hours and thousands of tears have passed unexpectedly. Also tagging something as "so painful but soft" is a poor deterrent. Anyway, good luck finishing your sparks posts TBC.

Fandom seems kind of dead right now except those still in rage mode (if that isn't a statement about the finale), so i look forward to the salt to come. I've been debating sending you an ask i'll call RNM salt: science edition (not about actual science, but all the inconsistencies in the shows fake science it spent so much damn time on) but got distracted thinking about something you posted yesterday about the 911 writers thoughts when writing S2 Buddie. Since I'm watching S2 for the first time, and have some idea about where the writers go from S3 on, I have some thoughts on that if your interested. So which show would you like me to delve into (I'd get it if you were sick of talking RNM at this point)?

🤣🤣🤣 To be fair, someone else posted the fics and then I read them instead of working so 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ not sorry for dragging you down into the Buddie feels! I also opened that “so painful but soft” fic thinking it would be a little jaunt and then found myself with an aching heart and a MIGHTY NEED to wrap Buck in a blanket and pet his head and tell him he is a good person and very loved. 😭😭😭 

About the Sparks posts...I started 3x12 at lunch and forgot that the episode starts with the m*ria vision right away and 😬😬😬 I didn’t get much done but some very salty ranting and even with no 911, it’s still my dedicated evening with my grandma so it probably won’t get finished today but I’ll be working on it! I know what you mean about fandom feeling pretty dead right now and I’m glad it’s not just me. I’ve been worried about dragging out the salt posting but like...I gotta get it out so, I’m working on it!

I would absolutely love to hear your RNM Salt: Science Edition because I’m also salty about how much time they spent on something that we ultimately didn’t need every little detail on. But I’d also very much like to hear your Buddie thoughts as well and get an update on how season 2 is treating you! It may take me a bit to get to them depending on when you send them to me, and if I’ve finished my Sparks posts yet, but I cleaned out 99% of my other asks so my inbox could always use some love, especially from you! 

[thattimdrakeguy]

Why, uh, do ppl hate Tim so much? I just fell down a hole of anti tim and I can’t find a..valid reason for the hate besides that fact tht hes rich and white?

From my experience it’s one of those things where Tim has antagonistic relationships with other Bat-Family members like Damian, Jason, and even partially Steph. So they just crap on Tim, because it’ll make their favs look better.

Like that’s genuinely been the main reason I see, and they use the fact he’s rich and white to make it seem like it’s a social justice thing, even though in the end it really isn’t.

I sort of rant for the rest of the post going in more detail, and mentioning things I’ve been shown, and why I think a lot of it is dumb, but basically it’s just people being petty and insecure, and being unable to handle things in any other way than childishly.

For some Jason fans I’ve seen them talk about how much they hate Tim because they replaced the poor kid with a rich kid, but I’m really freaking poor myself. Obviously I’m not homeless, but there was a time in my life where I slept on the floor, and later on after I did have a bed my bed room had a hole in the floor. But, they’re just looking too deep into stuff just to find a problem anywhere they can.

I’ve also seen some say Tim bullied his way into being Robin after the poor kid died. When 1) that isn’t even an accurate description of what happened and 2) they’re obviously just trying to word it the worst way possible, because they’re pretty freaking childish.

Damian fans try to make Tim and his fans out to be racist cause Tim doesn’t like Damian, when that’s actually because Damian got so close to killing Tim I’m pretty sure Tim actually did nearly die from bleeding out. I think also because Tim once said “what about his biology” when referring to Damian, when Tim wasn’t referring to his race, he was referring to how he’s related to criminals and Damian literally had his biology messed with to make him a fierce warrior and a good body for Ra’s.

Steph fans also try to make Tim and his fans out to be sexist. But their reasoning is really weak, because it’s literally just boiled down to Tim being mean to Steph sometimes, but it’s not like that’s cause of her gender for that to make sense. It’s because in context she is an untrained citizens constantly putting herself and potentially others in-danger without any training to feel safe with her constantly being out there. Plus she flirted with him so much to the point it made him uncomfortable and fit the literal definition of sexual harassment.

And they always do that thing where they gotta make their favs sound better, and Tim sound worse. Which admittedly Tim fans do the same thing, but I’m not really here to pick a side. I’m just here pointing out how freaking annoying fandoms can be, because ultimately I don’t really care what fandom does it. At the moment though I can confidently say, that other fandoms are doing it a lot more than Tim ones lately, because I’m in the Tim tags at least twice a day most days and I’ve barely seen it lately.

It’s kind of a thing to project a lot of stuff on the Tim fandom for the same faux-social-justice kind of jargon they try to do. When you see it from a view like mine, where I’m not on any side of any fandom, even if I am a Tim fan (cause I never really been into deep fandom stuff), it just comes off as hypocritical frankly.

(If you want to hear some dumb things some Tim fans do to even it up, they make him the most frail, emo, emotionally unstable kid ever sometimes. They can focus way too much on making him sympathetic (but even then, literally every fandom does that, but the Tim fandom always does it in a very notable depressing way). They also focus so much on coffee and practically act like he’s all pilled up on anti-depressants he just acts weird that it just seems obsessive and very out of character.)

Like as some examples they’ll bring up how Tim doesn’t trust Damian and put him on a list of potential threats. But Damian literally nearly caused Tim’s death, nearly caused it again in the same story, and at the end it’s shown that Damian isn’t on there because Tim considers him a villain, it’s because he has potential to be dangerous. Wonder Woman and Red Tornado are also on the same list.

To me, I just look at that story as ridiculous, because Damian isn’t dumb, and Tim literally spoke against contingency plan stuff before. Damian’s going to need more than to be on a vague list as a potential threat, especially when he’s visibly on the hero side of it. Damian’s not that thinned skin. He’s got a temper, and obviously really doesn’t like Tim, but even when he felt Tim was insulting him or being patronizing to him before he didn’t try to kill him then immediately. He tried to kill him because he thought that’s what he was supposed to do to earn his place beside his father.

The story’s just dumb in-general.

And then they pull out the New 52 story where Tim is just being a dick to Damian for no good reason, but it’s the same kind of thing. Tim was never that much of a dick without being provoked. The only time I think Tim started a fight was in Red Robin where he was on pills that messed with his mental state, and again had everyone out of character regardless. Because 1) Dick wouldn’t just give away Robin from Tim, because he knows better than that. 2) Damian acts like he’s happy his dad is dead and just acts like a generic child and not even like Damian. And 3) I legitimately can’t see Tim just hitting a kid, even Damian, unless a fight already breaks out.

For Steph fans they point out how Tim is passive aggressive to her, constantly doesn’t want her to be Spoiler, and yada yada. Probably because her Batgirl run portrayed that as being mentally scarring to Steph. Even though one of the panels they chose of Tim being upset and not wanting her to be Spoiler, was after Steph caused Tim to be disfigured and on the pills that messed with his mental state to begin with. Which inadvertedly just makes her look self-centered and narcissistic. But again, I don’t even consider that in-character, because 1) I don’t buy that Steph would listen to Batman especially when it puts Tim in danger, because she never gave a crap about what Batman said till they needed to villainize her before she died. 2) Steph can be arrogant and self-centered, she has it in her, but she wouldn’t ever be that self-centered, to the point she just looks narcissistic. 3) I’m pretty sure at the actual time it happened, Steph is shown being aware she messed up. 4) Steph never cared what others thought. She trespassed on other people’s property to party. She’s a very confident person the majority of the time. Batman tells her to knock it off, she might as well flip him the bird because she just finds him more annoying than anything else. It’s literally in her origin that she doesn’t even like Batman.

There’s also the context for in the 90s when Tim first started doing it. Steph was portrayed as a reckless citizen that could potentially get herself and others into harm because she didn’t know what she was doing, and didn’t have the highest morals. That’s not anything any of the bats would encourage. If Tim was extra passive aggressive, he’s a literal thirteen to fifteen year old boy during that time, no duh he’s going to be immature. That still isn’t a sexism thing. Steph may had saved him twice, but that wasn’t portrayed even in-story as a sign she can handle it like a pro. It was always portrayed as “thank goodness she was with Tim at that time, and knew where he was to save him”. Not to say she was completely unskilled, because I’m not taking that far, but just speaking in generalizations.

She was originally added into Robin to be a very specific foil to Tim, and be a general pain in his side. That was their dynamic. If that makes it seem weird that they eventually had them date then I agree.

And at the same time for both of their characters they also ignore what the character they’re trying to defend has done, because Damian literally nearly killed Tim. They act like Tim should just get over it, because Damian was a kid in a cult, but that explains why Damian did it, it doesn’t excuse it. When something like that happens the person who was nearly killed is probably going to be traumatized (rather or not Tim was can be argued, I’m not saying he was or wasn’t), and not ever trust the person. Like that is the natural and most accurate response for it.

It’s just villainizing for the sake of being petty.

With Steph they ignore the fact she essentially sexually harassed Tim all the time and straight up emotionally abused him for an arc. Which her fans hate to hear, but that is stuff that happened. It was written by her creator. I don’t really care if Tim took her costume away or kissed her first, because I’m aware, and I know the contexts, and it doesn’t take away from what she’s done, because that’s not how that works. They also ignore she caused Tim to be disfigured by saying she was just doing what Batman said. But at that point she was also an adult, and would know better.

Like Steph can be reckless, that’s part of her character, but she isn’t an idiot.

In the end, from what all I’ve seen, it’s literally just fandom pettiness. There’s a lot of fans out there that act childish, treat people like idiots, blatantly lie about things, or exaggerate stuff.

It’s all very dumb, but I find it hard to take serious, because if they can’t acknowledge what their own favs have actually done, it just comes across like they genuinely don’t like the character and can’t admit it. They prefer to stay in their candy land so they gaslit others instead.

For me it’s as easy as paying attention to the story, seeing the contexts, and a lot of the time it’s not even a thing that’s in-character for any of the characters involved, or at least the very least not nearly as serious as they treat it.

Especially for around the past 15 or more years or so. By then the care in making everything is crafted and makes sense went down the drain so it’s often that a story doesn’t even make sense to begin with.

They think fandom is about making everyone else look bad apparently, or at least they sure act like it.

Like it’s comics. I think the fandom in-general that gets so worked up over stuff needs to relax, deattach yourself to look at it from the grander view, and calm down over it. Because things aren’t always what they seem. People try to convince themselves of so much stuff, or bully others for so much stuff, and it’s all so petty and unhealthy.

My personal philosophy in the fandom to avoid any toxic behavior is to just keep it real. I don’t lie to myself, I give everything the same standard, I definitely don’t bully or gaslit anyone, I don’t treat my favorite like they’re a real dang person either, and I look at it all like how it is, fiction.

It’s the reason why I get upset at writing and not fictional characters. I don’t ultimately care when a character does a bad thing, unless it’s out of character. To me the only thing I get upset with is the writing, because it’s the only thing that’s real.

Don’t be obsessed, and keep the peace essentially.

[transsexualhamlet]

tg anime vs manga *sighs*

i have the power of hyperfixation and anime on my side! AAAAAAAA

Ok now that we’ve gotten the sins of re post out of the way we need to discuss this. And I just feel that this needs to be covered because I can’t ever get away from constant discourse on this, mostly fueled by manga readers who feel entitled to always think they’re superior for reading the manga, that the manga is the only real canon, that it’s more complex or better, I’m so fucking tired of it. I am also a manga reader, and I tend to get like that sometimes too with many series (for example no. 6 and the promised neverland.) I get it. It can be really annoying to see something butchered on screen to what the original is, changed or represented differently or given a different message or simplified. But just. Some people like the anime and it’s not a goddamn holy war for y’all to fight. It only makes anime fans not want to read the thing even more yknow cause manga readers are pretentious assholes, and I am aware of this as one of them.

(again ok i’d like to mention i know this fandom is basically dead but a certain p*nterest is always like 4 years behind on fandoms so i keep fucking running into Discourse that’s like, still current, whenever i want old random ass content) (and youtube, why do i look at youtube comments, because I personally enjoy being offended? yeah probably)

And that brings me to the point of this anime vs manga. 

This is a lot harder to compare than a lot of other series, because there are just... so many more differences not just in the style and vibe but the story itself.

Disclaimer, I’ve never watched the anime for :re and i don’t intend to, because I honestly have no earthly clue how tf you can get from the highly diverged tokyo ghoul root A to re and make it make sense, and I don’t really want A ruined for me. So you can call me biased towards the manga in the case of re, i guess (which makes my eventual conclusion even more strong I’d say) Honestly I just see them as two completely different stories, the manga’s version connecting with re and A just like... ending there. So how we���re drawing the lines is basically tokyo ghoul A versus the manga and :re. God, I know this isn’t a fair fight because I already hate re so much, but I feel like the manga’s story is much more intertwined with :re than the anime’s is, so that’s what we’re going with.

oh god also another disclaimer this opinion is coming from the biggest fucking kanehide whore, you can disregard anything i say if you ship The Straights and/or do not care for my boi hide

To be honest, if I can take my own conclusions and liberties to the story, I like both versions, each have their pros and cons and kind of a conflicting message. They can’t really coexist. Usually I’d consume all versions and then create one consistent canon in my head for what I accept as the true events (for example my main owari no seraph, first season of the anime is canon but after that we only follow the manga since those can come together and make sense.) but it’s very hard to do that in tokyo ghoul, since I must confess... I really like root A. Like of course, it’s a lot different from the manga, but tbh I think it’s super valid. (unlike most Fans TM like this Fan TM who i’m sending this post to just to spite their singular Youtube Comment Section Discourse, yes I did write this post for you and many others like you) But the ideas that make up root A conflict a lot with the ones of the manga, so I just have to accept that they’re separate things and treat them as such.

Now to break it down so people can understand where I’m coming from I guess? God this is already so long here’s a read more

The Case for The Manga (including :re manga)

More Lore + Plot Shit: One of the main reasons that manga readers are pretentious little bitches is a valid reason, namely that, as is the case with most manga, there’s simply more to it than people can fit into an anime. (Although people need to understand that’s because,,, it’s simply a different medium, so it will have different pluses and minuses, such as for example a soundtrack, color, moving pictures,,, you know, all that. Anime onlys don’t say that the anime is better by stating these things that a manga won’t have... because they’re fucking obvious. So manga readers should stop acting like an anime is inherently sub-par for being less in depth, but we digress.) I can understand that reading the manga is kind of important for wanting to understand the lore (though there are like so many other reasons ppl might want to watch it other than to get the lore) and without the explanation of how all this came to be and how it works, everything tends to be really mysterious, confusing, and seemingly random. It’s really nice to know what’s all going on, of course, and stuff like the washuus, rize’s backstory, the explanation for like, kaneki in general, all that- if you’re looking for like, plot shit, manga is definitely your go to. But like, sometimes, you like, don’t actually care about those things.

Haise: Of course one of the most important things about well, including re is that I fucking love Haise. Like he is my favorite Kaneki. He’s just so wonderful, look at him in he glasses and he floofy hair and he striped pants and he energy boxers and he s p i c e and he MOM. And I really like how they took Kaneki’s character and developed it more with Haise, you can see his turnaround from innocent--> Emo--> Trying To Be Innocent Again But Failing and I think that’s really sweet tbh. I rejected that at first because I didn’t understand it but once I actually read re I thought it made a lot of sense and was a logical thing to do with his character. (though, uh, moving forward, after his hair changes again i disagree with it, haise 1.0 is a good take and i love him and i want the best for him) I could go on I’ve already written a post of what I think is wrong with :re so if you want to hear my take on kaneki’s 37 pokemon evolutions that’s in there

Good New Characters: And of course there are my favorite bitches such as quinx squad, oh my god, there was a terminal lack of dumbass squad vibes in the original and ishida fucking gave it to us, I love them, I love them with all my heart and I think that if I wasn’t attached to them I’d probably just cancel all of :re but like this is just my personal problem. God I love them. Ishida always pulls through with characters I’m now too attached to.

Vore Lmao:Ok like hear me out. I just get a laugh out of it every time the manga has to remind me of this little fucking fact. Like ok I just. Cannot get over it. It’s so serious about it too and like I realize it’s a serious deal but o h  m y  g o d

Ok and now that we’ve got that little rant over I do want to say that it is like actually really important past the “lmao that’s pretty gay” bit, like??? In some ways it’s more fitting than the anime because well, ishida’s point always seems to be “what would mentally and physically hurt kaneki the most right now” and does it because that’s who this bitch is. But it just?? Kind of makes a bit more sense for the storyline if we’re being picky here, it’s so,,, painfully on point? Like the entire reason he gave in to Being A Ghoul and all was so he could save his friends and shit (i actually do not remember if this was a thing in the manga but like? when he was being tortured and he like imagined hide being really mad at him and getting killed by jason and shit?) LIKE AND THEN HE GOES AND HAS TO BASICALLY BE THE PERPETRATOR OF THAT HIMSELF, FUCK, it’s a lose/lose situation of “don’t do the bad thing and watch your friends suffer” or “do the bad thing and watch your friends suffer but like, later” ishida please

The meaning of Hide being alive: Ok this is just me crying over chapter 75 still but like. Instead of in the anime, where hide’s point seems to be that instead of letting kaneki sacrifice anything more he’d be the one to give his life up and such, and save kaneki, in the anime tbh he just really wanted to be with kaneki right then?? and like ouch but understanding that in the manga he wasn’t just planning on dying and leaving kaneki to deal with it afterward he wanted to go on and continue to try to help the guy no matter the shit he had to go through, no matter if the dude just like forgot that he existed for two years and all- LIKE UH CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW HIDE DOESN’T EVEN EXPECT ANY APOLOGY? like kaneki’s like “OH MY GOD I’M SUCH A TERRIBLE PERSON” and hide’s like lmao nah it’s cool i’m thriving- that his big motto was “live” rather than “peace out motherfuckers it’s been fun”. Cause. Fucking. Ishida. Can’t kill off characters well but like at least he made keeping this one alive justified. 

The D e t a i l s: Ok well I feel like this is something everyone knows but the anime is missing a lot of really,,, crunchy details that the manga throws in there, like, well, kaneki’s fucking,,, bones thing, and other assorted details, g o d like those are missable if you want to never understand half the memes but also like,,, sometimes you just gotta read that shit. It also like, makes more sense when you do but sometimes it’s just stupid things that aren’t important but are fucking hilarious.

The Flavor: In general I’d say the greatest difference between the anime and the manga is the general flavor of the thing, the vibe in the manga is a lot, to be frank, darker and grosser and bloodier than the anime, which is a lot more focused on being pretty and Tragic than “HOLY SHIT WTF” but like. That’s valid. With that comes it being a lot more, real, and although the art may not be as polished as the anime’s, sometimes that’s exactly what you need, and the really gritty sketchy shit that’s in the manga sometimes is exactly what it’s supposed to be for the manga. (in the anime, i’d say that the colored and polished style fits it better, so we’re good there.) It’s a lot more real, in the manga, when the anime hesitates to “go there” a lot (and well, sometimes that’s welcome, but sometimes it’s like y o u  g u y s  c o m e  o n  r e a l l y maybe i DID want to see that did you ever think of that)

So like, to sum it up i’d just like to say it’s more detailed, sharper and darker and is simply So Much. There is just More Content

The Case for Root A

ON THE OTHER HAND, (buckle up fuckers)

Depth of Emotion (that Ishida was too much of a pissbaby for): God like you know what I mean if you read the last post, we spent a whole episode on these gay fucks in root A, with backstory and dreams and drawn out suspense and emotion and GUYS LOOK AT THEM NO REALLY OH MY GOD YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS whereas hide’s limelight in the manga is a whole... two pages, oh whoopee, and that’s mostly due to the fact of ishida putting himself in a spot of “oh fuck goddamn if i drew that in i’d get flagged for gay porn” but that’s his own fault, so he downplays the whole scene and really keeps it in the dark, whereas in this anime it’s understandably a lot less,,, like that, but how it plays out here is simply... really nice and makes you cry and shit, whereas in the manga I’d go “oh god oh damn oh fuck” *laughs my ass off because i really can’t take this seriously*. You get just... more here.

To elaborate on this, in the anime, as a gay fucking bastard, I can get practically an endless amount of content from episode twelve, and endlessly stew over all Those Things about it, every hard hitting line, the expressions, the music making it even sadder, the ways the VAs say the words, the cinematic beauty of the blood dripping on the floor and like how it’s supposed to make you think it’s kaneki’s, GOD I COULD FUCKING GO ON, but if we want to get that in the manga... 

we get three incredibly basic lines, a blackout, and then a “QUICK LET’S MOVE ON TO SOMETHING ELSE BEFORE ANYONE NOTICES THE IMPLICATIONS OF THAT HAHA”

So if we want to have more, we need to write it. (sadly) None of it is ever played out canonically so like,,, all we can do is infer and make shit up. It’s like, I am a writer so like that’s my whole job but I really would rather have more content, and have the content that’s there get to be emotional instead of *blank face* “this is plot that is happening, sadly” but like maybe it’s just bc i’m gay

Really Fucking Beautiful (aesthetically as well as story-wise): This kind of just goes hand in hand with the depth of emotion bit, and I think it can’t really compared to the manga here because I’m gay so I see pretty colors and cry so the anime is understandably appealing for me, but I’m also talking emotionally, yeah. There’s a lot of plotlines and implications of the story that are really well played out, I always love to watch the original because it does a very good job handling a lot of the harder topics and stuff that makes the whole thing worthwhile- like the whole point you’re supposed to see that the ghouls and humans are both just as monstrous when you break it down, that there are good and bad people on both sides, everyone just wants to live and feel good in their own life and perspective, everyone has reasons that justify their behaviour in their mind, sometimes you just can’t win no matter what, all that... they’re all really important messages and make the whole story, and they were handled much more delicately and with more expertise in the anime. 

It’s hard to pin down, but I feel like the manga was just based more on Fight Scenes Characters OoH Fake Science and kind of just gave kaneki infinite power ups after Trying Harder no offense, obviously those things were there and they were still very good in the manga it’s just sometimes they were cheapened a lot by ishida really not keeping track of what he’s trying to say with his story and sacrificing it a lot for “BUT WHAT IF KANEKI’S HAIR AND IDEALS CHANGED AGAIN” instead of making it a whole cohesive work. (and yes, I am VERY aware of your “well aCtuAlLy the hair represents his sanity” thing i know i know and i’m about to rip it to fucking shreds so)

Understandable Character Development And Staying True To It: Which brings me to this point, character development. This was another thing that was just... handled with more expertise in the anime, whoever was in charge of it. Mostly this has to do with Kaneki, since like, no offense but he’s the only one who ever gets much character development other than like, juuzou (asmr you only get character development if your hair color changes) oh and i guess there’s tsukiyama but he’s someone who shouldn’t have gotten character development. Touka gets character development only before re for some reason, and like tbh that’s kind of it. I do think Juuzou’s character development was valid, because well... it made sense? I complained about it before because I was like “well he just turns into spicy L” but i’ve since changed my opinion, he’s best boy. But Kaneki? They went way overboard with him in the manga, and generally? Calm tf down ishida.

Breaking it down, one of the main things that most of the tried and true manga stans seem to hate about the anime the most is Kaneki going over to Aogiri in root A. Since they’re much more acclimated to the manga, they don’t understand why he would do that (quoting a particular ‘probably made sense in the manga!’ yes i know that whole thing was poking fun at the show and i felt it lmao) and they just pin it to “ahaha he has now become Edgy for the fans ehehe time to make fun of him” and TO BE FAIR YOU’D BE COMPLETELY RIGHT. I love to make fun of Kaneki when he does his edgy bitch thing because that’s what he is. A basic edgy bitch who is just,,, such a main character. But like. He does actually have his reasons despite popular opinion and to be honest I think they’re a bit more valid than in the manga, where he’s just like “well I’ve been tortured, that was not pleasant and i kinda did a bad thing, let’s go back to anteiku but i’m just gonna Try Harder To Fight this time”. I can understand that, but like, it seems like in the manga every Character Development of kaneki is some form of “i will now be stronger” except for the singular “I will now be a different person” which, well, we’ll get to that. 

In the anime though, even if it seems like more of a basic edgy bitch move, it’s like?? It makes perfect sense to me, and to be honest more than the manga does? Obviously he doesn’t wanna be best bros with Aogiri, he realizes they’re all bad people who have done really terrible things, but the fact is he now sees himself as the same thing, he now understands their motives because in his mind he is also now Bad TM. His whole character development of being tortured was that peace wasn’t an option no matter how much he wanted it, he couldn’t live being a pacifist and the world was forcing him to give the “i am the only one that understands! we need to stop fighting!” bullshit up because there was no way to achieve it. He realized if he kept himself the way he was more people he loved would be hurt like they already had because he couldn’t, so he doesn’t just Decide To Become Stronger, he gives up his humanity. And that includes basically letting himself defend his own actions and try to do “the right thing”. 

Him then joining aogiri makes sense because well. They’re the people who are the strongest, who have the power, who are the same as he sees himself. He still wants to protect the people he loves, he just also realizes he can’t do it by working with them since he now understands that their more peaceful ways will by definition get them fucking killed. His understanding is flawed, of course. He’s not really right. But this is his understanding and from that it makes perfect sense for him to join up with aogiri and try to still do as much as possible from that standpoint, realizing that most likely the people he’s trying to protect will hate him for it. I think that makes sense to me, what do you not understand about it? (I also understand that may make some people mad because he’d Doing Bad Things but I point to you he’s so soft, remember when he was really nice to naki when he was literally the one who killed the guy naki was crying about? remember when he was doing a raid and he saw that guy hiding and he never mentioned it? remember like the seventy times he Cried TM, yeah he’s problematic obviously but if you want problematic I’ll point you to a certain fucking black reaper. Shironeki has nothing on that asshole.)

I think what Kaneki did in the manga was fine, but in general the anime (again) had more depth of understanding and emotion versus a steady Try Harder Get Stronger shonen deal, which, well, fair, but like, nah. Continuing why I think the anime dealt it better is the ending of A, which was a lot more well rounded then *kaneki gets stabbed and then there’s a lot of random plot shit going on in the background*. Here Kaneki then got to round out the end of his character development by realizing slowly through the second half of this season, him becoming a kakuja and then basically deciding like, not to

((kakuja kaneki was dealt with again different in the anime and manga because he basically stopped trying to use it in the anime bc he realized it was a bad fucking idea but this goes along with the ‘his character development of “i’m gonna do bad things for good reasons” --> “actually no wait that was a bad idea” was actually done in root A instead of being dragged out into :re and it’s appropriate for its own medium and the messages it’s trying to get across so manga loyalists hate it’ but we digress))

So in root A we got to see him actually develop and realize himself through the second half of the season starting with cochlea, his interactions with Amon, and ultimately through Hide, that he’d been doing the wrong thing by becoming more monstrous/fighting harder because what he did was ended up forgetting the most important thing, *smiles in gay* HIDE.(well, his humanity. yeah. i cite the terrible opening for root A with the fun ‘the hands taking off kaneki’s mask are hide’s’ bit.) He then remembered again why he wanted so bad to stop the war between humans and ghouls, he wanted to be able to live in peace and not have to be a monster- something that was not dealt with in the manga (though for understandable reasons of We Need To Fuck With Him In Re More, they then didn’t deliver on creating something like that later so I take this.)

That’s most of the difference between the original manga and anime, but I’d also like to discuss (briefly, I’ve already yelled about them) the ridiculous amount of hurdles ishida went through to fuck with kaneki in the manga, Of course there is the fact that well, the slower transition of his character does make some more sense for the manga because if you take :re into consideration, his eight billion character changes are more tolerable when they haven’t like, already happened before in the manga (just the anime). It makes more sense there for Haise to be tormented by past kaneki telling him He’s Too Weak because in the manga he hasn’t already had that development prior to “dying”, and he lost his memories still believing he had to be strong even if he did bad things, whereas in the anime it doesn’t track because at the end like i just said he kind of gives up his ghoulhood on purpose because he realizes that joining aogiri and fighting and shit was really wrong because, hide. So I can see why those character decisions were not made in the original when planning for :re, but... the fact remains that those previous decisions do not make up for how absolutely weak :re’s game ended up being with kaneki. 

So tldr this entire section, All the manga’s defense of how they handled Kaneki’s development is basically void because all those choices were buildup for development in :re which ishida then COMPLETELY fell down on. So the alternative is better.

And now comes my yelling about how exactly Ishida fucked it up: hair colors and kaneki’s 80 kanekis. If black is supposed to represent sane and white is supposed to represent insane or, whatever, i dunno, who tf thought black reaper kaneki was sane? Who tf would think kaneki in the end isn’t? I haven’t looked into this really, and I’d really love it if someone explained it to me the way ishida was going for bc I do not understand it. Like that tracks with Juuzou, and with Kaneki up to Haise Original, but they don’t really make a cohesive sense seeing as after Haise’s hair color changed again that whole deal kind of goes to shit. Not to mention... I just... they completely failed to make those character changes actually part of the story, I’m mostly complaining about black reaper haise, none of him makes any sense. What’s his deal? He wants to protect who he loves? Tracks with the ghouls but fun fact he abandoned his kids? He actually cared for them? What then, he wants to be the strongest as possible? Sure but then?? Why?? I don’t understand his motives at all.

We also didn’t get to see him get his memories back either, which I was actually very much looking forward to, it just,,, like all of a sudden he’s talking with eto about yoshimura and i’m like bruh when tf did that happen? It’s bad, and although chapter 74-76 is super valid, and his change back into white hair kaneki makes sense, I also have the complaint about how haise basically disappeared just like he was worried he would. I think that was bad and I’ve said that already, it doesn’t make sense, he just literally throws those entire two years away to go back to the way he was before he was with the CCG and just forgets everything he’s wanted for the last few years? Fiction logic test fucking failed, and you’ve also broken my heart. Love Haise. You got rid of him. I love kaneki too but like. Why don’t they just. Like. Merge. He is one whole complex person, not one and an imposter, god. 

This is a big negative for re and the manga, so automatically a positive for root A where I simply Do Not Have To Deal With That Bullshit and the character development actually makes sense. I can understand the decisions in the original manga could have set up for good development in :re, but they completely failed to deliver.

root a didn’t fast forward to re at the end god damn let us process this shit first before you try to connect it to something else: The thing with this point is that it’s really difficult to separate the original manga from the continuing story in :re because the thing intertwines so much and immediately moves us forward with a ton of plot points for the next part of the story before we’re done with this climax and the end of this story. Sometimes that’s ok and I can see doing that from an author’s perspective because you want people to continue reading your story instead of taking that as the end but it’s really annoying on a reader’s end, because I’m picky and I want to be able to just be able to enjoy my original canon without it like, metaphorically touching :re on a plate. It’s something that I don’t even do with my own longer stories, like for example I have like a trilogy of >100k fics that like, well i’m technically not done with them but like. 

People really like the first one because it’s more focused on a more popular ship and basic elements people like about the thing, and then by the second book it moves on to talk more about the plot and lore and brings in more secondary characters. And so I knew that a lot of the readers of the first one wouldn’t want to have to deal with a lot of the “oh well stuff is happening elsewhere that will effect stuff later!!!” random plot shit that none of my readers actually cared about. So I kept it to wrapping up the points of the first book and then leaving the introduction of new characters and plot for the people who actually wanted to read it. Ishida didn’t do that, and of course it’s within his right to like?? Want to promote the next series but I’d have enjoyed it more if we ended it at kaneki’s “death” and wrapping up the deals with the rest of the characters instead of quickly shoving in the beginning of seventy more plotlines before the book ends. Like honey I simply do not have the reading comprehension for that. In the anime we get something that... makes sense.

In the anime, however, it’s quite the opposite, for example the reveals like Eto=owl=takatsuki sen were pushed before that and they saved episode twelve for, well, the end bit. Like what was actually the ending. There were detriments to this I had to say (LIKE GUYS I GET IT HE’S CARRYING HIDE HE’S CARRYING HIM I GET IT YOU’VE BEEN DOING IT FOR HALF THE EPISODE NOW OK I UNDERSTAND CAN WE MOVE ON) But like, I prefer the concept of a simple idea with as much emotion squeezed out of it as possible to a ton of confusing and contradicting ideas that are touched on for a second before moving on. So the *cries for half an hour* ending was much more appealing to me, and I can keep that separate in my head from any of the ideas that :re creates, letting me pretend it doesnt exist and imagine that’s the end and there’s nothing else to worry about. If we want to move forward and hear more, then we can, but it isn’t necessary like it is with the manga.

No Bad Takes that are hard to pry apart from good plot and characters:This is basically the downsides of the new characters, which is well, if I had to make a whole ~keep reading~ post about how problematic everything in re was that does have to count as a downside. I love the new characters, but they also come intertwined with a thousand really bad takes on like, everything, and of course I can ignore it and just act as though they were written in like, to be perfectly honest, a non transphobic way, it’s a real downside when the original anime was pretty pain-free in the way of their takes on their characters. They fucked everyone up in re and I will not elaborate, we’ve talked about this, it’s just the anime, and which i mean season 1 and root A, don’t really have any bad takes I need to try to get rid of, it’s surprisingly something I have little complaint about at all and I ALWAYS have complaints.

Hide!!!!: Obviously, you can tell that a lot of my opinions are going to be hide based because he’s the only thing I ever think about. But we have to take into account just how... hide???? This goes a lot into the depth of emotion bit but it also offers the other side of the argument for Hide’s part in the :re manga, which well. Was mostly chapter 75 if we’re going to be perfectly honest here. He doesn’t get any other limelight. Even in the chapter where Kaneki meets him again he gets a whole what, three pages? In the manga, he has an extremely valid deal about basically, living, keeping going no matter what, and that is a fitting part for the manga, considering the rest of the points there ride more on Keep Fighting instead of Think About Your Emotions And Morals, but honestly chapter 75 was really valid. So why do I still think the anime’s version where he like (ok I don’t know about the re anime we’ve discussed this, i don’t even know how they choose to explain that) he like, dies in kaneki’s arms is better overall? Again, I would have totally accepted that deal if it was made a part of the story because it made me cry, it was super valid, and if they’d continued in that way I would have agreed with it completely over that. But the fact is again that they failed to deliver, and Hide got largely ignored, suffered so much with so little outcome. There was so much buildup and it was incredibly valid, but when the time came for them to meet again and basically show... why it was important that Hide lived in the end? 

They didn’t. They straight up didn’t. Kaneki’s like “oh sorry bro... glad you’re alive and all...” *goes off and fights* and like? Honestly? @everlastingspiral is right, if that’s all they’re gonna do with him what’s the point of keeping him alive? I love every single panel of him and I wouldn’t have read re if he didn’t, but hide gets absolutely NO payoff. For letting kaneki literally vore his entire mouth off, leaving him disfigured and unable to talk, then kind of disappearing for two years and doing seemingly nothing but trying to help kaneki even though he’d forgotten the guy existed, risks his life like a thousand fucking times, eventually gets back to him and the dude’s running a fucking anti-human organization, helps him like Not Be A Volitile Pile Of Flesh Anymore and then what should have been a very important moment of them meeting again gets completely overshadowed by touka and random plot shit and more fights and they barely interact, they don’t even hug or anything, they barely talk, and at the end hide is still there but to be honest he’s gotten absolutely no thanks for all he did and ishida acts at the end as though he’s done very well with hide and gives him a tiny bit at the end throwing in a tragic backstory for fun (which hot take he really didn’t fucking need on top of it all) and... there’s no real hint that Kaneki is better off with Hide there, even though there should be. In 75, in his dream, kaneki is sobbing and crying and all like i’m so lonely without you but when they actually meet each other again? “yo” “hey” “uh sorry about,,, the thing,,, you know” “nah man it’s ok” “let me talk about myself for a bit” “yes you always do do you want to hear what I’ve been up to” “not really” “that’s fine i’m only here to support you”

...So you can understand why I’ve gone a bit sour on that. If that’s all you’re going to give him? Hot take? Let him die. Hide deserves better. (and i will deliver that in writing, but for the purposes of canon.)

In the anime, however (not counting re again... although he still gets the short end of the stick just in the original manga too compared to the anime) he’s properly dealt with! he gets his proper limelight and he gets acknowledged for what he’s done thusfar in the story, which is already so much. Kaneki then realizes that, but it’s already too late (or it isn’t, and they like negotiate with the ccg and then they get to live happily ever after) either way he gets appreciated and he gets hurt, but it’s properly acknowledged. And after all that, after saving kaneki and getting him to the cafe and doing it all while bleeding the fuck out, he gets to spend that time with kaneki and die in kaneki’s arms. And frankly? That’s all I think he’s ever needed. It’s really poetic and pretty and brings kaneki’s character around full circle, and even if it’s overly sappy, cliche, drawn out... he gets the attention he’s due and he gets a fucking break. He wanted to show Kaneki he wanted to do something for him and save him instead of the other way around, but then HE GOT ACKNOWLEDGED FOR THAT, instead of just well, tirelessly working towards it forever and having to be content to be a background character with practically no value to Kaneki anymore.

Keeps The Same Vibe: The big thing about this is that with the manga and with re, shit just goes all over the place, and I feel like I’ve amply showed that already through this essay or whatever this is. Again about the consistency and the professionalism, It’s a concise story that makes more sense than the manga while also being simply neater and more deep, making sure all the points, themes and messages work together and make sense to create a cohesive deal even if it’s not as long. (the manga is like ishida had a TON of good ideas for an essay but then fleshed out the thing ten minutes before deadline and managed to completely lose what his original thesis was even if the thing was 10 pages long.) Basically. yeah. That kind of sums it up, my last point concerns the ending.

Not Cheap Ending: If you want to hear my take about how absolutely terrible re’s ending was, check out my The Many Sins Of Tokyo Ghoul :Re post, and we’ve discussed how the original’s manga ending was bad and well not really an ending, it just leaves you unfulfilled and takes you into “well I guess I have to start a whole nother sequel series ig...” but root A like? Actually ends it? If a reader didn’t know that there was any content after that, they could pretty much infer that hide’s death or almost death whatever you inferred out of that ending (again we’re ignoring re) allowed Kaneki to finish his character development and realize they needed to stop the war, which basically tracks with what’s going on in everyone else’s perspective- eto’s problem with the world because of what happened with everything, is basically like, all of aogiri, juuzou and shinohara, amon and akira and kaneki and they can realize all they have to do is just sit down and fucking stop it because none of them want to be fighting, hide is the catalyst for that because the CCG can see how Kaneki cares for him? And it’s so open ended that you could just like literally believe that and there’d be no way for that canon to tell you otherwise, or you could go onto re and whatever if you wanted to. I think that’s the best thing. 

In conclusion, both have valid points, and in general I’d say that the manga goes better with :re and the anime is better as a stand alone but if I had to choose overall, this particular anime is better (taking into account only seasons 1 and 2), for mostly the reasons of favoring a simpler story taken with much more care and depth versus a more complex story with many, MANY imperfect elements, and I am aware I will get shot on sight for this opinion. So sue me.

[one-piece-dumpster-fire]

Imma be emotional for a moment, plz bear with me-

Honestly selfshipping with Cracker,,, has been such a salvation for me during these past few years. Maybe it's because I'm currently drunk and sad/emotional as hell, but he's helped me through so much...

I mean there were so many points in my life where I felt like I was worth nothing. Where I thought I was nothing but a burden to everyone. Whether it be a family member telling me,,, stuff like that they'd be better off if I was dead,,, if I never made it out of my car crash alive,,, or lying in a hospital bed, unable to move and incapable of performing even the most basic tasks... even throughout all of the humiliation and those darkest moments I could always retreat into Cracker's arms. He was and still is my biggest safe space. I know the fandom kind of has its own opinion of him (mostly making him this jockish and dickish character that just kind of seems to be a giant manchild most of the time) and I've always been kind of scared to open up about my real feelings and stuff because I don't like to disagree with people and usually just go with the flow,,, but I never saw him as such. To me Cracker has always been more than just an over-confident prick or a playful manchild... he's the reason I even got back into One Piece in the first place, and honestly??? He's also the reason why I'm still around to write for it :') And personally I always thought of him as this strong, very prideful but still sophisticated older man that could (in my thoughts and fantasies) give me the safety, stability and love that I severely lacked at that point in my life...

Argh. I know I'm rambling. I know this might be cringy af and people aren't here for me ranting about my selfship like this--- but it's a part of who I am, and therefore a part of this blog. When I say that I love Cracker,,, I really mean it. Without him I don't know where I would be today. If I'd even be here. Life is so fucking difficult sometimes... and having this safe space to retreat to... It means the world to me. I don't care if I lose followers because of this. Cracker and my whole selfship family,,, it really means so much to me. It's a genuine part of my life. Even when I'm feeling super worthless and down, like I do right now,,, the thought of him + our kiddos being there for me really keeps me going. I know that being so attached to him sometimes makes me really sensitive when someone has a different opinion/headcanon of him or ships him with someone else,,, but,,, I can't help it. Cracker may have only been part of the One Piece story for a few chapters... but he's a genuine part of who I am right now. And he will continue to be that.

Ok so basically: I love my Biscuitdaddy, Crachelle 4ever, absolute OTP for me right here, and before this can go on- I gotta go. Michelle OUT🏃🏻‍♀️💨💨💨

[easilydistractedbyfanfic]

I really hated the Raven/Nikki scene in last night's ep, made Raven come across as cowardly and weak when shes supposed to be one of the strongest characters in the show. What are your thoughts on it?

Where to start, my fellow Raven-loving pal, WHERE TO START?!!? 😒 I touched on this briefly somewhere today - msgs, twitter, discord? I don’t even remember, lol. Maybe all three, honestly, because I didn’t like aspects of this scene either. So I’ll consider this a fresh rant! And as you well know, I’ve got a lot to say!

I actually like the Raven/Nikki storyline even though I don’t think they’re handling it as well as they should. It makes sense that Raven is upset, sad & guilty about Hatch and the other miners dying, and it makes sense that Nikki is very angry and out for revenge, and it COULD make sense that Raven is afraid to die in s7 (as yet another parallel to Murphy and not specifically in a romantic way either; their storylines genuinely mirror each other a lot) - HOWEVER. The show has not ever done the work to set Raven up as a supposed “cowardly” character, and they established nothing in s7 up to this point to suggest that Raven is scared to die, other than what we might read into (or didn’t) with her actions in 7x03.

I did a meta on it at the time because I was frustrated with what I considered OOC behavior with Raven in 7x03 - both locking Murphy in the room as well as how a lot of fandom was interpreting the scene AND how I think they had her phrase a few things. We know from the ep that she was the only person who had complete information - she knew the reactor was broken & what it needed to be fixed, she knew that when Wonkru was asked to help that no one stepped up - AND she witnessed that when they were told the truth (about Madi) that they fell apart. She knew that Indra had argued not to tell the truth for those exact concerns.

So Raven gets desperate for assistance & approaches the miners for their expertise - literally watching them in-fighting as she walks up to them - she knows that they may not be willing to help her out of the kindness of their hearts in a potentially dangerous scenario. She makes the decision to lie. We know THIS much is true - Raven decides to lie to the miners. What we must INFER as viewers is HOW MUCH DID SHE LIE and what were her intentions? In the ep, Raven literally makes a statement that she DID NOT KNOW the radiation would be that bad. She says this, and she looks harried/stricken about it. In addition, we know that Raven understands (bc she’s logical & a genius) that the miners may be more familiar with the equipment/techniques used to repair these kinds of things, therefore lessening the time it would take to fix the problem. We know that Raven is watching the monitors and that the other person in the room with experience, Em0ri, is too sick to continue to contribute/help/interpret what those monitors say. If we believe all these things we see in the scene and that we know about Raven (ie she’s logical & a genius & has risked her life before & never backs down from a fight), and imho we have no reason NOT to believe them, then she lied to convince them to help, yes. But she did not lie with the intention of death as the outcome. This part of the ep suggests that she expects they will all get sick but not die.

And if THAT is the case, then why would Raven expect that she would die if she went into that room after people had already been doing hard work to get it closer to being repaired? Why would she be too scared to go in? How does it make sense if she knows that if NO ONE fixes the reactor, then EVERYONE dies, including herself? How does it make sense that Raven is so scared to die in THIS scenario when every past dangerous choice on her part  - some of which were much more dangerous, imho - don’t indicate that’s who she is at all?

This is why I say the writers SHOULD have done a better job writing it. A few scattered comments in s6 (basically only days/weeks prior to s7) about Marper and Shaw dying, Kane & Abby dying, about Murphy dying and his fears, about all the chances Raven has taken with her life up to now and all her near-misses - could have built up to Raven being afraid to die too. We have a neat call back to Raven relating to Nikki because Raven knows what it was like to lose Finn - Raven now being the one “responsible” for Hatch’s death and causing Nikki to feel that hurt. Add in her own desperation NOT to die and you have a deeper, more interesting problem besides Raven just wanting to save the world again (this time Sanctum if the reactor blows) - it gets more personal if Raven deliberately sacrifices others to save her own ass. And of course it mirrors what Murphy did in s6 to some extent too.

But they didn’t have her do this. They actually had her do the opposite, imho. They had Raven make a tough choice to sacrifice the few for the many, sure - but AFTER it was already too late to do anything else. Yes, it got complicated when she sent Murphy in that room as well, but that’s a tangent since he didn’t die, and arguably, her comments about him being a cockroach could imply that she fully expects him to survive it the whole time and she didn’t expect that she was doing something that would do him in.

So now 7x13 - the writers making Raven admit that she was being a coward to Nikki doesn’t have payoff. It doesn’t make sense via the evidence. It only makes sense as them writing Raven poorly as a “morality” character in s6 (oh god don’t get me started on THAT again), and then they try to make it some kind of big fall this season with this choice even though Raven has long lived in the world of gray. In addition, right after Raven “kills” the miners, she then kills a bunch more humans to save her friends in a dangerous situation in the woods that SHE SOUGHT OUT, yet she isn’t exactly going around avoiding dangerous situations out of cowardice, is she? She’s sassy on Bardo, back-talking Cadogan, holding guns on people once more like she’s not afraid to use them - basically she’s Raven, duh.

But that reactor scene? It makes sense that she is GUILTY about Hatch. But it does not make sense in any way that her character is a coward at all or in that incident because they did no setup to sell it. And in addition, they actually deliberately debased her character - or at least attempted to - by saying this about her/making her say it about herself despite the lack of evidence.

Also I gotta add - I did not like that even though Murphy, Em0ri and Madi knew how dead-set Nikki was on killing Raven, not one of them gave her a head’s up that Nikki was in the reactor area too. Like I know they had a lot going on but come ON. Once again lack of communication is the only reason something bad happens...

SO NO. NO I DID NOT LIKE IT EITHER! 🤣 I hope you’re not sorry you asked, after that long diatribe! But I *love* Raven. I *know* Raven. At this point I truly think I have written more about her than the show has. I’m sure I’ve thought more about her motivations and personality traits. So I have THOUGHTS.

[yanak324]

1. Favorite hobby? 2. New Gendrya fics that you like? 3. What makes you smile? I'm a huge fan of yours!

Ahh! This is a fun one. Thank you, anon for this and for the sweet words

1. Favorite hobby? 

Aside from writing, my favorite hobby is definitely live music. Ever since I can remember, music has been a comfort of mine. I can turn to it when I’m sad and it will cheer me up, I can turn to it when I’m happy and it’ll pump me up. I can turn to it when I feel nothing at all and it will, without fail, invoke some sort of emotion. Nothing feeds my soul like concerts. Specifically, outdoor music festivals. I am fortunate enough to go to one at least once a year and every time, it feels like therapy to me. So yea, I’d say live music is absolutely my fave thing I find joy in!

2. New Gendrya fics.

Okay, so this just gives me a perfect opportunity to flail about some incredible stories I’ve read recently that absolutely need more hits. I’ve tried to keep these limited to stories that *I’ve* recently discovered, so they could have been written a while ago. I’ll stop rambling now.

A Stag in an Ill-Fitting Coat by quenchycactusjuice

I am so glad I gave this story a chance. A post-canon au that thrusts Gendry right in the middle of it all. One of the best Gendry centric stories I’ve read in this fandom, and let’s face it, there aren’t enough of them. Also features amazing fight scenes, his absolute grumpy self, and of course, Arya Stark being a BAMF as usual. Check it out. You won’t regret it.

rewrite the stars by @anupturnedboat

Okay, this is one of my favorite AUs. Set during the Reconstruction Era in the U.S., it’s basically a different take on how Arya and Gendry could still cross paths and be some version of a traveling family. It’s mainly Gendry POV and it’s just...sigh, so well written. My rec does not do this story justice, because some of the descriptions in this still take my breath away days, weeks after I’ve read them. If you’re in the mood for something a little different that still has perfect characterizations, this is the story for you.

Consonant by InuChanFan

This story simply does not have enough hits/comments/kudos for how incredible it is. It’s a bit of a canon divergence post-S7 but it still does such a remarkable job maintaining that theme of “oh shit we gotta prepare, the dead are coming” while also highlighting the absolute purity of Arya and Gendry’s relationship. I mean...yeah, it’s one of those fics that makes you simmer at how stupidly everything was handled in S8, but also gives you hope, because you know it’s going to be done so well in this fanfic. Definitely a must read if you miss good canon and need a Gendrya pick me up. Bonus: Gendry POV again. I’m sensing a pattern haha.

for whatever its worth by @necromantiaes

I’ve ranted about this story before, but I cannot tell you how much I love it. It makes me grin like an idiot everytime I think about it for two reasons. 1. It’s a slightly different modern au fwb take, and i won’t spoil why exactly, other the fact that A and G don’t actually know each other’s true identities in it. and 2. It has hands down some of the best Gendrya banter I’ve ever read. I would argue it’s the gold standard of Gendrya banter and anyone who loves that, will absolutely melt into a huge puddle reading this. Also, there’s such a hot sex scene in this (two actually!) that make me want to write smut, and that happens very rarely. So yeah, three reasons to read this. Doooo it.

Unbless You by my absolute muffin @ohnoshefell

Nobody does fluff like my lady here, but what’s more surprising about this is how much *tension* there is in this story. Gendry is really struggling between his feelings for Arya and doing the right thing here, while Arya struggles with accepting that she may never see her family again. It’s a beautiful Brotherhood AU and I absolutely admire the hell out of how she balances all the other side characters. It really made me miss the books!

switch by @watersandwolves

Reading the update to this late last night made me go to sleep with a smile on my face! There’s a beautiful paragraph in this latest chapter where Arya comes to certain realizations about her feelings for a certain someone and it’s just...sigh, reminds me of why I read fanfiction!! Also, bonus for everyone having sexual fluidity and being open about it AND Podrick being an absolute genius and playing matchmaker with our fave pair. No spoilers but GO READ THIS SEXINESS.

3. What makes me smile?

I’m pretty sure my extensive rant above proves that good writing makes me smile...and it does! But also kind words from anons like you, because let me tell you, without the support of some peeps in this fandom, I would still be staring a blank laptop screen unable to write a single word of a story that’s now up to 75K and shows no signs of slowing down. Finding a community of likeminded peeps has really made a difference for me, and why I sport a huge grin on my face most days

[ask-ivory]

RWBY Random Rant #2!

What villain is the best? (Cinder vs Roman)

Second rant everyone! This one may be a bit longer than the first, so if you don't have time but find this interesting, then I suggest reading this later. If you have infinite time on your hands and your board, then this might help depending on your interests. So let's jump into today's rant!

So, the world of Remnant is a big place. There, you'll find friendly people, weird people, mean people, and people who are just flat out crazy. But today, we're looking at a certain group of people: Villains. Now before we jump in to the blender of craziness, this post is an analysis that can be used for predictions and plot lines. I may be wrong, but I'm writing this off of what I know.

Anyways... Let's start with the basic question, What IS a villain? A villain (or for the more technical term: antagonist) is a character who is trying to stop the hero (or protagonist) from accomplishing his or her goal. Either this, or they're trying to get something and the hero is trying to stop them because what the villain wants is wrong. This is the loosest definition, so you can imagine that this goes way deeper than you think.

There are some things that you need to ask and have answered before you confirm who is the villain in a story. Some of which includes the following:

Who is this guy? (Basic background)

Why is he or she interested in this scenario? (Could this benefit to their cause?)

Why are they doing this? (If so, then why?)

So if we take this and try and apply it to the "villain" we can tell if this is a VILLAIN. Another important thing to note is the quality of the character. What sort of events cause the villain to act like this, and why?

Well, when we're talking RWBY, then villains come in different shapes and sizes. Some villains are immature, and others have experienced enough pain and defeat to know exactly what will work to achieve their goal and/or stop the hero. Then you have the peeps in the middle who aren't as overwhelming as the big baddie, but have enough common sense to know what's going on, what needs to be done, and why they're doing it.

So I'mma gonna start at the bottom of the rainbow and work my way up to the best colors. I'll also be rating these characters on a scale of one to ten. I won't do everyone. Let's start with the entire fandom's LEAST favorite character.

Cinder Fall

Stars: 0/10

Now if I was a writer for the show, I think the most interesting thing that could happen to Cinder is if she just dropped dead. That's how bad she. Literally. Now, what makes her so disgusting? There are two answers.

She did horrible things. Like hacking the communication towers (With help from Watts, of course), making the people at the Vytal Festival Tournament doubt the leaders of Vale, and, to top it off, KILLED Pyrrah and Ozpin.

But these are the actions a normal villain would do, so what really makes her Terrible? The second answer has the reason.

2. She's a poorly written character with a lack of depth are perception.

I have no idea what made the writers want to make Cinder a hated character, but whatever did worked really well. Honestly, it's like Roosterteeth did the opposite of what Disney did to Cinderella. But when I say she lacks depth, I mean there is nothing that makes her character any good. She's also one of the biggest mysteries in the show, and I don't mean that in a good way. Here are some of the questions that I often ask about her:

Why does she want power?

Does she want to rule the world?

Why does she wear an outfit that's guaranteed to help her freeze to death?

Does she want to kill Salem?

Why doesn't she learn from her mistakes?

WHY THE HECK DOES SHE EVEN EXIST?!?!?!

Well, after some examination, I found out something shocking. She is just a plot device. She may talk and act evil, but in reality, she's just there so that the characters have something to worry about. She has nothing that makes her good, or relatable. To add to that, she's like the Grimm, all she does is attack and kill and if she loses, she DOESN'T reflect on her actions, and she DOESN'T try to fix her mistakes. She just goes back into the fight with the same strategy as before. If the main protagonists studied Cinder's basic movement, then they would be able to take her down, no doubt.

Can Cinder be saved? The answer is no. I bet that, judging from the road she's going down, her strategy will be her ultimate end.

Hazel Rainheart

(I may have spelled his name wrong. Sorry.😁)

Stars: 2/10 ☆☆

Now Hazel is a bit more interesting. Unlike Cinder, he has a reason he's on the side he is now, but like everyone, he has his flaws. He lets his anger get the better of him, and he's quick to judge. But the real reason why he's not so good is because of his reasoning. His sister died on a training mission because SHE chose to become a huntress. But Hazel takes all of his anger out on Oscar and Ozpin just because he (Ozpin) was the headmaster of Beacon, and let her into the school in the first place.

And I gotta say, this reasoning is understandable, but it's still dumb.

But there is something that makes Hazel a huge threat to the heros: his semblance of pain nullification. This gives him the ability to block out pain. And I kinda get where it comes from.

When his sister died, he was broken. She was probably the only family Hazel had, and when she was killed, he wanted to block out the emptiness, the grief, the pain. Thus his semblance was unlocked and he could no longer feel pain. This ability is probably how his aura charges up so quickly. If pain can block aura from charging, then he has the tools to be a force to be reckoned with. The only downside is that just because he can't feel pain doesn't mean that he's not hurt.

Can Hazel be saved? Maybe. But if he goes on a redemption arch, then he will probably die. But that doesn't mean that he's a lost cause. There's still plenty of things that can be added to Hazel's character to make it better. But at the present, he could be better.

Adam Taurus

Stars 2/10 ☆☆

This character is relatively horrible. In fact, he's worse than Hazel!

But the thing is, he's like Hazel in a special way: he has a tragic past. Certain events that wreck a kid's childhood can scar them for life. Adam was discriminated for his faunus traits, and this set him on a path of revenge that would be his bitter end.

He was a threat, but small compared to the real one. His semblance made him very dangerous, but it also makes sense. To be more specific, his semblance is, what I like to call, absorption of impact (or for the EruptionFang version, moon slice). This gives him the ability to absorb any damage done by the enemy into his blade, then release it back at a more powerful rate. This can cause devastating damage to both the enemy and the environment. As for why he had this semblance is pretty basic once you think about it.

Adam desired to get back at those who mistreated him. He wanted them to feel his pain, but a lot more extreme. He wanted them to feel what he felt, but worse.

Adam had a lot of potential, but, well when you get stabbed in the back, it's not easy to get back at your enemies. Over all in terms of writing, the thing that would've made him better was a better understanding of what he went through.

Tyrian Callows

Stars 4/10 ☆☆☆☆

If Adam wasn't crazy enough for you, then Tyrian's your go to guy.

I think that Tyrian is insane enough to join Salem, but has enough sense to know how to kill. He's kinda tough to figure out, but thanks to some much needed information in Volume 7, we now know a bit about Tyrian's past.

Tyrian was a mad man killer on the continent of Anima but was captured. He was then rescued by Salem and her Grimm. Since he's mad he owed his life to her ever since.

He's mad, so there's no bad excuse. And to add to that, he is flat down dangerous. His semblance is the ability to cut through aura, making him a hard to beat.

Can Tyrian be saved? Not really. The only way to kill him is for someone to fall victim to him while another strikes the killing blow.

Doctor Aurthor Watts

Stars: 5/10 ☆☆☆☆☆

Alright. Here we go!

Watts is very interesting. That's saying alot. Now that we have more information on him, it's easier to see why he wants to screwer Ironwood.

He was an Atlasian scientist who went against Pietro in the effort to make something great for Atlas. While Watts helped write the Atlas security code, Pietro found that the best inspiration is found inside. That was were Penny was created. Watts was disgraced and faked his death. Then Salem found him and he joined her group to get both revenge on Ironwood and respect from Atlas. Though he is clearly unaware of what Salem's true plans are.

He is a wiz when it comes to technology. Besides that, I believe he has some experience with combat. His semblance could have something to do with technology, but we're still figuring that out.

Can Watts be saved? Writing wise, maybe we can get more details about Watts in the final episodes. He's not a lost cause when it comes being a more interesting villain.

Story wise though? He's a dead man.

Salem

Stars: 6/10 ☆☆☆☆☆☆

Yes, I didn't save her for until the end.😼

Now from the writer's point of view, Salem's backstory has been completely fleshed out. It's pretty complicated so I won't go into details. But from that alone, Salem's actons make sense. As a prisoner of life, she yearns to be free. She wants to die. And she believes that the only way to do this is to divide humanity and summon the gods in there darkest hour. Then the gods destroy the world and Salem is free. She doesn't care about the people she is hurting. She hates humanity and wants to destroy everything. But above all, she wants to get permanent revenge on her ex Ozma (or Ozpin or Oscar). She wants him to die and stay dead when millennia ago she made great sacrifices to try bringing him back from the dead.

Now she has nothing to show for it except endless years of war, hatred, and suffering. There is some relation that one can have with Salem. If anyone who is reading this tried to do something for someone you cared about, but got nothing to show for it in return, then that's what Salem would be feeling. And this has caused her to spiral into madness. She is the purest definition of crazy.

Can Salem be saved? It depends at this point. Story wise, most likely not.

Emerald and Mercury!

Stars for them both 7/10 ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

These two are going to be paired in honor of their beloved ship: Emercury.

Both characters have tragic pasts, so that gives them some common ground, but both are looking for something different. Emerald is looking for love, the one thing that she never had in her entire life. Mercury is looking for a purpose in life, a way to make himself Worthy of greatness. He claims that Cinder recruiting him was just destiny.

Both of these peeps are incredibly good at what they do. Both can fight better than the members of team CFVY.

Emerald's semblance is Perception manipulation, which makes perfect sense in her case. In a very special case, her semblance is similar to Adam's. She wants others to see what she sees, Emerald wants people to see how alone she is, and just how much she needs family. Her semblance is an incarnation of her desire. And she uses it to make people see what she wants them to see.

Mercury's semblance is currently unknown at this time. But we do know that his semblance was stolen by his father. After killing him, Mercury probably got his semblance back, but lives under the illusion that it's still gone.

Mercury grew up in an abusive household, under the guard of a murderer. He was tortured everyday by his father.

Emerald grew up on the streets.

Basically, these characters are well written, and both have great potential as well. There's even some hope of a redemption Arch for these two, and possibly some romance.

Can Emerald and Mercury be saved? Writing wise, yes. More trauma and info can definitely help. Story wise? Hopefully, yes.

Roman Torchwick

Stars: 9/10 ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Time for the classics!

This charming young schemer has been the first character in the actual show. Fans everywhere love him, and will often mark him as the best villain. Honestly, I have nothing against it. But for the sake of this post, let's break down this lovely character and examine his awesomeness.

Roman's origin is currently unknown, but maybe we'll get some light cast on it with Neo's backstory as well. Many believe that he is somehow connected to Brunswick Farms, and it's still a possibility that has yet to be ruled out.

Roman is a good fighter and a master mind behind the underground crime rings of Vale. By himself, he is a relatively good fighter. Though his semblance has yet to be determined, he has his own Roman candle.

Another aspect of this character that won the hearts of fans is his charming personality. I mean, who can blame him? Though his death was sudden, and unfair, his handsome face will live on in the hearts of many.

Neo Politan

Stars: 10/10⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The star of the show, folks!

Neo made her big enterence in Volume 2 episode 4 Painting the Town, and ever since has been one of the most popular characters in the entire show. If you break down Neo's character based on what we know, then it's actually really interesting. Let's scoop ice cream!

Neo's backstory is unknown, but we're hoping to have some light shed on the subject. Based off of the song "One Thing", we can tell that Neo's backstory is tragic in some way. She lost everything except for Roman. And she is willing to fight to protect Roman from the death. How do I know?

Her semblance is called illusions by many, but Unicorn of War calls it Mirrors, which I think is the most accurate. Her semblance gives her the ability to reflect her opponent's attacks upon themselves, and she can change her appearance right down to her hair and eye color.

What does any of this have to do with protecting Roman? She will use Any means necessary to protect what little she has left, and to her, that one thing is enough. She Will change her identity as many times as possible, and she often gets away with it. But she is so fierce in protecting that during a fight, any pain that the enemy can dish out to her dumdum would make her determined to kick her opponent's butt. She would give them a taste of their own medicine and literally reflect their attacks upon themselves.

She is a reflection of protection. And like that reflection she represents, she says not a word, but shows people how exactly they can hurt the one she loves.

After Roman's death, Neo Politan is determined to reflect her loves justice upon the true enemies. If you can't face yourself, then you can't face Neo.

So, there you have it, villains everywhere.

Be sure to reblog if you found this interesting!

If you have questions, then ask away!😁

[squidproquoclarice]

About Arthur's kidnapping in chapter 3: considering he suffered a direct shotgun blast (which later went septic), multiple beatings, a head injury, days without food or water, was hung upside down, and rode god knows how long in that condition, he would have realistically needed A LOT of care after his escape. He might have been bedbound for a while and needed help feeding and dressing himself. Not to mention he'd need the Victorian equivalent of physical therapy to get his shoulder working.

2. It recently occured to me after reading yet another fanfic interpretation of "blessed are the peacemakers" that the whole gang royally dropped the ball during that arc. You can imagine how bad Arthur felt after learning no one was looking for him. What's your interpretation of how the gang reacted to Arthur's near-death experience and having to take care of and protect him for weeks as he recovered? Sadie came across as a bit harsh considering how protective she got later when he got tb.

~~~~~~~~~~

Yeah, I strongly quibble with that shoulder injury and him shaking it off with no effects after “a few weeks”.  He had sepsis to the point there was actual concern he would die.  He might recover from that within a few weeks, but he’d be pretty weak at the end of it.

The big issue is the shoulder injury.  He took a shotgun slug to the shoulder, and fortunately, it apparently missed both significant bone injury and significant blood vessels, so it didn’t kill him.  But much like how TB left some lingering effects, that doesn’t mean that he’ll heal up quickly and perfectly.

Ask @mearcatsreturns and others in Timeless fandom about my rants about Garcia Flynn’s injury, and how “shot in the shoulder” being treated as an injury that’s not really life threatening and that you bounce back from quickly is a trope with incredible longevity in fiction, and it’s also incredibly wrong.  I can apply that here with Arthur.  (Seriously, tall, green eyes, loves a good journal, snarky, Dramatic Disaster Bi, Sad Dad who lost a lover and a child to violence, self-loathing, done things he hates himself for--Flynn’s gotta be descended from Arthur.)

I wrote Flynn weeks and even months later going to regular PT, and struggling with the injury and extensive rehab.  He also has the advantage of modern medical care plus a smaller-gauge bullet.  I don’t have that luxury with Arthur, but he becomes an unusual case of not noticing it quite as much as a normal, healthy man would.  The gunshot wound and TB are already comorbid since it’s the post-injury weakness that let the TB take root, but they become even more entwined because the GSW effect sort of disappears as his entire body is rapidly weakening.  Even in his recovery in Mexico, the shoulder wouldn’t show up as much after so much forced bed rest and slow rebuilding of his body and strength, because his entire body is very weak at that point. 

But I’m careful to write him having some lingering weakness in that shoulder in the months and years that follow, and even in 1907, it aches when he’s pushed himself too hard physically for the day, or it’s cold.  It’s pretty damn good again, but it’ll never be exactly what it was pre-injury, particularly as Arthur is getting older besides.

I’m guessing in the gang, there was a lot of guilt from some people at not looking for him.  You know Dutch (via Micah instigating it) had to have provided a good explanation, or else Hosea and others would have ridden out raising holy hell.  Tilly and Susan are specifically cited in his journal as taking on a lot of the nursing duties.  Others ask him how he’s doing when he’s up and about again.  Dutch pays some lip service to guilt, but much like his pre-scripted speech in Colter, it feels pretty hollow if he so easily dismissed Arthur.  They’re aware Arthur is not good at being taken care of, given his perception of lack of value except as a tool means he feels he’s not entitled to being cared for.  So I think the wisest among them managed to do it carefully in a way that didn’t make him feel feeble or needy, even as yes, he was weakened and in need of help.  

As for Sadie, yeah, that’s a big ouch, and I think she realized quickly enough how harsh it sounded that she demanded to know whether he got Colm rather than asking after his well-being.  I’ve had her cringe at that in Sunrise more than once.  

Her anger plays a part in it, of course, and there may be some struggling with understandable resentment and rage against fate that he survived the O’Driscolls when Jake didn’t.

But I do think a lot of that is her fear talking.  She watched men there at Colm’s behest murder Jake, and suffered several days of captivity, including almost definite sexual assault.  Now the one man (though I’d argue maybe Hosea also) she really has let herself start to trust and befriend is kidnapped by Colm O’Driscoll.  He comes back after several days, nearly dies, and has been tortured and subjected to any number of things in his captivity that like her, he likely will be reluctant to speak about.  

She lost Jake.  She’s almost lost this man she’s let herself start to care about, and watched his suffering in the days after he came back to camp, which has to bring back some terrible memories.  Colm O’Driscoll just proved again with one casual gesture how much he can fuck up her life, how he can still threaten her.  She has to feel like she’s absolutely not safe until Colm is dead.  Hence her demand to know whether that’s the case, before saying anything else.

Honestly, she’s not wrong in that fear.  Colm’s coming for the Van Der Lindes.  He does it again, and her berserk attack at Shady Belle again has as much to do with her fear as her vengeance, I think.  And after being attacked in her home again by the O’Driscolls, yeah, it’s actually sort of reasonable for her in her panic to be going to go after them full bore saying to herself, “I’m not safe so long as any of these motherfuckers are left alive.”  Ergo, some of her Chapter 6 actions.   

So yeah, that “Did you get Colm O’Driscoll?” is not her most admirable moment, and Arthur’s right to call her out on it with his snarky reply of something like “I’m doing fine, thanks for asking.”  But when you dig into it, it’s a pretty understandable reaction to someone with massive PTSD who’s had the everloving fuck triggered out of them by Arthur’s ordeal.  And clearly she shows very shortly after that where her care and loyalty lie, and they’re 100% with Arthur all the way.

[1ddiscourseoftheday]

Mon 1 Apr

Update theme of the day, me being cranky! We have entitled people treating Harry like an object, and reckless massaging of logic, two things that really chap my hide! April fools, the joke is on anyone who follows me for, well, jokes. Better luck tomorrow. Well let's get it over with...

First up, the Incident with Harry- I laughed about the stalkers getting in a fight in front of him in NY but even that was kind of a bummer honestly, and it turns out the reality was even worse. In fact, a jet lagged Harry came out of the restaurant where he had dinner after his big event, probably dead on his stylishly shod feet at this point, to a small crowd of fans. He understandably said he wasn't up for pictures, sad but okay it happens: at this point one of the fans STARTS YELLING AT HIM about it and condescendingly calls him "sweetie" in a tone that honestly makes me want to smack her. Poor Harry, not being a jerk unlike me I would snap and knowing it'd probably make international headlines if he refused, then has to smile for pictures cheek to cheek with these entitled creeps. The whole display is gross as hell, the idea that people feel such entitlement to anyone's time or body, regardless of their status as, for example, a celebrity; I think it would do (mostly female) fandom some real good to reflect on the ways it parallels female oppression and consider how being treated like an object who owes your body or smile to someone for any reason makes you feel. Is catcalling or grabbing strangers or pressuring in the face of a clear no ever okay? Is it something that's okay to do to men or to famous people just because the dynamic of oppression is different? Or do we want to be better than that rather than just flipping the roles? I know for sure that I at least want these particular boys who I care for to be treated with more respect than that.

Of course, there's more than simple interpersonal dynamics at play here- the chances are high that those fans were told where to wait for Harry by HSHQ, which would have fueled their sense of entitlement, as has been seen over and over again. The boys' management absolutely have power over what kind of behavior is tolerated- if they really started denying access to more people who behave badly, rather than continuing to invite them places and give them gifts, that behavior would stop. It's upsetting that that continues to not be a priority.

AND THAT'S NOT ALL I have even more ranting for you today! I didn't comment a lot on the NYC lousquatch vid cause I didn't really think it warranted it but it's still a hot topic and today people were going around saying that the pics of Louis at the footie game Sat were from an earlier date and were posted now to hide the fact that he was in NY so okay fine. Listen. Are you suggesting that the Hadley official football club AND the opposing team posted pictures on their official Facebook pages of a match that took place at a different time claiming it was the previous day's match and that just... worked? That no-one who follows them thought that was strange? Did they play a whole match that was kept secret to make this possible now? I think people are underestimating the football fandom and overestimating the extent to which LTHQ can manipulate the world, but okay, it was a small footie league I guess anything is possible, I'll keep going. The NYC video is of someone being papped which would be a very odd choice for a Louis who was theoretically sneaking around to be in NY and is honestly the biggest argument against for me, the person in the video is entering a different restaurant than the one Harry was seen exiting, video OP is a creep and a troll but even he said it wasn't Louis, the guy in the video was imo too skinny to be Louis, Harry flew home as quickly as possible alone on a public flight, and no, time zones and flight times do not really allow for Louis to have been in NYC the evening of the 29th and at that game the afternoon of the 30th.... Like yeah, maaaybe it's technically possible and I can muster up arguments to combat most of this but they require a lot of wild maybes and none of them remotely allow for the possibility that Louis is genuinely taking some time off for self care which I hope to god is the case, and I gotta say I think the simpler explanation is a lot more likely; that Louis is in London. And so is Harry now, after pretty obviously running himself completely ragged to manage that. And while Harry was gone Oli and Louis went out for the day. Anyway now more pics of Lou from that day are popping up so you would think it'd be a moot point but I thought that yesterday too AND I just saw someone wondering if the new ones were photoshopped so I'm just gonna leave this here.

Anyway the only funny thing I have today is imagining Louis' dismay at Pizza Hut calling him "fineapple", after his least favorite pizza topping. There's probably a topping joke to be made in there but despite what the rest of this post may make you think I'm not actually trying to get blocked by everyone in this fandom so I'll just let that one go by...

Meanwhile Niall was papped in London looking smoking hot tbh, but like Niall DO YOU MIND I'M BUSY WITH OTHER STUFF TODAY go be visible tomorrow!!

[asteroiideae]

You know for that character thing I gotta ask you about Jyn Erso.

I’m reasonably sure I did Cassian the last time one of these went around, so this seems only right! lol How I feel about this character: I don’t know that I have enough room in this ask to list out all of the reasons that I love Jyn Erso, because there are just so many but I’ll do my best! From the first trailer we saw, I knew that she was going to be special to me; this angry, destructive, person who rebels felt so much like who I felt like inside (if not on the outside) at the time that I felt an instant, genuine, kinship with her. I love the way she is allowed to be angry; not righteous, passionate, productive angry like Leia - which is valid, but also the only kind of angry female protagonists are universally allowed to be. Jyn is let the world burn kind of angry, the kind of anger that comes from being wronged and deciding that you’re just going to fuck off about it. I love that we get to explore the complexity of fathers and daughters, of that very special kind of anger, the way you can love someone and hate them at the exact same time. The way it feels to have to grapple with that while there are other, seemingly more important events going on. I love that even though Jyn is angry, it hasn’t robbed her of her compassion, that she sees the vulnerability in other people and knows how it feels, so she does her best to save the little girl in the way she wished she had been saved. I related so much to Jyn that I went home from the first (of so many) theatre viewing of Rogue One and laid awake in bed just vibrating with how much I felt seen, and heard, and represented in a Star Wars film. All the people I ship romantically with this character: Okay, I’m super boring here, but I exclusively ship Jyn with Cassian. As a personal preference I like having my ships make canonical sense, and to me between Rebel Rising and Rogue One it just feels unlikely that Jyn opens up (often, or easily, or at all) to people. I also tend to headcanon her as a demiromantic asexual person, partially because I like to give myself that kind of reputation, but also because I think it makes sense for her and her trauma. It’s pretty obvious she’s bonded hard to Cassian, but I think she would have difficulty making that kind of bond with other people. (disclaimer: any other ships y’all may have with Jyn are fun and valid and I fully encourage it lol) My non-romantic OTP for this character: My top #1, ride-or-die, can’t write a singular piece of Rogue One fanfic without it platonic ship is Jyn and Bodhi; brotp forever. I love this idea that they’re two people, utterly orphaned, who share the truth that Galen Erso has given them the opportunity to be better people, and now they’re siblings about it. I can’t help myself, I love platonic ships as much as romantic ones, and the one between Bodhi and Jyn writes itself so well. Aside from those two, I enjoy writing Jyn off of literally every other member of the Rogue One crew, because they’re a found family that just fits together so perfectly and easily that it’s too much fun not to write them all bouncing around off of each other. (K2 and Jyn is a very close second though, or maybe Saw and Jyn.) My unpopular opinion about this character: I don’t know that I have any unpopular fanon headcanons about Jyn. I do think I read her relationship with Galen post-Rogue One as being a little more fraught and complicated (and still a touch angry) than most of the fics that I’ve read? I guess I think it’s difficult to go from 10-12 years of hating someone and pretending they’re dead to loving them without complication. (Or it’s just my daddy issues showing through, who knows lol!) I think if there’s a commonly-used Jyn trope from fandom that I dislike (as another way of looking at this question,) it’s probably how early on there were a LOT of fics where Jyn was deep in substance abuse, and I don’t really like that for her as a character. But I think those are the closest to unpopular opinions I have about her! One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I don’t think I would change anything about the film, Rogue One is pretty much my personal perfect Star Wars story and, though I’d love to see the cut/alternate scenes, I wouldn’t want it to be canonically different. I think I would take the romance out of Rebel Rising (it felt a bit forced, like one more check box for the YA crowd that had to be hit,) but I think that’s the only critique I have of it. I would LOVE to see Rebel Rising expanded and turned into a Disney+ series, either animated (with Felicity voicing Jyn,) or live-action, though I think it’d be more difficult to bring Felicity back for that and it would be such a shame. Or maybe turn Rebel Rising into a comic series? Or both??? tl;dr I just want more Jyn Erso okay? (Or more Lyra - okay wait no, that’s my critique. Catalyst sets Lyra up as the more present parent for most of Jyn’s upbringing but we almost NEVER see anything about their relationship in either the film OR in Rebel Rising and honestly my girl Lyra deserves better than that.) If anyone else would like to see me rant about a character - literally any character! - this is the post here and you can just yeet your choice right into my asks. :D