#three dimensional characters? whats that?

[asidian]

One thing I don't see talked about enough is the amazing cast of women who make up Dead Boy Detectives.

And I don't mean throw-away, there-for-the-sake-of-having-a-girl women. I mean actual, three-dimensional characters, with their own wants, goals, and emotional character arcs that exist independent of the titular ghost boys.

This is a show that runs laps around the Bechdel test in episode one and never looks back.

This is a show that's full of women who are allowed to be messy, complicated, brave, funny, scared, angry, and lash out in their pain. This is a show that's full of women who are allowed to learn from their mistakes, and grow, and change.

This is a show that's full of women who talk to each other, and support each other, and give each other advice about life.

And this is a low bar, but given the state of media today it's a big deal: there is never a single scene in this show that sexualizes a female character. A lot of action movies and supernatural shows frame the women on their cast to show off an ass, or the curve of a breast. Not here. The women are fully covered. They're framed to show their faces and their emotions, because what they're feeling is the important part. It's focused on who these women are as people and not what they can show to entice an audience.

Women in Dead Boy Detectives are heroes and catalysts who are learning to be better people.

They're earnest and clever and processing their own grief and sense of mortality.

They're complicated antagonists who have journeys of their own to walk.

They're cynical, distrustful father figures learning to reluctantly look out for others.

They're cruel and funny and vengeful and have been torn down by a world that did them wrong.

And those are only the main ladies in this cast. There are an absolute pile of supporting women who run the gamut from hilarious to heartbreaking.

I could go on for literal paragraphs about how refreshing it was to see wrongs against women treated as wrongs in the script, or how I have literally never before seen a woman turn down a protagonist romantically and not be villified for it, or how much of a breath of fresh air it was to see a woman's primary emotional arc be an arc about learning to become a better person, but my goodness, there's all that and more.

Nobody is doing it like Dead Boy Detectives, and by god, I love to see it.

[resizura]

i know capcom wanted to make the resi games more realistic but they didnt have to make them BORING 😭😭😭😭

[mossycakes]

iwtv has a lot of strengths, but the complexity of each character is completely astounding. every single one of them, lestat, louis, claudia and armand have done terrible things, and i can understand and empathise with the motivations and reasoning behind every single terrible decision. they all hurt each other in their own ways, they all have their own unhealed tragedy and weakness, and i love every single one of them so dearly. with no spoilers, this sort of characterisation is PERFECTED in episode 5. i genuinely dont think i could name a show that does complex characters quite like iwtc, because holy fuck man.

[rorah]

The mentally stable Dimitri Fire emblem 3 hopes.

It surprises me that there's still ppl claiming so, but then I remember we're talking about 3h interpretations and I have to make peace with it.

But that doesn't stop me from venting a little bit in this little space I have lol. Actually, it dries me and makes me feel bad to bring this up because I will have to talk bad about Dedue, and I don't want to talk Bad about Dedue. He's a genuinely good boy. But "Human" nonetheless, which means Flaws. I like Felix too but he's become some sort of a clown that doesn't make me feel too bad. I like Felix tho, In a different way.

Mostly talking about these two because the take that "Dimitri has better support system" baffles me because, technically, these two are his support system in HopesVerse. The persons who Dimitri relays on and seek solace/advice/support. The rest doesn't really tackle any of his personal struggles (aside from the Mage!Mitri frustrated dream, but that's out of the bad equation in our 'mentally unwell' set of pixels, and Shez only has a glimpse). Contrary, to Houses verse where the whole blue lions cast knew about his shit, didn't know what to do, but didn't leave either.

I tackled this topic with other person on Twitter who was (or still is) on board with this take and the phrase they used was They contained him better, which of course I agree and remarked that was exactly the problem. Contain him is gonna be contra productive. I used a water dam analogy, where the structure of such dam is damaged, and the pressure of water keeps accumulating. Causing a foreseeable damage for the dam itself and the surroundings. You don't need to be a genius to understand it, you need experience or knowledge for mental ill topics tho.

I really don't want to extend so much on here because it's mostly just, rant format more than a proper analysis so I just want to point out these two things in their support conversations.

First, Dedue. Encourage him to keep on the vengeful path. Which we know was the final goal of Azure Moon and if you payed attention to 3 houses message. The whole Vengeful argument was something Bad, to keep it simple. Despite Dimitri actively looking for answers/guidance for something that, in a rational state he can see clearly like vengeance will consume his life (also Shez and Felix called out this behavior). Dedue answer only encourage him to keep on that path, because he would do that 💔. Presenting 2 oposite views is a great formula for confusion and disorientation. Now, Dedue's role is primary SUPPORT, not guidance nor orientation. He will support his shit no matter what, and we are quite aware of that if played Houses.

Second, Felix. Felix is a special case. He is smart but also an idiot lacks A LOT of soft skills to actually be of help. He's the only one who knows in this verse about Dimitri having a mental issue. In their A support to say the least, so they don't close or solve anything. What makes it more worrisome is the fact that Felix conceals the issue as a secret.

"So try to keep that whole "removing their heads" thing in check, yeah? We can just call it our little secret."

this extract here makes me feel so unwell 😭help

The whole burden falls over him and his lack of skills and wisdom on the matter will be too much for him later on. He at least, will be able to recognize that the problem is beyond of his capabilities and will look for help. Felix himself has his own issues and journey where he needs to learn. He's forced to get pass beyond some of his angry teen behavior but hasn't completely get over it.

There is a lot more to tackle, but that requires more work and time. What are the topics some of you think is important to cover around understanding the Hopes verse resolution? Dimitri's route? something? Do you think the route without Byleth is better? With that being said, I would like to delve deeper into character analysis, and the role each played for the Lords too. That also requires to talk about the Byleth and needs a whole analysis on their own, which requires time (which i don't have much lol) To end this vent, I would like to encourage people to do a little research for the terminology they're using like "Support System". Who makes it up and how it operates successfully. The fact that ppl saying "he has better support system" only because he didn't go feral on the run alone is not entirely valid. A reminder that people can feel alone with or without people around them. And containing the issue within doesn't solve any problem. At best, it's presented later. At worse, it gets worse.

[cluescorner]

I cannot imagine being a Damian stan right now. You've got both Zdarsky's bullshit (where he clearly doesn't give a shit about your boy) and The Boy Wonder (where Juni Ba clearly gives so many shits about your boy) coming out on the same day. The whiplash must be insane. I hope y'all get some nice warm soup for your efforts jfc

[boyfriendgideon]

as yr favorite local jason todd fan sometimes i get so fed up with the apparent inability of most dc comic writers to write a class conscious narrative about him.

and yes, i know that comics are a very ephemeral and constantly evolving and self-conflicting medium.

and yes, i know they’re a profit-driven art medium created in a capitalistic society, so there are very few times where comics are going to be created solely out of the desire to authentically and carefully and deliberately represent a character and take them from one emotional narrative place to another, because dc cares about profit and sometimes playing it safe is what sells.

and yes, i know comics and other forms of art reflect and recreate the society within which they were conceived as ideas, and so the dominant societal ideas about gender and race and class and so on are going to be recreated within comics (and/or will be responded to, if the writer is particularly societally conscious).

but jesus christ. you (the writer/writers) have a working class character who has been homeless, who has lost multiple parents, who has been in close proximity to someone struggling with addiction, who has had to steal to survive, who may have (depending on your reading of several different moments across different comics created by different people) been a victim of csa, who has clearly (subtextually) struggled with his mental health, who was a victim of a violent murder, and who has an entirely distinct and unique perspective on justice that has evolved based on his lived experiences.

and instead of delving into any of that, or examining the myriad of ways that classism in the writers’ room and the editors’ room and the readers’ heads affected jason’s character to make sure you’re writing him responsibly, or giving him a plotline where his views on what justice looks like are challenged by another working class character, or allowing him to demonstrate actual autonomy and agency in deciding what relationships he wants to have with people who he loves but sees as having failed him in different ways, or thinking carefully about what his having chosen an alias that once belonged to his murderer says about his decision-making and motivations, you keep him stuck in a loop of going by the red hood, addressing crime by occupying a position of relative power that perpetuates crime & harm rather than ever getting at the root causes, and seesawing between a) agreeing with his adoptive family entirely about fighting nonlethally in ways that are often inconsistent with his apparent motivations or b) disagreeing and experiencing unnecessarily brutal and violent reactions from his adoptive father as if that kind of violence isn’t the kind of thing he experienced as a child and something bruce himself is trying to prevent jason from perpetuating. because a comic with red hood, quips, high stakes, and familial drama sells.

it doesn’t matter if it keeps jason trapped, torn between an unanswered moral and philosophical question, a collection of identities that no longer fit him, and a family that accepts him circumstantially. it doesn’t matter if jason’s characterization is so utterly inconsistent that the only way to mesh it together is to piece different aspects of different titles and plotlines together like a jigsaw. it doesn’t matter if you do a disservice to his character, because in the end you don’t want to transform him or even understand him deeply enough to identify what makes him compelling and focus on that.

and i love jason!!!!! i love him. and i think about the stories we could have, if quality and art and doing justice to the character were prioritized as much as selling a title and having a dark and brooding batfam member besides bruce just to be the black sheep character are prioritized. and i just get a little sad.

[grenade-maid]

I've become such an extremely specific type of pervert after doing so much woodworking that I'm catching myself zooming in to see what type of hinges are on the cabinets in this Yuri manga

[silverskye13]

Trying to analyze the tropes in my own fics to see if I think they're successful as component pieces and getting so confused I give myself psychic damage send help

[ilovedthestars]

i'm only about 3/4 through the neon court on my reread, and i apparently didn't write anything down in all of the midnight mayor, so this is by no means a complete list, but please enjoy:

Some Ways People Have Described Matthew Swift

“He’s a sorcerer. […] Doesn’t stop him from looking like a starving pigeon, does it?” (Vera, MoA 320)

“You look like a piece of rotting road kill.” (Blackjack, MoA 357)

“This is a new one. […] Me talking to a bloody mystic power no less, disguised as a guy with a face like a soggy sandbag” (Blackjack, MoA 360)

“You’re not that guy who keeps on getting beaten up by inexplicable mystical darkness, are you?” (Dr. Seah, TNC 131)

“You’ve done well, Matthew. While resembling a chewed-up rodent you’ve still managed to make them afraid.” (Bakker’s ghost, TNC 307)

“Bloody hell are you all right I mean obviously you’re not all right you look like a fucking bulldozer has been using you for practice and getting it wrong but I guess what I’m asking is, are you bleeding internally?” (Penny, TNC 408)

*page numbers are from my trade paperback copies, which are roughly 500 pages long

(In his defense, some of these take place immediately after Matthew has been beaten up by inexplicable mystic darkness. However, considering that he spends approximately 50% of his time in that state, i think those are still representative)

[lesbianmarrow]

what is it with fandom finding asian women characters annoying, like they said it about keiko from ds9 and jubilee from xmen the animated series and rose tico from star wars and mona from legends of tomorrow and glimmer from she-ra. like why “annoying” specifically, like is their tolerance for immaturity or imperfection just that low when it’s a character who is not white? is it because asian women in popular western media have been depicted as submissive and subservient for so long and these depictions have become so normalized that any time an asian woman onscreen asserts her personhood, audiences find it grating? is it because the (often white) writers reduce these asian women characters to plot devices with little interiority, rendering them one-dimensional and making it difficult for audiences (who are already resistant to identifying with any character who is not a white man) to relate to them? i think it’s probably all of the above to some extent

[yusuke-of-valla]

You ever get excited about an adaptation and hear something that makes you go like "welp :|"

[parasitoidism]

seriously though why does atlus hate smtiv. what did flynn do to them

[emilypemily]

incapacitated on the sofa rewatching she ra and man I always feel bad about how much I do not relate to and do not connect to glimmer

[4e7her]

chapter five! we've got a diedre pov which i think is a good bit interesting :) i lied last week though we're not actually meeting fenrir's siblings until chap six, i had to cut it after they got to the northern territory or it would've been way too long a chapter

ao3 - https://archiveofourown.org/works/55561897/chapters/143260885

quotev - https://www.quotev.com/story/16519931/a-drop-of-silver-in-a-sky-of-stars-yandere-m-various-x-m-oc/6

[sanasanakun]

I’m a “Henry only started killing animals to achieve a sense of power due to the lack of control he had in his abusive household, killed his family out of a sense for survival because he found out his mother was going to send him to Brenner, and most importantly, was only capable of the carnage he committed during the Hawkins Lab massacre due to his mind being completely broken down after twenty plus years of imprisonment filled with constant psychological torture and trauma along with ACTUAL PHYSICAL torture, so much so that he literally projected himself and all his self worth onto an ACTUAL EIGHT YEAR OLD as a way of coping with everything” truther, but no one is ready to hear it 👀💁‍♀️

[fellhellion]

I’m sorry I have to speak my truth lmao it’s a little bit hilarious that kingpin is stylistically offered such flourish and creativity, when writing wise he’s so fucking generic.