#valid analysis

[sublimati0ns]

daily koss #15: TOXIC OLD MAN YAOI 🤤

SAVE ME YOU, SOMEBODY SAVE ME YOU — I’M YOU’RE SCREAMING FOR A LIFE THAT I YOU CANNOT HAVE

I really wanted to redraw the part of s01e14 where Starscream grabs Knock Out’s face but in reverse… And since I posted fluff for day 13, I thought an edgier illust would be a fun contrast! I think they do love and care for each other despite being bad (SS) or weird (KO) at showing it, but both of them are still Horrible people with Problems so there’s also a lot of uncertainty and resentment between them.

Given their interactions in canon I feel like Knock Out has more to seethe about than Starscream (who rarely got mad at KO directly and more just doesn’t know how to not take his stress out on other people), but I don’t think all of KO’s grievances are valid LMAO It felt to me that he caught feelings (platonic and/or romantic), and when that energy wasn’t clearly reciprocated, his petty and narcissistic ass took it very personally.

[jetginxed]

sick and FUCKING tired of people misinterpreting the meaning of Nosferatu (2024). let’s not be purposefully fucking obtuse. two interpretations can coexist. the ‘romanticization’ of orlok and ellen’s relationship is only wrong if viewed from a rape perspective (which is a valid interpretation as well.) HOWEVER, it is heavily implied that their relationship was consensual and orlok served not as an abuser, but rather as a manifestation of repressed aspects of ellen’s identity. ellen says herself that the nosferatu is her shame and her shadow. we forget that one of the main horror aspects of vampires is that they are very blatantly sexual creatures. keep in mind the context of victorian europe!! ellen is haunted by her own sexuality. she denies herself. many of the sexual scenes are portrayed as very violent or jarring because a woman’s sexuality was viewed as an assault on her innocence/purity. the nosferatu has followed her since childhood because she has been taught to be ashamed of her sexuality since it began to develop. the horror is womanhood and repressed female sexuality. count orlok is all the fears of a victorian puritan culture made into flesh. i do agree that a lot of the people romanticizing ellen and the count’s relationship view it through the lens of assault as a “spicy dark romance” thing, in which case the criticism is appropriate. but jesus fuck if you haven’t bothered to take a second to view the story in the context of victorian vampiric gothic horror, shut the hell up about other people’s interpretations of it!!

[clarebear-0925]

BEAU DEMAYO JUST CONFIRMED MORPH IS IN LOVE WITH LOGAN ON TWITTTERRRR!??

THIS IS NOT A DRILL

[zaunbinary]

in season 1 you can literally See the moment where viktor realizes his opinion doesn’t and never mattered to these people. it’s when mel is talking to jayce (quite literally OVER viktor) about hextech weapons which viktor is strongly opposed to. despite having a hand in its creation mel looks right at jayce and tells him “the choice is YOURS”

what are some things we see in season 2?

hextech weapons! hextech weapons used against zaun! viktors home!

the grey weaponized against zaun! the shit that gave viktor the illness we saw him slowly dying from!

shimmer production discontinued! shimmer the closest (albeit controversial) thing zaun had to healthcare! the thing viktor turned to as a last resort because of the disease he was dying of from piltovers negligence! shimmer dismantled by piltover with no care to help the people effected by it into recovery because they never gave a shit! shimmer was a bad thing developed by bad people to the topsiders and they let everyone effected by it suffer because that’s what they thought they deserved.

having viktor not become the machine herald on his own volition and instead manipulated and transformed by the hexcore takes away any of the little initiative he had and made his “redemption” easier to write off. i’m not saying we were robbed of a rage fueled viktor transforming himself and taking things into his own hand after being repeatedly fucked over by humanity and seeing his home suffer for it as well except that’s exactly what i’m saying actually.

[rainbow-sunshine-unicorn]

No but you don’t understand how much I love that Anthony doesn’t see pleasuring Kate as a means to an end, but rather a complete purpose in and of itself

Anthony is someone who eats his wife out because he derives his pleasure from the act, and not because he sees it as a precursor to penetration.

I love how Anthony centres Kate’s pleasure from the very first time. In the gazebo scene, he keeps his pants on the entire time. In season 3 ep 1, he has his pants off and he’s still focused on eating her out. In ep 5, his idea of a quickie is eating her out. He enjoys making her feel good and that’s his entire purpose

It’s not just that the focus is on a woman’s pleasure but also that there is such a refreshing lack of emphasis on penetration as the whole sole end goal, especially in the context of a heterosexual couple. It’s so beautiful and important. To me, that is the embodiment of the female gaze.

[starcurtain]

What do you think Aventurine would be like as a boss?

Aventurine's first character story tells us that people both outside the IPC and internal to the Strategic Investment Department are explicitly racist toward him, so I would say first that I suspect Aventurine's team is much, much smaller than other Stonehearts like Topaz. For example, we constantly see Topaz's dumb "support squad" following her around in most of the events she shows up in, while we've never been introduced to a single "Aventurine support squad" member.

My suspicion is that, between the rampant racism and the undoubtedly common rumors about Aventurine's dangerous behavior, very few people are even willing to be put on his team in the first place. I suspect he's much more likely to be paired up with one or two "strategic partners" (like Ratio) and sent to handle things that way, rather than actually having a large group of underlings he directly supervises.

But just logistically speaking I'm sure he does have a few underlings, and I think... He's probably a very difficult person to work for, for a couple reasons:

He will almost certainly beat assholes to the punch. If a majority of the people who have been assigned to work with him don't want to be there, you can bet he's not going to wait around for new people to prove they are racist garbage. I imagine that, for the most part, he's off-putting and offensive to new people from the get-go. You ask which desk is yours and he just goes "Oh, feel free to set your things anywhere!" then turns around like: "Wowwww. Jim, this rookie is trying to steal the desk you've had for ten years! How inconsiderate our new friend is proving to be~!" New people on his team probably have the worst few weeks of their lives. (Because... If people are going to hate him on principle alone, he might as well give them a reason, right?) However, this has the effect of weeding out most of the people who are incapable of dealing with Aventurine's antics, so I imagine that the few who persevere through the hazing are probably genuinely decent folks. Those that make it past the initial "Let's see how much you hate Sigonians and disrespect me personally" vibe check probably end up on Aventurine's good side, and I think he eventually eases off his newbies after a while. (Not before they've proven their exceedingly high tolerance for shenanigans and even higher ceiling for shock factor, though. If a new employee makes it past the first month of working for Aventurine, literally nothing else will ever phase them. An elephant-sized Warp Trotter could warp them all six galaxies over and they'd just be like "Anyone got a working cell? I need to tell my babysitter I won't be back by 9.")

I think he's just never there. Absentee boss in the extreme. It's not that he ever slacks or doesn't do the work--it's just that he's constantly going off and doing the missions all on his own. It doesn't matter how many times the higher-ups assign him to do a team task, tell him he has to take the full squad... He just scampers off and does the deal entirely on his own, comes back covered in blood, and is like "Hey guys, I took care of the problem; enjoy some comp time on me!" I don't think he drags his average-level underlings into his dangerous gambles; I think he just does all the work with their clients by himself or with a high-caliber partner. You would think this would make him a great boss to work for, but I implore to put yourself in such an employee's shoes: You go into the office every morning only to see your to-do list is empty. Your boss isn't there to give you any new direction. After twiddling your thumbs for four hours, you find out the reason he isn't in the office this morning is that he's recovering from betting he could take an entire pack of Borisin in a fist fight. He's not in the hospital because of the fight (which he won). He's in the hospital because he was then promptly shot in the back by the guy he was betting with. Why is your life like this? Why must you be subjected to the soap opera of your boss's own self-destructive spiral?

Even when he's around, he's probably weirdly awkward. Don't get me wrong, I bet when he's in a good mood he throws all kinds of extravagant parties in the office, and his employees would never lack for bonuses and perks. But I think he has never really bothered to learn--or perhaps simply does not care--about normal managerial behaviors and boundaries. Like, you slip up and tell him your mother-in-law is in the hospital. He comes back five minutes later to tell you he's just bought six bouquets (sent from your address), commissioned a personally embossed card for her with your monogram, and contracted the services of the best-reviewed individualized medical team in Pier Point under your name. He's patting himself on the back for being an incredibly thoughtful boss. You don't know how to tell him that you haven't spoken to your mother-in-law in years, not since her last attempt to poison you. Every six months he buys the whole team new cars. You have no idea what to do with all these cars. It's too many cars. Put some cars back. He calls everyone his "friend," but even after working for him for years, you still have absolutely no idea about his likes, dislikes, or hobbies outside of the IPC. You could not name his favorite food if someone put a gun to your head. Does he exist outside of the workplace? You literally can't imagine him anywhere but on a mission or at a poker table. He's constantly bringing an "I am the party!" vibe to the room, but everyone else is a bored 8-5 worker who doesn't have a drop of enthusiasm left in their veins. It's like when a singer asks the audience to cheer along with a song, but nobody in the audience makes a peep. Absolutely no one in the IPC cubicles can match his particular freak. Aventurine's a smooth-talker and a street-smart cookie for sure, but something about the way his smile looks like it's made out of plastic when anyone tries to engage him in chitchat at the water cooler gives you the vague impression that he's probably never had an actual friend in his life. If "uncanny valley" was a vibe a workplace could have, Aventurine's office would have it.

Long story longer, I think Aventurine has very few people willing to tolerate him as a boss, whether because they are racist or simply because his quirks are just too quirky. However, I like to imagine the few who have hung in there are ride or die. You know they have an "Aventurine Protection Squad" group chat. They probably all wear peacock-teal and gold accessories in solidarity. They have definitely disappeared people for talking shit on their boss before. Aventurine has no idea how much they actually like him.

[nomsfaultau]

I wonder what Techno's response would be if Tommy won in the pit. Because he's a pretty 'might makes right' dude so I'm trying to figure out if he'd just shrug and be like 'ok I was in the wrong and Tommy got his revenge so it's all fair and square' (while being secretly frazzeled and quadruple down about training harder and stockpiling max everything because Tommy??? Tommy beat him???).

Unless he doesn't see his life for Tubbo's as a fair trade, and thinks along the lines of Tommy's life taken in retribution. Because Techno is super pro revenge, and it could be a 'hey! I didn't have a choice killing Tubbo! That's not fair!' reaction. Techno pretty consistently wants the last word on violence, cataclysmically so, but at the very least will leave it there as is instead of extracting payment over and over and over. So I think there's a real possibility of him scheming up revenge, stockpiling like crazy, and waiting for the proper moment so it doesn't look like he's going back on his word.

Cause like. Techno does say 'win or lose, it stays in the pit'. But he's also fully going in intending to win. He's skewing the odds in his favor with strategic saturation boosts and is very confident in his abilities. When he offers Tommy an out, it's because he wants this to be a choice to fight and then drop it no hard feelings, not because Techno thinks he'll lose.

But if he did. If he did, and was humiliated in front of everyone. If his combat abilities were called into question because he lost to Tommy. If Technoblade 'never dies' lost a life. Well. I think he'd be put in a tailspin. He'd be analyzing every single second in that pit, over and over, to figure out what went wrong. Playing in his head on repeat as his strategist's mind turns against him.

Because as much as Techno tries to twist W--'s egging and goading and escalating into a de-ecalatory measure, Tommy is definitely still holding hard feelings after the pit. And I think Techno would, too, as much as he tries to insist it stays in the pit.

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

On Kurapika's Self-Imposed Isolation

While I recognize that probably everything I'm about to say is going to be super obvious, I just wanted to briefly touch on Kurapika's self-isolation, and the reason behind his not picking up his phone or exchanging anything more than clipped words and business after Yorknew.

I think the obvious answer is that Kurapika doesn't want his friends in harms way, or to be used as a bargaining tool against him. This is an understandable and probably accurate conclusion. After all, Gon and Killua did get taken hostage, and Kurapika was forced to negotiate an exchange. Chrollo picked up on Kurapika's "weakness" right away - that he values his friends' safety before his revenge. Fortunately for Kurapika in this situation, Pakunoda was a whole lot more similar to him than he would've cared to admit, as she placed a value on Chrollo's life even though everyone in the Spider was intended to be replaceable. So, now that he's been through Gon and Killua having potentially gotten killed or seriously hurt, and Chrollo knows that he has a soft spot for them, it does make sense that he would try to push them away for their safety and for the sake of not having an exploitable "weakness" in future. He may also not want to burden them more when they have their own lives to live - he does slip off without telling Gon and Killua for the sake of not distracting them from Nen training, after all.

Except that he already tried all this earlier in Yorknew arc. He tried to tell them they shouldn't get involved, and they all agreed that the risks were massive - but his friends agreed to undergo the risks anyways to help him. Kurapika was even grateful for it - "I have been blessed with good friends."

So, for him to push them away solely for this reason after the fact, knowing that this was very much a likely situation to happen, is a little odd to me. Kurapika knows full well that Leorio would be frustrated, Killua would be offended and Gon would worry. So, I think there's a little more to it than that, and I actually would venture to say that "keeping his friends out of danger" is more a secondary reason for his actions - one that would come across as more of a reasonable excuse to others.

The primary reason is likely a lot more selfish than that. Kurapika has to ensure his mission comes first. And unfortunately, he is fully aware that his path and choice in abilities is deeply self-destructive.

Kurapika needs to make sure that he doesn't have exploitable weaknesses, sure, but he also just as much needs to purposefully worsen his headspace - and he can't do that with those three around.

Think back, what are the happiest moments we see from Kurapika in the series? The one that comes to mind first, and the one I'm sure most of us will think of immediately, is this:

[ID: A screenshot from the 2011 anime adaptation. Kurapika smiles - he looks at ease. End ID.]

It's one of the sweetest scenes of the series imo, right before the whole group is reunited for the first time since the Zoldyck Family arc, and it's even more notable because it comes immediately on the tail end of this...

[ID: Three panels from HxH Chapter 101. Kurapika removes his contacts over the sink. His expression is distant. End ID.]

...and this...

[ID: A panel from HxH Chapter 101. A close up of Kurapika's vacant and furious expression, his eyes wide and dangerous as he says "It might as well be you." Though the art is in black and white, it's apparent his eyes have gone scarlet. End ID.]

...and this.

[ID: A panel from HxH Chapter 101. A distant Kurapika speaks on the phone on a rooftop at night, the cityscape of Yorknew around him dark, but speckled with lights and stars. He says "The Spiders are dead." His face is not visible to the reader. End ID.]

This is, up to this point in the series, Kurapika at his lowest. In contrast to Gon, who is happy to hear that the Spiders are dead already because now Kurapika can focus solely on finding his peoples' eyes, Kurapika... is clearly not happy - and that's because killing the Spiders himself isn't just revenge. It's penance. It's survivor's guilt. Kurapika's powers, which Izunavi even comments sound much like he is chaining himself in the process of chaining his enemies, are oh-so-beautifully prophecied to destroy him - and Kurapika was aware of this from the moment he set off down this path of revenge.

(As a side note, this is why I'm really hoping we see Gon and Kurapika interact again after the Chimera Ant arc - while Gon has always been pretty attentive to Kurapika's emotional state, in Yorknew, he lacks a true understanding of why Kurapika would go so far... but as of now, he understands rage fueled by guilt and grief all too well. I know we're all rooting for Leorio to reach Kurapika, but barring that, I really think Gon could get through to him - after all, they are similar in several ways, and I find it fairly apparent that Gon reminds Kurapika of Pairo.)

But back to the main point here - I do suspect Kurapika expects (if not wants) his revenge mission to destroy him. I think a lot of times, we forget just how young Kurapika is, and how much his character is dictated by honour, and the abandonment of it.

Certainly, he can and will go against his principles for the sake of his mission... yet, almost paradoxically, he's bound to his promise to his fallen clan; a promise to avenge them made in anger.

But Kurapika... doesn't come across as a naturally angry person to me at all.

He seems like the stoic, vengeful type on his initial introduction... and then we get his panic at Gon's recklessness

[ID: A panel from HxH Chapter 2. Kurapika and Leorio wear matching expressions of panic in front of Gon, calling him out for his recklessness. End ID.]

...and his near-immediate forgiveness of Leorio after getting the first inkling of his character - of someone who cares just as fiercely as he does.

And after that point? Almost all through the Hunter Exam? Kurapika smiles so readily at them. He's sharp and funny. He mediates at times, but is stubbornly prideful in others. He's very amused by his friends' antics, and it really does seem like he starts to enjoy himself, with them. And, more than that, he counters Leorio's initial impression of him as an independent loner - on several occasions. He decides to follow Gon because Gon intrigues him. Asides from Gon, it is Kurapika who is the most unwilling to fight each other at the bottom of Trick Tower. Kurapika who makes the first move to team up with Leorio, even though that arrangement benefits Leorio much more than it does him. Kurapika who refuses to abandon Leorio to his fate in the cave, and who checks on Gon after noticing his bad mood. Who was furious enough watching him get beat down by Hanzo that his eyes went scarlet for the first and only instance outside of Spider mentions and Emperor Time. Who quite readily detoured to help rescue Killua.

[ID: Three screenshots from the 2011 adaptation Hunter Exam arc. In the first, Kurapika smiles at a sleeping Leorio. In the second, Kurapika stifles laughter as he pretends he's asleep. In the third, Kurapika has an open-mouthed smile as he acquires the airship tickets for them, Leorio and Gon standing behind him. End ID.]

Look at him! He's so bright! So happy!

...too happy. Too happy to do what he promised himself he would do. And that's his biggest fear, isn't it. Without his rage... what is he left with?

[ID: A panel from HxH chapter 2. A close up of Kurapika's eye as he says "I do not fear death. What I fear is that my rage will one day fade away." End ID.]

Kurapika is far, far less mired in anger when he's with his friends. I actually dare to say that at certain points, he was able to go for lengths of time without thinking much about it - alternating between almost forgetting in one instance and being hit like a sledgehammer on exposure to a reminder in the next. This violent swing is... actually the beginnings of the natural process of healing from loss and trauma. But to Kurapika, who's made a promise to his people's memories, this is not a relief. This is betrayal.

I think that actually scares him, that he can almost picture it. A life beyond his guilt. That he, too, could learn to be happy, even after unimaginable loss.

And so, as Kurapika continues his mission offscreen, finding more and more gruesome reminders of the cruelty inflicted on his people and losing more and more pieces of himself in the process (in his own words, no less), he prioritizes his responsibility to them, and pushes away his distractions. He cannot be a soul at peace until his work is done; he must be in turmoil. He pushes people away who he cares for, and binds himself, and keeps his people's eyes on him, quite literally, because respite, for him, is unacceptable. Perhaps that guilty part of him even hopes, by the end of this, that his soul will be so unrecognizable as to be fundamentally unsalvageable. But the truth of the matter is, or at least what comes across to me, is that Kurapika cares much more fiercely than he hates. He knows what matters most. And for as long as he does, he still hasn't truly lost himself.

[ID: A panel from HxH chapter 350. Kurapika looks down at baby Woble with a gentle, yet complicated expression. The inking is somewhat softer. End ID.]

Kurapika's soul is kind, really. And it wants to heal - but for the sake of his mission, he needs it damaged and bleeding. And so, he forces himself to exist in that pain. All alone.

[ID: A panel from HxH Chapter 344. Kurapika, dressed in a black suit, sits with his back to the reader, looking down at a photo in his hand. He is slumped a little before the church vigil he has prepared, all his clan's eyes lined up in their jars and honoured with flowers and candles. He thinks to himself "There is no home for me to return to... and nobody to welcome me back. I have nothing left." End ID.]

[everliving-everblaze]

While this really doesn't matter, I disagree with the idea that any dead character "haunts" KotLC's narrative. I think that KotLC's narrative is haunted far more by its living characters than its dead ones. In a story where most characters should have died long ago, is it most haunting that these few have died—or that everyone else has lived?

[vamphorica]

one of my favourite things about being as fixated on death note as i am is how i simultaneously can and cannot defend it at all. it is the greatest anime of all time but so ridiculously flawed, the characters are unique and interesting, but are often developmentally neglected, the plot is ingenious but also rushed and concludes both brilliantly and extremely poorly. it is a product of its time, which makes it impressive in how relevant it continues to be but can also be very short-sighted as well. i do love it dearly, but over the years, i think i have grown increasingly critical of it, and you know what? that's what i appreciate about it. it opens the door to so many moral and ethical discussions, hosts a cast of characters that can be loved in spite of their faults, and thus encourages more indepth considerations into itself as a piece of media. blindly defending death note feels like it does a disservice to the franchise, and i love it too much to consider it perfect.

[trappedinafantasy37]

"Oh, I don't like Minthara cause she's mean to the other companions."

Shut up. All of the companions are mean to each other. Did you just like, completely skip over the passive aggressive comments between Shadowheart and Lae'zel throughout all of Act 1? Did you just skip over the confrontation in which the two of them actively try to kill each other in the gayest, most homoerotic way possible? Or did you just make an exception for Minthara and decided she's the only one not allowed to be mean? Larian had to de-bitchify Shadowheart cause she supposedly was too mean in EA, and she's still a bitch in the release version (and I love her for it). For fucks sake, Astarion is the fan favorite and one of the reasons is because he's an ass to everyone.

"But but her third son comment to Gale is so mean and cruel!" Shadowheart literally tells Astarion he deserves to be publicly executed. You do not have a problem with companions being assholes to each other, you just don't like it when Minthara does it for whatever dumb reason.

Just another example that shows that people have either 1) never recruited her and don't know the full context of her comments and miss out on all the positive things she has to say for all the companions and/or 2) hold her to a standard that they do not hold the rest of the cast to when they are all guilty of the same shit.

To me, this is just a lazy excuse for someone who doesn't actually have a valid reason to dislike Minthara.

[mishaesque]

supernatural really went from “let’s find the two hottest young guys out there and make cheesy horror flicks” to

“the brothers are the centre of the universe and the books god wrote about them will one day be known as The Winchester Gospel”

[princessofghosts-posts]

I think having multipovs chapters in HoO narrative was one of the main catalyst for the quality's downgrade of Riordan writing.

Riordan isn't an horrible writer,there are ups and downs in his books and he really really needs to acknowledge that maybe it's time to step ups his writing style,let the books grow with his audience (let's address all of the trauma),and put back the quality over quantity principle (which is something that totally flew out of the fucking window in the last years). Especially if he still want to write books in the future,since we understand that he won't let his characters rest anytime soon,either with the books or with the TV serie.

His stongest serie is probably PJO,I haven't read MC or KC so I don't know how good they are,but from what I understood they are all pretty good (I also love Egyptian Mythology ever since I was a child,so I'll probably read KC after I'm done with the Nico's serie). All of them are wrote in first person,with the protagonists narrating everything that happens. I think it was KC that introduced more than one narrator,since in MC and PJO there is only one (Magnus and Percy),while KC has Sadie and Carter.

The thing is,that when it came to having only one narrator,Riordan is pretty good at what he writes. Because he needs to focus on only one character,while he can expand and development the others. It's a bit difficult when there are a lot of side characters,but the main focus is always the main protagonist (Percy) and every other characters they interact with most of the time (Annabeth,Grover,Thalia,Nico,ecc...).

You also need to remember that the characters get shaped with their PoVs. We don't know them,and this isn't a movie/serie that let us see what it's going on. So,it's important that in books the PoVs reflect the characters. Take Percy for example,he is humble,sarcastic and very down to heart,othen than having a low self-esteem and being an unreliable narrator. His PoVs is extremely different from a Piper that just entered this world and don't have the same experience,is still founding her ground and trying to accept her nature.

And it's ok because it help to shape not only the main character,but also the others. But it also need to be different for each character,otherwise is like writing the same one all over again with only different struggles. All of them have low self-esteem and don't believe in themselves enough for a reason or another,so it's a bit difficult to organize them and make sure that they are unique one from the other.

Anyway. Rick also didn't had a problem with 2 narrators,since I read a couple of positive review on KC. But I'll see for myself when I'll read it. (These days I'm going to start ToA,but since I have a lot to do for school and my final exam I don't think I'll be able to read all of it). He also didn't had a problem with 3 narrators since TLH was pretty ok,especially with balancing for the first time 3 PoVs of 3 new different characters and dynamics; and SoN is probably one of his strongest book from a writing prospective,and one of the backbone of HoO. I also think that 3 narrators are good enough for a book,because otherwise it can get really messy. And I say this as a fanfic writer that has a fanfic with more than 7 narrators in a multichapter povs. It's hell to write all of them down and I need to establish an order where I write 3-4 for each chapter (there are 7 main characters,yes-),and then add the eventual others PoVs from the side characters. I'm extremely regretting my choice,but I unfortunately can't change it since I'm already writing it. Fortunately is in third person,otherwise I was going to cry. Never again in my life. Thanks to this I can kinda understand a bit of Riordan's problems for HoO,because it's a stuggle trying to fit a lot of PoVs in a books.

I firmly believe he should have stopped at 3 (maybe a fourth if he can) and rotated them for all the other books. Because the real problem started with MoA,where we got 5 narrators,and the quality started to go down the drain,both for the story and for the characters themselves. Some of them (read: Jason because Riordan could care less about him,and Piper because he never tried to do something with her) are really underdeveloped,others turned out straight up toxic (looking at you Annabeth for even thinking that your boyfriend was stupid when you know how smart he is,and Leo for your horrible coping mechanism) and some where completely pushed in the back (Frank,Hazel and Percy himself). And having to add 2 other PoVs at the end of the serie really took from the Seven,but it was unfortunately something Riordan couldn't avoid since Reyna and Nico both entered the main character stage in HoH,and were important to their mission (their PoVs kinda saved BoO ngl-). There is also an inconsistentincy with the PoVs because there were more greeks than romans,and during HoH the order,and how many chapters they had,went down the drain too.

If he struggles to do more than 3/4 PoVs,which is completely valid,he shouldn't add more. Focus on them based on the importance they have in the current book. MoA is literally Annabeth's book,then add Jason PoVs since it's where the whole Romans Vs Greeks conflict started,put Hazel PoVs too since she was Jason's friend and doesn't know what's going on with him,and either choose between Piper (for the same reason in the book) or Percy (same reason as Jason).

HoH? Percy PoVs needs to stay. Add Frank (for the same reason in the book) and Leo so he can have a bit of development and find his place in the Seven instead of making him fly to Calypso,and then choose between Piper (give her that development) or Annabeth (she was in the same situation as Percy so hers doesn't really matter since we saw her in Percy's)

BoO? Nico PoVs needs to stay because it carried 50% of it. Put Piper (for the same reason in the book),Hazel so she can finally grow in her powers (not talking about the mist-) and then choose between Reyna (for the same reason as Annabeth in HoH,we see her all of the book in Nico's) or Jason (same reason in the book),and give the last chapter to Percy so we don't actually know if Leo is dead or not for having a better plot twist later on.

This is only my opinion of which PoVs should be better of course,you could have a different opinion. Not a problem at all. Riordan in the end of the day it's the author and this was what he wanted,completely fair too,but I think it would have been better if he balanced 3 or 4,instead of going for 5 or more.

Probably would have been better if the whole HoO had more than 5 books,maybe one for each main character and then have a final one where they rotated PoVs for each chapters (not 3 each) and add Nico's or Reyna's. The last one would be a little more than the usual 300+ pages (probably closer or a bit more than 500),and should be splitted between the Seven in Athens and Nico and Reyna at CHB,the conflict between the camps and the final clash with Gaia should be more than 10 pages.

It should probably go like TLO: put a couple of chapaters as introduction of the final plans for the war,then have the Seven battling the Giants in Athens while Nico and Reyna take care of the conflict between the camps, rotate PoVs between them (so we feel the hype and anxiety) for the rest of the book,and spend like 50-60 pages only about the final shout down with Gaia before going on with the aftermath. This way it doesn't feel rushed like BoO felt and,again,the last chapter should be Percy's,or if not him then Jason since it's like we end his story.

It already sound better like this,and all of the characters should already have all of their development,so that the last book can be centred only on the final conflicts,instead of traveling for more than 300 pages and doing everything in the last 80. That's not how you do a war arc,and TLO is a good example of Riordan's writing of it. He can put a lot of quality in his works (manifesting this for his recent books) but he needs to lock in already knowing what he needs to focus on,and what he need to do for having that type of climax. If he did it in PJO he could have done it in HoO too,specially because we had HoH,a literally masterpiece,before the last book in the same serie. It's not like he lost his sparks after PJO since there are some good books in HoO too.

Of course there are a lot of other issues too,the characters themselves are a mess and some of them stay a mess without having time to grow (*cough cough* Piper,Jason,Reyna,Leo *cough cough*),but that's mainly Riordan's fault since he doesn't know what to do with most of them. And then in ToA he literally throw them under the bus,some more than others (read: Jason,Piper with whatever he thought he was doing right and Reyna being in the Hunt after she fought so hard for CJ). But I think the various PoVs from different characters,most of which new,really did a number on his writing.

[smartzelda]

Sorry guys I gotta speak my truth on this one

I'm not kidding when I say that I think that blaming shit media literacy from fans on shipping/shippers avoids the actual root of the problem to throw people you can easily throw under the bus (simply because it's not unpopular to consider people who post about ships or ship characters in media as having lesser or derivative tastes by default)

And here's why.

I think when you blame people who are "shippers" or "consume media through shipping lenses", the true root of it all is a mindset problem.

In actually, putting on shipping lenses can be helpful when trying to analyze a piece of media. When analyzing media you're supposed to approach it through a number of mindsets and put on different lenses (both to deepen your personal understanding of the media, and to pick it apart and see what you can find there (whether intentional or not on the author's part)), and different ships can be some of those lenses

When it comes to ships between main characters (for those who are genuinely willing to see what the narrative is showing with their relationship and what it's doing), there are times when analyzing it from a shipping lens may be helpful. As someone from KH fandom, I have seen people come to deeper understandings and pick canon apart in the process of analyzing a relationship that is genuinely integral to the story (platonic or not). I've also seen people get into rarepairs of characters who barely interact or who just suffer little screen time, and I've seen them come to better understandings of those side characters and how they potentially fit into the world of the media simply because people are now focusing on these characters and how they fit into the narrative.

Frankly, I resent the idea that the only way to truly objectively analyze a piece of media is by turning off the part of your brain that gets excited over relationships and individual characters. Don't get me wrong, that is a way to approach a piece of media and a valid one at that, but the truth is that we cannot be free of bias.

For instance, I was watching House MD with my parents circa last year. At some point I started heavily tuning into what was going on with House and Wilson's relationship. My parents, on the other hand, were largely watching casually. They're not thinking of character relationships or getting heavily invested in most characters, they're watching because they like watching. One of them in particular did try to analyze things that were happening in the show as they happened. However, when it came to the scene late in the series where House threw out Dominika's letter approving her American citizenship, my parents could understand that he was doing that because he didn't want her to leave, but not much beyond that. I ended up explaining to them that House's fake marriage for Dominika was an explicit parallel to when Wilson was living with House in the early seasons. Both situations started with House being none too happy about it but ultimately letting them stay, spending a considerable amount of effort getting them to leave/getting this situation to be finally over so he didn't have to deal with it anymore, and then by the time a piece of news comes through that would mean the person in question actually leaves, House hides this news as long as he can. Because he doesn't actually want them to leave and has grown attached. And by doing this he became a self fulfilling prophecy. By reacting to the truth of Wilson and Dominika leaving him the way he does, he seals his fate and they ultimately leave anyways. Maybe I ship Hilson, but becoming open to how their relationship was handled allowed me to transition to doing character studies and recognizing patterns/parallels that I wouldn't have noticed if I didn't particularly care about the characters or their relationship.

Likewise, I've seen mutuals complain about how people who don't like or don't care about certain characters often overlook these characters (what they're actually like and their place in the narrative), while the mutuals in question (by default) are able to come to deeper understanding of what the writers/story is trying to do because they care about this funky guy

You can't eradicate bias when you're engaging in media analysis, but you can consciously put on a range of lenses and observe the media through different povs with the goal of understanding the media better or bolstering your reading of it. And those lenses/povs can include focusing on specific relationships or the perpective of certain characters

And this is why I say it's actually a mindset problem. Shippers and people who have this one blorbo they like a lot aren't inherently terrible "fandom brained individuals" who are the root of media analysis problems. The problem only arises when people's readings/analysis of a piece of media are inherently restrictive/narrow and self centered. Your problem is with people who view a piece of media through a ship they like but don't keep an open mind about it, and whose "media analysis"/views on canon cannot be split from fanon and their comfortability levels. These are the people whose "media analysis" starts and ends with justifying their fanon as canon, whose views on media revolve around sorting characters and relationships into categories they personally enjoy rather than trying to understand what's going on.

Here's another example.

Here we have a fictional ship we'll call uhhhh...Blanebin. this fictional ship I made up on the spot for characters that don't exist named Blane and Corbin

Person A is super into Blanebin. They're part of the main cast of characters and canonically childhood best friends, so person A (as much as they enjoy fanart and fic) is also enjoying analyzing how narratively important to each other they are. Recently, Corbin started dating another character in canon, but Person A is enjoying watching how Blane is reacting to this. "Is this potentially a tell that Blane is jealous or is having complicated feelings about this? What if he was, how would that contextualize his behavior this season? Here's what I think based on how Blane dealt with explicit jealousy last season in a different situation". It's not impossible that person A is still missing further understanding due to their obsession with Blanebin, but at the end of the day this obsession has allowed them to start picking through the characters both in and outside this relationship. It has allowed them to see potential subtext and theorize on what might happen next with these characters' relationship. Not to mention that with addition of Corbin dating someone else, instead of trying to erase this fact or state that Corbin canonically isn't into that person, Person A is trying to factor in how Corbin's current dating life affects his relationship with Blane (irregardless on personal views on the nature of Corbin's relationship with the person he's dating).

Person B is also super into Blanebin. They really enjoy fanart and fic of the characters, love obsessing over their moments together, and just feel like there's really something between the characters. To person B, every moment between them is just further proof that the writers are ship teasing them. But Corbin getting together with someone else this season? Oh that pissed person B off. They cannot believe that even though Corbin and Blane are CLEARLY gay for each other the writers had Corbin get with someone else this season. Perhaps, they think, it was even a decision specifically made to spite fans. How evil of the writers to tease a perfectly good ship and then have them not get together first? They must have been just doing those teases to get views from Blanebin shippers those scoundrels. To Person B, since Corbin started dating someone when he obviously has some chemistry with Blane (even though the series is far from over) means that Blanebin can never get together now and Corbin x person he's dating is ruining Blanebin by existing. In fact, they think, this is terrible writing for Corbin to be dating someone else because they don't like that relationship and don't see the point. Obviously if the writers were good then Corbin would have started dating Blane instead because this was supposed to be the Blanebin show.

Person C despises Blanebin. Don't get them wrong, they've always enjoyed the character's childhood friendship, but they actually have always thought Blane would have been better off with Victoria. They have a lot of moments too! But they're tired of seeing people ship Blanebin. Corbin just got together with someone else, so obviously that's not gonna work out. Plus Corbin and Blane totally has always given person C bro vibes. In fact, person C thinks, sure Corbin and Blane have a close friendship, but people shouldn't be shipping them. Person C likes Blanetoria and Blanetoria can't be canon if Corbin is in the way of it. So Person C likes to read Blanebin as siblings anyways. Sure they're canonically friends, but obviously their friendship turned into brotherhood. This means that nothing can be in the way of Blanetoria and Corbin can keep dating the person he's already canonically dating. Actually, now Blanebin just straight up makes Person C uncomfortable. Don't the pesky shippers understand that Blanebin are sibling coded because they're childhood best friends and that they're important to each other because they're brothers? It's obvious to anyone with eyes.

Sure, ships are involved here, but is the root of this problem shipping? Character A isn't as knowledgeable of other characters in the plot due to this lens they're using, but at the end of the day they're dedicated to analysis. Their love of the characters is pushing them beyond what they like or dislike to try to understand what might be happening through their lens. Not perfect, but they are slowly broadening their horizons. But Person B and C's problems here are their restrictiveness. What is or should be canon to them is tantamount to what they personally like or find comfortable. Is person C actually analyzing the this fake show when they decide to "read" Blanebin as basically canonically siblings (and this all of their moments are totally a bro thing) just because they don't like Blanebin and the idea of them getting together over Blanetoria makes them uncomfortable? Is person B actually analyzing this fake show when their "analysis" of Blanebin goes only as far as asserting it's being ship teased and deciding anything short of canonizing Blanebin is a targeted attack or "bad writing" because it's not what they wanted personally to happen?

This is what I'm talking about. This is the mindset. Shipping isn't the problem. The problem is when people marry fanon and canon to the point where they have a vested interest in superimposing their fanon over canon as "a reading" and trying to make "collective decisions" on what is canon (or what canon is trying to say) based on what does or doesn't make them uncomfortable. The problem is people being restrictive and centering their own likes and dislikes in the conversation, so they can only interact with canon "analysis" wise by deciding what is canon or should be canon "as obviously agreed on by everyone". You can't simply claim you like media analysis. To be able to analyze media and bolster your views on any given canon, you must be open to looking at it through multiple povs, to studying characters without trying to pretend things you don't like don't exist or do like do exist. There is a balance that must be kept between trying to keep objectivity and putting on specific focus/bias based upon the lenses you're putting on. You have to be willing to try to figure out what a media is doing or saying, not saying you're trying to figure out what it's saying while in actuality trying to define the narrative around what people believe it's saying in ways that suit you.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[str8upjorkinit]

Why do you like the brat

(genuinely want to know lmao)

funny you should ask that...

it all started when I saw that one ad where leo was kicking his feet in the bathtub...(big yap warning)

shallowly, he gives power bottom energy. i was prepared to not like him since my friend was further in the game + picked leo bc she thought he looked cunty and quickly found out that she hated him, but my first meeting of him was that ad.... that ad.... hes so like girly and like cutesy and and :3c!! so then i actually met him in the game... hes so girly and cutesy omg, i live for that fake bitch energy. hes so like... pathetic and two faced and cute like....

so basically i have this thing where i yearn for this kind of dynamic where i can overpower him but hes smarter than me and also very interesting so i just let him boss me around. hes so like... weak. and i love his voice i need him to moan in my ear especially when hes being fake and cute bc he wants something from you? "captain~<3 can you please open this bottle for me?~ <3" ugh. fuck. boner. hes such a vixen. hes such a diva.

also him crying... oh my lord LEO CRYING!!! UGHHH. the world's prettiest crier <3 and his goddamn tongue piercing

also like the switch up is hot too, the duality of man <3 my pretty delicate princess!!

psychologically, hes such a fucking wreck and i love that, hes such a bitch, and hes so manipulative, and hes so jealous, and insecure, and such a liar, im so fascinated!!! does he know how awful he is? does he realize how toxic hes being? is he toxic on purpose?? is he a shit friend on purpose? is it a power trip to make sho pay for his food or is he just lazy? i want to know what hes thinking

his relationship with sho is so fascinating too, like its so clear hes scared of losing him but in a way he also hates/loves him. like wdym you have other friends besides me??? you're starting a business??? ugh, ur so lame. and he actively tries to isolate him, is he jealous of sho's popularity? his talents? his social life? or does he hate the things that takes sho away from him?? he also does not give a shit about shos happiness either bc he like badmouthed him to subaru just so subaru could leave him alone... wow... what a fucking asshole... im so invested, drama!!!! also the valentine's day line where he doesn't mention getting anything but sho does,,, it means something no?? dude, like, leo is everything and nothing, i bet he feels so worthless but to make up for that he uses sho and internet validation

hes built like a reality tv character, THE instigator but hes smart about it. hes such an attention whore, like .... regina george... guys real shit i have a mean girl kink /j

leos the type of bitch to flirt with and sleep with his boss to make more money.

ANOTHER THING he has like a weird sense of justice?? like he hates ppl who've made the world shitty (ref to when he jumps off the building) and so him and sho scamming old rich guys is kinda like them being vigilantes? leos kinda like an anti-hero in a way. hes so interesting!!! AHH!!!

omg also hes in his self-destructive era and i need to see how it goes, like will he be a villain? will his life get ruined bc of himself?? will he get punished? will he redeem himself? does he regret his choices??

ngl i tho im actually not romantically interested in him, which is pretty surprising considering how much i like him. im obsessed with him in the most objectifying way possible

but yeah i love my toxic fruit tart boy <333

[shiikiyun]

I think something i don't often see in discussions about Futa's character is how, if you really take a second, he's kind of a people pleaser

He isn't so in a way like what Mikoto got going on, he does want to be around people of the same interests as him, and you wouldn't think he'd care about anything but authenticity if you stayed with the way he behaves on milgram. It is only when you think about him -in- those social circles he manages to get into that you can see him tweaking lol

I think the closest to see this that we have in milgram itself is that one interaction with Kotoko in which she attempts to debate how prisons respect human rights. Any other time he expressed his opinion/stance on things he was aggressive and maybe condescending to the rest because they disagreed with him, but the second someone agreed? Whole demeanor changed. Suddenly he didn't have much to say anymore and he just parroted Kotoko's words back at her. Why. If he has such a strong personality and mindset, why was someone validating his point enough to shut down his otherwise very firm attitude?

Futa doesn't go as far as to manufacture his every word for it to cause a positive reaction on others from the get go, but he does seek validation all the same. He braces himself for rejection by being loud and obnoxious and harsh until he sees a positive reaction and then is when he does a complete 180 to keep the other person in that place of validation. He is simultaneously completely bad at it though, but I never said he was good at people pleasing. Which connects back to what i've said before about his inability to fit in. Even when he thinks he's doing it right and he sees himself getting validation by people he cares about (in the case of his crime, by mimicking his friendgroup's method of "bringing justice" by calling out someone online, that same friendgroup following along and reinforcing the idea that he was doing it right), he ultimately fails anyway and loses it all over again.

In the end, he's just extremely socially awkward and anxious. It isn't in his nature to reach anyone else's expectations even if he genuinely wants to, so he'll either do what he can within his parameters (mold himself for his friendgroup of people he deems similar to him) or he'll avoid trying altogether because he knows he'll fail (what we see in milgram!)

It also shows how his yearn for a support system (t2 qna + mu's birthday timeline convo) isn't particularly new from his current circumstances, or why the only person he could think of when asked who he would want to see right now was his mom (who left so long ago he barely remembers her). He has just never truly had people that genuinely cared for him no matter what he tried to do to make himself likeable.