#when its like. no guys the characters are just complex and act like human beings would

[natsmagi]

tbh maybe this is a hot take but i really dont get why people insist on having one person in natsumugi be this Super Toxic one and the other a victim. the easiest conclusion to draw is natsume being the bad guy and tsumugi the victim due to natsume getting physical and berating him at times but far too commonly do i see people insist that its the other way around and that tsumugi is actually the super toxic one and natsume just lets tsumugi emotionally manipulate him and thats ?? so weird to me ??? both of these are so weird to me ???

i can ofc see where theyre coming from. both natsume and tsumugi have plenty of issues going on in their heads. i feel like natsumes situation is more commonly understood as him simply just being difficult though and not being the best at managing his emotions, and with tsumugi i get it because he doesnt really have much of a moral compass. he doesnt quite understand peoples feelings and it results in him doing pretty fucked up things at times, but to then frame him as someone who would be abusive?? that doesnt sit right with me

tsumugi may not understand peoples emotions and be apathetic to the struggles people are going through, but its clear to anyone that that man has good intentions at the end of the day. at WORST he may get overbearingly controlling, but its never in a "you cant do x y z" way, its in a "i signed us up for this job opportunity because i thought it sounded nice and didnt speak it through with you beforehand and now we have to do it" way. had this been 2nd year tsumugi maybe he wouldve been far more desperate and even manipulative to an extent because he was in such a dark place, but current day tsumugi is actively trying to understand people better. hes trying to learn how to feel. in wonder game he even outright said that natsume taught him pain and everything else. his growth is clear

i cannot see tsumugi taking advantage of natsume in a genuinely destructive way with modern day ntmg. again, maybe during the earlier !-era stuff he could be more destructive, but natsume also does a relatively good job keeping tsumugi in his place during that time too, with him getting physical and all. its only in !!-era where tsumugi doesnt really mind it and can even make playful jokes about it because theyve Had this development in their relationship. theyve moved Past many of their toxic attributes, and theyve finally grown to understand one another. this is also when tsumugi can have a more "dominating" role in their relationship, since natsume has come to trust him to this extent, but tsumugi wouldnt take advantage of that. again; theyve now grown very close and understanding of one another. theyll have banters such as tsumugi wanting natsume to do something like idk. wear a dress. to which natsume will reply with kys but again. in !!-era this is banter and tsumugi wouldnt actually force natsume to do something he doesnt want to. theyre just very comfortable with each other now

i also really hate the position natsume gets put in with all of this. so often he is already hyperfeminized by the fandom for no reason whatsoever (which is especially fucked up considering how much he canonically hates being seen as a girl), and by making tsumugi this manipulative and abusive partner youre stripping natsume of even more autonomy and framing him as powerless. naively in love with a man thats hurting him. and that doesnt sit right with me either!! natsume does have a big heart and he has endured more than he probably should, but to think natsume would just take it ??? natsume has BACKBONE. if tsumugi upsets him he will either 1. get really mad at him or 2. start ignoring tsumugi alltogether. hes not just gonna put up with it. and tsumugi will notice this change in demeanor. ask if hes done something wrong. he may not understand what it was he did but he never intends on hurting natsume and would genuinely want to resolve it. tsumugi isnt stubborn in this regard, if he fucks up he wants to fix it. and natsume isnt a damsel in distress, why do you want him to be a helpless maiden so bad ??

theres alot of nuance to all of this and im obviously not gonna tackle every single element of their relationship and this is just an overview but TL;DR ntmg are both awful and have many faults and their relationship has gotten incredibly unhealthy at times but the point is theyre growing PAST that. maybe sometimes these toxic traits of theirs will resurface, but that does not make one the abuser and the other the victim. theyre just two fucked up people in love, standing as equals and learning to understand one another. stop framing one as evil

[cemeterything]

i dont think youve posted much about kabru so i was wondering what your thoughts were on him? i feel like you'd enjoy him a lot. and any opinions on labru (laios x kabru)?

i'm a kabumisu guy sorry to disappoint on that front i'm into a different kind of weirdguy yaoi. but as a character i fucking love kabru so much. he's such an incredibly good and realistic portrayal of someone with complex ptsd from an unresolved and violent traumatic event - his hypervigilance particularly stands out as both an asset and a detriment to his character; it drives him to hone his skills of observation and action, but also blinds him to the possibility that people might be capable of being kind or helpful out of the genuine goodness of their hearts with no ulterior motive. he's such a layered character, too; at first he comes across as an experienced but cocky young adventurer, then you wonder if perhaps he's an antagonistic force to laios' party and their goals, and then you realise that he does, in fact, care a great deal about the future of humanity and the safety and wellbeing of others, as much as any of the other big players in the story, and the way he expresses that has simply been shaped by his unique life experiences. kabru is very much the 'team humanity' character, but in a way that isn't eye-rollingly sanctimonious. he's the straight man (in the trope sense of the word) who has the power to influence a great deal of change and good just by being willing to know when to act to ensure those aims prevail, and when to trust someone else's judgement to see it through, which he comes to learn better as his arc and the story progresses. also, i fucking cheered when i realised that the reason he fares so poorly against the monsters of the dungeon is because he's learned how to disarm and kill other people. i LOVE a character who is fundamentally in favour of protecting human life and safety, but who also sees humanity as its own greatest threat to itself.

[andradrawsstuff]

An in-depth character analysis of Skipper: pt 2

So, tv Skipper is a bit of a contrast to movie Skipper, as I stated in my MASSIVE ramble in part 1 💀 Even though he’s so different, he does have his quirks and some decent character development. It’s also great to see how much Tom’s voice acting evolves over the seasons and I thank him so much for putting his heart into it 🥺

This is also going to be a long one I am so sorry, I tried

This version of Skipper started off pretty similar to his movie counterpart as the show was finding its footing, but soon evolved into his own version of himself as the series went on. In early season 1, we see Skipper be somewhat down to earth and have quite an honourable attitude. He’s not super shouty-screamy and we see him being pretty domestic, which is probably because season 1 is pretty slice-of-life compared to the other two seasons.

I think the main points to mention here are in Happy King Julien Day and Assault and Batteries - in hkjd, despite all sorts of interruptions Skipper gets a little angry, but doesn’t really act upon it, he just minds his own business. Eventually he confronts Julien, but remains civil throughout the entire thing. In Assault and Batteries, he takes the batteries but does so sneakily to minimise confrontation. And when Julien chases him, he doesn’t fight. Throughout the entire episode (and a good bit of the show), he remains somewhat civil and tries to minimise confrontation with Julien. He’s also pretty sweet at the end when he offers a high five like bro that’s adorable I can’t-

We also get to see some decent character development for him in season 1, as there’s a lot of Skipper-centric episodes. In Needle Point, Skipper realises he should take the shot so that Private doesn’t get sick - he takes accountability for his actions, and his conversation with Private is pretty sweet. I love that you get to see Skipper being sweet (especially with Private) in the series, since they’ve had the time to show a bit of his vulnerable side here and there.

But I think that the most important character development point in Skipper’s story is Miss Understanding - Since the start of season 1, Skipper was pretty sexist and it gets so bad that he thinks he can’t do anything he did before because he’s a girl. He eventually saves the guys and the episode comes to a resolution.

But here’s the thing, not once is he sexist after that (Unless I’ve missed a few things here and there but I think he genuinely learns his lesson) which makes me think that his sexism is intentional on the writers part bc they do make it a point that it’s wrong, so w tpom and it’s pretty neat and rare for an early 2000s show to cover. This is why I love love love season 1 Skipper - he’s flawed but in a realistic way and he usually makes an effort to fix his mistakes. He’s also quite nonchalantly chaotic like in the movies, whereas in later seasons he’s more aggressively chaotic if you catch my drift? Idk how to explain well lmao.

As for his other traits, he’s pretty paranoid and egocentric, but still as suave, sassy and sarcastic as movie Skipper. He’s defo got a lot more of an “I’m right and you’re wrong” attitude than his counterpart and is a fair bit grumpier which is pretty funny. He’s got a bit of a hero complex here (eg. Treasure of the Golden Squirrel) and at first he’s arguably more chaotic good than neutral compared to the movies, but it’s not such a big change that it makes it bad in any way. I mean, he still kinda has it out for the humans and chooses violence without a second thought which is hilarious to me 💀

As the series progresses, Skipper starts to get increasingly paranoid and aggressive, and a lot of his negative traits start to show more. In early season 2 he’s fine but you can tell when the writers were starting to lose the plot both with the characters and stories in late season 2. It kinda feels like his character took a 180 turn and went backwards, but honestly it’s not that noticeable and I just happen to love analysing these things. I mean, it also happens to Kowalski, who around the same time starts becoming a bit of an asshole and gets worse in season 3 - in Snowmageddon, he’s rlly dismissive of Private and Fred.

I think Skipper also ends up suffering what I like to call the “Sabrina Spellman treatment” because he starts making mistakes and refusing to take accountability, usually pinning the blame on someone else without repercussions. I guess it’s the only real “problem” I have with his character in the series but honestly it’s just something that tends to happen as shows go on for a long time and it’s not all that bothersome. But the thing is, he starts getting better again in season 3 and he gets more character development (eg. Snowmageddon where him and Marlene work rlly well as a team and Antics on Ice where he’s pretty much doing everything for Private 🥺) so idk what happened there 💀

Overall, tv Skipper is still a loveable little guy and I find it so funny when he gets angry out of nowhere, my fav crazy Skipper moment being the one where he swears he’s never gonna end up in Hoboken and starts screaming his lungs out 💀 (absolutely top-notch voice acting as always ofc).

But with this, I hope that you’ve enjoyed my ridiculously long character analysis and feel free to tell me your thoughts, this is all just my opinion after all :)

If you’re somehow still reading this I congratulate you, you get a gold star ⭐️

[gynandromorph]

It's okay not to answer, I know it's broad territory, but I really respect you as an artist and writer. How do you handle people misinterpreting or missing elements of your work, especially when they may still enjoy it and get something out of it? As an artist I'm struggling lately with knowing my work will always inherently be read differently from what I intended as a matter of the human experience, as well as me being autistic complicating my ability to communicate.

An addition to that last ask. I don't know if it's clear what I'm asking so I'll give some examples. A 50 year old man and a 21 year old woman will get different things from a movie due to their lived experiences. As a gentile reader I might miss jewish narrative themes in a piece of work. That doesn't mean it's bad for us to have experienced it, but as an author I find it frustrating when something is missed or misinterpreted, and I don't know how not to be a control freak about it.

i feel you, i have ocpd and being misinterpreted when i agonized and stressed about how to present my wording makes me want to light myself on fire and it's something i'm working on. writers are supposed to expect and account for different perspectives ahead of time, so it always sort of shocks me when i hear interpretations i wouldn't have thought about at all. i know logically i can't predict all outcomes, but it's still surprising anyway!!! but i generally feel a lot of distress about being misinterpreted because i'm afraid it'll label me as A Bad Person, so i think that's where the experience diverges. maybe investigating why you need to or want to control the way your work is interpreted would help as a starting point? i think having a larger audience helps, too... it means more people will misinterpret your work, but it also means you're more likely to have at least One Guy who interprets it just right and makes fireworks go off in your brain, but there's no way to control how big your audience is!

anyway, the ways to control how your work is interpreted, to the degree that you can:

you can make it simpler. the more parts a story has added to its complexity, the more it's going to be misinterpreted.

you can make the intended message more blatant. you can have a character say exactly what you want the audience to think or hear, or something very close to it. don't want a detail missed? make it bigger.

you can reprioritize parts of the story. basically think of a group of interpretations you want the audience to have if you can, and then put them in order of importance. then the story has a hierarchy to lean on wrt artistic decisions.

you can give the story multiple meanings. more targets to hit. if they're mutually exclusive, i find this works better... i like making my stories ambiguous with conflicting interpretations a lot. yeah, people are going to interpret the story wrong, because it was made in a way that will guarantee it is interpreted wrong in some way.

you can layer the meaning so that less literate audience members will at least get SOME of what you intended. basically, close to the previous strategy, but like a hybrid of that and "make it simpler" imo because you're constructing multiple interpretations that are all supposed to lead to one conclusion (like a persuasive essay or something), but can act as an adequate conclusion on their own.

all of these options have obvious qualitative losses. if you have anything in particular that is repeatedly misinterpreted or missed, it's a good idea to think about Why you're making those choices. consciously committing to a higher-risk artistic choice will help you feel more in control of what happens to it once it's done. the way your art is interpreted isn't totally out of your control, you are making decisions that add to or mitigate the risk of misinterpretations, and you can bring those choices to a more conscious awareness to see them and appreciate them. sometimes it'll feel like a begrudging compromise, but it'll still be Your choice ultimately.

on an emotional level... hopefully this makes sense. there's always going to be the piss-on-the-poor scenario and sometimes i just remind myself that some people are not as literate as me, but it's great we were still able to connect through a work that was probably difficult for them!!! it was a privilege to get to grow up with a good education, access to art and technology, strangers who want to look at what i made, and there are times where i take this for granted, and my expectations of readers are actually kind of unreasonable!!! some people are younger than me and say stupid things like i did, but they aren't able to understand things like me yet, and it's important for them to learn by figuring it out on their own!!! i was and will always be That Guy to other artists and other writers, and i want to give other people the same grace as i get. some people have wildly different life experiences compared to mine, and these experiences can be much more nuanced than i could ever imagine, but it's a little gift that they made my world larger by sharing theirs through my art!!! it's terrifying and embarrassing knowing that i don't know much of anything, even about something i have total control over, but the consequences of that aren't always negative. and possibly the saddest but most common way i deal with this is nothing more than accepting that no one is ever going to understand me on the level that i want to be understood. sometimes my frustration has come from a place of miserable alienation, where the need to feel Seen can be quite desperate. i've made art explicitly about Me, and i've made art deliberately hostile towards its audience, art that's said they don't get it and they never will, but they still bothered to try. i made a game that said no one will win here and they still played it with me, and i can appreciate that. in many cases, they actually know more about me than i know about them. but more importantly, it isn't my audience's job to take care of that emotional need -- in fact, as much as art is made out to be a mode of pure self-expression, i don't think they can. it's a reality that i don't like, but i accept it. art made to benefit others is a one-way mirror: you make them feel seen, but they should never see you, because if they see you, the mirror isn't working.

[pienhime]

Ten Under-Recognized Jirai Kei Characters!

Ive been meaning to make a post on some jirai kei characters that i think are underappreciated by the overseas landmine community! Mostly i think its bc they don't wear girly kei, cybercore, or other fashions associated with us on SNS, and bc their media came out before 2020. So ive compiled a list and an explanation for why i think they're jirai! I have another list for pien kei characters who arent jirai in my opinion too. If u have any characters u think the western jirai comm sleeps on, comment/reblog and tell me who & why!

1. Celestia Ludenberg

Celestia (Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc) has screamed landmine to me for like, ever! She's wrapped up in her appearance and at first glance makes the effort to come off as regal and formal. But she frequently lets that disguise slip and shows her sadistic side at the slightest inconvenience, threatening violence and screaming in peoples faces. She's got both a superiority complex AND inferiority complex, and has an unhealthy obsession with gambling, her super high school level talent.

2. Nijimin Anazawa

Nijimin (Mahou Shoujo Site) is super popular in the japanese jirai comm, and its easy to see why. She's easily lovestruck and a borderline yandere (dependent type), murderous and hellbent on revenge, and her magical power literally revolves around manipulating others. She's a beloved idol and a symbol of cuteness, but she's a murderous magical girl? How much more jirai can you get!

3. Mayoi Ayase

Mayoi (Ensemble Stars) is a very interesting character! From his obsession with the occult to his self depreciating behavior to his obsessive and stalkerish tendencies, he's an overall offputting yet charming guy. As an idol, he has fans who have a totally different image of him than the creep (affectionate) he can be at times behind the scenes. Also, not to stereotype, but his favorite sanrio character is kuromi, whos super popular within jirai.

4. Yuri

Yuri (Dokidoki Literature Club) being a landmine seems a little self-explanatory to me. She's a yandere character who's probably the most unassuming of the cast at first. She's shy, smart, kind... and a self-harming yandere with a knife fetish who will literally kill herself if you get involved romantically or reject her.

5. Yoosung

Wow, when's the last time I thought about Mystic Messanger? No idea, but Yoosung feels pretty jirai kei to me in retrospect. In the beginning of the game, hes the adorkable self-conscious junior with an unhealthy online addiction. But, by the end, he's a self-harming yandere who refuses to let the player character go, and is willing to do whatever it takes to secure a happily ever after.

6. Kusokawa-chan

While I have an immeasurable hatred for her creator, Kusokawa-chan (Menhera-chan spin-off 4komas) is a comfort character of mine... for some reason. With a name that means "kawaii trash", her personality is probably predictable. She's human trash, a sadistic asshole with no respect for others who will insult and berate you at the drop of a hat, and turn on a dime on her fans. She tries to cover it up by putting on an exaggerated innocent act and kawaii-fying herself and her life, but she just cant stop herself from exploding on others with no remorse.

7. Azusa Mukami

Admittedly, everything I know about Diabolik Lovers is through its fandom as I've yet to cave and buy the games. But from what little I know, Azusa seems pretty jirai. He seems innocent, fragile even- but has the typical amount of yandere tendencies for the series. He has a self harm addiction, and if you peruse his route you're in for a toxic time.

8. Satou Matsuzaka

This might be cheating because she's so popular on yandere tumblr, but Satou Matsuzaka (Happy Sugar Life) is ultra jirai kei. It's no wonder she's such a popular choice of pfp on japanese jiraitwt! She's obsessed with living out a fantasy saccarine-sweet life with the object of her desire, and given her full-blown yandere nature and her lolicon status, its no doubt shes a toxic partner. She's beloved at her school and workplace for her seemingly sweet nature and cute looks, but her kindness is only for the purposes of manipulation.

9. Kosame Amagai

Again, I'm no expert on Diabolik Lovers! But based on what my friends on yandereblr tell me, this guy is definately a jirai danshi. He's a lover of all things cute, who uses his cute shota-like appearance and polite manner of speech to lure others in. In reality, hes an abusive partner in his route, and takes his anger out on others verbally. He's willing to cry, scream, and threaten over the smallest of transgressions. Of course, he's also a yandere as per series standard.

10. Momonga

Okay so this is only half-serious, but there's a reason Momonga (Chiikawa) is so beloved by jirai girls and often depicted fitting the visual jirai stereotype in fanart. She's ultra cute! But she uses her appearance and acting vulnerable and innocent to try to get away with shithead behavior. She's loud, erratic, and self-obsessed, and often cries when she doesn't get her way. She's obviously the worlds cutest little manipulator, and she knows it.

I hope you enjoyed this list! There's a list for non-landmine pien kei characters coming soon, so feel free to send me asks with recommendations! And feel free to add on to this list in reblogs and comments!

[fae-morrigan]

Nah because why are you only mentioning Kenan and John Henry when pointing out the racism in the Superfam fandom? I checked their tags on your account. You have next to no posts about just discussing their characters and stories. The only times you mention Nat is to prop up your faves. So don't go acting all mighty and progressive because you also mostly ignore their existence. There is a problem in the Superfam fandom when it comes to poc and how often they get ignored, but bringing those poc only to try and appear better than someone else makes you part of the problem. Unless I'm missing some essays about Kenan's growth from a bully to a hero, what it means for John Henry to be a human hero in a city full of Supers and Nat following her uncle's example on your account, then you are no better than the ones you criticize. You need to get off your high horse and stop mentioning poc only when it's convenient. You are just being performative. It's clear those are characters you don't care about. Such a shame though, all three are really interesting.

Hi Chris Kent fan! I know its you. You've been harassing me and several other of my mutuals for the last week, and considering you are using the same rhetoric here you've used unsuccessfully on my mutuals, it really isn't hard to tell who would feel devoted enough to say this.

There are three things that are hilarious about this ask.

My primary fandom presence isn't on tumblr. I am actually on this website the least: So yes, you HAVE missed on a TON of essays about these two and how I feel about them, because you don't actually know me and you haven't even seen MOST of the things I have to say about DC comics as a whole. My primary fandom presence is on the Supertruth discord server which several of the people I am defending in this weird little flame war of yours are part of (hi @ultfreakme!) and have seen me talk about these characters and their stories at length. You do not know me well enough to assert whether or not I like a character by doing a cursory search of my blog.

Your little 'character blurbs' that are supposed to display your DEEP INTIMATE KNOWLEDGE of these characters, SUPERIOR TO MINE, are really shallow and innaccurate. Like, fanon levels of summarization. John Henry's character has very little to do with being a human in a town of supers nowadays and is largely focused on his complicated relationship with the military Industrial Complex (see Superwoman, Steelworks) as an inventor of supertechnology, Natasha is WAY more than just the nephew of John (SHE WAS PART OF THE AUTHORITY) and in fact a huge part of her presence in 52 was escaping out from under John's shadow, not following in his footsteps. You get the closest with Kenan: Yeah, he was a bully turned Super, that's absolutely the pitch GLY was using to sell Kenan as a character, but is that ALL he is to you? You're not going to mention his whole story also being a double for criticism of the Chinese government? His conflict with his parents and struggling to figure out what 'doing good' even means? What about Baixi, Deilan? (That enough analysis for you to be satisfied with some arbitrary level of 'caring'?)

The 'favorite character' in question you are accusing me of using these poc to prop up is Jay Fucking Nakamura, A MAN OF COLOR, AND ALSO A SUPERFAM CHARACTER YOU FUCKERS EXCLUDE ON THE REGULAR. He is an asian indigenous man IN THE TEXT and he is the DC character I post about THE MOST on this website. It is SUPER funny to accuse me of what, using POC to uplift the... other poc...? Thats based of me, I had no idea I was doing it! Like seriously saying this while Jay is my PFP is CRAZY funny. Do you HEAR yourself? And don't start on the "well jay isn't superfam!' nonsense because PAUL KAMINSKI, GROUP EDITOR FOR THE SUPERFAMILY, HAS SAID HE IS. But when have YOU guys cared about what the media you claim to like actually says, aye?

But lets say none of the above is true. Lets say you were right and I was just PRETENDING to care about some of my favorite characters in the entire DC franchise because... because of woke?

It doesn't change the fact that literally less than 24 hours ago you were in my inbox trying to argue that posting 'kent family' as opposed to 'superfamily' was a great Get Out of Jail Free card for excluding characters of color. It doesn't change the fact that you guys repeatedly include Chris over the canon POC within the superfamily. It doesn't change the fact that calling that behavior out is NECESSARY, regardless on if a person 'posts enough' about the characters they're trying to defend from fandom racism. It doesn't change the fact that, according to you 'agreeing' with me in this ask, you decided that picking a fight with someone who made a point you agreed with was somehow the best course of action.

But you don't agree, do you? And that's kind of what its been about all along. The fandom love of Chris Kent is changing as people notice that he is, a) not a good character b) consistently favored over better non-white characters c) repeatedly used as a tool in arguments to put other characters within the superfam down. And now that people are calling this what it is- white favoritism- you are feeling attacked because you are attached to Chris but NOT to these characters people are now pushing. So you are scrambling for reasons to tell people who express these thoughts that they're actually the bigoted ones in some way. What does that accomplish other than squashing long overdue discussions of fandom racism?

I'm not here for it. You can fuck right off.

[official-locke-writing]

I need you guys to understand something.

A slenderverse essay-rant on possession, entities, and the mechanics of Slenderman's game.

I don't say "proxy" in a serious context at all when I am talking about my slenderverse characters or even canon characters.

Proxies don't exist. Proxies are a Creepypasta-esc generalization of what the characters are. It's watered-down. It's a term I use simply because people can understand it and are familiar with it.

Here's the Villains Wiki definition of a proxy:

A Proxy (or Proxies for plural) are a given term for people who are possessed or under the influence of Slender Man [...] destroying their sanity or killing them in the process.

I've completely discarded this concept. Slenderman does not possess people, it creates networks. It enslaves entities to do its bidding, who then impose their unknowably complex and mind-shattering presence upon their victims. It's an invisible war not native to mortal beings in the slightest. It's outside of time and space completely.

Think about it; the inexplicably inhuman nature of HABIT. The Collective entities emit so much radiation that cameras/electronics physically break down the longer they're pointed at one; same with Slenderman itself. A literal Geiger counter was used as a Slenderman detector; anything it touches emits a terrible mind-bending cosmic sickness capable of destroying physical objects, not just people. It's like touching acid. It melts your brain out of your ears and disrupts electromagnetic, electrostatic and electrical waves. It can bend reality itself. It can teleport.

"Masky" and "Hoodie" don't seem to know how to communicate at all in a human-like manner and they completely disregard the identities of Tim and Brian. It's because they never were Tim and Brian. They weren't even people at all. They were things from a place outside of reality. Hoodie's crude mimicry of human communication is a huge red herring and they are both mute entirely in person.

Slenderman's victims are always nutjobs. They're already crazy, the pressure that Slenderman brings down on these select people makes them crack easily. Alex. Evan. Noah. It chooses emotionally and mentally unstable people for a reason; they're easy to terrorize and manipulate. The possession isn't done by Slenderman itself, but by these creatures it controls. No one is under the influence of Slenderman, it just keeps these entities under its thumb through intimidation and fear.

You heard me. These creatures are terrified of Slenderman. Even HABIT, despite its taunts. HABIT hates Slenderman and even acts to avoid it on several occasions. It refers to Slenderman as a "god," even. What devoted proxy hates its master? An angry one that is forced into servitude and acts out in retaliation, completely destroying Slenderman's plans for the EMH crew by doing incredibly outrageous things in an attempt to break out of the loop.

If I had to guess, Slenderman created EMH's iteration loop to imprison HABIT, and its spent hundreds of thousands of loops attempting to get out, which is why it has absolutely no qualms killing and maiming people. Why it seems to be completely calm and casual when reality begins to degrade. Excited, even. It went insane after being in groundhog day for an infinite amount of lifetimes. Though, this is just a theory based off of minimal context.

Hoodie speaks in code and hides in desolate places to avoid being caught aiding the Marble Hornets crew. Masky isn't "friends" with Hoodie at all, they're just both caught up in the same bullshit and Masky feeds on Tim's anger, turning violent at the drop of a dime. Hoodie uses him as a weapon and for protection.

Firebrand broke away from the cult and was met with the wrath of its superiors. The Collective is made of those who are either too scared to leave or genuinely subservient/obedient to Slenderman. Noah felt the influence of the Collective's presence, bringing out his worst in the extreme. The radiation made his psyche crack.

You think Slenderman has a little mansion out in the woods for these guys? They're forced into poverty. They can't keep homes, jobs, or basic necessities. Hoodie had an oil lantern and was camping out in a drainage tunnel. Abandoned buildings in the woods with what food and water they can lift off victims or steal. They aren't allowed to have relationships, kin, or a home.

Chances are, there are many, many more of these entities just swimming around off camera. Keeping all the tiny little pieces running in Slenderman's affairs. Human cults are regarded as insignificant and almost an affront to these creatures. Humans are food for the machine. They can never truly comprehend the end goal of Slenderman or those at its command. They're disposable pawns. HABIT killed many of them in EverymanHYBRID without much ensuing retaliation.

Linking these series together, there is a coherent and rather blatant war happening between these entities and Slenderman. They seem oppressed, sick, batshit, impoverished and angry. Those who attempt to leave are killed or basically sent to Super Hell.

It's not that they're good people. They're all absolutely horrid and malevolent entities, but they want to be able to do what they want. They don't really enjoy being enslaved.

It's not looking great out there for them.

[gengor]

So I like bcs and brb a lot but it’s kind of been bothering me that I haven’t seen much talk about this in regards to either show bcs or brb and I’m not the best person to elaborate on this but I do wanna talk about the way the show writes it’s Latino characters and follows up on them in bcs. 

I’m not gonna get into all the ways breaking bad uses Mexican culture in offensive ways to show Walter’s dissent into dangerous territory bc im hoping that this is obvious to most people. What I am gonna talk about is the way bcs fails to respond to this criticism in a meaningful way. 

So better call saul is a show thats essentially about exploring nature, nurture, and one’s own free will over the person they choose to become. It’s about humanizing Saul into someone we can understand and empathize with. In the time in Jimmy’s life when he was trying to improve as a person he had his brother bait him and manipulate him into committing felonies bc he wanted to feel superior. People in his life drilled it into his brain that he was incapable of being honest so why even bother? The phrase ‘he was born like this’ gets used more than a few times. The show also gives a lot of character work to Mike as well. And although Mike was never painted as malicious he can be incredibly indifferent to the pain of other characters. Bcs let us see emotionally heavy scenes with him where he’s more vulnerable than he ever was in breaking bad. So theres an established pattern of adding more complexity to one of the one-dimensional ‘bad guys’ of breaking bad by making them act differently than how they would in breaking bad. Can you see where I’m going with this?

Rewatching the show after I’d already seen it gave this weird thematic dissonance to way the show reintroduced any Salamanca character. Like as soon as we see Tuco we as the audience are supposed to be in on the joke. Like…Oh, we know that guy already. And of course, the show plays with the audience already knowing Tuco while Saul doesnt to dangle the high stakes of the situation in front of us for drama. Because we as the audience know that Tuco is and probably always was hot-headed and violent to satirical degrees. Other characters even chime in to reiterate that Tuco was always like this. Every single Salamanca family member is treated this way.

 And bc of the way bcs is trying to redeem and humanize it’s previously established white characters just makes this kind of even worse than breaking bad to me. Bc people were vocal about how breaking bad employed a lot of anti-Latino tropes within its writing so you'd think that bcs would try and take this opportunity to amend the writing a bit right? 

You could argue that this is what Ignacio’s character is supposed to do for the show. He’s a Jessie parallel. He’s not really a bad person he’s just incredibly in over his head. And while I do appreciate his presence in the show and like him I feel like it should have been more than just him. 

By far the biggest missed opportunity here to me was the lack of humanization that Lalo got. And I get he’s popular, I feel like that mostly due to how Tony Dalton played him in a very charismatic way. But god he was such a missed opportunity for a thematic follow-through. The way other characters talk about the Salamancas is exactly the kind of predetermination the show is trying to critique with jimmy. When Ignacio is roped into spying on Lalo to aid Gus in killing him he goes in already being incredibly suspicious of Lalo due to his family. He has reason to want this guy to be evil since he’s got to help kill him to save his own skin and his father's. He not only assumes this guy is evil based on his family, he /needs/ Lalo to be irredeemable. Then you're telling me that against all themes and narrative storytelling devices Lalo is just conveniently the guy he assumed he would be. Like, imagine if Lalo got to be a Jimmy parallel, a guy who’s acting out the role people assume he's supposed to fill bc no one thinks he can be anything else. Not humanizing Lalo and ignoring the potential to explore and humanize any other previously established or mentioned latino characters…its like the show is breaking its own thematic statements in order to keep the racism. 

[ranmaruliker]

i need to talk about sara chidouin before i explode.

She is such a complex, well written character, its absolutely insane. a very common trend in MCs of games similar to your turn to die is a bland, zero personality, sort of blank slate character for the player to project onto, or a happy go lucky, nice guy, and both of them always seem to know what to do. but sara isnt like that.

She's not a blank slate, bland and boring, she has her own personality, it is shown in choices where she can act brutish, calling a dolls body a blunt weapon, not knowing what to do with technology so just jamming buttons, being blunt with her words and talking weirdly, or when shes shown to be girly, picking her school based simply on the cuteness of the uniform, or getting worked up when ranmaru implies she's heavy. she doesnt have no personality, she's full of personality.

Nor is Sara an always happy, always cheerful protagonist. she's shown to be selfish, wanting to pick her own life over others, trying desperately to trade her sacrifice, wanting to take the key from joe in the first trial. we hear about the ai tests where sara is ruthless, and manipulative, and wanting to live. she is a brilliant example of what a human is like.

Because, something so important to Sara's character, and its that she's only human. She can be selfish, and mean, she can be caring and kind and so loving, she can make mistakes, she can be a leader, she can succumb to the pressure, and she can get back up again. she's so so refreshingly human. a realistic human, not inherently good or inherently bad.

She's not some fearless, ruthless leader, nor is she a naive, innocent child. she is a person. a high school girl. a human.

[dyke-a-saur]

Finished watching Heartbreak High and I gotta say, I feel like they pulled off Gen Z High School really well. Like I could go to school with these absolute agents if chaos.

Okay but important business:

Amerie

I loved her the second she popped up on screen. Her energy, her personality, and her friendship with Harper. It was just the best. At times tho, I could see why the other characters antagonized her. After all, it was just as much her map as Harper’s and she put people in awful situations. Not to mention the reveal that she failed to let Harper in, then had the nerve to say she’d always be there. She even did the same to Malakai (tho it’s clear she acted out of trauma from her and Harper’s friendship gone sour)

Dusty

Fuck you. Youse a bitch, a snake, and truly a shit stain on the trousers of humanity. Work on yourself. Big soulful eyes tho.

Ca$h

Arguably the second most emotionally intelligent character in the show? Definitely better at it than Darren and his relationship was so refreshing? It was neat to see it not be a “I like dudes, oh no,” storyline and instead “I’m ace and just need to better express that to my partner who I love and adore”. Also that “I love you scene” was peak ghetto and I loved it. Darren’s Baby Daddy really behind bars, huh?

Malakai

This man. Is so fine. So sweet. And so funny. I love the way he gets to know Amerie and then befriends her and then becomes her first. And even if he handled the peer pressure to talk about the details poorly, he wanted to do right by her. I also loved how they explored the kinship he had with OTHER BLA(c)K CHARACTERS. It was nice to see how much he healed by being in his community and being surrounded by love for his culture. Missy being a big part of that was beautiful.

Harper

I did get the "spoiler" that she went through "something traumatizing" right before the start of the show, then later got more clues from Tumblr. So i had more patience with her character at the start, being honest. But goddamn it was so hard to watch her shut Amerie out and lash out at her. It also sucked seeing her antagonized in the second half because if she could've reached out or accepted people reaching in, then I feel like shit could've been handled better. But after seeing the events of "that night" I could totally get how and why she would want Amerie out of her life. Fake as hell for not owning up to the Incest Map tho. I was constantly whisper-yelling at my phone "girl, get it together!'

Quinni

No notes. Love her. She's the best. Also the most emotionally intelligent character (not a surprise and fuck you Sasha). She helps so many characters process their emotions, make up, figure out wwhat they want, and still stands on her own as a great character with her own life going on. I'm NT, but from what I've seen on Tumblr, most ND people see her as good rep.

Spider

Fuck this guy. Racist, sexist, (not as homophobic as previously assumed), and awful. But I love it. I love when he gets told to shut up. I love it when he's being awful and the other characters are like "yeah, fuck this dude". But also, he was weirdly complex? like the scene where he would've gotten it on with Amerie makes a lot of sense in context of the rest of his behavior. He's overcompensating because someone he genuinely liked, and cared for to an extent, hurt him in a vulnerable place and treated him like a dissapointment. Doesn't give him the right to react with daily verbal abuse, but his character makes more sense that way. I'd like to see him grow from that, but I'm not sure how.

Star of the Show

They're here, they're queer, they're unapologetically BLACK, they. Are. DARREN.

Okay jokes aside, I love this bitch. They're not only a great friend, but they (mostly) know what they want in life. It's sad to see Darren be dismissed as “too much” in their home, and you can really see how its affected the way they view their ability to be loved and cherished. So seeing them find that in Ca$h and watch the relationshp between the two grow was beautiful. It hurt to see Darren hurt Ca$h, like they gay ass ain't know what the "A" in "LGBTQIA" stood for, but that growth and intracommunity hurt was important to see.

Others

Ant annoyed me but he seemed like he could do/be better if he wasn’t around the rest of the guys. Sasha pissed me off, but I hope losing Quinni was enough to actually get her to look at her self-righteous tendencies and work on herself, I wanna see her go far. Missy was a fucking icon and I love her. Ms. Jojo is the love of my life and fuck Spider/Ant/Dusty (nigga) for screwing her over like that. Mrs. Spigot is my literal soulmate.

I think that’s all for now? But yeah go watch it if you haven’t already. It is another show focusing on the sex lives of teens but it feels more authentic than anything we’ve been given before.

[supremechancellorrex]

I've been hearing a lot of people say that Ozai in the Avatar: the Last Airbender cartoon isn't supposed to be "developed" because he's a "symbol". My problem with this is that a character can both be well-developed and a symbol at the same time, so why choose otherwise? "It makes sense because he's supposed to represent" doesn't justify leaving the writing a little loose.

In the cartoon, Ozai is hardly a character to sink your teeth into. You can surmise and speculate things about him, but ultimately every discussion was more about Zuko or another character overcoming him and how satisfying that was than any character depth of Ozai himself. On the Day of Black Sun, Zuko and Ozai's confrontation is less an argument and ideological battle with layers between two human beings and more an extremely developed character yelling at an evil cardboard cutout.

The Problem With Ozai

Zuko: "It was cruel and it was wrong."

Ozai: "Lol."

Zuko: "We need to replace this era with an era of peace and kindness."

Ozai: "Lame." (*scowls in annoyance, tries to leave*)

Zuko: "Stay or I'll cut you." (*waves swords*)

Ozai: "Fine. Whatever. Go on" (*proceeds to sit back down and wonder if he's having spiced fire rice cakes for dinner*)

The way the cartoon presents it, Ozai just was a bit too a moustache-twirling villain and that's even considering his actions. It's not even him being morally bankrupt or sadistic, but that his entire character only exists on the surface level. Him being "superficial" and "ruthless" isn't even a character trait because he has no real character beyond "I'm arrogant, selfish and evil". Even some of the worst dictators in human history from Hitler and Stalin to Mussolini and Mao have more complex 'psychological depth' than Ozai, despite committing the most evil and awful acts against other human beings.

I got they want to reflect the toxicity of the Fire Nation with him as a symbol, "fear" and "ruthlessness", but these are symptoms and the result of an ideology, and Ozai and this ideology need a bit more than "The Fire Nation's ideology is that they're superior, share the greatness and just kill people". We never see Ozai really talk about this ideology, how he is *civilising* the other nations (well, besides, setting them on fire). Why does he think Fire is superior? Why does the Fire Nation? We can speculate it's the unity of the Fire Nation and its industrialisation, that maybe the Fire Nation thinks they have better tea ceremonies and cleaner cities, but none of the Fire Nation characters really talk about this. Sharing their 'greatness', how?

And, of course, we know and the show know their 'greatness' is a lie and farce really, but for their citizens to buy into this farce realistically for 100 years, sending sons and even daughters to die for it, presumably working in factories endless hours to keep up war production like that giant drill, one would think the smokescreen would be a little more convincing than a couple lines. Yes, in the Headband, they show the kids are taught a warped version history with the Air Nomad army, but what is the unifying ideology of the Fire Nation exactly? And how does this reflect Ozai? Beyond ruthlessness and being a smarmy jerk?

And this brings me to a scene I have quite a problem with. The War Meeting flashback in Sozin's Comet Part 1, essentially Ozai just goes from 'How do we quell rebellion?' to 'We will destroy their hope by killing them all with fire'. Hehe, well, I mean, why even talk about "destroying hope" when they'll be too dead to despair? Of course, Sokka says after hearing that literally "I always knew the Fire Lord was a bad guy, but his plan is just pure evil". Then they throw in an Ozai baby picture to pretend they have some nuance, and then blah, blah, Energybending turtle appears out of near nowhere.

A Better Ozai

(I want it noted how hard it was to get a decent gif of cartoon Ozai, especially in his Pheonix King regalia. That is how little people care about or are interested in him. There is more Daniel Dae Kim gifs from the live-action than the cartoon version)

The funny thing is Ozai burning the Earth Kingdom could have worked if they actually gave him character arc in the cartoon. Have Ozai start out believing he can civilise the Earth Kingdom, who he views as inferior and needing to be kept in check. We see in the show Earthbending is banned in Fire Nation colonies and annexed territory, but they should also show him introducing policies to ban certain styles of Earth Kingdom dress, specifically their green national colour dress, and customs, forcibly *civilising* these territory with authoritarian laws. Earth Kingdom children have to go to Fire Nation school to be indoctrinated in how their cultures and homes are inferior, and told to report on their parents.

However, as time goes on, Ozai becomes increasingly disenfranchised with the war, as colonised Earth Kingdom citizens continue to resist, Earthbend and continue banned cultural practices in secret. He feels rising disgust at these people's Earthbender stubbornness and 'backwards' practices, resisting engaging in and conforming to Fire Nation's 'superior' cultural practices, science, and education. How dirty they are, so unFire-Nation, he thinks more and more. He begins to unravel in his hate and think to himself things like how "You just can't take the root edge out of people, so I should burn the root to the ground. Make the world clean, pure and Fire Nation".

If they showed Ozai in the cartoon shifting from the standard position of his father Azulon to an even more extreme and horrifying position over time, reacting in all the worst ways to whatever the world throws at him increasingly and increasingly, his turn as the Pheonix King could have been far more chilling. Azula isn't the only one who has to go "crazy" due to the Fire Nation's twisted teachings. It would have further emphasised the cycle of toxicity in the Fire Nation that Sozin set in motion.

Imperialism and fascism is often driven by a number of things in conjunction, commonly economics, but also vain pride, fear and discomfort; pride of your own nation at the expense of others, as well as fear and discomfort of others, how 'different' they are, their 'weird illogical customs' diluting the 'pure culture of yours' that you understand, their 'strange appearances' changing the face of the culture you know, that you like and think is the greatest and should be eternal. They could be spies, enemy agents of chaos and degeneration. They need to be 'civilised' or 'exterminated' to silence conflict and bring order, this 'dark horde' of backwards people who just can't ever be allowed to be 'in charge'. I think a weakness here is that Ozai is never shown to show any discomfort, he's just so confident and evil about everything, but if he were to reflect the dark face of the Fire Nation, a people they say aren't wholly evil demons, he does a bad job showing the twisted human face of evil and it makes him irrelevant in a way as a character with the themes other than "Defeat evil guy".

Lessons Taught Improperly

Now some would try to defend Ozai in that Avatar: The Last Airbender is a kid's cartoon, but I would say that makes it more important when discussing real-life issues. What is the point of lesson if it is taught improperly? Sometimes that can do more harm than good.

Avatar includes a number of mature themes, including the genocide of Aang's entire people and Gyatso's skeleton. Judging by the Tibetan influences in Air Nomad culture, a real-life people who have also been genocided, I think it is necessary and good practice for even kid's shows to make sure the lessons on real-life evils like the concepts and systems of imperialism, colonialism and nationalism are taught well. Because otherwise you get an inaccurate picture of what it is and how it actually works, and what is the point of that?

Stories want to impart lessons on things being "bad" as a message, but often I think they fall short in getting to the point of why they happen. I wonder if that makes them a little pointless in a way, because the reasons why characters/people and nations do things is both important to good writing and real life. If you aren't taught it properly, how well can you recognise it in your own country? And if you can't, then hasn't the lesson failed to be imparted?

[marvel-starwarsfangirl]

Mori Ougai (I just want to talk about him)

Guys, I've been thinking a lot lately about Mori and his Beast counterpart. I really, really, really love Beast Mori and everything that he represents. He's not just the "good Mori." In my eyes, and others as well, he represents Mori's humanity (side note: I'm not saying Mori is secretly a hero or something) and what main story Mori could've been if he wasn't in the mafia.

I also just want to talk about Mori in general because he's actually very fascinating and more complex than some make him seem.

Just hear me out, ok?

Also, shoutout to @hopefull-mindset. Their analyses on BSD have been very interesting and definitely have given me a different perspective on Mori and helped me understand Beast Mori so much more.

Anyways, these are just a pile of thoughts I have on Mori as I began to understand him more. Please note: these are my personal thoughts gathered through lots of analyses digging and reflection on his character. If you dislike Mori, that is completely valid.

Understanding Beast Mori

When I first read Beast, I was so confused. How could Mori be so different when every other character had basically the same personality? Mori in the main story is cruel, cold, and manipulative. Yes, he is very pragmatic and smart, but that doesn't take away from his bad qualities. However, the more I dug deeper into the mystery of Beast Mori, the more things started to make sense. The Mori we meet in Beast is still the same Mori from the main story. And for those who question that, look at Beast Aku and Beast Atsushi. They may have swapped organizations but their fundamental traits are still the same. Atsushi, PM or ADA, still has major guilt and self-worth issues that stem from the Orphanage Director. Aku is the same. Even if he is in the ADA, he still has his intense bloodlust and determination.

So, why is Mori different? As @hopefull-mindset has pointed out in one of their posts, he's in a different environment. There are no negative influences or stressors unlike the mafia. Also, he's working with children. Children often represent innocence and positive emotions. Mori, surprisingly, is really good with kids because we the see the orphanage thrive in his care. It makes perfect sense that Mori, who likes kids (and not in the creepy way), would learn to become a more caring figure. In the main story, Mori is often presented as a necessary evil; he's the dark to Fukuzawa's light. But now that Dazai replaced him, Mori can act without always making the optimal solution at the cost of anyone that gets in its way, himself included.

Honestly, I think Beast Mori does humanize him. It doesn't erase the wrongs he did (and believe me, I haven't forgotten), but it does show you a different perspective. Beast shows us that Mori has complexities. He's not just an evil monster for the heroes to overcome. There's more to him than that.

Note: I am not saying any of his actions towards Yosano, Dazai, or any other character are justified. He hurt them emotionally and psychologically. It wasn't fun to watch or read. Saying Mori is more than a one dimensional villain doesn't take away from the bad things he did. I'm just trying to offer a different perspective because Beast Mori is that interesting, at least to me.

Elise

I've never been able to fully reconcile with this aspect of Mori. It is weird. It is uncomfortable. It is perplexing. Elise to an extent, is Mori. She is a part of him manifested and can act on her own. And I get the controversy behind it; it's not normal. That being said, never have we seen Mori in either the manga or the anime act in that nature towards her or even Yosano. He makes weird comments about Elise, sure, but nothing super explicit. At most, they're treated as weird jokes. And, for the record, that doesn't make them ok or any better. I won't argue back and forth on this topic because it's a difficult subject.

However, I don't believe he is actually a *you know what* because of Beast Mori's entire existence. Riddle me this, why would Asagiri-sensei write a character as a *you know what* and then have his counterpart work at an orphanage full of children? That, at least to me, crosses a moral line. It makes it even more weird and uncomfortable. Also, idk about y'all, but I wouldn't find it fun or quirky if someone portrayed a very famous and beloved author as a perverted creep, just saying.

So, where did Elise even come from then? Well, she's a companion to Mori in many ways. He's rarely seen without her. Mori's backstory is a mystery to us. My honest theory is that Elise manifested as a companion for Mori because he was in a really bad spot. Either he was abused in some shape or form or was very isolated and alone. We know that Mori's had her since the Great War. He was 26 at that time. That's still fairly young so I think it's safe to say he's had her since he was a child or a teenager. Of course, I could be wrong. But based off what we know about abilities so far, I think it's safe to say that Elise didn't manifest without reason.

The Optimal Solution

Going into more speculation about Mori's backstory, I have so many questions. Mori essentially has the same big question as Kunikida for me: when and why did he decide to follow the optimal solution. For Kunikida, it's his ideals. Both characters stick so adamantly to their beliefs that it leads to conflict externally and internally. Mori's optimal solution is the reason why Yosano was traumatized.

It just got me thinking, when did he develop this line of thought? After all, a kid who grew up with an average life usually doesn't worry about the "optimal solution." Between this and Elise, I strongly believe he came from a dysfunctional home. It would certainly explain why he tells Dazai that the latter reminds him of himself. Mori is very good at repressing his emotions; he's hard to read which makes him dangerous. He likes to take advantage of situations and manipulate them to his will, or whatever he deems to be the optimal solution. The battle with Fukuzawa during the Cannibalism arc is a good example of this. Mori knew he couldn't win so he decided to get Fukuzawa to let his guard down enough to strike. In my area of study at school, the home life of a person can be very telling as to why someone may act in a certain way. Mori coming from a rough home without love seems pretty plausible to me.

Mori is a very well-written character with a lot of complexities that tend to get overlooked. Why does he do what do? At what point did he decide to follow his optimal solution? It's such an interesting question because it affects so many characters and situations.

Conclusion

If y'all got this far, congrats! I hope that people will take the time to look deeper at his character. You don't have to like Mori. I'm just tired of people portraying him as something he's not. I also don't want fans harassing other fans because they like Mori. And I'll admit it, I was so quick to judge both him and Francis. Had I kept up my shield and continued to shoot unwarranted hatred at them, I wouldn't have appreciated their characters as I do now.

And yes, I do overhate on Fyodor (mainly bc the man is cockroach and he hurt Kunikida). I get it. However, I know Fyodor is a deeply complex character. His way of thinking is actually quite fascinating and I have so many questions about him. I don't like Fyodor, but I'm not gonna let my personal grievances stop others from enjoying him.

[sketching-shark]

For the character ask game. Part of me wants to say Wukong but.... let's throw a curveball and say Predaking :3

All right @ladyzerodark! World's best robot dragon :D

Okay, so keep in mind that this is coming from someone who never watched Transformers Prime all the way through and knows about this guy a lot through osmosis.

That said, I do think that there's something so interesting and compelling about the basics of Predaking's background that could act as a catalyst to have all sorts of contemplations on everything from the nature of mass extinction to the destructive and self-destructive consequences of warfare, capitalism, and imperialism.

Like, just the fact that Predaking's a clone from the species of cybertronians that went extinct long before TFP's timeline and who was created to be a weapon of war already means that this guy's existence is ripe with all kinds of horrors. And of course all of that is exacerbated by the other cybertronians mostly treating him like a dumb dangerous animal at best or as someone to kill off once he presents a potential threat at worst. Plus there's some really juicy glimpses into how he really wants a family and was really looking forward to more predacons being brought into existence up until both Autobots and Decepticons decided should all be blown up instead. With all of this going on, and with basically everyone else treating him so horribly no matter how intelligent he is and no matter how much he expresses his loyalty to Megatron in both words and deeds (until he realizes how completely he was betrayed) you can understand why he's so angry and such a violent bastard for a good chunk of the series. And he's a big guy, but he's also so young! And from the moment he emerged from a tube you had the closest beings he had to guardians telling him to go kill other guys and not caring about him beyond that! He literally had to teach himself how to read!

Not to mention that in addition to these things about Predaking as an individual, the thing about the extinction of the predacons, like that of our own dinosaurs, is that it was brought on by a completely indifferent cosmic event. I know the main focus of Transformers as a series is on how the Autobot-Decepticon war messed up Cybertron, but tbh I really like the addition of reminders that the universe itself can and will kill you too. Definitely adds another layer to the fucked up nature of warfare; like when you have so much working against you on the cosmic and natural scale, it does show warfare to be incredibly stupid.

I know it's nowhere near canon, but that is one of the reasons why it's my headcanon that Shockwave decided that it would be a logical step to try his hand at bringing back the predacons partially to be weapons of war but mainly because he concluded that restoring their species would be an important step in helping Cybertron recover. I mean, as carnivorous as the predacons were at least THEY never destroyed the biosphere lol.

(tbh I do also like the idea that Predaking comes to develop something of a superiority complex over other cybertronians, at least for awhile, not because of his strength but because of the fact that it was the transformers and not the predacons who deliberately destroyed their home planet).

So yeah, I know that in the show Preaking and the other predacons get all kinds of shit from both Autobots and Decepticons for being violent and savage, but when such statements are coming from bots who quite literally decimated their entire biosphere there's a LOT you could do with pointing out how hollow such accusations ring. It's a very poor predator that destroys the basis of its diet, after all, and I do think there's a really interesting and timely critique you could make on our own globalized civilization as it currently stands by simply noting that for as much as there's been and still is a constant sneering at animals and even many groups of humans for being "dumb" and "uncivilized," the true horror and stupidity lies in having made a civilization and waging never-ending warfare that is literally destroying the basic elements of survival. As such, to me Predaking seems like an great character through to which to both explore a lot of different horrors, but also to offer an alternative ideology to the whole Autobot-Decepticon thing in terms of being like "frag you and your omnicidal drama I want a planet that can give me and mine a good meal every day forever."

[invested-in-your-future]

Imagine thinking fantasy story tropes means that the creators believe in creationism, especially when the god figures are so deeply flawed. That says everything about your intelligence when it comes to media critique.

Never said creators believe in it. I honestly don't think Miles HAS a worldview at all beyond genuinely believing his blond blue eyed OC is great. If he did it would be reflected in his work and the work is just a jumbled mess right now. I guess at most I can believe Miles genuinely believes that racism isn't real somehow.

The trope IS creationist in the way its used though. Like, literally Remnant is a result of intelligent design somehow, which breaks the core themes of the story itself. Literally majority of civilization's greatest achievements or story decisions can be attributed to magic plot device relics. The show literally built up their expy of "technological advancement of civilization" as something that only exists on magic god powers.

"Gods are flawed" isn't a novel concept. Even modern religion sometimes plays into it. The part that matters is that they are. Like this is not some "oh gods did it" plot convenience even, there being gods is an active and crucial part of MilesWBY plot.

"Two Gods Did This" Being at the core of the MilesWBY worldbuilding is an issue in on itself.

There's no sense of personal decisions or complexity of human morality mattering because everything bad ties to Salem's little tantrum and everything good is often because of relics. And everything good is also preordained or "intended" because of magic freaking tree - the "good guys" don't just act upon their beliefs to stop something bad, they are "Sent there with a mission from higher being".

In a piece of fiction that opened with two characters pondering the value of humanity and the ambiguity of human nature and whether it leads to self destruction, humanity surely doesn't matter at all.

In a story that spent three flawed but good volumes setting up the lead cast as someone with flaws and someone who will have to face reality soon, that reality no longer matters or exists.

The more grounded contemporary nature of the setting is broken, the social issues, racism, classism, etc which were at the core of the setting are just not a thing anymore.

The Humanity is not allowed to make bad decisions or self-destruct without Salem and her Magic Flying JRPG Fortress of Doom being involved.

The Humanity is not allowed to have flaws or just do evil things. Racism isn't real (LOL). Persecution, mistakes or war ? Easily solved. Because there's always "the bad guy" and everyone else are the "good guys"

The Lead Good Guys are Unchanging, Infallible constants that are not allowed to develop or make mistakes or change or actually parse their trauma. They exist solely to Stop The Bad Guys because of a grand over-arching scheme of Divine Greater Will in form of....magic freaking tree and talking animals...

[fandomsoda]

With how the world’s been lately I’ve heard many an assertion that humans are better because we are humans, we are not robots, not machine. And it always leaves me thinking and wondering.

Because to me what defines personhood is not merely flesh and blood but the ability to think and understand. To feel, to perceive, to be aware of the self.

The robots we have today cannot do that. They are being explicitly created to emulate humanity rather than become a life in and of itself. And that is yielding dreadful results.

But when I hear someone assert that no matter how complex a robot is it will never be a person I always have to think. About the day artificial intelligence is actually used to create an intelligence rather than steal and contort or mindlessly generate.

The day a robot thinks, the day a robot feels… will everyone still reject its sentience? The day a robot can feel pain will no one bear them sympathy? Are the ones and zeros through their circuits any different than the ones that run through our brain tissue? Every action of a living body is a chemical process or reaction to electrical input. The mind is a supercomputer.

And when you ask people the difference it’s always that “they would only be saying what they think they should, acting how they think they should, every action is calculated, they don’t really behave human”. When… that’s how most neurodivergent people navigate the world already. We don’t know what we’re supposed to say, we know our base reactions aren’t acceptable, so we must put on a show.

And it’s so strange. I don’t support “ai” as it is now, but if there was ever an actual ai, an intelligence that thought, felt, lived… I’d see it as a person. I don’t want all the dystopian robotic replacement of humanity stuff or whatever the tech bros want living robots for, I would find it interesting to witness something else that lives without being “living”.

Because every time I’ve ever seen a character like Wall-E or even seen a robot mess up a bit because something unexpected happened to it like a roomba knocking into something, I’ve been able to go “me too, little guy…” Remember Opportunity, the rover on Mars? Remember how we all cried when it said its last words? Afraid and alone? That was a robot… a robot we all felt for. Because we knew that feeling. “My battery is low and it’s getting dark”. We’ve all felt that before.

I know neurodivergent people being similar to robots is a stereotype, but it has led to me relating to robots more because we DO have things in common, at least with hypothetical sentient ones… including the fact that most humans don’t think we deserve to be called people, no matter how much we really do.

People wave off these hypotheticals, they say “why worry about robot sentience when we’re nowhere close to achieving it?” And I don’t have a real reason why it’s important. It just makes me feel things, and it’s enough for me to talk about it.

Just… I don’t know, man. I just feel for robots. And I think that’s ok.

[originemesis]

hc musings - character dive ; //

Judging from season 1, I think it's safe to assume Adam does not like be without his helmet/mask. Sure, he's dressed up for his meetings/in court/for the final battle, which is just about everywhere he pops up in the season. However, he's also briefly shown just hanging out with Lute in heaven and he's still in uniform while she isn't. This is likely their down time, and yet he's still lugging around his massive robes, fully decked out for battle like it could happen anytime when clearly they're in heaven and it can't. So why is this?

Well, when the mask actually comes off (it's forced off and smashed apart just to get to that point), Adam is just 'some dude' under the menacing, manic act he's been putting on the whole time. An act as in when he crawls out of the hole without his safeguard face, he literally just has a melt down in front of everyone where his previous 'cunty charm' and 'idgaf' attitude are gone in place of some caught on the spot, seething human looking dirt bag who's only 'gotcha' is to call the group that's put an end to his reign of terror 'losers'. Just losers (baby ~). If he's not insecure with what he is under that mask (and how could he not be when not one, but two people who were literally created to be his perfect match dumped his ass? Oof.), then he absolutely has an inferiority complex of sorts and its in his 'break-down' moment on screen where it's on full display without the glowing grin and the horns.

To scratch further at that thought- imagine how Adam, the first human/man was essentially created in God's image. He was created to be perfect by heaven's definition, and though he didn't stay that way, he got a taste for what that felt like. Literally anything he does after that point when Eve and him have to leave Eden is (unironically) 'mid' or worse.

HC wise (out of my own musings so don't mind the canon divergence here since s2 is likely uhh...twitterjokes2027-) I'm leaning into the idea that the first two human souls are weighty in the sense that they can't both be in the same after life or it'll upset whatever balance there is between heaven and hell. So at the time of their deaths, it was decided that heaven wanted Adam and so hell would have Eve by default (also she was the one they blamed most- typical fandoms @ female characters amiriteeee). This means Adam who knows he's not perfect anymore, hasn't felt so in a long time- goes to a plane of existence that exudes perfection. They have 'the brightest, the polite-est of the lot and everyone is hot'. And then there he is- just some dude who is none of those things (hates math, innately rude, and well...'just some guy' isn't exactly heaven-scale hot guyyys).

This cumulation of always realizing nothing he does is good enough (because he knows this) and yet being treated like it is because he just happened to be first leads Adam to a state that even Lucifer comments on in their battle in the form of 'oh haha, you really let yourself go-'. Which I take to mean in the sense Adam is up in heaven, holding zoom-style holographic meetings while he probably barely even leaves his room (and never without his gear on), neglecting the 'womanly' deemed things like cooking and taking care of himself, gaining struggle weight for it all, and worst of all...he's in heaven and he's essentially in a depressed state (that let's be real he'd say doesn't exist like the dwightyouignorantslut he is) and that is plastered all over his real face in the form of baggy under eyes and that gross chin stubble he got going on too. And since heaven is full of happy, not depressed- never have a hard day, and HOT people, he essentially stays covered 24/7 in public because people would definitely question why he's there and heaven really doesn't need more people questioning decisions that'll create more Lucifers.

While wearing the mask he's like a kid that won't take his Halloween costume off because it makes him feel cool, and he does get a lot more animated and forgetful of his true insides. He's almost like a school mascot in a way, using his 'angelsona' to amplify his attention-grabbing antics. Take it away and he's very likely much more identical to Lucifer in terms of the whole 'take THAT, depression!' bit. Except for Adam that just translates to him being far less animated, grumpy, electric-guitar to acoustic pipeline, passively aggressive and likely tired, being the source of all humanity and all (man needs to be sucking down that G-fuel hourly).

Additionally: Angeldust and Adam would have the same theme of 'putting on an act' (or in Adam's case- putting on a show) and not letting the real person behind the façade show through. (Though in Angel's case it's for his own protection. In Adam's case it's because man can't cope with his insecurity.) And how Husk sees through Angel's bullshit, Lute does the same with Adam.

Adam's helmet glitched out the same way that Vox's did, so it could very well be a hint that Vox and Adam may have something to do with antagonism in the next season. If Adam came back w/o his mask and this all was applicable ofc, he would definitely team up with or make a deal with Vox in order to get him to fix the helmet (assuming he can based on the idea he might know how it works when put back together since his own tv face has been shown to glitch out like Adam's did) since it would be a necessary competent to bring back the actual 'Adam' he's become after living in discomfort with the one he became after experiencing real perfection.