#without acknowledging the actual character

[kallianthiutdr]

you cannot remove the queerness from utdr without fundamentally hurting the story. there is no label ever put on it but it's there and it has to be acknowledged.

Frisk, Chara, & Kris being non-binary instead of just–whatever the player wants them to be–adds to the themes of individuality and separation between them and the player. For Frisk & Chara, I've made a whole post about their role as narrative stand-ins but also individual characters. For Kris, it's actually ridiculous if you even attempt to claim they aren't non-binary–because they actively reject the player's influence and are the furthest thing from a self-insert. Monster Kid, Napstablook, etc are also genderless. In Deltarune, Seam also.

Also, Frisk considering to Flirt with literally anyone regardless of gender–and that being a game mechanic in and of itself–to me, implies this kid is most likely pan. Whatever you want to call it, their gender-blind flirting is in fact a game mechanic.

Alphys' and Undyne's sapphicness is the key to the pacifist ending. Without setting them up you literally cannot access the true pacifist ending. If it wasn't for Papyrus encouraging his lesbian bestie to send that damn letter, nothing would have happened. (Maybe indeed Flowey would've used another method to make time, but accessing the true lab with Alphys' permission would've been near impossible.) In fact, Alphys' bisexuality and her subsequent crushes are in fact a big part of her character. Not the most important–obviously, Alphys is one of the most layered characters in the game–but in hating herself, the lies she says to appease to Asgore first and Undyne later are undeniably a big part of what makes up her character.

Mettaton's allegorical transness kick-starts the events that lead to the creation of Flowey and the amalgamates. Without him, Alphys wouldn't be royal scientist. No determination experiments, no Flowey, no game. No Mettaton? Half of the hotland segments wouldn't exist, including the MTT resort in which the infamous it's raining somewhere else sequence happens. Mettaton also helps other trans people with their transition, like when he gifted his blue dress to the beautiful trans lioness after being done with it.

Mad Mew Mew's transness, even if unacknowledged by the main game, is constantly brought up by Toby since she appears in occasional News Letters, the alarm clock dialogue, etc, as a way to remind everyone that she exists and is as much s part of this found family as everyone else. She's also a sapphic, with her crush on Undyne also being acknowledged.

Asgore's implications of bisexuality and his inherent homoeroticism when talking about Rudy in the Alarm Clock Dialogue & Deltarune alike aren't game changing aspects of his character but nice touches that inform his relationships outside of Toriel.

The two Royal Guards in Hotland can only be spared through being set-up. Also, their romance cuts the player's nice cream supply.

Papyrus, though nothing game changing can be said about his sexuality, has a well-documented celebrity crush on Mettaton. Also, if you want to bring Toby's twitter joke into consideration, the skeleton brothers could in fact exist in the ace spectrum. And I say spectrum instead of outwardly asexual because Sans befriended our mom last night-

Even though Nice Cream Guy gives free Nice Cream to Burgerpants, he refuses to give free Nice Cream to the human. Burgerpants is so oblivious this could be considered flirting that I wasn't sure if I could count it, but then again Burgerpants is the nexus of a complex, interwoven web of non-reciprocated crushes and he's deeply unaware of the situation at large. This dynamic expands in Deltarune, with Bpants saying that Blue Ears is obsessed and has no sense of personal space–and the latter noting a love for his co-workers and giggling.

So then, In Deltarune, obviously, we have a deeply queer group of people and I think that this queer solidarity is really fundamental to it. I already mentioned the importance of Kris being non-binary .

Ralsei is generally understood to be maybe pan due to his general gender-blind openess towards especially Kris. I don't want to really get into his blushing when Kris gets too close or the fountain of love, because, well, he's representative of Asriel–but still. His queer-coding is undeniable.

But onto stronger candidates for this queer conversation, Noelle and Susie's dynamic adds two more sapphics into the utdr franchise. Noelle's crush has always been a massive, dare I say game-changing part of her character. Susie and Noelle met for the first time in Susie's first day of class. Susie had forgotten her pencil, and then Noelle noticed it and offered her candy-cane one. After this nice action of Noelle's, and also by the fact that she genuinely smiled at her, Susie developed a soft side for her and spared her from her bullying.

Then we have Berdly’s whole, “I'M the one Noelle and Susie are falling like dominoes for. And you know what dominoes means, Kris? ,,,You're next.” At another point he calls Noelle to ask her if she will be his date at the festival the next day. Susie tells him to leave her alone. And you can decide to respond that you'll go out with him or sing the Wrong Number song (in any case, Berdly is surprised). If you choose the first option, he says that Kris will have to compete with Noelle and Susie (thinking the two are into him). If it's the second then, he says that Kris will fall under his charm sooner or late. That also suggest a gender-blind attraction. But, in general, his crushes to Noelle and Susie respectively seem performative. And the queer reading that can be done here is undeniable, taking into consideration deltarune being steeped in themes of identity, performance, masks and unspoken internal conflict.

Now, mind you, every single side character can be viewed through a queer lense–in fact, it's damn near impossible not to do that. I just think that's wonderful. Like, have you seen Rouxls Kaard? Queen? Jevil? Spamton? Tenna? The queerness is oozing right through. The side characters in both Undertale and Deltarune are bursting with camp, flamboyance, theatricality–rarely do they conform into typical binaries/boxes wether those could refer to gender, sexuality, or like. Morality man idk.

[angelofthemornings]

This is something that really interests me. First of all, it's been done in the romance industry for forever. (That's how you get titles like The Billionaire Sheik's Secret American Mistress, you've got the whole setup right there.) (We'll discuss the racism in calling love interests of Middle Eastern descent "sheiks" at a later date.) People who like romance do in fact read them for SPECIFICALLY the tropes and their predictability. This isn't an insult towards the romance novel as a medium, but an acknowledgement that people who read romance novels are doing so for a very specific reason (the comfort of predictability) and are going to seek out situations that turn them on with the assumed knowledge that the plot is going to do the same old XYZ and end up with a HEA (happily ever after) every time. (There's probably a whole master thesis somewhere in how said predictability makes women feel like they're in a safer space to explore desire or whatever, but I'm not the guy to write it. The point is, a romance novel has a mission and is a highly efficient machine. If you don't believe me, ask somebody who's genuinely into romance or pick up something like Romancing the Beat which is about how and why to write a romance novel.)

The *only* problem here is that this is starting to splash over into "normal" books marketed at people who read novels for different reasons. Personally I would read, say, a tragic fable about an emotionally scarred assassin who falls in love with the prince she's supposed to kill, but I don't want to know how it ends, I want some solid worldbuilding and a meaty plot, I want a hint that the woman has emotional depth and isn't a stock character, and I want to know if it's actually going to be a tragic fable or some goofy shit where they go on the run together and bicker the entire time. Some of this is compatible with a romance novel's goals and some of it isn't. If you're trying to catch a more average fantasy fan into your net, just saying "it's enemies to lovers!" does nothing for that demographic. I need a summary and maybe a couple sample pages.

I don't know when or where the wires got crossed, but they did, and marketing other books like they're romance novels doesn't work. For the most part, actual professional advertisers know this and if it's a real ad you can expect the book to be targeted towards romance readers alone, but the people on BookTok trying to get you to read, like...Iron Widow or whatever by doing this are barking up the wrong tree. People who don't read romance novels are also sort of starting to expect this type of advertising for "normal" books without realizing that this form of advertisement was meant for speaking to a different audience. (No, Crime & Punishment does not have any fucking spice!)

(I do have no problem whatsoever when they advertise specifically romances this way. I'm not the target audience for those, not gonna criticize.)

do publishers realize that advertising books using fanfic tropes spoils the experience of reading an original story. stop telling me it’s enemies to lovers and there was only one bed and unrequited love hurt comfort golden retriever black cat timeloop major character death. why do i give a fuck if i don’t know any of the characters and now plus i already know the entire plot of the story. that’s what ao3 is supposed to be for

[destinysbounty]

I think I wouldn't mind Zane's NPC-ification quite as much as I do, if it didn't feel like they were also retconning the fact that he was ever a person to begin with.

Like, sure, I totally understand. Dragons Rising has a huge ensemble cast, and the RGB trio + new ninja are the clear focus. And I don't mind that! Everyone who does get proper narrative attention is written so wonderfully and I adore what we have. But...sometimes it feels like they're just kinda divvying up everything that makes Zane who he is and giving it to everyone else, and never even briefly acknowledging Zane's ties to those traits.

Remember when Zane used to have prophetic dreams foretelling future events? Me neither. Hey Lloyd, how are your visions coming along?

Or, y'know how one of Zane's most integral plot lines, character details, and motifs is his struggles with memory and identity? Remember that time he got amnesia and was then both manipulated and magically corrupted into being a villain? Nah that never happened, anyway check out what Jay is up to now

Or, does anyone recall how Zane is a canonically really good cook with pies so delicious they made Jay cry on screen? No that's Arin's thing, actually

Heck, we even have our quota of ~Silly Robot Beep Boop Bop~ jokes fulfilled by Lobbo!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not hating on any of the other characters for having these traits. Nor am I arguing that Zane should have a singular monopoly on these types of storylines. But when they take traits that have for so long been primarily associated with Zane, like cooking and visions and amnesia, and share them with someone else without even briefly acknowledging Zane's prior involvement...idk. It just feels like they're trying to repackage all the things that make Zane interesting while still writing him out of the narrative. It feels like they're going "whaat? Zane, have personality outside of being a generic robot character?? That never happened!" Like they're just trying to have their nindroid and kill him too.

And I mean, to some extent I can understand their hesitation. It's the same reason the Mr. E/Echo reveal got scrapped in s8 - theres just way too much going on right now, and the narrative load required to explain somwthing this complicated during a reboot/sequel would just bog down an already very complicated story. Zane has a very convoluted backstory that, for new fans dropping in to the sequel series for the first time, may be difficult to explain. How do you recap Zane's history with amnesia in a neat an tidy way for the next gen story, when there's already so much going on?

Like i said, i get that. But they could at least make, like, brief blink-and-youll-miss-it allusions, yknow? Like how they played the Ice Emperor theme during Zane's existential crisis during drs1, or when Zane told Zanth not to follow dancing birds in drs3. Tasteful, subtle, doesn't require much insider knowledge and newer fans could easily interpret it as a noodle incident comment without losing out on their comprehension.

Maybe after Jay gets eliminated from the Tournament, Zane offers to go after him saying, "I've lost myself once or twice before. If anyone understands what he's going through, it's me." And if you want to preserve the plot unobstructed, maybe you can have it so that either Zane fails to get through to Jay or Jay is gone without a trace before he can get to him. Maybe there's a brief scene of Zane making a pie to try and cheer Sora up, but she can't eat it because it reminds her too much of Arin. Or maybe Lloyd has a panic attack over his visions and Zane is the one to offer him the advice about not fighting the vision and letting it come naturally.

Don't you see how easy that is? You would change literally nothing about the story at large, and you're not detracting from the main plotlines or character arcs that are quite validly dominating this series. But you're also throwing a bone to the people who actually like Zane. Like???? I'm not even asking for much here, man :/

Idk. Maybe I'm just bitter and need to touch grass, who's to say

[tea-and-secrets]

Fella's (gender neutral) I'm starting to feel like the average person doesn't actually understand what things are or how they actually work.

I'm into fantasy stuff so I follow a lot of fantasy artists/writers and I keep seeing posts like "You don't have to have sexism/racism/homophobia in your fantasy stories! Just because it's medieval doesn't meant you need bigotry!" and people acting as if people who do include those things are only doing it because they're secretly sexist/racist/homophobic/etc.

So they don't want to include those things. Okay! Cool!

But then they talk about making stories that include those things anyways, except they just. Don't acknowledge it?

Like they go "Fuck the patriarchy! I'm gonna write a medieval fantasy story where women are treated as equals. And my story is about a princess being in an arranged marriage (but they fall in love) with another princess and her dad is totally fine with it :)"

If there's no patriarchy in your story, why is there a monarchy, with a king? You know, a man that holds absolute power over everyone and cannot be voted out? Who hoards generational wealth and power and passes it on to his children? Why are women being forced to marry other people?

There's also a frightening amount of people saying they're writing stories "without racism" but then their characters, The Good Righteous Chosen Ones, are fighting an army of Evil Corrupt Monsters from the Dark Shadow Lands.

And it's like hello. Why is that entire group made up of evil people. Why are all of those "monsters" (who are always from some sort of mysterious foreign land) born evil. 🤨

.

[unfairunknown]

And somehow Rogue's super-hell fate isn't even the thing I was most sucker-punched in the gut about, in regards to going into these RTD2 seasons with good faith and being disappointed at nearly every turn. I have to get some DW thoughts out, I think. It's a long one, so I put under the cut. TL:DR is

Disappointed by RTD2 era DW which feels like I'm being gaslit by an entire IP.

Verada Sethu is an incredible talent, and if I had a nickel for every time a prominent long running sci Fi series show horned her character into terrible misogynistic tropes in 2025, I'd have two nickels....

Ncuti Gatwa was the bright light of the season. Beautiful, effervescent, charming, what a delight as the Doctor.

"The Story and the Engine" was the best of this run.

My knee-jerk reaction to Rose Noble, as a transgender person myself, was deep discomfort that never quite resolved....there's something slightly *off* with how I feel RTD presented her I never quite managed to land on, beyond that I think it was really problematic to insinuate that Donna absorbing feminine magic while she had a child in utero is why that child "became" a girl...but I have lost a lot of my tolerance for transgender "discourse" because of a lack of good faith critical thought and conversation...I don't even know what I'm saying besides, did other transgender people feel that way?

Also, while DW has always been campy, it's also often made some kind of social statement. And yet I feel this entire run lacked the fangs or impact of any true statement or positionality. A problem would be introduced, as of to say 'look how aware of the social contexts we are,' only to ignore or refuse to contend with what that issue actually means or would impact. Like Rogue's arc, for example.

The "problems" I think his character seems to address:

1. That the Doctor never says they love their companions to their faces. Heavily implied to mean romantic love (see the famous Ten/Rose sequence) but not always.

2. Having a canonically confirmed queer element to the Doctor. I.e. diversity/representation, etc.

But what the narrative actually DOES is more important, to me, than saying something exists on the page. "Look, we confirmed the doctor was queer by having him kiss Rogue and say he loves Belinda to her face!' yes, and that's nice, sure, in 2025, but here's why I have a problem with these things:

1. While the longing and angst is certainly an intentional element in storytelling, the let the Doctor tell their companions they love them thing, when juxtaposed with Thirteen's appearance and commentary regarding her romantic love for Yaz, which I think was pretty clearly stated "it would be you," but I digress...if the core of these longings is romantic queerness, then the Doctor saying he loves Belinda, whose own ending is so....awful, doesn't actually address what the desire for the 'I love you" commentary actually WAS. It's a bit like saying retroactively Dumbledore was gay the whole time...and like I do think it's important to show and express platonic love, but I think that message is lost by refusing to even acknowledge the lurking spectre of queer desire present since original DW. 15 talking about his love for any other companion, especially non romantic ones like Graham, could have assuaged me here.

2. Rogue. In a lot of ways the episode mirrored Ten's "The Girl in the Fireplace," which was also heavily implied romantic/sexual that ended without Ten getting his happily ever after, too.

Except in that case, his love interest went on to love a fulfilling happy life where she was the consort to a powerful man who she seemed to hold in high regard, even if she did have true feelings for the Doctor.

And Rogue...went to hell. He isn't dead, but he isn't coming back any time soon.

And I can't help but feel like the conservative issues I had with RTD1 era and Moffat era in general have been enhanced by Disney's corporate sanitization?

'look at all the diversity' but what does that actually MEAN? The beat episode of Ncuti's run WAS written and directed by the people whose story was being told, and you could tell! It was incredible! And it wasn't *trying* to make a point without understanding what it's core context is in the world of 2025.

Finally, I have all these feelings, and I am deeply upset by these seasons of a television show, because I want to belong to the IP's I love, I want them to cling to me, too. If I didn't love it, it wouldn't hurt.

poor rogue saved the world from compulsory heterosexuality and is still chilling in gay super hell (only other occupent: castiell)

[crimsonprose]

finally going to delve deeper into why I think Nat and Travis swapped (traditional) gender roles in the wilderness. but, before I do, you might want to check out this post from @campymonkey and/or this post I just made this morning, because both are relevant.

as campymonkey already pointed out, Travis starts out the series as having serious toxic masculinity problems. but Nat challenges that again and again (bless her heart), and most famously when he asks for her body count and she's like "really dude??"

but the real first shift I see between them happens when he can't get the ring off his dad's finger, and she steps in and does it for him. it's kind of a precursor to the gender binary flipping between them.

and then there's doomcoming...

note that this is the last time we see Nat in a dress until aduthood.

(sidenote: much has been said lately about the SA attempt on Travis, but I really don't want to stir that back up, and I hope anyone reading can put that aside enough to focus on the theme of this post instead)

having put that disclaimer in... if there was ever a "damsel in distress" in Yellowjackets, it was Travis during doomcoming, and if there was ever a "knight in shining armor", it was Nat, who came to his rescue that night.

and THAT MOMENT, for me, is when the official shift began.

but to Trav's credit, he didn't ultimately act like he felt emasculated by it (like a lot of other dudes in the 90s, or even today, probably would have). instead, he seemed to embrace his new, more feminine role and accepted Nat's new, more masculine role with grace and dignity. in fact, he even seemed happy for her when she got crowned queen (or in this case should we be saying "king"? cause... let's be fr).

and by S3, this is how we see Travis...

hanging out with the girls, gossiping... like one of the girls.

but, if you read my earlier post from this morning, I talked about how I think Nat is eternally trapped in a "liminal space" (she can't accept Lottie's religion, which is partially-- key word partially-- why she can't forgive herself for what they did out there). and I think Travis ultimately got trapped in a liminal space too, and this too has to do with Lottie.

let's recall (please, without villainizing Lottie, because this is a character analysis post that acknowledges the moral grayness of this show in general) that Lottie pretty much tortured him with shrooms in order to try to get him to hear the wilderness... and this ultimately led to him pushing her away and even trying to kill her.

(btw, her calm expression here still kills me)

is this me saying I think Lottie could have "fixed" either of them, if only they hadn't pushed her away? NO. absolutely not.

I think Van actually said one of the most profound things in S3 when she told Tai, "This place it messy. It doesn't want to be governed." and I will expand on that by saying that I also think Lottie represents the wilderness itself. she too is "messy." she too becomes ungovernable.

both Lottie and the wilderness represent the chaos of nature. it gives and it takes. one day it gives you hurricanes and wildfires (destruction), and the next day the skies clear or the rain comes, and suddenly everything is good again (rebirth/ renewal).

Lottie is obsessed with "giving the wilderness what it wants." and her tragedy is that she can't. because it doesn't "want" anything. it just exists in an ungovernable way, and we are all at it's mercy.

but... because of all her ties to the wilderness and nature, Lottie also represents the divine feminine. for the Greeks, this would have been represented through Gaia (primordial goddess of the Earth), Demeter (goddess of agriculture and harvest), and Artemis (goddess of the wild and untamed aspects of nature, including *cough, cough*, the hunt).

which makes her connections to both Travis (who becomes more feminine, like her) and Nat (who becomes the hunter, and more masculine) all the more interesting. Travis becomes closer to Lottie at first, but ultimately pushes her away; while Nat pushes her away as soon as she begins to act strangely, and yet she and Lottie seem intrinsically tied in a way that Nat can't escape (which is evident in S2 when they meet again as adults).

it makes me wonder what will still happen in the wilderness between these three before they get rescued in S4.

I don't necessarily think it will be sexual (nor do I want it to be), but I do see the triangle between them as something that will hopefully be developed further before the show ends, because as far as literary analysis goes... it's a fucking goldmine.

[cantstandlosingyou]

i know lots of people have probably talked about this before, but one thing that has been bothering me recently is how freely people use the term queerbaiting, when most times it's just queercoding or queer subtext.

queerbaiting is advertising somethin as queer, to attract audience, but there's actually no overt queer representation. but some people have taken to calling queerbaiting anything that's just not explicit told to the audience.

it feels like homophobes some people wont accept that characters are written as queer until the point where it is explicitly said by the character (and sometimes not even then). and on the opposite side of the spectrum, some people will call out any type of media for "queerbaiting" or for not having good representation, because they hint at things without just outright telling it.

it honestly feels like there's a lack of media literacy, because people just refuse to accept that some things can be shown and not told.

that being said i do acknowledge that queerbaiting can be a problem with media, and sometimes it comes hand in hand with, at least some level of queercoding, it just bugs me when people ignore how something is written a certain way, just because it's never "confirmed".

[angelicguy]

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS deltarune spoilers:

Finished the new deltarune chapters. Found it really really great- i was worried about how they were going to combine the wacky stuff with actual story momentum and I think they did a great job by essentially separating it into the two separate chapters. The "real" game in chapter 3 was phenomenal- it had the perfect blend of wowww this is fucking creepy and stark without being overt, played on how "off" the original zelda games felt super well- the format of these games always criticize how people play RPGs specifically, so it was interesting to get a version of that with a different genre. honestly wish it was longer, but it was juuust enough developed gameplay to make it feel like an uncanny haze rather than an entire other segment. really really good. chapter 4 was bomb too, a more meat n potatoes for my approach (not killin nothin), way more of a focus on moving the broader plot forward, which after 7 years was absolutely the correct move. made sense pace-wise too- i was initially a little hesitant on the pace after how breakneck chapter 3 was (i think i almost finished it in 2 sessions, each about 2 hours? i had to replay the whole thing to get the secret boss, and that took 40 minutes) but knowing 4 was essentially the opposite tonally it made me appreciate them both more.

I do wonder if the presentation of all of this would have worked better if we just called the entire thing chapter 3- i get not wanting to set standards too high for future chapters length+content, but i still think chapter 2 was the best blend of gameplay, dialogue and secret stuff. how its divided now made chapter 3 feel more like 3/4ths of a full chapter- the lack of hometown segment didnt help with that impression, either.

i make fun of the dialogue often, and i dont think that's inappropriate- it can be really clunky and blunt. susie really does end up repeating the same handful of "i cant believe i have friends!" lines 30 times, ralsei is so obviously more aware of the broader story already. even tennas lines felt like watered down spamton tropes. after years of waiting, i felt a bit silly reading a lot of it- if i could make a single change to the writing, i would cut down on these hit-you-over-the-head obvious "wink wink" moments. in a game with so many well-hidden routes and interactions, i dont know why they have to allude to its weakest themes so often. make me search for it! finding tenna freaking out in the secret spots would have hit a lot harder if he didnt say what was on his mind in the base fights already.

but the games greatest narrative strength is making all the characters feel more in-depth than the average rpg npc- you WANT to interact with them, hear their next line, see what they would say to different dialogue options, etc. its the kind of thing you can't really get from other games and i think is what gives deltarune its energy. its short, but it really does feel like the 4 years it took to make werent wasted- the obsession with every possible outcome being acknowledged and covered, despite being such a linear game, gets me excited in the same way a good book or movie does. \

it feels like a culmination of a very late 90s early 2000s experience with gaming too. all the tropes it plays with dont really exist in the most popular titles of the last two decades, so im really impressed by how well it managed to keep plot that's rooted in what are now VERY OLD RPG mechanics (you controlling kris, who is a different person than you, the player) engaging and independent from the tropes theyre pulling from- you dont need to know about how saccharine and cloying old rpgs are (while i know toby fox is inspired primarily by earthbound, i get more criticism of dragon quest style rpgs here) but if you "get it" in the way the game does, it really adds a lot. undertale was always good, but undeniably 1 note in its presentation a decade after its release. the message in deltarune isnt simply "killing enemies in a video game just to lvl up is mean" anymore, but rather "isnt it strange that the RPG protagonists had entire lives before you take control of them?". i think that line of thinking allows the game to play with the fourth wall in a far more interesting way than simply having a character scold you for your actions- the game is scrambling to keep itself together during the weird route, and as someone who plays a LOT of video games im always thrilled to see something ive really never seen attempted before play out with such depth. So cool cant wait for chap 5

[zvezdacito]

THIS IS SO REAL

The other housewardens/students are also not really trying to understand Malleus because to them there's nothing to understand. They don't know how different the fae are to humans, and most don't even fully know their history at the hands of humans, so to everyone Malleus is just trying to be above it all and difficult for no reason. But Malleus has already done a lot to try and adapt to humans and the day and only has a few complaints about what he cant wrap his head around

A lot of people take his apology to Lilia at the end of his dorm vignette "I wasn't trying hard enough to get along" as confirmation that twst is saying Malleus ACTUALLY is not truly trying and most/everything is his fault.

But if you noticed Malleus has a habit of saying "I'LL do better" instead has a of blaming others when put in an unfair situation. As with all twst characters with biased perceptions/who don't say what they mean. You can't just take what they say as face value to what the story is actually saying

↑ People also tend to do this with Ace after his bluntness and non-coddling saved heartslabyul and stopped riddle in Book 1... ppl took it working in /that/ specific instance to mean that this is the ONLY way to stop every overblotter and the OBers just gotta man up against years of conditioning Imao. The story also shows that Ace's bluntness is not fully noble and sometimes even makes the situation worse or makes a fool out of Ace (the Heartslabyul novel really fleshes out the nuance of this trait/how overblots are confronted)

On the topic of coddling... This also reminds me of this one user who would say Lilia is coddling Malleus and that's why he turned out so difficult? It's kinda funny because this is the POV the housewardens in-universe would have of their dynamic, but it's not actually the truth.

When Lilia gives Malleus acknowledgment and approval, it looks like coddling exactly because the overblotters don't know how naturally different Malleus as a fae (who has to not feel because of his power) is, and thus how much he's already adjusted from his natural way of doing things to live with them. He laughs off and doesn't really mind a lot of Malleus' antics because to he KNOWS this isolated fae doesn't really mean anything by it, so he's responding with the necessary consideration to MAKE Malleus learn and understand. He gives him the time, unlike the palace staff who just keep conceding and backing off from him because they see him as the power/authority before the child, and unlike the other housewardens who as mentioned just see him as a nuisance/threat who's like that just because he's arrogant or something

We also know that Lilia DOES reprimand Malleus and demand he change when he does something wrong, whether he's not listening to his tutors at the castle or the literal events of the dorm vignette, so doesn't just give endless excuses for Malleus just because he knows it's hard for him.

Twst is all about learning to coexist with other people's circumstances, ways of thinking and contradicting desires, without thinkin difference must mean they are the bad guy and you are the good guy. And sometimes that's hard because misunderstandings easily happen and we rarely have the full story about something or someone. It's just this theme in different fonts with each overblot so it's kinda ironic in a meta way that fans of other OBers/characters don't realize this for Malleus, the character who is the "final boss"/pinnacle of this central theme. But yeah he is my fave for these reasons, his position is nuanced and complex and says a lot about the overall story and fun to see all the layers of.

I feel a lot of the time we don’t consider the fae perspective. We mostly consider the human’s. Which, yes, of course because we are human.

But in a story like twst, where so many characters are relatable human or not, I think it’s a bit unfair to not consider their perspective.

The main one I’m thinking of right now is how we tend to criticize Malleus and his not being able to keep track of time.

We’ve been told that he has trouble keeping track of time, and in general, many of the fae do. To them, time moves different (not to mention how it can differ depending on species), but for Malleus it’s much more than that.

Malleus has been locked up in the castle for years. He got visits from Lilia and he looked foward to that. Beyond that? It was the same every single day. He was alone. Think about it. For us, we would get tired and bored of that. Time would move slowly. We would want to escape. But Malleus couldn’t. He was trapped there, making the most of it when he hid and when Lilia visits. To him, those moments of fun didn’t last long at all and the moments of melancholy lasted forever.

On a side note, we’ve seen how long it took Lilia to adapt to humans too, about 200+ years. (He’s still adapting now. He’s somewhat better at it now because of Silver and Sebek. Who are more day creatures and he had to adapt to that as well. Even though it’s still tough on him). So how can we expect the same from Malleus, when it took even Lilia this long to do it?

When Malleus grew older and he was able to escape, time moved quickly for him. He was able to spend time with Lilia and others. He had fun and freedom. To him, time sped up. Silver and Sebek age quickly. Malleus had trouble with how fast it was. Even in his dorm card he mentions how quickly they’ve grown.

But then, you also have to consider, Malleus is a fae, he’s abided by fae time for over a century and it was only recently (at least 17 years), that he tried to adapt to human time. From seeing a babe grow to now at NRC, where school is taught through human time. How can we expect him to suddenly adapt so quickly?

I wouldn’t be surprised that besides some of the fae, other beastman or merman might have more of a nocturnal clock too.

We expect him to adapt to humans but when has any of them helped him to adapt? When we ask things of others, don’t we usually try and meet half way?? Isn’t it selfish to always one-sidedly ask him to change?? And not help him achieve the change we are asking for?

It’s one thing for the rest of dia group to help him, and they try. But it’s another, when the humans don’t even try when Malleus is trying to get along with them and make a connection with them for peace between everyone. Even more so, he wants to get along and have friends too.

And then?? They get angry? At him?? For not adhering to their ways, but did they help him? Did you remind him? Or even send the invite at all? Or were you too scared and it’s easier to blame?

He’s known to arrive in advance hours before a meeting so he doesn’t miss it because he does care and he does want to attend. But where are the people to meet him half way? To remind him or even give him the proper or updated info?

It’s a two way street. We can’t always judge malleus because of his “bad” traits, when in reality, it’s a fae thing can we?

You can argue that it’s not others jobs to do that. And yeah you’re right, but then we have seen dorm leaders go out of their way to help others haven’t we? Riddle going after Idia is one example.

And if there is to be peace, then both humans and fae have to work together to understand the other.

I think it’s unfair to always expect Malleus to change without understanding his background and his childhood and how that changes his perception of time.

[0viraptoraskblog]

what do you think how btd and the hunt characters would react to clown/jesters (like killer clowns)

I’m assuming you mean in general(?) if you mean that MC is a clown, that’s a whole other ask ^^;

Strade- indifferent to clowns in general. As for killer clowns, like in movies, he’d rather have something more natural— like himself. A killer who’s just another person. So it’s not his favorite thing.

Ren- a bit unnerved by clowns in general, and not particularly interested in anything involving killer clowns. It’s just a little too much, he finds them creepy.

Lawrence- dislikes clowns. They have too much energy and make him very uncomfortable. Honestly, he might see the appeal in a killer clown more because they acknowledge the fact that clowns aren’t fun to be around (he thinks people who like clowns are crazy)

Sano- doesn’t like clowns in general, however he can understand using the aesthetic of a clown for something more pristine like a doll. You’d just have to tweak it so it looks visibly pleasing enough. He thinks killer clowns are ‘childish’ almost (his words, basically meaning he deals with murder constantly and can be so much more affective without dressing up all creepy. He feels more sophisticated than that.)

Akira- doesn’t love them, doesn’t hate them. He does like horror movies though, and I’m sure he’s seen a fair share of killer clowns stuff.

Vincent- Has no childhood memories, and I don’t think he’s been around a clown in real life since he got out of the hospital. So he literally has no opinion.

Cain- he doesn’t see the appeal. Similar to Sano, he finds it a little overkill— especially when involving murder. He doesn’t get it at all, and judges because of that.

Rire- also doesn’t see the appeal, but he finds it humorous that humans enjoy that kind of thing. He sees it on a very surface level, but still.

Derek- doesn’t like them, and absolutely talks bad about them, as with most people. He thinks they’re just asking to be made fun of, and aren’t they? Well, not in his sense of the word. Secretly gets a little spooked by killer clown movies, (he likes the gore and killing, but if it’s one that’s well made and especially creepy it’ll make him jittery. He’d obviously never tell anyone though) so he doesn’t like them either.

Celia- clowns and killer clowns alike just make her uncomfortable. She’d rather have something with ‘taste’, this feels too low for her standards of entertainment.

Mason- has never seen a clown or killer clown or media involving either. However, if there was ever an actual killer clown near him, rest assured he’s got it taken care of.

[shittyutmv]

A draft I've had for months. I've tried drawing this one over and over but I just can't get it right. Just wanted to post something filler cos I miss this blog.

[inkperch]

This take. Bothers me a lot.

Two reasons really- one because like you even acknowledge there is literally no difference between Victor and Gloria here, like. He reacts in literally the exact same way.

And the other because Hop already had Wooloo.

We didn't.

Like, it's not that he never considered losing to us. It's that this is a dream he's been working towards for years that he's finally making progress in, only for the friend he dragged into this to be a nigh-unbeatable progidy. We're shown to have an interest in pokemon sure, and we're definitely not portrayed as a hard sell, but Hop is the one dragging us through the whole tutorial and showing us all the basics (give or take Leon jumpscare). And even then it's not because he loses to us- the fact he hasn't won a single friendly battle with his rival since their first day with a pokemon, if that, just rubs salt in the wound. It's because of the pressure of Leon's unbeatable reputation while realising his dreams are a lot further out of his reach than he thought, that all comes to a head when he loses to someone that isn't us.

Losing to us is frustrating to him because it's flat out not fair, we started after him but he hasn't won once, but it's losing to Bede that causes him to actually spiral. We're his rival and best friend and he's abruptly being forced to reckon with the fact he's not even our biggest rival- he can't even stand up for us against the dickhead we're dealing with without getting his ass kicked.

And that's not even getting into the Leon-Sonia parallels going on- which, like, maybe I've tricked myself bc I wrote a whole ass one shot about it but I swear they have to be intentional, there's too many tiny little details that indicate she's noticed the parallels between herself and Hop In This Essay I Will-

Which, yeah. I guess thats it? Hops such a great character with a compelling reason to want the title, and this feels like a really flat take on him. I can and will write multiple essays about him and each and every one of them start over the line of 'it's not fair that Hop can never beat you'.

I’m not sure if I ever mentioned it here but playing as the girl in sword and shield really captures that feeling of childhood misogyny when ur friends are boys who only hang out with you so long as you let then be the main character and nobody talks about it

Like I don’t hold it against Hop the Character that much, but it really is like yeah. This kid decided I’m his rival and it doesn’t even occur to him that I could beat him to become Champion until it starts happening.

And I have never met his older brother at all but he immediately decides he’s responsible for me and condescends about where I should go and what I’m capable of

I know it’s not an intentional thing and the same story beats happen regardless but when I played it was so obvious to me that’s it’s like, ok this is what we’re doing, taking me back to that time all over again

[moeblob]

Because his inner monologues really are just. So long. And I think it's important to show how much this guy thinks in order to say "not quite".

[kacievvbbbb]

Maybe it's just me and I just don't understand the arc. Or maybe this arc will get some grand conclusion I'm really starting to doubt. But like I'm sick and tired of Tashigi being used as Zoro's misogyny proxy. Like the "a woman swordsman could never beat a man" belief and trauma made sense for both Kuina and Tashigi and was a very valid fear way back in the East Blue when they were still fighting relatively normal people and had no scope of how big the world is

but at this point where there are literally 20 feet tall dudes and people can blow up a whole city with just Haki the only reason Tashigi is still weak is because she is being written that way. Which is really hard to understand because it seems now more than ever One Piece has been getting more and more strong female characters so I don't know why every time Tashigi is on screen with Zoro we have to rehash this. It's even worse cause all she does in the scene is prove Zoro right by getting in a fight that she can't handle and needing saving. It's such a confusing message and honestly doesn't really apply or come up anywhere but with Tashigi and Zoro (outside of that one time where Zoro yells at enel for blasting Robin because she's a woman which was weird because Robin's been in a lot of fights before but seemed there just so enel could point out just how ruthless it is.)

Hell with the exception of the G5 all being in love with her. She is treated like a regular character and not just "the woman"

It honestly feels like both Tashigi and Smoker got lost in the narrative and Oda just doesn't know where to put their arcs. It feels like she was being written to help Zoro overcome whatever mental block Kuina's death instilled in him about facing female opponents with his sword. But she is just sooooo far behind him it renders the point moot and strengthens his convictions (it's weird that he will literally crush a woman's face rather than use his sword and is the only reason I won't say he doesn't fight women he does he just seems to have a mental block about cutting them down especially if they fight with anything blade like) but also we've only ever seen him face female character he knows can't challenge him it would have been interesting to see what he'd do in a fight against someone like big mom, tsuru or smoothie doubt that will happen though. But here's to hoping for Tashigi to have an actual arc.

[front-facing-pokemon]

[likealittleheartbeat]

Why in the first season do we have the motif of Zuko stealing Katara’s mother’s betrothal necklace? Some point to a romantic subtext being read into this that, they argue, later gets ignored in order to prop up a problematic relationship for Katara with Aang, the protagonist. But if there’s subtext to be read in the theft of a betrothal token from a subjugated female by a male imperial representative, however, it’s the subtext of rape.

Why is it that it’s the women in the southern water tribe are gone? Ostensibly because they were the benders—but there’s a darker undertone, especially when we consider the clearly made analogy to indigenous peoples in North America, where even to this day native women are 2 times more likely to experience rape than those from other races. The fact that the necklace was her mother’s illustrates this legacy and connection, pointing us back to the original invasion of the tribe by the Fire nation, the attack on Katara’s mother by a single soldier inside their home (allowed in in order to protect Katara) and how Zuko’s actions at the beginning of the series echo it. This is not an auspicious place to begin a relationship if that’s what the writers were planning. Traditional enemies-to-lovers arcs usually involve prejudice but usually tied to pride, less so that kind of sexual violence. Despite Romeo and Juliet coming from warring families, it’s never implied that Romeo committed war crimes in the first act, especially not against the girl who falls for him, so we should perhaps be clued in that something different is going on in Katara and Zuko’s dynamic.

The intense rage, fear, and defense Katara puts up against Zuko in the finale of the first season (right after she has had to face the misogyny among her own people) is evocative of her response to his assaults throughout the first season. If this was not enough, we then have the rape of the moon spirit and the sacrifice of Yue for her people happening in the background, all pointing us back to the gendered violence of the empire Katara’s living under and fighting against. Her battle is not passionate because she secretly loves Zuko. She is doing everything within her power to protect herself and the spirit (literally the Avatar and figuratively within herself) that she has kept kindled despite the violent attempts to wipe it out—Zuko eventually prevails and steals a precious thing from her again…

When Katara and Zuko are imprisoned together during “The Crossroads of Destiny,” often seen as the peak of their romantic tension, they discuss their mothers, and Katara learns about the loss of Zuko’s mother (which we’re encouraged by the symbolism in the first season to read through the symbolic lens of gendered abuse and sexual violence, only now it’s domestic and internal rather than imperial). Zuko’s shift to a pitiable victim of abuse has softened his monstrous face for us, and the same happens to Katara in the catacombs, to the point where she’s willing to share a spiritual token with him.

It’s remarkable in the scene that, after being interrupted, there’s an effort made to remind the audience of Aang and Zuko’s continued antagonism—they glare at each other despite being in the embrace of the person who cares most about them in the world. And in the next scene, it’s revealed that Katara and Zuko’s reconciliation is actually not enough to transform Zuko’s loyalties. His desires for Aang and the redemption he can offer are too great.

In fact, throughout this couple of scenes, Zuko shows no interest in possessing or learning about Katara. She spouts off her grievances without his request, and then he shares his own loss only in defense to Katara's accusations and self-recognition in her stories, not as consolations for her pain. And Katara is moved by his vulnerability because she is so eager to see more evil within imperial power. She wants to hear the truth about how even those within it are injured. With all the feminine fantasy of being able to fix the behavior that toxic masculinity has induced, she suggests her spirit water might alleviate the scar Zuko bears--no forethought about preserving it for her own needs. Zuko doesn’t even request or accept the spirit water she offers him. It's all Katara. You'll be hard pressed to find a moment where Zuko expresses desire for Katara in this scene, a definite difference from his sexual aggression towards her in the first season. We as an audience are actually moved by his lack of desire her and what she has to offer because Katara is finally free from his predation (though it was only his initial violence that makes this neutral kind of freedom feel heartening).

The eventual gesture of Katara healing Zuko in “Sozin’s Comet” is free of his desire as well, unless you count the desire to protect a non-combatant, which has been Zuko’s reoccurring theme throughout the series, Katara or no (when he chooses the safety of his crew in "the storm," his advocacy for the lives of the fire nation soldiers that led him to banishment, etc.). The suggestion of rape arises here again with the penetrative nature of lightning, but the show has really complicated it’s gender dynamics by having Azula direct it, pointing to imperialism as the core concern rather than a simplified feminist reading. When Katara heals him, it's after she's cared for herself and defeated Azula now, and the words exchanged are "thank you," words of cordiality and comradery. They touch, but they are touches of equal counterparts rather than romance.

Reading romance into the simple refusal to commit colonial rape seems like a fairly low bar. This is neither what Katara nor Zuko are seeking out over the expanse of the series. They are looking for the transformative hope, action, and balance that the Avatar embodies, which, if anything allows them to stop fixating on each other and the dynamic of feminine colonized victim and masculine imperial patriarch that their world would have them locked into forever.

Aang does not go back in time to fix it all, but he brings an acceptance of reality that still allows for change. And this applies to the emotional states for the characters. Finding balance. Their griefs are not gone but not totalizing, either. They don't have to obsess or ruminate on it, or on the person who embodies the "problem" for them. The balance that the Avatar brings (and the fantasy that the show concludes with) is not a world in which the violence of colonialism never occurred but a world in which emotional release is possible from the intensifying dynamics colonialism forces its subjects into to sustain itself.