#also yeah. the theoretical example is exactly who you're thinking of and i will probably catch flak for it. oh well! might as well reenter | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

kenobihater · 2 months

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i legit don't get the appeal of viewing a character you like as a "100% unproblematic fave". y'all realize that a character can both be staunchly good with many positive traits AND have some flaws as well, right? to me, viewing a moral yet multifaceted character as faultless is like baking a cake with no salt. yeah, it's sweet, but it's too sweet because there's no salt to elevate the flavor! where's the depth in a character that is entirely perfect? where's the compelling motivations and character work? where's the humanity in that?

thankfully, i don't see much of this complete denial of flaws in the popular fanon of characters i enjoy, but what i DO see frequently is a shift in focus from characters' overall negative behaviors - behaviors directed both at themself and towards others - to depicting their self-destructive behaviors as their sole flaws. self-destruction is viewed as an "acceptable" flaw, unlike causing harm to others, and is often exaggerated if not invented out of whole cloth!

for an example of this distortion: there's a heroic yet flawed character i like with a high stress position that he wholly dedicates himself to, who probably loses a bit of sleep and is seen asking for and drinking tea ONCE to buy some time. what's the fanon version of him seen in many fics? well, his missteps and occasional emotional insensitivity have gone entirely out the window, and he's been transformed into a workaholic, sleep-deprived, caffeine addict who is incapable of caring for himself. he WILL collapse at some point in order to justify his love interest swooping in and insisting that this character, a fully grown adult man in charge of 1/10th of the entire army, learns ✨the importance of self care✨

i'm not arguing for every character to be deeply flawed - i love a good hero - but by making a canonically flawed character either 1) entirely beyond reproach or 2) a self-neglectful and/or self-flagellating martyr who has never hurt anyone but themself, you're sucking the life RIGHT out of them, and boring me to tears in the process.

#len speaks #len's meta #swinging a bat at a hornet's nest by tagging some of my faves whose fanon interpretations annoy me a bit <3 #obi-wan kenobi #obi wan kenobi #obiwan kenobi #zuko #jaskier #matt murdock #<- SPECIFICALLY the show versions of those last 2. there's a reason i don't rlly fw those shows after s1 of EITHER of them 💀#both the fanon of those characters AND the canon of those characters from s2 onwards doesn't do it for me 😭#also yeah. the theoretical example is exactly who you're thinking of and i will probably catch flak for it. oh well! might as well reenter #the fandom after my hiatus with a splash and possible weirdos in my notes lmao!

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nebulousfishgills · 26 days

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Bad hot takes? Oooof man you know the fandom would be so torn on Emily fr. Half of them would be convinced that she's this babygirl character and utterly wash away all her villainy just because she's pretty, and the other half would swing SO hard the other way and turn her into a complete irredeemable villain... and they'd still call her a girlboss for it. They'd probably also claim that Keira was somehow emotionally abused or manipulated (or TikTok's favorite term, gaslit) for taking the Goblin serum alongside Norman, instead of it being her choice and her passion project too.

In general I feel like your characters would fall into that "girlboss" trench in the fandom, where they only trait people focus on is their badassery and completely omit all of their deeper character traits and motives.

You're absolutely right is the thing. I spend a lot of time in my head wondering what Emily's fandom impact would be if she was a canon character (typically imagining what her AO3 stats would look like) and I believe both sides of the debate would be prolific. People would be at each other's throats over who is the worse influence, her or Henry, and both sides would be wrong. Saying Henry's the manipulative one washes away how truly shitty of a person she is, and saying she's the manipulative one washes away her nuance.

I also feel like her sexuality would be hotly debated, whether's she's straight, closeted lesbian, bisexual (the correct answer), and then of course the debates over if she's bad representation since she's another "queer coded villain."

I have a really honestly concerning level of thoughts and ideas about her hypothetical fandom influence.

Keira's also an interesting case since theoretically Spider-Man came out in 2002, which is over 20 years ago, so people's media consumption and literacy was different. I feel like she'd be that character that was written off for years before a fandom resurgence takes a second look at her and, as you said, realizes how "abused" and "gaslit" she was, and "oh look how women used to be portrayed in the early 2000s"

Which, yeah, the Raimi Spider-Man movies aren't exactly known for their complex women, Mary Jane being the priiiiiiime example (something I made an effort to fix in my fic). There's a certain internalized fandom misogyny that I think Keira would really serve to highlight. "Women can't be villains or be morally gray" kind of shit, and I feel like Emily would suffer the same treatment.

#one of these days I feel like I should do a deep dive on what I think Emily's fandom presence would be like #it's a very fun what if scenario #fishgills speaks #fishgills ocs #stranger things oc #spider man oc #ask game #oc asks #beloved mutuals #my inbox is open

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lavendersugarplum · 3 years

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☂︎ZEROᵗʰᵉ ʳᵉᵈ ᵘᵐᵇʳᵉˡˡᵃ

(The Umbrella Academy x Sibling! Adolescent! Reader)

sᴏɴs ᴀɴᴅ ᴅᴀᴜɢʜᴛᴇʀs

─━━━━━━⊱☂︎⊰━━━━━━─

ZERO WAS OBSERVING HERSELF in the mirror imagining what her day would be like this morning. The change in the weather already had her feeling gloom, but she didn't really expect much from today. It was probably just going to be just like every morning, or so she thought.

Seconds later, Pogo came in, gently, through the door. "Miss Y/n, Luther, and the rest of your siblings are here." As soon as those words fell out of the chimp's mouth she froze as if she didn't know how to process what he just said. She couldn't believe it. Zero didn't think that they would even attend. After how so Sir Reginald treated them, this must be some kind of joke. Once Zero fully processed what was happening, she positions herself around and raised an eyebrow. "Why hadn't you told me they were coming before?"

"I wanted it to be a surprise." Pogo smiled gently at her before walking up to fix the tie on her uniform. Once he was done tying it, he looked at her with his big brown eyes. "You'll do fine. Just talk to them." Zero nodded in understanding, eyes furrowed. "I see....... and Pogo?

"Yes?""You don't have to call me Miss. I'm not quite grown up, as you can see."

"Well, I think you've grown to be a mature young lady," Pogo said smiling.

"Too bad Mr. Hargreeves didn't think so." Zero thought as she walked out of the room.

~☂︎~

TO SAY THAT SHE WAS nervous was an understatement. It had been forever since she had seen any of her siblings at all, including Luther. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of Zero's head in anxiousness. Within every step she took getting closer to the living room, the feeling of her throat closing up came with it.

When Zero arrived in the living room, the first person she saw was her bulky brother Luther along with Diego, Allison, Klaus, and Vanya. They had all looked so grown up. It almost made Zero envy for how mature they had gotten.

"Zero has arrived." Pogo announced causing the five to have their eyes zapped straight to Zero. Vanya was the first to walk up to her with welcoming arms. "Zero." Vanya went over to hug her, causing Zero to back away trying to contain her abilities from being triggered. "I'm sorry." Vanya apologized as she backed away.

"You came back." Zero said, putting what had just happened aside. She was just overjoyed and slightly overwhelmed to see her family again.

"I told you I would come back." Vanya shyly smiled, running a hand through her dark brunette hair. The next person to the conversation was Klaus.

"Oh my, Zero! Well I'd say you don't look a day over..... Since I last saw you!" Klaus said acting surprised but was just really being a tease."Some family reunion, huh?" Zero slightly rolled her eyes at him. "Go on, M-I mean Zero. Go sit by Luther." Pogo held his hand out in the direction of the couch. As Zero made her way over to the couch, she tried to avoid eye contact with her siblings in pure shyness.

"So do you come out of your room now or is it just for stupid occasions like these?" Diego asked, clearly annoyed.

"Diego." Allison warned.

"It's fine." Zero said quietly, voice barely above a whisper. As soon as she said that Klaus's eyes widened.

"Wait. She can talk now?"

Klaus asked, but everyone just ignored it as a question.

"Why am I always the last to know about stuff?" Klaus groans as he fixes himself a drink.

A pensive silence starts to enclose over the room. Zero understood it was kinda awkward because none of them saw each other in such a long time.

Zero observed her siblings as they had their moments of silence. She looked to Luther who looked the same just as when he had left. With the chimpanzee DNA he took, he had gotten taller. She remembers when they were younger, with him being the leader. She knows Luther tried his best, but Reginald didn't think that was enough. Luther was always the leader, and she could feel how much it always got on Diego's nerves. Those two were always getting into rivalries.

Sh started to feel bad that he's going to realize he went to the moon for no reason. Reginald didn't read his reports at all; and she knew that.

Even though Luther was raised to be the best and most useful, Zero couldn't deny that he went through some trauma. They all did. He was raised to believe he was the best and a leader. Another example of Reginald's bad parenting. And as a result, his ego is still here, as Zero noticed. He's the only one that still cares for his father, while Zero just doesn't know how to feel after all the things he did to her. They say it's always better to forgive, but Zero just doesn't know.

Luther loved being hero more than anything, she had to just hope that he wouldn't put that over himself and his family.

Her pupils bored over to Diego. He may be brash, but deep down Zero senses that he's insecure and still wants to prove himself. Still trying to measure up to Luther, even though Diego has become very skilled in Zero's eyes. She still remembers the time when they had first interacted.

~☂︎~

ZERO WAS WALKING DOWN the hall with Reginald's reports in her hand; taking them to him. A thud into her shoulder made every last one of the reports fall out of her hand, but like magic, she reached her hands and the reports defied gravity to arrive back into her possession.

"Sorry"

Zero was about to walk away but Diego stopped her.

"W-wait. I heard you in my mind. What kind of ridiculous trick are you playing on?"

"...... I can read minds and feel emotions."

"Well don't do that on me. I-i don't need a weird girl like you looking through my mind." With that Diego walked away, keeping a guard on his mind.

~☂︎~

ZERO THEN PEERS AT ALLISON. She had grown up to be a very pretty girl, as so Zero thought. Allison was always nice towards everyone in the Umbrella Academy. She never once talked bad about anyone behind their backs, which is quite admirable to Zero. How much Allison craved for attention is what she didn't notice.

Then there's Klaus. Still the same rebellious person he is. Zero admires how he can just move on and not dwell on the past too much. Sweet and vulnerable as a boy, and also her other close friend thanks to Ben. Besides herself, Klaus got experimented on by Sir Reginald the most. Through the years he has become not all himself, which awakens her concern for his well-being.

Finally, there's Vanya. Zero learned that she became a writer. She remembers when she sent her book to Reginald, but he never read it. Zero finds herself wondering how her music career was doing. Though in the past she seemed aloof, not want to have anything to do with her siblings, Zero had always watched them from afar, knowing their feelings and insecurities.

But sometimes it would be too much feelings and insecurities.

Zero's thought process was interrupted when Luther began the gathering speech.

"I guess we should get this started. So, I figured we could have a sort of memorial service in the courtyard at sundown. Say a few words, just at dad's favorite spot."

"Dad had a favorite spot?" Allison asked, astonished, an expression of surprise crossing her face along with the others.

"You know, under an oak tree. We used to sit out there all the time. None of you ever did that?" Luther asked, like it was a usual thing.

Not all of us were his Number One, is what Zero thought.

"Will there be any refreshments? TV? Scones? Cucumber sandwiches are always a winner." Klaus asked as he nonchalantly popped a joint, joining his siblings in the living room, drink in hand. Luther's face scrunched up at Klaus.

"What? No. And put that out. Dad didn't allow smoking in here."

"Is that my skirt?" Allison says in tone, referring to the skirt Klaus was wearing. "What? Oh, yeah, this. I found it in your room. It's a little dated, I know. But it's very breathy on the." Klaus motions his hands. ".... Bits."

"Listen up. Still, some important things that we need to discuss, all right?" Luther proceeds.

"Like what?" Diego asked dryly and uninterested.

"Like the way he died."

"And here we go." Diego rolled his eyes, uninterested.

"I don't understand." Vanya mumbles. I thought they said it was a heart attack."

"Yeah, according to the coroner."

"Well, wouldn't they know?"

"Theoretically," Luther explained.

"Theoretically?" Allison asked.

"I'm just saying, at the very least, something happened. the last time I talked to Dad, he sounded strange."

"Oh, Quelle surprise!" Klaus exclaimed gurgling his drink.

"Strange how?" Allison asked.

"He sounded on edge. Told me I should be careful who to trust. Hearing these things made Zero look up from her lap, at Luther.

"Luther, he was a paranoid, bitter old man who was starting to lose what was left of his marbles," Diego said walking over to him.

"No. He must have known something was going to happen. Zero, you must know something. Did he say anything out of the usual to you?" Luther said kneeling to Zero.

".........No." Zero replied, looking back down.

Luther sighed and got back up. "Look, I know you don't like to do it, but I need you to talk to Dad," Luther said referring to Klaus, causing Allison to scoff.

"I can't just call Dad in the afterlife and be like, "Dad, could you just...stop playing tennis with Hitler for a moment and take a quick call?"

"Since when? That's your thing," Luther encourages.

"I'm just not in the right frame of mind," Klaus replied.

"You're high?" Allison exclaims.

"Yeah! Yeah! I mean, how are you not listening to this nonsense?"

"Well, sober up, this is important. Then there's the issue of the missing monocle." Luther said.

"Who gives a shit about a stupid monocle?" Diego said.

"Exactly. It's worthless. So whoever took it, I think it was personal. Someone close to him. Someone with a grudge."

"Where are you going with this?" Klaus asked.

"Oh, is it obvious, Klaus? He thinks one of us killed dad." Diego said, eyes trained on Luther.

"You do?" Klaus said in awe.

"And I already know exactly who is the main suspect is. He thinks Zero did it." As soon as Diego said that everyone's eyes went wide and Zero tensed up.

"No, Zero. That's not-" Luther reached out for Zero, but she backed away.

"Why......do you lie?" That was the last thing she said before walking out of the room, heading for her bedroom.

"How could you think she would do that," Vanya said in disbelief.

"She's a kid, Luther," Diego said.

"You're crazy, man. You're crazy. Crazy."

Klaus, Vanya, and Diego started to storm at the room not wanting to continue with the conversation anymore.

Allison started to walk away too with a disappointed look on her face.

"That went well," Luther said sarcastically. He sighs and settles down on one the couches and rubs his head in exhaustion.

"Master Luther."

Luther's thoughts were halted by Pogo, who walked in; wooden walking stick glued to his paw. Luther had called him in to ask him about Sir Reginald's Monocle which turned to be missing.

"I'm trying to locate Dad's monocle. Have you perhaps seen it?"

Pogo simply shakes his head.

"No, unfortunately I haven't, but I would assume it would be one of his personal findings."

"It's not there... I've already checked." Luther goes silent almost about to give up.

~☂︎~

ZERO WAS IN HER BEDROOM reading the book Ben gave her. She already read it a thousand times, but this book is the only thing she has of Ben. She soon started to hear the music play in the house. She shook her head and kept reading. Zero' started to think about what Luther had said about their father seeming off. It wasn't just him, she also noticed he was a out of character months before he passed. Reginald started telling her more about the world beyond the Academy. Of course they would have their usual sessions, like playing chest or eating breakfast together. Sometimes they would just sit by the fireplace in silence. No lectures, no teachings, just silence.

Zero's thought process was diminished by a Thunder clap and sound clouding her ears, along with bright blue shadowing over her room. Zero decided she would stay in a room since there is no way she was going outside. A blue glint casted her eyes as she just stared in awe at the illuminating glow. It was some sort of a wormhole forming in mid-air. She saw her siblings going out to look at it as well.

"And just what do they think they're doing?"

She saw Klaus coming out with a fire extinguisher throwing it in. She then saw Luther directing them to back away from it. All the Hargreeves just stared at it with the wind ferociously blowing. The unbelievable happened. A small figure fell from the whole. As soon as the person hit the ground, the wormhole instantly closed up.

The siblings started to inch closer to the figure, along with Zero who examined the person with curious eyes, eyes widening at what it was.

It was her missing brother.

Five Hargreeeves

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mysticalmusicwhispers · 3 years

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HELLO sorry i had an extremely busy past week so i left this to stew for weeks T_T (my term break was Not a term break in any sense of the word. f)

OH OF COURSE SHE HAS A BLACKLIST.... vietnam keeping a list of students who are Brats is really so valid.. i'm willing to bet that in future when that dubious list of students grows up many of them will go on to commit morally dubious acts lmaoo including yao himself. and if they get arrested or if rumors spread she'll just be like "lol called it"

Also yes go get her friendship Aditya hopefully it will mellow you out a little as well - YEAHH their personalities are like. polar opposites tbh because he's Dramatic And Extroverted and she's very much Not... but for some reason i can just see them really bonding (over things like coffee if i had to make a guess though i haven't really thought about these two in depth.. )

“Admissions officers think Yao’s amazing and contributes greatly to the classroom environment and Vietnam is like “yeah, in a way, as long as you don’t mind someone who thinks every word you say is somehow wrong and will fight you to prove it lol. just take him, I’m trying to get rid of him”

JUST TAKE HIM I'M TRYING TO GET RID OF HIM THIS IS SO FUNNY WTF also aww baby yao's Going Places!! he comes back for like teacher's day or something and vietnam is like "okay so how many of your teachers and your classmates have you antagonised" and yao's like "my teachers love me and my classmates fear me. or they're begging me to help with their homework. or they're potential friends/accomplices >:)" and vietnam is like ugh love to see that you're terrible as usual

Since there’s essays involved I’m assuming she teaches either history or literature? Kinda on the fence because I feel like she’d be good at giving a no-nonsense version of history filled with interesting details and prompts that make you think (and also hosts monthly debates on controversial issues), but I also want Yao to be as un-confident as possible in his abilities in her class, and I feel like he would be less comfortable/sure of his answers and thoughts in a lit class than a history one. I’m not sure though

honestly i would really want her to teach lit so bad but history would be so cool too.. as someone who suffered through lit for the first month of school (though i think i'm getting the hang of it now :D) i also want yao to suffer through the feelings of inadequacy when the teacher gives an evaluation that is COMPLETELY different from yours while also awkwardly trying to tell you your evaluation is wrong without crushing your ~passion for learning~ or something... but at the same time vietnam has such strong history vibes??? and they would probably clash over like different methods of historiography and methods for interpreting sources BUT historiography isn't really taught in-depth here at high scholl level ... And at the same time lit is the best place for one to feel Insecure so i really don't know because vietnam has such History/art vibes.. i think you should decide this i have no idea 😔

Context

“she'll just be like "lol called it"” that’s such a mood honestly, watching your former bratty students grow up to be bratty adults 😅 At least Vietnam’s predictions for the future are vindicated and she gets self satisfaction from it lol. (maybe she sends emails to them sometimes like ‘are you aware that people think you committed tax fraud’ and the reply is just a simple ‘yes. sincerely, Yao’ lmao)

ooh yeah I think they’d be interesting; definitely agree with what you said about India being really flamboyant and Vietnam being more honest/down to earth and definitely someone who hates when people put on airs (which Aditya does to a fairly large extent...). I think she’d like him just a tad more because he isn’t super condescending and gets along with his classmates pretty well; she knows he’s trying to impress her (lollolll they’re all trying to get teacher points for recommendations) but at least he’s friendly and participates in class and stuff. Also I think India’s good at small talk, makes an effort in getting to know people, and is very emotionally in tune with other’s feelings (even if he’s a bit stupid/oblivious sometimes) so even if Vietnam is kinda closed off to him at first (she’s nicer to him than Yao though, that’s for sure) he can get along with her quickly by picking up on what she likes talking about and accommodating her interests. Yao could theoretically be charming like Aditya but he just doesn’t make an effort lol. YES to bonding over coffee, especially raging about how Starbucks is Inferior™™™™ (idk if Aditya would drink coffee but I think Vietnam brews her own Vietnamese iced coffee at home and bring it to class because she needs Fortification for putting up with Indchuran lol.) However, I also want to see her popping his bubble and whenever he’s exaggerating one of his accomplishments, Vietnam just shuts him right down. “No, he actually didn’t go all out; I’ve had students turn in whole ass dioramas for that project so your meager offerings are nothing special :}” (Vietnam has the pleasure of crushing each of their egos in turn hehehe)

Yao came back to visit her!!! Looks like someone caught feelings (platonically ofc) :) She sees right through his excuses for coming back and is like “haha bastard you got sentimental and Attached to me >:)”, but then Yao proceeds to remind her exactly why that’s a bad thing lmao (also... what if... we smashed this au and bros for life together.... and Vietnam is the first person to see that they’re hopelessly pining on one of their visits to see her..........and she calls them out on it....o-o)

“"my teachers love me and my classmates fear me. or they're begging me to help with their homework. or they're potential friends/accomplices >:)"” LOVE TO SEE YOU’RE TERRIBLE AS USUAL ALDSjSDLSD Yao dashed my hopes of him becoming somewhat of a model member of society but seeing him as an unchanging bastard is still quite alright. Headcanon that Yao really hates helping with homework though, because he’s like “WHY DON’T YOU GET THIS” after about 5 seconds of trying to explain something. Pity, he would be good at teaching if only he had the patience for it :} Also I propose that he really hates that teaching isn’t enjoyable for him because it would be great blackmail material (i.e. “if you do this to me I’ll stop giving you the answers to the problem sets *winks in a threatening manner*”)

SAME literature is the one class that makes you thoroughly question your comprehension and understanding of everything in life everything ever written, but HISTORY. she would be such a fun history teacher and I can see her having her students really dig into events for themselves and make their own evaluations of why things happened and who’s “right”. YES THEM CLASHING OVER HISTORIOGRAPHY hmm... maybe we could get around historiography not being covered much by having Yao be Extra™? For example, maybe one day Vietnam offhandedly mentions there’s a lot of interpretations around x period (and whether it was a success or failure) depending on which type of historiography you subscribe to; Yao, who was already feeling strongly on the subject, does some research (“what is historiography” “interpretations of x” *rabbit hole of articles ensues*) and then goes to class the next day armed with 10 sources and a full on debate about the subject ensues, resulting in him being late to lunch by half an hour.

What about a compromise, where Yao has a ferocious literature teacher (who??? idk) but Vietnam is teaching history, and when he gets comfortable in her class he starts complaining about the lit teacher and she thinks oh finally, a teacher that he’s intimidated by. I am at peace now. 😌.

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