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leastdatablebracket · 8 months

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QUARTERFINALS, MATCH 4

Propaganda under the cut!

Joseph Christiansen

Propaganda

So many reasons. He's already married, he's a jerk to his wife, he's already slept with at least one of the other romance options. That romance option goes to you before a date with Jospeh and damn near begs you not to be stupid and go with him. The worst part? You put up with all this and he leaves you to "work things out with his wife". She deserves so much better than him! One of the writers even said he's a sociopath.

Married and a youth minister.

Cheater, cringe man, father of creepy children, possibly evil cultist, left a guy feeling used which said guy also became friends with Joseph's wife who appears to be an alcoholic likely as a coping mechanism since she's married to Joseph

He cheats on his wife, has done so before, lies to you by claiming that he's going to leave his wife when he clearly never intends to (and, in one ending, will even cheerfully suggest that you two continue having an affair in an extremely sleazy way), and judging by the fact that the other guy we know he cheated on his wife with, Robert, hates Joseph and is now very close friends with his wife, it seems clear to me that this whole "purposefully mislead someone into sleeping with you and then later drop the bomb that it was an affair" thing is repeat behavior with him. Also, I just find much of his behavior to be very manipulative and controlling; there are many situations where it seems to me that he's actively trying to paint others in a negative light while still coming off as saintly himself, such as an early scene where he subtly implies his wife is a shitty mom because she *checks notes* let their toddler out of her sight... during a neighborhood barbecue in a fenced-in yard surrounded by trusted adults and other kids. Also notice how in this scene he pushes *her* to go look for their son, rather than just looking himself, all while keeping up his "long-suffering husband" act. (and in other scenes can be found letting his other young children wander off into the woods with sharp implements and visibly not caring, but whatever). He does this with Robert, too -- the other guy he had an affair with. Almost everything he says about or to Robert is a subtle jab about his personality or his alcoholism. Classy, Joseph. Meanwhile, the fact that you can't actually end up with him in the end (because he was never going to leave his wife for you) started some of the most volatile discourse in the fandom and had people calling the devs homophobic and claiming they were spreading a message about "gay men needing to stay in loveless abusive marriages to women" (just ignore the fact that there are several other divorced gay dads in this game who all have great relationships with their kids and are not demonized in the slightest). HOWEVER, if you see people claiming he's a cultist or demon or something, that's untrue and was just going to be a non-canon spooky alternate ending that ended up getting cut. So I empathize with him a little bit for getting literally demonized by some fans for that cut alt ending. But he loses all those points by cheating on his wife multiple times and showing clear intent to continue doing so.

He's still married when you start dating him. He's also got like 5 kids that are some "children of the corn" kinda shit, and all their names have "Christ" in them

You don't even get to date him he's still married to his wife who he doesn't get along with. Tragic really

Cullen Rutherford

Propaganda

stupid racist cop creep whose fans cry about how hes "changed" and "you can't judge him he was addicted to magic drugs" nah he still chose to be a racist cop and abuse his power over innocent people and i hate him. the writers making him romanceable in da:i after how blatantly horrible he was in da:o and da:2 is baffling but i guess they had to appeal to the part of their audience who watch those "mafia boyfriend" videos on tiktok or whatever

He's creepy in origins, though still 100% willing to kill the female mage pc he's crushing on, as well as all the other mages trapped in the circle with him. He's the second-in-command in an even worse circle in 2, listening to and defending the increasingly obviously insane meredith until literally the end. He's one of the people still pushing for the circle system by inquisition, and yes he's going through withdrawals and working through the traumas of previous games. And to be brutally honest his was the first romance i took and while i don't remember much from it, its not worth all the girls going absolutely nuts over knockoff terrible alistair.

He's basically a cop who thinks being born a certain way can revoke personhood and by Inquisition still thinks mages are monsters to be controlled, not people. He gets a fairy tale cutesy romance that focuses on his personal struggles with addiction while showing absolutely no regard to the atrocities he committed and still thinks were justified. He can be romanced BY A MAGE and his actions and beliefs are just glossed over. He believes mages are 'not people like you (Hawke) and me', but if the Warden was a female mage he canonically had a crush on her and would deliberately hang around her despite the fact that he was her *jailer*. If that Warden romanced Leliana, there is war table dialogue in which he pesters Leliana for news of his 'former' crush despite her repeated statement that she doesn't want to talk to him about her. All this shitty behavior and lack of introspection gets swept under the rug by the game, not even giving the PC the chance to really challenge his beliefs. Like damn even Fenris could apologize when he lashed out due to past trauma with mages, and if anyone has a reason to hate mages it's Fenris. If you want an ex Templar hottie Alistair is RIGHT THERE. Tbh I know Cullen is a popular romance and I'm not here to tell anyone what they can or can't do or like in a video game, I'm just saying I think he is deeply undateable

Spends the first two games as an antagonist, fervently devoted to the cause of subjugating mages, then a bunch of "character development" happens off screen and the games treat him like he's completely reformed. However he's actions make it clear he still sees mages as dangerous and lesser. Not to mention if you romance him with an elf he doesn't pay your culture more than lip service respect like most of the devout characters

He was a total villain in the first two games who was violently prejudiced against mages and uses one single bad experience as an excuse for it (a bad experience that is pretty much exactly what he in his job subjected graduating apprentices to, mind you, but this is never brought up). Now he says he's changed, but his words and actions say otherwise. He still distrusts mages, sympathises with the rebel Templars trying to kill them, and he never owns up to the terrible stuff he did and helped others do in the past two games. He totally knew what Meredith was doing and says he doesn't, and he still tries to defend her intentions. And you have no option to call him out on it. If you romance him as a mage, he angsts about how he might have seen you as subhuman in the past but NOW you're one of the good ones, and when you ask him if he'll kill you if you get possessed, he dodges the question. And the PC is written as being almost sad that she's a mage? Like 'can you love me despite what I am??' Also if Leliana romanced a female mage PC in the first game who is still alive, he asks her creepy questions about their relationship. Fitting considering his original purpose was to be creepy to the female mage Warden.

I hate him and want to cause chaos. Plus his VA is an asshole.

Cop

I think you covered almost everything but don't forget that beautiful moment in DA2 - Act 2 where you find out some templars had a petition to lobotomize all mages and Meredith, THE HARDCORE TEMPLAR LEADER, rejects it, but Cullen says they got a point. Despite the fact that we just found out that those templars were using lobotomy (or the threat of) to rape people and get away with it. And then Cullen in DA:I is whining that anything that happened it's not his fault because Meredith kept the worse away form him so he didn't know, but also that anyway Meredith had a point and did what she had to do. Meredith does not go mad until Act 3, before she was of sound mind and Culllen was her second in command BECAUSE he hated mages as much as (or even more) than her. What the FUCK did she even hide from you, Cullen. Oh, but he changed! Because the writers make A VICTIM OF THE TEMPLARS say so. And anyway he only says so BECAUSE HE READS MINDS not because Cullen did anything to show it. Also the narrative wants to sympathise with Cullen for his drug problems while Cullen is openly attacking the only other character with the same problem for...having the same problem. And he's the antagonist, so there were OTHER things Cullen could be mad about. But he is mad about the drug problem. Also I'm not an expert on writing characters with addictions but he is an addict only when it's time to have a cut scene where you pity him. Otherwise it has zero impacts on everything else.

#quarter finals

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lostcauses-noregrets · 4 months

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Lost, how have you managed to keep your sanity while being in the aot fandom? I'm almost going insane because of all the vitriol, especially on Twitter. I know Twitter isn't the ideal place for fandom experience, but I spend a lot of time there for the fanarts, and I can't seem to avoid the toxic side of it as the algorithm keeps suggesting reposts of people with similar interests (mostly Erwin or Levi or Eruri) about some toxic takes antis have. And, of course, I find myself engaging and making it worse for myself. Should I just block everyone and everything and keep myself sane? 😭

Learning to set boundaries in fandom, or indeed any area of your life, is never easy and it's made all the more difficult by fucked up social media algorithms. I always recommend blocking and muting people who bring drama onto your timeline, but that will only get you so far. You also have to learn how to disengage, to take active steps not to consume content that you know will upset or enrage you. It's very easy to get sucked down the rabbit hole of negativity and outrage, and I'm certainly not immune. Whenever I find myself doing this I try to consciously think "do I really want to spend my precious time reading this bullshit?" The answer is usually no, so I look at the pretty fan art instead. Figuring out what your own boundaries are and learning how to maintain them is critical to navigating not just fandom, but the world at large, and it's a constant practice that requires attention and determination.

I came across a really interesting paper last year in the Association for Psychological Science journal called Critical Ignoring as a Core Competence for Digital Citizens, by Anastasia Kozyreva, Sam Wineburg, Stephan Lewandowsky, and Ralph Hertwig. The abstract alone makes salutary reading:

Low-quality and misleading information online can hijack people’s attention, often by evoking curiosity, outrage, or anger. Resisting certain types of information and actors online requires people to adopt new mental habits that help them avoid being tempted by attention-grabbing and potentially harmful content. We argue that digital information literacy must include the competence of critical ignoring—choosing what to ignore and where to invest one’s limited attentional capacities. We review three types of cognitive strategies for implementing critical ignoring: self-nudging, in which one ignores temptations by removing them from one’s digital environments; lateral reading, in which one vets information by leaving the source and verifying its credibility elsewhere online; and the do-not-feed-the-trolls heuristic, which advises one to not reward malicious actors with attention. We argue that these strategies implementing critical ignoring should be part of school curricula on digital information literacy. Teaching the competence of critical ignoring requires a paradigm shift in educators’ thinking, from a sole focus on the power and promise of paying close attention to an additional emphasis on the power of ignoring. Encouraging students and other online users to embrace critical ignoring can empower them to shield themselves from the excesses, traps, and information disorders of today’s attention economy.

I don't know if that helps Anon, but I hope you find a way to continue enjoying fandom while avoiding the worst of its excesses.

#asks #fandom #critical ignoring #social media

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itsclydebitches · 1 year

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Haha, I explicitly don't tag my rwby critique posts as RWDE because I know people will just block or insult me without even reading what I wrote

Honestly? Valid choice. I've gone on record about my own choice to tag for both "RWBY" and "RWDE," but to be frank I think "RWDE" is a borderline useless tag. RWDE folks have never agreed on what should go in there. Non-RWDE folks have definitely never agreed on what should go in there. It was created as an absurd way to divide the fandom between (incredibly subjective) Good Content and Bad Content, with the result that this actively undermines the purpose of posting on tumblr: for new people to see your stuff. Most of us recently saw that post with someone understandably asking what in the world RWDE was... as well as some of the top answers that provided an incredibly biased, borderline lying definition. Unlike something like "RWBY Critical" that both tells newcomers what it is and does so in a neutral way (these are posts that are critical of RWBY and the tag itself gives no indication as to whether that's a good or bad thing), "RWDE" is nonsensical to anyone not already in the know and is a RWBY-fied version of a very negative word: "rude." Despite most of us embracing that, it's still a tag designed to turn newcomers off.

So how is anyone supposed to find like-minded community members when our main tag doesn't follow any other tagging conventions, is framed as a negative from the get-go, and polite questions are immediately met with the more intense fans painting the worst picture possible? That was always the point. RWDE isn't "We just want you to have your own space where we don't have to engage" it's "We want to make this as difficult as possible so eventually you'll just leave." So... yeah. I use it because I know it will hit an already established core group actively looking for the kind of content I write, but I 100% understand you and others going, "Why would I use that? The fandom has been trained to block on sight. That's not going to help other people see my work on the Let Other People See My Work site."

I think I've said this before, but I want to do a version of those wine social experiments. You know the ones where they take super duper cheap wine, stick a fancy label on it, tell people it's the Most Expensive Vintage Ever, and watch them wax poetic on how absolutely stunning the taste is? Give RWBY fans a post without tags/blog name (or, to follow the pattern, with misleading tags/blog names), watch as many people agree with the points made -- or at least consider them seriously -- and then go, "Aha! This was a RWDE post all along!" Like any fandom under the sun you'll never have people agreeing on criticism and there will always be individuals who can't stand a word said against the show... but I guarantee if you removed the bias associated with RWDE you'd get a lot more fans who are RWDE.

Also, side-note, gotta love that I make a post talking about how fans are too inclined to attack critics than engage with what they're saying or simply ignore their stuff... and what's at the top of my inbox but someone calling me a piece of shit and accusing me of stuff I've never ever done (harassing the creators, misusing Monty's name -- the usual accusations that, as I said, fans pick up and repeat ad nauseam without thinking through whether they're accurate).

Me: Hey, don't send people insults, baseless accusations, and death threats because you disagree over the quality of a show

Anons: [Immediately send insults, baseless accusations, and death threats for the sin of telling them not to do that]

#rwde #rwby #mymetas

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writers-wrongs · 2 months

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Hi! May I request yandere alphabets for Yandere!The Elephant Man (from camp here and there) x Male!reader?

(I'm the person who request headcanons for Yandere Alex x Male reader and I accidentally forgot to switch as an anon-)

sure thing! i swear, the overlap between chnt fans and sdv fans is almost a circle. also, just for this, im going to make reader kinda like sydney in terms of TEMs effect on them

the elephant man x male!reader yandere alphabet

affection: how do they show their love and affection? how intense does it get?

this man is a snuggly little fella!! arms around you at all times. he'll also steal from the campers to get you stuff- usually plushies, blankets, and anything else soft. and he'll constantly compliment you, with a whole heap of religious reverence

blood: how messy are they willing to get?

hes willing to kill, but hed really rather not. you deserve to be loved by everyone (but especially by him), so he wont kill someone just for being your friend. as long as you come back to him at the end of the day, of course! but if someone were actively trying to keep you apart? well, a shepherd like himself sometimes has to thin the herd...

cruelty: how would they treat their darling once they abduct them? would they mock them?

oh, never! he loves you, the world itself loves you! hes giving all the praise. if he ever even thought he offended you, hed start crying

darling: other than abduction, would he do anything against their loves will?

honestly, i dont think hed kidnap you at all. sure, he wouldnt want you to leave the camp grounds, but he wouldnt mind following you around wherever you go. so really, i think hed just trail you like a lost puppy.

exposed: how much of their heart do they share? how vulnerable are they with their love?

he would rip his heart out of his chest and give it to you if he could. nothing about him is a secret to you, especially not his love. that said, he wont talk about himself unless prompted.

fight: how would they react if their darling fought back?

hed blame jedidiah. i dont care if jedidiah doesnt exist in this world where he loves you and not sydney, he will blame jedidiah. or anyone jedidiah-adjacent. hed never be upset at you, its not your fault youve been misled!

game: is this a game to them? do they enjoy watching their darling try to escape?

not a game at all. youre his muse, he needs you! you cant leave him! but dont worry, he wont be mad at you. he blames jedidiah.

hell: what would be your worst experience with them?

well... probably the whole ritual thing. in his defense, he doesnt really see it as killing you. outside of that, itd have to be him lifting his mask, leaving you just aware enough to watch as he scoops you up and carries you to the woods.

ideals: what kind of future do they want with their darling?

oh, just the normal stuff. immortalizing you as an eternal muse for all the world and such. him as your faithful prophet, always by your side, spreading the word of your perfection. just couple things!

jealousy: do they get jealous easily? how do they cope?

he doesnt really get jealous. he wants everyone to worship you as he does, so he doesnt mind others showing you love. unless its- say it with me- jedidiah. how dare he get so close to you! how dare he try and mislead you! he copes by insulting jedidiah, both behind his back and to his face

kisses: how do they act around or with their darling?

religious zeal! he'll get on his knees for you (in prayer, get your mind out of the gutter), praise your name to the heavens, anything and everything to prove his devotion. that said, he can tone it down sometimes to a simple cup of tea and dancing with you. he worships you, yes, but a small part of him wants to love you normally

love letters: how do they go about courting their darling?

stalking, stalking, stalking! he kinda just hopes youll accept him through proximity. he'll also steal things from the campers and leave em for you

mask: are their true colors drastically different from the way they act around everyone else?

not really. hes always a little freak regardless of who hes with. hes probably more "normal" around you than anyone else honestly

naughty: how would they punish their darling?

he wouldnt! youre his muse, whatever you do must be right. if you spend time with that detested architect, its not your fault! youve been deceived, he cant punish you for that!

oppression: how many rights would they take away?

none, for the same reasons as n

patience: how patient are they with their darling?

he can get a little pissy when you start falling asleep (but thats when his accent comes out, so nobody would blame you for snoozing on purpose). he also gets frustrated when you try to deny that youre a god on earth. youre perfect, how the hell can you not see that?!?

quit: if their darling dies, leaves, or successfully escapes, would they ever move on?

HA! no way! he was trying to kill you, sure, but he wasnt aware of that. when he realizes what he did, he'll be inconsolable. no more practiced voice, hes sobbing in the woods over your grave, wailing out in russian about how sorry he is, how he never meant to hurt his muse. but if you left... he'll track you down eventually. his poor muse, stolen away from his prophet! he'll find you again, he'll prove his devotion

regret: would they ever feel guilt about how they treat their darling? would they ever let them go?

not at all! hes following you to the ends of the earth, youre never getting rid of him. hed never feel bad about it, you need devotees even if you say otherwise. hes fully deluded, and thats not changing anytime soon

stigma: what brought about this side of them? trauma, curiosity, etc?

i could sit here for years and not come up with an explanation for elijah volkov. in canon, hes like that about sidney because of spoiler reasons (if you know you know), but for someone else who doesnt share sidneys condition? i cant imagine what would prompt him to be like this. idk man, he just thought you were cool. its 2 am, cut me some slack

tears: how do they feel when they see their darling scream, cry, or isolate themselves?

oh, how can his muse be sad? the world itself loves you, can you not feel it? he'll be doing anything and everything to help you feel better. tea and plushies for you!

unique: anything they do differently from a typical yandere?

the thing is, he doesnt actually need you to love him back. he just needs to worship you, and he'll be content. plus theres the whole... pyre incident, which i dont think most yanderes would do

vice: what weakness of theirs can you exploit to get away from them?

hang around jedidiah. he avoids that man like the plague, itll keep him off you for a bit. just expect some questions when you inevitably get separated from jeddie

wits end: would they ever hurt you?

not knowingly. hes not really aware that burning you alive ends with your death, you know? but other than that, no

xoanon: how much would they revere or worship their darling?

worship is his middle name! elijah worship volkov. thats him. i dont think i need to go into detail for this, its elijah.

yearn: how long would they pine before they snap?

a week? maybe two? he'll start following you like a lost puppy after seeing you like five total times.

zenith: would they ever break their darling?

no, never! youre perfect as is, hed never do anything to change you!

#writing the wrongs #yandere x reader #elijah volkov x reader #elijah volkov #yandere elijah volkov #camp here and there

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my-mt-heart · 1 year

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Do you still think MMB saying Carol’s character has more story to tell was a promise and if it doesn’t happen, it was MMB misleading fans? Or maybe fans heard what they wanted to and believed what they wanted to believe it meant? As a fan, I thought she was stating a fact, that Carol DOES have more story to tell, bc she’s an interesting, dynamic character with a lot of potential. But sadly, no one in charge wants to tell that story, which is not on MMB. It was an honest but diplomatic response.

I don't think Melissa was misleading anybody and I don't think it comes down to whether or not the people in charge want to tell her story. After giving everybody an unsatisfying last season and making short-sighted decision after short-sighted decision, including France, I think it's a matter of whether or not AMC has the means to tell it and if they don't, fans have every right to be mad at them for it because they let that happen.

The other thing is, Melissa isn't the only one who's been suggesting there's more. Norman's made it his mantra, Angela has said it multiple times, even Gimple has said it. There's nothing any of them can say to walk that back. When fans hear things like "you can bet all your money" and "there's going to be a lot of foots in mouths" and "their story isn't over" and "that story has to resolve itself," etc. etc. etc., they're going to feel lied to again if it doesn't happen.

That's why I keep saying if Melissa is going to make an "appearance" at the end of le Daryl, they should go BIG so that there's hype for a S2. They should announce Melissa's involvement even if it's just an appearance for now because that's their best chance of getting Caryl fans to stick around. It's just so weird to me that there's an active fanbase ready to engage, and they do nothing to try to hold our attention.

Sorry for ranting. I'm freshly upset about everything and I hope for everyone's sake, there's a solution. For me personally, Daryl's and Carol's characters speak to who I am at my core. For me as a writer, they set the bar SO high as far as character development goes and it hurts to see them become prime examples of what NOT to do to your characters. Along with Judith, I think they got the worst ending in the finale. I don't want to see things left that way or made even worse :/

#caryl #carol peletier #melissa mcbride #darylneedscarol

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headspace-hotel · 2 years

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Given I agree with you on this issue, I'm curious what you think is really going on with the perceptions of a mass-stagnation in people's media interaction habits, because it feels like there's a real frustration there just being expressed in the worst, most snobby ways. (1/2)

My hypothesis is it's at least in part a reaction to how independent/transgressive artists are struggling so hard (You see this a lot in the critiques by Liz Ryerson & Sam Keeper) and an anger at people supporting big media franchises/fanworks instead of said small artists rotting in poverty, and partially a reaction of blaming fandom culture for enabling the monopolies currently strangling art b/c consumer-activism-mindset in the face of government failure's warped us all. (2/2). To be clear, I think the way they've chosen to respond are maladaptive at best and cruel and ableist at worst, especially when using mediums without percieved aesthetics of respectability as a punching bag, but I think they do need to be addressed or the asshole brigade's gonna steer this conversation off a cliff. (3/2)

Mostly, I have problems with the idea that there is something inherently inferior about fanfiction as a medium. There's no reason why that would be true. It's just a medium.

As for the reason why people increasingly read fan-fiction rather than books? I would argue that the people who "only read fanfiction" probably wouldn't be reading books anyway, and blaming individuals for the death of art is stupid when we've known for a long time that a significant percentage of adults do not read at all.

Why don't they read? I'm an American, and at least in my home state of Kentucky, the answer is very likely that they can't.

According to this report, a whole 40% of adults in my state can read on only a basic level. Included in that 40% is the nearly 15% of adults that are virtually illiterate. Other reports from this past year have said that almost a third of kids in Kentucky schools have basically no reading skills.

This is not a whole hell of a lot better than the rest of the U.S. Many, many adults in poorer communities in the U.S. barely attain the ability to read past an elementary school level.

Fanfiction might actually be a net gain in terms of how much people read in total. We just don't know. Many students do come out of high school hating reading, and/or barely able to read, and comparatively with fanfiction it's hard to find out what kinds of books you might be into.

Like I was privileged in that I grew up being read to CONSTANTLY and I was able to retain those skills.

But kids in American high schools are forced to read stuff like Moby Dick or the Scarlet Letter, they don't learn jack shit, and then they're thrown to the wolves.

Okay. What would a world where people who didn't properly learn to read in school could easily pick up reading look like?

Here's what really grinds my gears about disdainful posts about fanfiction: The people saying that books should have tags like on ao3 are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. Some of the basic things that you look for when finding a book to read are the following: the tone, the types of character dynamics, the themes and subjects, potentially disturbing or triggering content you want to avoid.

There. That's Ao3 tags, ya pretentious asshats.

Frankly, a tagging system for books coming into more frequent usage would help both authors and readers. A huge amount of negative reviews on Amazon and Goodreads come from people who were just misled about what the book was going to contain. They looked at the cover and thought the book looked like it was going to have action and adventure, but it was primarily court intrigue and slow-burn romance.

A lot of authors get fucked over when their books are given misleading covers or marketed to the wrong sub-group and readers get disappointed.

On that note: THERE IS NOTHING WRONG OR NEW ABOUT READING FORMULAIC PLOTS OVER AND OVER.

I would like to direct the Bitch-and-complainers to the romance and crime/thriller sections of the library, THE LARGEST PORTION OF BOOKS ADULTS READ I might add.

There's a little niche for sweet romances about Amish girls in sunbonnets, and for angsty romances about detectives falling for the edgy asshole with a heart of gold. There's a niche for romances about women falling in love with dragon shapeshifter dudes, cowboys, cops, vampires, billionaires, you name it, there's a whole ass list about it on Goodreads. Romance readers know at a glance whether they're holding something sweet and chaste or steamy and kinky af, whether the sexy hero is going to be an edgy asshole or a sweetie, whether the heroine is getting in some illicit action in between escapades as a detective or whatever or if she's being courted by a gentlemanly figure who hopes to make her his wife.

Horrifying, I know, the concept of people seeking out specific dynamics and tropes they like and reading them over and over again.

If you're into, like, SFF stuff, though? It is hard as fuck to find specific types of book you like and seek them out. I say this as someone who reads more SFF than almost anybody I know. It's lawless. You have to DELVE.

And icky stuff and weird kinks are still there, they just aren't tagged! Last year I encountered both a book containing horribly detailed mpreg and a book where the love interest licked a puddle of a random stranger's piss.

#fanfiction #books #reading #literacy

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butwhatifidothis · 2 years

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This is a question I've always wanted to ask: as someone who's on team Rhea, Dimitri and Claude, why do we continue to engage in a fight with the Edelstans? We know they're not going to listen to us and are going to keep pushing a false misconcieved narrative (esp Cap). Unless they actively harrass us via tumblr or whatever, should we just let them be and believe in their own ignorant fantasy?

Well, if you're asking me personally, I'll be honest and say that the original purpose of this blog was literally to have a place to rant and vent about my grievances with the fandom. The misconceptions and weird amount of hate surrounding Rhea - which are still very prevalent - the bad-faith takes about her, Dimitri, and Claude, the justifications made for Edelgard and the attempts of the overall fandom to try and make her out to be way less bad than she actually is - and the pushback brought on those who like, dare to publicly disagree with that notion - I just wanted a place to air out my increasing annoyance at the fandom's behavior.

But then at some point my posts got a bit more noticed, and I came across more and more people who were similarly unhappy with the state of the fandom. I've had a good few people - on and off anon - who've come to me and said that my posts and analysis and meta were all really appreciated by them. There's a lot of people who also don't like how the fandom is, and I found that many just like knowing that there are people who don't follow the bandwagons of "Rhea's actually the worst thing ever" or "Edelgard's the real hero of 3H" or "Everyone's at fault for the war happening."

Like, you know how many people still say stuff like "the game is so sad, but it's 'such a nice showcasing' of how not communicating with each other can lead to horrible things happening"? Who believe nothing would have happened if the three lords "just talked!!"? As if Edelgard would have listened to people she wants killed because they stand in the way of her dreams of "complete Imperial control of Fodlan"? Or that "who cares who's the worst of them, they're ALL war criminals!!" As if, say, Claude is anywhere near comparable to Edelgard in the war crimes they commit? There's a lot of people that don't like being told that these blatantly false or misleading ideas are what the game is totally saying is right, and seeing people publicly debunk these ideas can be pretty relieving, going from what the people who've come to me tell me.

Letting Edelstans live in their own ignorant fantasy would be completely fine, if that fantasy didn't ruin so many people's experiences with the game and if these people didn't constantly drag down people who don't agree with them. Like, to give an example for the former, I love reading fanfiction. Have been loving it since I was a wee teen. If I want to read stories about Rhea? I slap my hands together and pray that I can find something that doesn't shit all over her, and then be let down almost immediately, because the world of 3H fanfiction haaaaaaaates Rhea. So often she's made out to be a comically evil, non-nuanced villain who eats babies and punts orphans off of cliffs and deserves no love whatsoever. And would you look at that, a lot of that has to do with many of the misconceptions Edelstans parrot around like their lives depend on it. Rhea is a tyrant who controls all of Fodlan!! She doesn't care about humans!! She'd never give up power!! She'd never let reform happen!! The Church of Seiros is evil and must be taken down for the good of Fodlan!!

How does anyone think a fan of Rhea - you know, someone who knows that all of this isn't true at all - is going to like the fandom when this is the most popular interpretation of their fave (or someone they otherwise like a lot)? And it's become like this because the fantasy land Edelstans live in has more than bled over into the rest of the fandom. It's well-past the point of letting them be self-contained and do their own thing, because they themselves aren't keeping to themselves. They made their takes and meta so popular it's basically the default opinion to have in the fandom. They get mad about their behavior being particularly called out, meanwhile they get so many of their takes be accepted as True Canon.

So like, it's less me trying to "reform Edelstans," and more about me keeping this blog to be a place that debunks their shitty takes and meta, now for others to enjoy and find some relief with. You'll notice that I don't tend to directly respond to these people, mostly because I don't see much point to it. Even with Cap'n, I never talk to him directly, I don't barrage his fic with mean comments, I don't do anything except critique his fic in my own space. I'm more here to rant and vent - and now let others rant and vent - about what's annoying (sometimes even harmful) about the fandom. Hope that answers your question!

#ask #anon #exqueuese me princess #there's also the fact that discussing their takes has people on the outside realize how much of what they say just ain't true #like it's kinda unbelievable just HOW MUCH parts of the fandom take to be true comes from Edelstan takes that are riddled with inaccuracies #so pointing out those inaccuracies using the game's text and the developers' words help clear them up for others #to be clear though - I'm not dissing anyone who (respectfully) directly debate with anyone! I just personally don't do it often #and hope I wasn't too rude answering you nonnie!!

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txbbo · 3 years

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I've been debating making this because this is definitely not what my blog is known for and I was worried that people wouldn't want to see it, but with the amount of shit im seeing on twitter it's compelled me to make this because I'm so frustrated.

I feel like I could make 100 posts about 'Cancel Culture' and it wouldn't be enough, so I'm just going to focus on what caused me to write this tonight - the Tommy situation. *Warning for a VERY long post below*

To be clear, Tommy has been in 'hot water' on twitter for the past couple weeks, roughly starting with the KSI collaboration where he made a joke about dream stans.

Last week, when the SBI 'exposing account' got made and twitter hyped it up, someone made a Tommy account and made a thread of things he needed to be '''educated''' on: https://twitter.com/idktommyinnit/status/1379158964148002821?s=20

I'll let you read it for yourself (and come to your own conclusion) but to me.... half of this stuff does not require a twitter thread? Breaking it down accusation by accusation:

1) 'The Mexican accent' - the clips show he is clearly only doing it when copying big Q (who famously exaggerates his own accent) and there is zero malicious intent (Big Q is also IN the 3 clips mentioned in the thread, and obviously didn't tell Tommy it was offensive). There's debates in the comments from people who think it is offensive and people who don't, so I'm not trying to pick a side. To avoid accidentally offending anyone, maybe it is best for him to stop, but the way twitter acts as if he was purposefully doing this to offend people is just not true.

2- 'Making a slave joke' - Even saying that feels wrong, because it suggests Tommy is doing something awful. Instead, they are referring to the 'bit' that Tommy, Techno, Tubbo and Ant were involved in, when Tommy and Techno took Tubbo and Ant as their slave. People are taking this vod and using it to accuse Tommy of being insensitive to Black people, but I think people are just assuming the worst. Slavery existed long before the transatlantic slave trade and still exists today. This is a role-play server - Tommy 'forced' Ant to work for him and used the word slave, which to me is exactly what was happening? People 'murder' others on the SMP, people 'kidnap' on the SMP, people are 'terrorists' on the SMP, and all happen without issue. To add, Ant is a WHITE man. Tommy taking a WHITE man as a slave is not something uber problematic.

3- 'His reply to Techno's 'murder is bad' tweet'. - I get people saying that Techno's initial tweet was insensitive, but saying Tommy's agreement to this from almost over a year ago is something notable and worth addressing is just super nitpicky and is clearly only in there to pad out the thread. It also makes me wonder what other CC's interacted with it and if THEY should be cancelled too (according to twitter).

4 - 'The saying slurs' tweet / jokes about 'whats the worst word you know' - This one I can kinda see how people might not like it. However, it's clearly a 'poke' at his friends, making them seem like bad people. To me, its in the same vein as 'Tubbo is a Tory' or when Tubbo shoots back that 'Tommy is a Nigel Farage fan'. They're obviously not, but its making fun of your friends by saying they are, and mockingly making them out out to be bad people.

5- 'Covid jokes' - People are taking jokes he made about him 'having covid' and saying he shouldn't joke about this, even going as far to linking it to asian hate crimes. I don't even know how to explain that that this is just? not a 'cancellable offence'? I'm sorry but if I hear anyone in my family coughing I make a little joke that 'they better not have covid' and I know other people do. I have someone in my family who is extremely vulnerable to Covid and if they caught it, would quite literally die, but I can understand that jokes like these are harmless. The whole internet had a running joke that we were in a 'panoramic' or 'Panera' or 'insert any word that sounds like pandemic.

This thread got a lot of attention and anything he tweeted afterwards was spammed with the link and there were so many people upset that he hadn't addressed it. I saw so many people say how 'upset' and 'disappointed' they were in him.

Going on to today, this happened: https://twitter.com/khasiid/status/1380611890104139776?s=20

I get it, it looks bad. But for context (which the tweet doesn't give), the reply was only up for less than a minute. It was obvious to me, even BEFORE Tommy addressed it in his stream (clip here: https://twitter.com/cowrpse/status/1380640046202593283?s=20 ) that it was a mistake. In the clip, he clearly acknowledges his mistake and seems embarrassed. To me, this situation should just be laid to rest because a mistake does not need this much attention, but twitter disagrees.

In case it wasn't obvious by now, the tide is turning against Tommy and people are less willing to ignore genuine mistakes and assume the worst.

Today, during his birthday stream people were clearly already waiting for him to mess up. Around half way through, he started saying 'finna' out of context and Tubbo joined in. This led to tons of tweets telling him he was misusing AAVE, and while there were plenty of people willing to be patient and educate, there were also people seeing this as an example of him being a 'bad person' and someone who should be 'without a platform'. I think people forget that not everyone has the same internet upbringing as they do. In general, I think its noted that the misuse of AAVE is something that has just recently been brought to attention. I learned about it through tiktok and stan twitter, and I don't think it's unimaginable that a British 17 year old boy (who is not active on either) has never heard of 'African American Vernacular English'.

Just for a fuller picture, today has also brought about another 'criticism' that I just had to address.

1) 'Tommy made a KKK joke' - Like the 'slavery' point, saying this is extremely misleading. It makes people think the worst. Here's the clip: https://twitter.com/ghostburz/status/1380673589612011522?s=20

Here, Tommy and Tubbo are both joking about Tubbo's 'bit' of naming his alt streams 'aaaaaaaaaa', 'bbbbbbb', 'cccccc', etc and how it would've been bad if it was 'kkkkkkkk' (for obvious reasons). That is literally it. It is a less than 20 second clip. Acknowledging that people woulda thought about the 'KKK' is not him 'not understanding Black issues', its a throwaway joke about the obvious.

Lastly, someone on twitter has made a tommyinnit (address asap) doc - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tZEZtBzikS-EYYkssfFtwVOoFqOwCK0zhStLe6H1wCc/edit

I've basically already covered everything in this document, but I wanted to mention how extremely 'guilt trippy' the whole thing is. I struggled to come up with the perfect word for the situation, and I am open to hearing other peoples opinion, but as I have mentioned none of these things Tommy has been accused of were done with malicious intent, and some I believe don't even need addressed at all.

'slavery is a source of astronomical trauma for black people, and isn’t something to be taken lightly if you’re to look into the horrors of the slave trade."

and "Oftentimes they are the last words we hear before we die and it really is not Tommy’s place to joke about words that affect us so negatively."

Are extremely emotional words for a 17-year-old boy to hear on his birthday, for stuff that I believe has been taken out of context and blown out of proportion.

I really feel bad for him, because such a large proportion of twitter (which ofc is the loudest side of the fanbase) is angry at him and is demanding (as the document says) ''either a stream or twitter thread/twitlonger to addressing this' and 'a long and serious apology instead of a short statement pre-stream'.

We all know how twitter works, and unless his apology is perfect (which to me means apologising for stuff that he should't have to, as explained in the thread), twitter will continue with this weird hyper focus on everything he does, and it's not going to end well.

Twitter's mentality of 'putting everything this person has done that could ever be considered problematic' into one neat little thread is so unhelpful and counter intuitive. I got overwhelmed reading some of the stuff people were saying about him, I can't imagine how he feels.

I feel like I have more to say but at risk of writing an essay longer than my actual work I have to do, I'm going to end here.

#this was incredibly cathartic to write #turns out im not just a c! Tommy apologist LMAO #tommyinnit #dream smp #tommyinnit neg #tommyinnit critical #tommyinnit crit #Tommy crit #Tommy neg #twitter neg #cancel culture #mcyt crit #mcytwt crit

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zahara-fire · 3 years

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Long Post Discussing Dream TWT: Featuring Fan, Hate, and Trending Talks Mostly (Interaction Absolutely Encouraged)

(A lot of this can actually be applied to all fanbases but I chose the one relevant to my current interests and issues that were on my radar.)

I made a post previously that my love for mcyts (Specifically members of the Dream SMP) was dying because of nonstop Dream hate on Twitter. I felt like I couldn't safely look through a trending tag (which will be a separate discussion in this) without having to also see endless insults, attacks, and belittlement amongst people just trying to have fun with CCs. To make this understandable and easy for me to keep on theme I'm gonna break it down into the relevant topics also this is absolutely open for discussion as long as everyone is being respectful. Do not insult people and if they seem like a troll just leave them be.

Fans vs Stans:

So this, I think, is a center point for the Dream hate. It feels that anyone expressing interest in Dream and related CCs content is immediately targeted and made fun of because obviously you can't enjoy something without being an awful person to people who don't enjoy said thing. That last statement was sarcastic (just so its clear). People especially on Twitter will be relentless in preying on just basic fans for simply posting about a funny moment. They claim its because its annoying and nonstop and all of their fans are obviously brainwashed.

No. Just. No.

Enjoying something means you consume it. If you enjoy sports you watch the team play. No one says yeah this is my favorite team I watched one game once. That would be ridiculous. So it makes no sense to attack people for watching a person's content and knowing their content when they're a fan of said content.

That being said, yes people can get carried away and be rude to people for no reason. This however includes people hating on fans simply for being fans. You can't say you're disrespectful to all fans because one time a few were rude to you. Every fan base has rude people and at this point in the internet people WILL talk more about bad than good so please don't assume the worst because you heard a story or saw one wildly talked about incident where a small percentage of fans were involved and where other fans were actively telling the others to chill out.

Trending and Interaction:

This is the topic I sort of touched on in my last post. So to summarize, Dream and his friends trend A LOT. This isn't surprising as one, they're popular at the moment and two, they're streamers so when something happens a ton of people all know at once and will post at once. That's how trending works after all.

Here's where it gets annoying though, and no, not due to fans. Fans are allowed to post about content they enjoy and are allowed to joke and interact online with people who enjoy the same content. So you can't gatekeep the trending tab. It's literally impossible and just because its not enjoyable for you and not something you're interested in doesn't mean it shouldn't be trending.

This is where interaction comes in. Twitter and pretty much every social media ever tracks what you consume. This is why Twitter actually has multiple trending pages. The "For you" trending is what we'll mostly be discussing now though. The "For you" trending is the first page it opens up and will consist of things Twitter knows you interact with. So in other words, constantly viewing Dream and related content just to get angry and insult people? Guess what! You just ensured it will constantly be on your radar. Easy solution? Don't interact with content you don't enjoy. Yes you won't always be able to avoid it but this is true for everything. Just do your best and watch out for your own interests as best as possible (this statement applies to the actual trending page as well). Unless you're intentionally interacting just so you can continue bullying people its not that hard to avoid. And if you are doing that, I feel really sorry that you don't have something you actually enjoy to consume instead of just spreading hate (this is genuine not an attack).

CC Relationships:

A lot of Dream and related creator haters often state that the creators and fans have an unhealthy relationship. This is not a fair statement to the standard fan. People who actually show obsessive traits and attack people over their creators do have an unhealthy connection, but what is not unhealthy is-

Enjoying a creators content

Following their social media

Making posts and content about creators

These actions are literally the basis of being a fan of content. So no, posting about something a creator said or did is not creepy and obsessive just because its not funny or entertaining to you. Its like when your friend does something stupid and you will randomly bring it up whenever you can because it was a funny moment. Thats essentially what this is. No, we are not friends of the creators most of the time, but we do have a relationship to the creators. Most of the time with CCs their fan base consists of people with similar interests, senses of humor, and personalities. So we can relate to the things that happen with them and their friends and since they're broadcasting it we will find it funny when they find it funny. And that's okay and shouldn't be a hot take.

Also creators saying they love their fans is not a bad thing. Platonic love of people who share in your accomplishments, support you, and encourage your growth is not a bad thing. Thats what this type of relationship is and should be with CCs. They are where they are because people connected with them and they connected with those people. Let them express that admiration and gratitude.

Joking vs Attacking:

Final rant because this is already long and probably won't get attention anyways. A lot of Dream fans have tough skin after being a part of this sudden shift to mainstream and constant hate. This means that sometimes fans will make their own jokes about hating the fans even though they are one. However, this can sometimes be extremely misleading and damaging to see. No I'm not saying you can't make these jokes after all some are actually really funny! But try to make it clear that you aren't actually a part of the people who are actively trying to tear down a fanbase. Sometimes intentions don't come across well and insults can actually be, well, insulting when not phrased correctly. This is by no means an attempt at gatekeeping but rather just a general public announcement as a fan who often times saw something that actually added to the sadness of feeling constantly attacked and belittled only to see that the poster was also a fan.

That was long and probably a little all over the place so if you made it this far just know that I appreciate you and hope you're doing well in these times. 💕 I just really needed a place to get out these thoughts and figured hey Tumblr is significantly less mean than Twitter in my experience so let's attempt this.

Final statement! If you see this in a tag you think it shouldn't be in or know a tag you think I should add please let me know! I'm still new to posting my own content and don't want to cause problems where there need not be any.

#dream smp #dreamwastaken #georgenotfound #sapnap #quackity #tommyinnit #wilbur soot #philza #technoblade #badboyhalo #tubbo mcyt #fundy minecraft #ranboo #dream team #antfrost

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leastdatablebracket · 9 months

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ROUND 1.5, MATCH 14

Joseph Christiansen

Married and a youth minister.

He's still married when you start dating him. He's also got like 5 kids that are some "children of the corn" kinda shit, and all their names have "Christ" in them

You don't even get to date him he's still married to his wife who he doesn't get along with. Tragic really

Jakob

I like the whole "kind of an ass, but ultimately cares about people" character trope, so I latched onto Jakob early in my first playthrough and decided to marry him. Only problem? He gets no character development, ever, and constantly crosses the line from being kind of an ass to being genuinely horrid, at least to people who aren't Corrin. Then I actually married him and found out he doesn't even get over himself after that, he stays exactly the same and turns into a really bad father as well. Sorry, but no. That killed any interest I had in the character.

#round 1

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reavenedges-lies · 2 years

Note

I loved that elaborate answer, thank you so much for that! 🫂 Two more because they're quite hot issues around the league: 1) the Flyers benched Yandle when he's 11 games away from 1,000 straight games played during his career worst season. I get the outrage, but if he was playing so bad shouldn't they have sat him out earlier? 2) your honest thoughts on that incident during the Yotes vs Ducks game. What was it like live? I've heard the TV commentary was really bad

Glad to hear the answers were well received, and no problem.

I understand the outrage, I really do but I don't think the loss of his streak is any problem. If anything it could possibly be better for him. He is 35 and has had a steep cut of in his quality of play over the course of the last 2-3 years, and while he is on lower value single year contracts, the idea of Having to keep his streak going regardless of his play is a tough sell. His average TOI drastically decreased this season from the 17/18/19 minutes range in the two seasons prior, to roughly about 14:30 and in his last five games it was honestly closer to 10 minutes of ice time. That's even with the amount of injuries through the season for the flyers and I think that makes it worse, that even though he should've had more ice time, due to quality of play he was played even less. I will genuinely say I don't think his Ironman Streak meant anything as no team/coach wanted to be the person to break it even when it should've been. The streak should've ended sooner, but with nothing left to really lose it is just a slap in the face to be so close to 1000 games in a row and see it end like this.

I had a blast at the game, I was surrounded by other Yotes fans and we we're all joking up a storm and talking shit about the refs. The community here at the games is amazing because we aren't going because our team is good. We go because its fun, and we love the team and the game.

So I will say this about the Beagle fight and what Nash said. I was at the game and in the upper bowl on the Ducks side, so i was watching it from across the arena. From my viewpoint Zegras was digging at the goalie/blue paint after the whistle blew and that lead to Beagle cross-checking him. Terry then came up in defense of Zegras and swung at Beagle first, Beagle then beats the snot out of Terry because the Refs couldn't get a hold of the situation as quickly as they had in the prior scrums. I don't like how far Beagle took it as it looked like Terry never got his gloves off and while he didn't necessarily start to turtle he wasn't a super active participant in the fight. If Beagle had stopped at the Cross-check and it got called it would've been fine, but with how quickly each of the prior incidents had been quelled without any steam really getting released (and the lack of any physical response after the Keller injury during the SJS game) i wasn't surprised at the intensity of the situation. I don't think what Beagle did was wrong in terms of protecting Kořenář, I do think he could've stopped sooner as he had proven his point.

I didn't hear what Tyson Nash said until I had woke up this morning as I hadn't had the opportunity to grab the game footage before going to sleep. What he said and how he said it was out of line. Nash saying "I love it" and "That’s the problem with these young players. You wanna embarrass guys? You wanna skill it up? You better be prepared to get punched in the mouth.” is the problem with the scenario. People are getting mislead with what is happening as Nash isn't calling the game as he should nor is he framing it correctly and going after Beagle for what he did under that context is wrong.

Also all the people who're saying "Yeah the young skilled players are the problem with the league not you guys playing in a college hockey arena lmao give me a break" are part of the problem. The arena and where we are playing has nothing to do with our players skill or lack there of. It was emotional and letting the color analyst/broadcaster's biased words color how you think of a player or franchise as a reporter is disgusting. Genuinely what does where we are playing have to do with last night?

I can and will elaborate more if needed but those are my two cents on the matter

#anon ask #rea answers #thanks for rhe ask lovely!

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antiloreolympus · 3 years

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We Need to Talk

I've tried to hold my breath as much as I can on this issue but here's stuff I'm tired of seeing from fans.

"Fan Blogs" for hate :

If people can make fanpages for anything, you can make hate accounts for anything as well. Plus, this isn't even a hate account! It's for antis' critiques of LO and criticism =/= hate. The name antiloreolympus was based off the tag. Not all antis hate LO and most actually like its concept. Being against something doesn't automatically mean hate.

Tags :

We do tag properly, blame tumblr. I'm sick of seeing "they don't tag properly" when we literally do. I've seen only one anti who actively uses the LO tag which is annoying. We can't switch tags at this point because we can't just up and move the whole community. There seems to be so much entitlement from those people. Especially the ones who came into my inbox, blaming me for tumblr's issues.

"Don't like, Don't watch" :

This is by far the worst one I get to be completely honest.

How would I know if I don't watch it? If I'm critiquing LO but only read chapters 1-8, that looks bad on me because my thoughts can be outdated. That's the reason we keep reading: to make sure our opinions/thoughts can always remain up-to-date.

Plus, sometimes people like to read things they don't like. My Immoral was so bad but people loved to hate it. You can like to hate something like with Twilight.

"Doesn't hating get tiring?" :

I typically see this one when it comes to antis' longer posts on LO which is really off-putting. Do they not want us to explain why we don't like LO? Should I just not elaborate on the issue with the comic because they don't want to read it?

Also, no it doesn't because there's always something to talk about. Plus, critiques and debating can be fun for some people (shocking, I know). We typically just don't like debates with fans because of how toxic it can be. Someone was getting so mad over tags and calling antis names but when an anti responded, all of a sudden, the anti was the rude one....huh??? There seems to be quite a double standard here.

I also saw fans being told to use anti lo for their criticism which is really, really sad. First of all, they aren't even antis! It seems misleading to tag anti lore olympus because they might get blocked or hate for being in both tags. Second of all, it's sad because if any criticism is seen as anti then what is the future of the fandom? Are you just not allowed to be vocal about your issues with the comic? I honestly feel awful for those fans.

Miscellaneous

Minthe - The whole point of our 'defense' of Minthe is to show that Hades isn't innocent either. A lot of people keep overlooking Hades' faults in their relationship.

Persephone - People do have Persephone's body type but the problem is that her height/body isn't even consistent. Sometimes she's up to his shoulders, chest, or crotch. I don't think anyone is a shape shifter. We're also talking about how sexualized she is in the story, even by Hades himself.

Other retellings - Just because we talk about LO, doesn't mean we like the other ones. We have our gripes with those, too.

#anti lo #anti lore olympus #lo critical #lore olympus critical #solely using these tags but watch it end up in the main one anyway

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napsinthemorgue · 3 years

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NaruSasu AU I will never write

Summary (like all of it): Sasuke runs away and meets Naruto in a neighboring city. He's the second son of a wealthy family with an extremely strict upbringing that demands a lot of him. He's tired of it at age 22, still unwillingly dependent of his family. After a week of gathering the means to stay off-grid and independent for a good amount of the foreseeable future he meets Naruto. Or the loud, hot, and extremely shameless blonde by the boardwalk of the beach Sasuke's planned to spend the following unplanned week. Through this encounter he befriends Naruto and is gang of young adults as well as experiences some of the worst and best and most awkward moments of his life. Let's remember up until now he hasn't really had a life. But that's besides the point! It's all fun and games until Sasuke gains feelings for Naruto and his weird habits as well as roundabout practices reveal he's a runaway. Sasuke explains his situation to Naruto but leaves out the part where his home town now has his posters and information plastered on every corner. They continue their acquaintance and further their relationship until a chance meeting between Itachi and Sasuke occurs. Sasuke sprints for his life and manages to lose Itachi by having Naruto distract him. Playing the dumb local Naruto is successful in pointing Itachi the wrong way but not before realizing Sasuke's status and the fact that his family is actively and very persistently searching for him. This gets them into an argument, one where Naruto feels betrayed and mislead with information while Sasuke feels incapable of expressing how desperate he was to leave. He doesn't believe his family loves him and won't consider returning or even speaking to Itachi who also gave Naruto his number just in case. Sasuke distances himself from Naruto and Naruto contemplates contacting Itachi. Eventually what ends up happening is Sasuke gets into trouble and it requires his family to pick him up after a night in jail. Sasuke is devastated. He slips into a state of depression having come to the conclusion he'll always need the people who make him feel suffocated and there's no escaping the life he was born into. He goes back to his usual routine and performs on auto pilot for another month until one evening Naruto shows up at his door. Until now Naruto had been trying to contact Sasuke with no response despite the essays of apologies and expressions of affection on his end. He ends up contacting Itachi who allows him to invade their home. That night with Itachi's support and a speech riddled with ramen metaphors by Naruto his parents agree to let him leave his home for good. They don't disown him but they see no way to keep him tied down the way they used to. Itachi and Sasuke have a heart to heart that night as well. And the next morning Sasuke hauls everything into Naruto's truck and leaves. After a brief timeskip we see how Naruto and Sasuke have developed a healthier and more sustainable relationship as well as how Sasuke has kept in relative but not constant contact with his parents. Itachi is a frequent visitor and everyone lives happily every after!

Intro: Sasuke was going a tame 35 on the intersection. Windows down, radio off, and a yellow light urging him to make a decision and to make it soon. He's taken the same route for a year and followed the same routine his whole life. It's only 3 more right turns until he'd arrive home, only barely five minutes and his driveway would have his usual parking spot awaiting him. In front of him was everything he's known and everything he'll ever know if he sticks to his schedule. To his approaching right is the ramp leading onto the interstate hightway. He doesn't hesitate to step on the gas and makes a sharp turn followed my a deep exhale. His body made the decision for him but now the rest of him has to follow through. No more schedules, no more routines, no more accepting exactly what's expected. From this day forward, until whenever shit hits the fan, Sasuke will be planning absolutely nothing except to sticking to a lifestyle of utter chaos and peace. They will not be mutually exclusive.

#naruto #narusasu #sasunaru #anime fanart #fanfic #fanart #naruto shippuden #modern au #im not a writer #no beta this is war #i might be projecting

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yourdesertsunflower · 4 years

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Boruto did a disservice to Temari

Sorry, in anticipation I warn you, this will be long.

Okay, okay. I love Temari. She is my favorite kunoichi, I love each and everyone of her appearances in Naruto and Naruto Shippuden, I watched all filler that she was on, and I even have her on my avatar. So, yes, this by no means is to hate on the character but to actually show how Boruto writers completely misunderstood her.

I’ll always love her character, but I got to admit I am not okay at all with somethings they are making her do in the Boruto’s anime. And no, it’s not because she moved to Konoha, or decided to take mainly the role a housewife (a bloody difficult job if you ask me) because I frankly couldn’t care less of any of that if she is happy. I really think that Shikamaru and Shikadai make her genuinely happy and that’s all I want for her. She had went from so much shit that I only want to see her feeling value and loved, that’s the least she deserves and her husband and son give her that.

The problem is that, in most of her characterization in Boruto, I hardly see that Temari we got to know and love in the anime and manga of Naruto. Now when we get to see her in her recurring role in Boruto she is capitalized by her writers as a joke of the “crazy wife and mother that would rather hit you with your fan than having a civilized talk and will be angry twenty-four seven with no apparent reason.”

And that, my friends, is not Temari. At least not the Temari I grew to love in Naruto.

Through this post I’ll try to explain why I think that that portrayal of the abusive housewife and mother that they give her in most of Nara Family moments in the Boruto manga, and specially the anime, is (in point of view) completely mislead. It had become clear to me, through my time watching the show, that Boruto writers are clearly not even trying to understand Temari’s character and how they are using her as a recurring joke rather than considering her as a real three-dimensional character. And I despise them for that same reason.

So, without more vacillation, I’ll get started.

1. Who is Temari?

Before venturing into everything that is wrong about the characterization of Temari in Boruto and trying to pin point when this actually started to happen, I would like to see deeper into Temari’s character. I think it’s only wby understanding her character previously from Boruto that we will actually understand how inconsistent is her writing in the show.

I decided to base my analysis of Temari’s character in the Naruto series in two key aspects: an overarching analysis of Temari’s character profile using the Myres Briggs Personality Types and the Enneagram and in pin-pointing will pin point some specific moments of characterization in the manga of Naruto that show her character.

Before starting with the analysis, I want to be clear about why I use the Myers Briggs Personality Types and the Enneagram in my analysis of Temari. I really don’t usually tend to care for the function of neither of those test in real life (if you do I am perfectly fine with it, it’s just something I don’t do myself) but I think they can be great tools for any author to understand better the behavior, desires and motivations behind their characters. I personally do this in my work and I highly recommend it for any other writer out there.

Remember, this is my own personal analysis and I’ll tell you when my opinion differs from the majority, I’ll justify everything said in my analysis, and I’ll leave links to every info that I give you.

Well, speaking specifically about Temari. Who is she? What she wants? Why she wants it? What she’ll do to achieve it? What she really needs? Which is her fear?

This between others are questions that any author or actor has to ask themselves when they are writing their characters. It’s a question of giving the character depth, making it seem “like a living breathing human-being.”

Kishimoto state it in the most bluntly, yet efficient ways, when he presented Team Seven by making Kakashi ask them about their likes, dislikes and dreams. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke’s response reflect all this questions even though they are not saying it directly. I won’t analyse this respective scene, because if not this will be really long, but I promise to do it sometime in the future.

Well using the Myers Briggs Personality and Enneagram Test we can get to full-picture of these questions. Myers Briggs Personality test will tell us who the character is in it’s core; how they’ll behave, how they’ll face a situation and their outllook of life. The Enneagram on the other side show us their wants and needs, what they long to archieve and their fears.

In the case of Temari I would classify her as an ENTJ but,her most common classification is ESTJ and a 8w9 as her Enneagram. If you want me to explain why I think she is an ENTJ an not a ESTJ (thoiugh I’ll construct my case over ESTJ) just ask for it cause I’ll be more than happy to do it. But for now, and in order not to make it way longer than it will already be I’ll focus on Te (Extraverted Thinking) and Fi (Introverted Feelings) both functions that both types share as their primary and inferior function respectively and will be key for my analysis.

Source Temari’s Personal Database

(If you want to understand the differences between ESTJs and ENTJs here is a good tumblr source that explains everything quite complete yet quite simply explained)

Let’s go first with the MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator)

What means to have Te as a primary function and Fi as in inferior function?

Te as a Primary Function (Extroverted Thinking): Think of your primary function as your strongest suit, things you are good at. Dominant Extroverted Thinkers tend to be logical, objective and fair. They are very organized and try to arrange the real world to suit their needs.

Strives to bring order, control, and rationality to the systems and operations of the outside world.Evidence: Temari is able to rationalize situations and access their pros and cons quite easily. This is showing in the flashback where she doubts of the productivity of the Konoha Crush since she maintained that there alliance with Konoha was much more valuable any they could gain from the attack.

Insists on objective standards and measurable goals. Evidence: She is prone to be involved in and thinks in things as if they were projects like the preparations of the Chunin Exam, the Allied Shinobi Forces, etc. (see the image of the Fourth Databook)

Tendency to quickly express their judgments and opinion, to literally think (i.e., make judgments, conclusions, and decisions) aloud. Evidence: In her match against Shikamaru she was pretty quick in express her analysis of his movements aloud.

Speak before they listen which can either make them strong and courageous leaders or seem abrasive, dogmatic, or controlling. Evidence: Temari asserted a leadership position within her village and also within the Allied Shinobi forces (despite not being strictly one) showing us her natural inclination to take charge.

Source of the Image

Prone to overstating things. Evidence: In her fight against Shikamaru thinking she knew all the extent of his technique.

They may say things that, in retrospect, they wish they could rescind, or at least soften (specially true for hypersensitive Fi), which can lead them to respond defensively or re-actively. Evidence: Sasuke Retrieval Arc, Temari’s expression as Shikaku reprimanded his son. Konoha Hiden, Temari feels ashamed about what happened the

Fi as a Inferior Funtion (Introverted Feeling): Inferior Function is that thing that we often push aside the most and find most difficult to fully grasp. However, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t play a key role in our behavior. People with Fi are driven by an internal moral compass, helping them adjust their actions in order that what they are doing helps or affects people in a meaningful way. This gives them a sense of loyalty to those around them, considering the wants and needs of those close to them.

Loyalty and dutiful nature due to a well constructed inner moral compass. Evidence: Fierce sense of loyalty to her village and her moral and ethical duty towards it.

Not prone to display emotions, may see them as a weakness.Evidence: The famous, “Had you received emotional training?” after the failed mission against Sasuke.

If taken to their worst they can have an all-or-nothing nature, this is neutralized when more “healthy” and less hypersensitive their Fi is. Evidence: Her whole fight against Tenten. She should to be someone strong, determined, disciplined with a strong chracter that will never let anyone mock her.

Image Source

Strong sense of inner control reached by vigorously working to control the outside world. The only way they can feel in control of themselves is by taking control of their surroundings. Evidence: How she managed to control the situation when Shikamaru was trying to ask her out on a date, her reasoning during their Chuinin Exams fight.

Fi might also inspire them to take up causes that have personally affected them, ingrained on a deep fear of being a bad person or having corrupted moral. Evidence: Given her participation in the Konoha Crush Temari is one of the main actors to amend the relationship between Konoha and Suna in the time skip. Also she wants to archive a peace she never had due to her childhood as a Gaara’s sister and Rasa’s daughter, shown in her important participation in the Shinobi Alliance. Her deep care for both of her brothers given their mother’s death and she taking a position of caretaker within the family on an unconscious level.

Unconscious yet particular empathy and concern for children, often finding great fulfillment in having and caring for children. Evidence: In Part I, after the Sasuke Retrieval Arc, The Sand Siblings stay in Konoha to help at the Academy. Temari reveals to Shikamaru that she had done it because she was fond of it. Children seem to really respect and admire her.

Source MBTI

Enneagram: 8w9 (The Diplomat)

Basic Fear

Eights with a nine wing fear being hurt by others. They avoid situations in which they have less control, generally preferring to be in positions of leadership.

Basic Desire

Their basic desire is to guard themselves against threats and control their own destiny. They may express this by asserting independence at a young age.

Hence Diplomats (8w9) defend themselves by building emotional walls and denying vulnerability. They seek to appear strong, subconsciously believing that being too emotional will make them seem weak (Haven’t you received emotional training?). They,

Dislike taking orders from other people

Though they are certainly not the most chill of all types the most calm and laid-back of the eights.

Struggle to openly share emotions

Fear being controlled by others

Seek autonomy and independence.

At their best diplomats use their wit and ability to see different perspectives to face different projects. Their naturally energetic and confident persona make of them people that can lead others effectively, through support and guidance. They have a talent to give others what they need, and are empowering and advocating for others. They feel a need to protect the ones they love and enjoy their-selves the most when they are surrounded by these people.

Image Source

At their worst diplomats, given their struggle to control their temper and their tendencies to be stubborn or rigid can enter excessively in conflict or disagreement or directly reject and dismiss others. They struggle to face emotionally vulnerable situations due to their sense of lack of inner control with can make them seems overly confident or emotionally detached. They also can develop a dislike for rules from authority figures.

Image Source

The best way to communicate with a 8w9 is to be direct and straightforward, while encouraging them to share their ideas. If conflict arises it’s better to address conflict directly and logically; discuss and work together toward the best solution.

Source of Enneagram 8w9

Conclusion

For that we have seen through this analysis some key things about Temari.

She is quite a direct and logical and rational individual who values to get things done in the outside world.

She has leadership skills, given their courageous and confident attitude, but can also come up a abrasive or controlling.

Tend to overstate things and may say or do things that they, later on, wish they could soften.

Is incredibly loyal to her set of values and those around her and tends to involve personally with the things she works on.

She tends to want to have a control of the outside world and her worst fear is to loose it, cause is in the only way she can feel in control of herself.

She wants independence cause that is the way she can feel in control of herself. Therefore she tends to leave emotions on one side, they are less controllable cause they are in her inner world, and focus her energies on the outside (rational) world.

2. Shikamaru and Konoha Hiden: The Beginning of Everything.

I can begin to trace the disservice towards Temari in this point in time, in the anime’s adaptation of her character from the light novels. From here we can begin to see how they are starting to tweak Temari’s character (in a way that’s unfair and clearly not coherent) to fit her into the mold of the angry or crazy girlfriend/wife though with moderation.

Why? Why, do you have to adapt an moment like this...

Clutching his back, Shikamaru turned his eyes toward the voice.

A woman with a sharp gaze and golden hair tied into two bundles stood there, holding a giant fan in both hands. And that fan had no doubt created the wind that had knocked Shikamaru flying.

Temari...

"So you're just gonna skip out?! You're gonna do whatever he tells you to? That's not like you at all! I expect a lot more from you! Get it together, you idiot! I mean, I know you actually think this guy's boring! His stupid lecture's total garbage! Am I right? Say something! Shikamaru!"

His ears, now accustomed to Gengo's weighty tone, took in the screeching, loud voice, and his eyes flickered with pain. "Ah!"

The haze blanketing his head vanished cleanly and completely. The thing squeezing his heart was gone; it was as if a hole had popped open in his chest.

But it felt amazingly good. He inhaled deeply, down to the bottom of his stomach, and slowly let it out. A laugh naturally followed.

A single blow to pull him out of the genjutsu...

"So you show up out of nowhere to badmouth me?" He put a hand on the back of his head, eyes fixed on Temari as he stood up.

"I came to save you. Quit grumbling and thank me." She rammed the end of the folding fan into the ground, rested her right elbow on the pivot, and puffed her chest out. Behind her stood a line of ninja. They all had the mark of Sunagakure carved into their forehead protectors.

"I can't exactly go letting you die now, can I?" She grinned.

Her smile, glittering like the fire of the desert sun, cleared Shikamaru's heart. Her earlier words came back to life in his head.

Source: Naruto: Shikamaru Hiden - A Cloud Drifting in Silent Darknes (2015) by Masashi Kishimoto, Takashi Yano

as this?

I know this may be completely unpopular but, hey I am here to say what I think. You can always count that’ll be honest. And I don’t like this.

This in my opinion this is not female empowerment, this is not funny and this is not Temari reacting naturally to the situation she is involved in. Is just simply her hitting Shikamaru with no reason at all.

In the novel, as we have seen, Temari lectured him (oh, boy did she lectured him just rightly). She basically made her come into his senses using logic and reason, using words, the same through which Gengo almost defeat him. And that is Temari, she may not be the best at expressing her emotions but when conflict arises she address conflict directly and logically. She explains, in a way that yes may seem imposing for others, but that always uses Te (extroverted thinking) as her main weapon.

Temari would never make someone come to his senses by a love declaration but she wouldn’t slap him on his face either.

Temari does this because, although Shikamaru hurt her, Shikamaru is someone dear to her and she knows that he needs of a little bit of tough love in order to function. This is Temari’s way of being empowering and advocating for others.

And you may be asking. But hey, Temari had already slapped Shikamaru before and you didn’t say nothing about that moment? Yes she did, but that moment was intrinsically different to this second one.

This slap...

It’s justified in Temari’s character. Maybe it’s not the best thing she could do, nor what I pictured her to do, but is not that detached with the situation.

Let’s see another extract of the Light Novel to understand better the context:

"Oil" A voice called to Shikamaru from behind.

He clicked his tongue imperceptibly. The voice belonged to the person he least wanted to speak with at that moment. Ignoring it, he kept moving forward.

"Shikamaru, hold up!" The voice beat at his back, threatening to send him flying.

"What?" He turned just his head to look at the woman over his shoulder.

Temari from Sunagakure. Her hair was shorter now than it had been two years ago, and she had pulled it back into two bundles on either side of her head. Her eyes were gentler now than they had been, set in a fairly adult looking face. But given that she was older than Shikamaru, her face didn't just look grown-up; she was actually already a very fine adult.

"What's going on with you?" She stared at Shikamaru with eyes that drooped somewhat more than they used to.

"What do you mean?"

"You've been weird lately." Temari's slender hand reached out to Shikamaru's shoulder and pulled him around to face her.

What a drag... The words made it all the way to his throat before he managed to desperately swallow them back down.

"I mean your attitude at the meeting there. You just sit there with your mouth shut. Everyone gets nervous; the whole place tenses up, you know."

"It does?"

"You didn't notice it?" Temari's eyes grew wide. "What happened?"

"Nothing."

"It's something you can't talk to me about?" Temari's hard gaze hurt.

In the two years since the Great War ended, Temari had been a good and understanding partner in their work on the alliance. She shared his desire to keep the shinobi from fracturing into factions once more after they had finally come together in the face of a powerful enemy. She had rallied the Allied Forces with him. The strong bond between Naruto, seen as a candidate for the next Hokage of Konoha, and Gaara, the Kazekage of Sunagakure, also played a part; the relationship between the two villages was extremely good, even among the five great nations. With these kinds of outside factors also at work, Shikamaru and Temari each recognized the other as their greatest ally in the alliance.

"Something's happening in Konoha." She had fairly good insight.

However, her shot was a little off. Nothing was happening in Konoha, although it was true that they were trying to take care of the situation with only the shinobi of Konoha. So Temari was half-right, half-wrong.

The basic policy of the alliance was that matters relating to the life or death of shinobi themselves exceeded the framework of the villages and should be shared with the entire group. What Shikamaru and Kakashi were attempting to do was in very clear violation of this policy. Even so, he couldn't say anything. Getting the alliance involved now and stirring up trouble with the Land of Silence was not a good plan.

I'll handle it... His resolve hardened.

"Is there anything I can do?"

"There's not."

Temari dropped her eyes at Shikamaru's curt reply. "Okay," she muttered, lifelessly. In the next instant, the brief look of sadness on her face changed to anger.

It was all he could do to take a breath. He had no room to dodge; before he knew it, Shikamaru was flying. He tumbled down the hall a few times before ending up on his backside in a seated position. The right side of his face swelled up, bright red. Stroking his hot cheek, Shikamaru looked up at an indignant Temari glaring down at him.

"I never actually thought I could've misjudged you so badly!" Her angry yell turned into a powerful wind, pushing up against his face.

"I-I'm sorry..." The words were unconscious. He unthinkingly took on the persona of his father stumbling home in the morning, only to get yelled at by his mother in the entryway.

Taking long strides, Temari passed by Shikamaru and disappeared, her eyes slightly damp.

Source: Naruto: Shikamaru Hiden - A Cloud Drifting in Silent Darknes (2015) by Masashi Kishimoto, Takashi Yano

We see a Temari that is continuously trying to reach someone who she had become closed to and with whom she had worked side by side since the war ended two years ago. Someone who she thought trusted her. The slap is given her sadness with ended up being represented in anger (inferior Fi). She had a real reason to be sad: Temari isn’t someone who lightly trust or cares about someone and Shikamaru was just closing the door to her. Saying that he didn’t need her. And there’s nothing that Temari wants more than feeling need, something that is evidence in her Tsukuyomi Dream, which may not be canon, but yet captured Temari’s character.

Not only that but, as we said, Temari’s basic fear was to be hurt by others. That’s why she usually has that overly confident and seemingly emotionally detached attitude. And once she left her guard down she was hurt by non other than a person she hold dear, which we have seen ain’t an easy point to reach with someone with Temari’s personality. Given her “all or nothing” outlook this might be a really bad wound for her, like if he was back-stabbing her.

That’s why "I never actually thought I could've misjudged you so badly!" and Temari’s cry really is so important. It shows she’s truly hurt. It justifies her punch, no. But it explains it. (I won’t lie, I also wanted give Shikamaru a good punch when I read this)

Also this moment wasn’t exactly the best adapted sequence but it’s much better than the previous one and with the right context it all comes quite justified.

You could also say that there was also that one time were Temari hits Shikamaru with her fan after she realizes in the Konoha Hiden that Shikamaru and her were actually searching for a wedding gift for Naruto and Hinata,

“Hmm, so that’s what it all was....” She said, smiling peacefully.

“No, hold on ...Ah!!” Shikamaru inadvertently let out an exclamation.

It was possible that Temari’s misunderstanding had been- “Hey, oi ...You couldn’t have thought that, right.”

When he said that, for some reason, Temari silently took her tessen off her back, holding it in her hand.

“H-hey...what is it?” He asked. “Why’re you suddenly taking that out...? Wh- what’s up with your chakra...?!”

Temari grinned affectionately at him.

Shikamaru was captivated by the sight, and found a smile forming on his face, too.

Smiling at each other like that, they looked like the very picture of an intimate pair of lovers.

That night in Konoha...

One sudden, out-of-season gale swept over Konoha’s hot springs, and lasted the entirety of the night. The residents and tourists spent the whole night awake, too frightened to sleep...

Source: Konoha Hiden: The Perfect Day for a Wedding (2015) by Masashi Kishimoto and Shō Hinata

And I agree I am not saying this is fine either (though there isn’t that much of an explicit but an implicit hit), but is also something Temari shows to be sorry and ashamed about later in the story. Even though she is prideful and won’t be able to admit it she finally does. Because at the end of the day Temari is a lover and fighter but, even though she won’t admit it, will love rather than fight.

Besides the context in here is different. They had already went on a date and could almost be consider a couple. I had already posted a quote were Ino and Sakura talked about Shikamaru and Temari’s relationship. It was obvious there was something going on for months (If you want to get to know better you can see the time line). It wasn’t that far-fetched to understand the situation as Temari, someone who’s pretty direct, was interpreting them.

It’s something through which they both learn and grew together. Shikamaru will never be as frontal as she might want to but he is willing to give it a try for her and she is willing to try to understand what is going in his mind.

Also I think that this novels suffered of having different writers so it sometimes feels as the story unnecessarily regresses. Kishimoto only illustrates the stories and this becomes pretty showing. However and despite I don’t enjoy Temari hitting Shikamaru, the novels itself aren’t that detached from Temari’s character. The soul of her character is still there.

But are these slight changes in the anime showed us the way that they were trying to head Temari’s character in Boruto, changes that as we had seen during her analysis don’t seem to fit rightly her character. Specially in Perriots adaptation of the manga we see a deep misunderstanding of Temari, from her behaviour to her wants and feelings. Unluckily, the worst was yet to come.

3. Boruto: Why did they did this?

Well, here is what triggered this whole post. Temari’s portrayal in Boruto. And I got to say one thing before starting with this analysis. I really like some scenes of Temari in Boruto.

To see her in action, training with the new generation of the Ino-Shika-Cho and protecting her son were fairly enjoyable but, more importantly, are congruent with her character. It’s her more domestic scenes which I tend to dislike a lot.

I consider than in this scenes they depict Temari as an angry housewife and an aggressive mother which, in my opinion, are the greatest disservice to Temari’s character. Maybe I am the only one that thinks this, but (as I said previously) I don’t find them funny nor that they depict Temari correctly, serve a motif in the narrative or serve any agenda. They are simply treated as comic relief.

This is truly hurting for someone that is not only a Temari fan but a ShikaTema shipper since they transformed a relationship that was based on mutual trust, respect and communication above anything else into this dynamic we see in Boruto.

And I have to hypothesize why they made Temari do this I would have two main factors:

Lazy Writing and Appeal to Nostalgia: All Nara men marry to troublesome woman so they found in this moments a cheep way to remind the audience constantly that Temari is troublesome and therefore be able to make easy correlations to Shikaku’s relationship with Yoshino.

The Tsundere Trend: Maybe this is me overthinking a little bit too much (but when I don’t) but the Tsundere one of the most capitalized dere types in anime. People seem to love them in a way I don’t fully understand. Having a woman inflict danger to his partner is the most easy way to scream “tsundere” maybe not the best but an easy one. Mind that when we speak about a tsundere I mean:

A stock love interest who is usually stern, cold or hostile to the person they like, while occasionally letting slip the warm and loving feelings hidden inside due to being shy, nervous, insecure or simply unable to help acting badly in front of the person they like.

The Japanese term tsundere refers to an outwardly violent character who "runs hot and cold", alternating between two distinct moods: tsuntsun (aloof or irritable) and deredere (lovestruck).

Tsundere Source

Funny enough I never saw Temari as a Tsundere. I would never say, from the manga, that Temari ‘runs hot and cold.’ Yes, you don’t want to mess up with her when she is angry but it’s not like this happen often in the manga.

The only time I consider we have seen Temari go angry pretty quickly (in Naruto) was in her match with Shikamaru when he said that he wouldn’t be defeated by a woman. But I think we can’t apply one situation to larger and broader spectrum. That was in the middle of a fight and, as I explained in a previous post of mine, there were much more other things involved in the context of the manga/anime at that point in time.

I have always consider Temari someone who was deep in control of herself and her emotions, capable of displaying what she wants to show when she wants. This is because of her own basic fear of being hurt, hence she only shows this emotions when she is either, truly hurt, angry or when she trust enough the other person.

That’s why is so important that the only times we have seen Temari fully displaying this emotions were around Shikamaru or her brothers.

I don’t like that much dere types but, if I had to chose one, her sarcastic humor and realistic outlook of life, always seemed more alike to the profile of a hinedere

The hinedere is a sarcastic, cynical person who always looks to the darker, more realistic side of things and is very quick to reveal that to other characters. They tend to be arrogant and cold-hearted however, the hinedere will have a soft spot for their love interest and will reluctantly but reliably do anything for them.

Hinedere Source

This dere type may not be as popular but, I think, fits much more her personality all through Naruto. However, that’s a personal opinion and no falling into a dere type should, if it’s understood correctly, disrupt the core character.

Okay so, they wanted to make Temari fall into this direction but... Why isn’t this her? Well that’s the following point.

4. Why this isn’t Temari?

Temari at the beginning of Naruto is someone that thinks that life is like in the dessert: everything is though and hard and only the fittest are meant to survive. Anything or anyone that shows her weakness is naturally inferior or undesirable. That is her outlook of life: you have to be pragmatic, logic and strong if you want to continue fighting another day. The weak are naturally destined to loose, and hence she doesn’t care to be the one to destroy them since it’s only when you impose fear that you’ll be actually able to survive.

That ideology, she had learn all through her childhood, translates in her battle against Tenten and began to be challenged in her battle against Shikamaru. At the end we see a Temari that, despite being born to fight, develops as a character chooses to dedicate her life to the search of peace in order to protect those weaker ones that she once loathed. That’s why she is an incredible ambassador for Suna and good adviser of Gaara: she yet has that pragmatic, logical and sometimes cynical point of view but that contrast with the idealism of her brother and helps them to balance each other out. She is highly loyal and I am sure she’ll do anything for her family and to protect that peace she found in it.

Hence, I always find it pretty hard to believe that Temari would rather take her fan and hit someone before having a reasonable, direct and straightforward conversation.

Even, before her evolution, we see that Temari is much less willing to enter a unreasonable and violent dispute than her brothers and that is what, in the first instances sets her apart from them.

When Temari first hits the scene just before the start of the Chunin Exams, by mere virtue of the fact that the group that she’s with is intimidating, she becomes a bit scary herself, but she shows to be different than both of them.

Kankuro comes off as the tough, scary guy who you don’t want to mess with only to be swiftly upstaged by the seriously blood-chilling Gaara.

(Sorry for the image in spanish but basically Temari is telling Kankuro to leave Konohamaru alone and to not involve her in his actions)

Temari, on the other hand, stands by coolly, occasionally offering her brothers warnings or plays referee. Her sit-back-and-bide-her-time attitude makes her look like the most stable of the three in comparison; Kankuro picks a pointless fight with a kid and Gaara ends up looking psychopathic.

Temari’s rational and cool behavior also pays testament to what readers later see are some of her major strengths which keeps repeating itself through the manga, in the Forest of Death during The Chunin Exams and in The Five Kages’s Summit it was Temari who during tense times was able to cool them up.

(Temari asking Gaara to calm down during the second stage of the Chunin Exams)

However, I got to admit that Temari isn’t a saint. She has a sharp tongue and she is straight foward and direct what, as we said before may lead to her to say things that, in retrospect, they wish they could rescind, or at least soften, which can lead them to respond defensively or re-actively.

Things like this we see them while she looks at Shikamaru after the failure of Sasuke’s Rescue Mission. Even when she had lectured Shikamaru she then looked at him as if she questioned if she had been to harsh on him. It was clear that she had misjudge him as she realized how much she cared for his friends. Or in the Konoha Hiden as, after having that little incident with Shikamaru she is nervous to see him again.

Images Sources (Manga in Spanish)

That’s why I can’t imagine Temari simply hitting someone just for kicks. Is not like she can’t but that she doesn’t want or sees the appeal to do it.

The is in a lot of senses the perfect kunoichi, disciplined, determined, strong and intelligent and will never let anyone mock her (that’s for sure). She is ruthless towards her opponents cause that is her way of approaching a rival but she will never be violent for violence’s sake.

It’s not like we just attacked the Leaf Village for kicks, you know? We were following orders. That’s all, just like we’re doing on this mission.

Temari to Shikamaru during the Sasuke’s Retrieval Arc

But even less than this I imagine being violent towards people she appreciates and cares as Shikamaru and Shikadai. Yes, I think she would most likely express herself through some tough love, being strict with Shikadai and not letting Shikamaru just slack and complain about everything. But, never, ever, I imagined her being physically or verbally violent towards them without feeling any remorse. Cause she never was in Naruto.

She was direct and honest, maybe a bit to much for people, but after her the Chunin Exams her character never showed to be like that to anyone. Even less towards Shikamaru.

You have the “crybaby” thing going on but I would rather think that of a positive rather than a negative aspect because of the way in which she says it. It shows their connection as individuals which is full of bickering and this back and forth of clever commentaries but that is build on common ground. You may not be the people that like these but that doesn’t mean that Shikamaru feel the same as you.

If not he would never have this expression on this face...

Source Image

Temari is the one that trusted fully in him during war even to the point of considering him capable of being Hokage because “he has the power to reach/.sway away people’s hearts” and she wants to create a world of peace with him. Their relationship was about bringing out the best of each other not the worst, which doesn’t mean they don’t function like fully capable individuals without the other (cause they do) but that through their interactions they developed into better people. We are after all, social creatures and we need of others and the Sand Siblings are exemplary that that doesn’t make you weak but stronger. That you can change your preconceived notions of the world and learn from others, change for the better and use that strength protect instead to attack or seclude yourself.

So why, if Temari was capable to reach a point where she was at her best, letting her fear to be hurt to fall, and use her naturally energetic and confident persona to lead others effectively, through support and guidance, Boruto writers tend to write her in her moments with Shikamaru at what would be her worst, struggling to control her temper and with her stubbornness and rigidness making her excessively enter in conflict or disagreement or directly reject and dismiss others?

This is a complete character regression for Temari. And I don’t mean that characters can’t have their moments, nor that Temari should be perfect, when they are at that stage. But that should be addressed in that manner and not as comic relief.

In my opinion Temari had always a talent to give Shikamaru what he needed, giving him some tough love when he needed but at the same time being empowering.

Source: Naruto: Shikamaru Hiden - A Cloud Drifting in Silent Darkness (2015) by Masashi Kishimoto, Takashi Yano

That’s why, with the clear feel and need to protect and be appreciated by the ones they love and enjoying herself the most when they are surrounded by them, I can’t really see Temari acting like this.

5. PS: I still love you

This turned out to be really long so I won’t pull it any further. Just let me say this last words.

I really like Temari, I really do, and in part a lot of my dislike of her portrayal in Boruto comes from that same factor. I truly think she is an amazing kunoichi and someone girls could look up to when watching Naruto, cause yes she had flaws, but this were addressed as such and were never used as comic relief. Besides, her good qualities and strengths quickly unnumbered her flaws: she was intelligent, strong, honest, disciplined, determined, dutiful, loyal and caring. Yes she might be prideful, overly confident, way to upfront and may not like to show that much her emotions but I don’t consider that this flaws could beat her logical and rational mindset that first matched her with characters like Shikamaru.

Truly I think these scenes are a disservice towards my favorite female character of this whole manga and anime to the extent that if there was one thing I could change about the whole series would be this.

Temari wasn’t that much in the manga or in the anime but she was capable of leaving a palpable impression in me (to the extent that I wrote a +6.6k word essay about her, counting quotes and all) as well as in lots of other people. And that should tell you a lot about her as a character, a character that yes; could have been even better in terms of story and narrative than she was in the Naruto but that also certainly is much better than how they portray her in Boruto.

#naruto #manga #anime #boruto #opinion #temari #shikamaru x temari #nara #shikatema #temashika #shikadai #violence as comic relief is not funny #i will get so much hate for this #character analysis

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