#and his ability to empathize with the victims and open up the

[bhaalsdeepbat]

i think astarion is going to always have a natural lust for power. like i think his vampiric nature will just forever cause certain desires, but spawn ending kinda reasserts that he has the power to resist AND shows he has people he can rely on to talk him down if he needs it.

#bat plays bg3 #i'm typing up a post about spawnstarion vs ascended astarion #and his ability to empathize with the victims and open up the #“what cazador did is wrong bc he did it to me” from that to #what cazador did is wrong bc he did it to ALL of us #whereas ascended astarion just confirms that all that matters is power and looking out for the needs of #the important person in the room ((him)) but also #when he has the convo where “no one else is like you” #and the fact that he can make normal vamp spawn but it seems like tav/durge is actually like a spawn of the ascendant nature #i think he really did want to make them special bc they are his favorite toy #but he does NOT want an equal and he wants them to feel as helpless / powerless to their love as he felt #when he thought that tav/durge was just protecting him and he was worthless as he is #but spawn ending shows him that he's worth everything as is ((which he is that man is so fucking strong without the extra necrotic damage)) #THO THAT NECROTIC DAMAGE DO BE NICE i do like my evil playthroughs when we are powerhouses don't get me wrong #i'm just looking @ story stuff bahaha

[grammarpedant]

Security vs Combat idle thoughts since the winter of '18, updated for a post-FT world

It's both funny and fascinating how quickly Murderbot goes from being worried at the thought of Combat SecUnits in ASR to meeting one in a combat situation in ES to deciding CombatUnits as a category are assholes in FT (and I'm including how the proper term seems to evolve to drop the "Sec"/security part in my observations here). It's a hilarious display of MB's tendency towards bias and snap judgements in play, but in this case it's also a natural progression of MB's own personal values and the conflict between its function versus a CombatUnit's. In many ways, there's far more conflict between Security and Combat than there ever would be between Security and Comfort.

It comes back to the classic “kill all humans” trope, in some ways. The struggle in Murderbot's capacity for violence, and what function that violence is in service of, is present throughout the first four books. In All Systems Red, Murderbot sees itself as- well- a murderbot, a wanton killing machine; in Artificial Condition it admits to ART that it struggles with liking its function; it takes nearly the entire original quartet for it to come to terms with itself as a security consultant. Someone who saves people, who has extracted clients from situations that were less than nine percent survivable, and who can be proud of that. In a book series in which Murderbot is figuring out what it wants, Exit Strategy sees it come to terms with wanting to keep people safe—contrasted utterly by the Combat SecUnit’s “I want to kill you” in the same book.

By the time we reach Fugitive Telemetry, it has reached such a self-understanding of its raison d’etre that Murderbot—who rarely says emotionally difficult things if it could leave them unsaid instead—can say it explicitly. “That plan was easier plus 100 percent less murdery… I liked it better because it wasn’t a CombatUnit plan, or actually a plan that humans would come up with for CombatUnits. Sneaking the endangered humans off the ship to safety and then leaving the hostiles for someone else to deal with, that was a SecUnit plan, that was what we were really designed for, despite how the company and every other corporate used us. The point was to retrieve the clients alive and fuck everything else.” For Murderbot, THAT is the heart of “Security.”

And it’s totally diametrically opposed to what Combat is. Look at the proliferation of military sci-fi out there, look at games like Halo, look at war fiction as a whole and the real-world use of war technology. What does a bot-human war machine do better than what a regular old CombatBot offer? More flexible thinking and strategizing, creative hacking solutions, an ability to process the chaos of war as real-time data and react far faster and more cunningly than a human commander could, all packed into a supersoldier with no reason to empathize with human soldiers or victims, perfectly controllable on pain of brain-shock-collar by its superiors—no chance of mutiny or insubordination or conscientious objection. Soldiers and the technology they use alike are employed as expendable tools for war to fight for whatever cause their superiors uphold, to win at whatever cost their superiors deem acceptable—the function of Combat is about winning. Domination of the enemy, control of a populace, Us vs Them. Strategy, war crimes, the cost-benefit ratio of opening fire on the enemy’s hospitals.

Combat is fundamentally not about keeping anyone safe. (There’s a reason that Security in Ancillary Justice don’t get along with Military when they drop by a station, there’s a reason that Discworld’s Captain Vimes snarls that his coppers are not soldiers. If you actually want to keep the peace, you NEED to not see the world in terms of us or them, kill or be killed.) For these reasons, I’m not surprised that Fugitive Telemetry drops the “Sec” and leaves the term as “CombatUnit”--it better emphasizes the difference between the two functions, and how far Murderbot has moved from its fear of being a tool for killing.

In a society without governor modules, there’s still plenty of room for Security and Comfort alike. But to keep a standing army, let alone manufacture tanks and nuclear missiles, is to keep the threat of using them. And a CombatUnit’s function, unlike Murderbot’s, is unilaterally one of violence for the sake of domination. When MB says that CombatUnits are assholes, I think that’s what it means—and I kind of get it. A CombatUnit that lives and breathes and likes its function truly is the murderbot that Murderbot was afraid it was itself.

(And if you're looking for more canon Combat SecUnit content, have we got some fics for you)

#murderbot #the murderbot diaries #verso writes #meta #murderbot diaries #Fugitive Telemetry #function meta

[ficks-of-fancy2]

Miraculously bad

So I've been watching MLB from the beginning and I have some complaints. This is honestly a open discussion and I hope that others will voice their feeling in a productive manner. I won't talking about the blatantly obvious racism.

I have the least to say about the first season, but I honestly would have introduced some new heroes before the season's end. I would have ditched the romantic subplot or a at least the love square due to the annoyance of it all and Marinette's disturbing behavior towards Adrien. I don't mind the need for secrecy between Ladybug and Chat Noir up to a point, about season four is when it got to be a problem, that brought the story down. But my biggest problem from the first season is Lila Rossi from a critical standpoint her motivations beyond Adrien don't make sense for a mentally stable person. I get lieing for popularity but not for a boyfriend and it's completely asinine for people to believe her after her lies are uncovered, I for one wouldn't.

In season two we see the arrival of Rena Rouge, Carapace, and the most underutilized Queen Bee. Now don't misunderstand, I don't like Chloe Bourgeois' character because of the wasted potential of her character to change. I know Chloe is meant to be a foil to Marinette however their is a difference between foiling and being a outright antagonistic and I simply believe that Chloe's character deserves more, especially after we learn of Chloe's abusive relationship with her mother. Now on to Mayura who would have worked perfectly as a foil to Hawk Moth, a reluctant hero due to her abilities being similar but also stronger than Hawk Moth's (I.E. her empathic abilities). As we learn in the fifth season Nathalie is only working for Gabriel, so she can protect Adrien from him so it would have been a interesting plot point if she took a more supportive role on Ladybug's team.

Season three is what I refer to as the start of the problem that is; the what if episodes. They are meant to reaffirm the need for secrecy, but after Chat Blanc, they are pointless because she becomes the Guardian of the miracle box, meaning that she should know Adrien's identity. Aside from Oni-Chan and Animaestro, in addition to Miracle Queen, I don't have any problems with this season aside from already spoken thoughts.

Season four proved to be a turn for the worst, mostly because of the episodes; Gabriel Agreste, Ephemeral, and the two part finale of the season. Now I do have minor complaints about a few other episodes where characters so act out of character they are almost different people. Let's start with Gabriel Agreste and Felix. The episode has Marinette acting like a creep to protect her "secret" crush on Adrien. My problem is with Felix, whose goals are later revealed in season five to be freedom for Kagami and Adrien, who are implied to be Senimonsters. Felix managed to discover Shadow Moth's identity but sits on this information for a season. Felix could have easily been replaced by Nathalie or Felix's mother instead. Shadow Moth's Final Attack, Season fours' finale, my issue is twofold taking the form of Felix and Ephemeral. Felix due to his willing actions that resulted in Gabriel gaining almost every Miraculous, something that becomes a recurring issue with Marinette in a similar issue as Luz Noceta in the final episodes of The Owl House, a trait that is annoying because it isn't actively her fault. Marinette, because of the simple solution of transforming back that wouldn't have been a problem if the writers simply didn't bother with Ephemeral.

And Finally season five my biggest problem with MLB, Hawk Moth now Monarch had gotten every Miraculous sans, the ladybug, black cat, and peafowl. The entire season is one big stalemate until the finale. Gabriel has allied himself with Tomoe Tsurugi to create the alliance rings as a way to transfer the powers of the stolen Miraculous to his victims. Nathalie is in rare form for this season actively standing up for herself and Adrien. The entire season is spent foretelling Gabriel's demise and propping up Cerise, or Lila as she is known as of the time of me making this, as the next Hawk Moth. Honestly I have more issues with this season then all the others combined and every issue that I have previously mentioned is on full display in one form or another. On top of all of the other issues three new ones come to light, The first is a old one with a new name, Argos. Argos or Felix whatever you chose to call him refuses to inform Ladybug of Monarch's identity, due to his concern for Adrien's well being. I don't mind this but I still find it to be a problem of conflicting interests that to my knowledge is never resolved. My second issue is from Derision, namely the origin of Marinette's behavior towards Adrien and this goes hand and hand with the writer's refusal to improve and evolve Chloe's character so they simply beat the dead horse. My final issue is the drawn out conclusion of the love square that shouldn't have existed past the third season. It takes five whole seasons for this plot to reach its conclusion and that is bad writing in its purest form.

To end this on a lighter note, I just found out that the original butterfly hero and I share a character name, we are both Húdié and I can't tell if that is lazy or hilarious. (Húdié means butterfly in Chinese) Also because I have no control over my hyperfixations I'm working on a miraculous little project that hopefully doesn't drive me psycho.

#miraculous ladybug #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #gabriel agreste #nathalie sancoeur #ml kwamis #cerise #lila rossi #chloe bourgeois #felix fathom #kagami hiiragi #kagami tsurugi #tomoe tsurugi #long post #alya cesaire #nino lahiffe #mlb critical

[maythevoidnotscreamback]

Sailor Moon Sentinel/Guide AU: a story idea

Has anyone thought of how this premise might go?

Like, I thought of this trope almost immediately after I found a reblog over on queenrisa14's page that was originally posted by silvermoon424 about how great SM does about showing positive masculinity. With Mamo being the Empath/Healer/Support with his Psychometry and healing abilities in manga and crystal canon he's the obvious Guide and Usa being the (reluctant but still) Fighter/Troubleshooter/Saviour with the powers she has no idea what to do with but learns as she goes as the Sentinel.

The way I see it, if one did this as an actual Senshi AU - rather than some form of aged-up AU where the semi-feral she-cop or detective Sentinel gets with the cute doctor Guide that treats her in the aftermath of or during a case (just as an example) - Usa could have a more hellish time with everything because she's meant to be powered up when in her fuku, right? But being a Sentinel means, since she already is that way naturally before Luna comes along, that the single dial she's already having trouble with keeping below an eight on a good day, because her instincts came online on her fourteenth birthday, has cranked itself and an additional four to nine dials she wasn't aware of to ten when she transforms.

Mamo could be completely unaware he's a Guide, and thus not on the list for Usa to test compatibility at the time, because he's one of the hella rare ones who went online super early due to his accident, not to mention the rampant sexism where 99 times out of 100 the Guide's a woman and the Sentinel's a man, and his Psychometry and status as the reincarnated Prince isn't helping by amplifying his power as a Guide while also messing with, and thus sabotaging, the results of the Guide Test.

Hell, for this AU, (if one is so inclined to make it that way, one doesn't have to if not) one could also have it be that not only are Sentinel's rare but because of that rarity it isn't out of the ordinary for one Sentinel to have multiple Guides; called a Domain. There's the Main Guide(s), that is the sexual/romantic/closest Guide(s) depending on the sexuality and openness of the Sentinel and Guides, and the Support Guides, the one or more other Guides a Sentinel has found compatibility with for when their Main Guide(s) can't be or isn't around but there's no sense to be any more intimate than when they first met so these Guides are allowed to have other relations with others who aren't their Sentinel and fellow Guides if they so choose. Especially if the Sentinel is 'powerful' in whatever sense. It's to keep the sense the Main Guide isn't in danger of becoming an unwitting prisoner/hostage/abuse victim to their Sentinel out of the public concerns. So Usa has her Mamo-chan as her Main Guide and her Senshi as her Support Guides, they work together like a web, when he can't be there but in the event one wants the girls to have a love life they can because Sentinels are only Tyrants over their Domain, instead of the Protectors of their Domain, when they have some form of mental illness or personality disorder not unlike those who form Cults.

Because Usa would never want to control who her friends love or want to share their time with or where they go. She'd want them to be happy and if her Domain expands because of it, because all under a Sentinel's umbrella, even if not one of their Guides, or part of another, subordinate, Sentinel's Domain is part of their Domain, then all the better!

#sailor moon #mamousa #mamoru x usagi #usamamo #usagi x mamoru #sentinel/guide au #story idea #reblog to spread the word #reblog if you agree

[practically-an-x-man]

Your OCs first impressions of Kyle? This could be either in his high school recovering asshole phase or him as an adult.

Oooh thank you!

Rae: She's dealt with the same "suave asshole as a front" personality back when she first met Warren, so she's able to see through it pretty quick and tell him to cut the crap. After that, they probably get along pretty well, since Rae's no stranger to a sharp sense of humor.

Robin: Would probably just avoid him back in his recovering-asshole phase, but would kinda hit it off as adults. He seems really nice, and genuinely compassionate, and she'd offer to help out at his nonprofit on the weekends.

Madison: Would hate his guts back in his recovering-asshole phase, since she's had a lot of bad experiences with dickwad jocks like him. She'd respect him a lot more as an adult, but they probably wouldn't talk much.

Ophelia: If they met in high school, he'd probably have bullied her, quite honestly. She was a weird kid, and hadn't grown into her confidence and wit at that point. As an adult, she'd be fascinated by his abilities and would insist on running (harmless, painless) tests - which might end in a pair of gloves that insulate his ability from nearby tech, so he can use technology normally.

Gia: As an adult, would appreciate how much work he does for the community and would offer to help out herself - she struggles to be away from her shop, but she'll donate a bit of spare cash when she can and doesn't mind people crashing on her couch if they don't have anywhere else to go.

Jasper: (as an adult) Thinks it's pretty funny that he has the exact same name as their boyfriend, and respects how much philanthropy he does for his community. Also offers an open-invitation for free medical aid to anyone involved with his nonprofit.

Kestrel: Can definitely empathize with trying to become a better person from your past, and would probably connect on... well, probably a much deeper level than Kyle really expected. They don't mean to turn the conversation in that direction so quickly, but it's rare that they find someone who really understands what that feels like, and how much effort it takes to really improve as a person.

Katherine: He reminds her a little of Jace, though that could mostly be the whole good-person-volunteer thing (Jace volunteers at a senior center, sometimes Katherine goes with him to help out). They'd get along well, though she might struggle a bit to learn about how he was in high school, since she was severely tormented and bullied by the same type of people when she was that age.

Quinn: Kind of a blend of annoyance and respect - annoyance for how capital-G Good he seems, at least on first meeting him, but respect for his cause since he really did pick one she can get behind. She'd probably assume he's one of those obnoxious holier-than-thou Mr. Altruism types, but once she actually met him they'd probably get along a little better.

Eris: Similar reaction to Quinn, but a bit more intense - they'd definitely be annoyed by him, no matter how much they might respect his cause (and really, if she's going to respect any noble cause, it'll be that one, since Amazonians are canonically reincarnated victims of domestic abuse). He'd probably scoff and brush it aside, maybe taunt him for being a goody two-shoes or something... but Kyle is surprised when they show up at the shelter that weekend with a huge basket of (possibly stolen?) toiletries, laundry detergent, feminine supplies, pet food, and other much-needed donations. Eris ends up sitting in the corner, passing out supplies and generating a list of names for who to hunt down once they leave. She glares at Kyle when she leaves, warning him not to say a damn word about this, but it seems this particular cause has struck on something awfully close to the heart for them.

Nikoletta: Kyle probably recognizes her behaviors from some of the people in his shelter - the she's been through a lot of trauma and has made herself cold and guarded as a defense mechanism - and Nikoletta gets really uncomfortable at the way he seems to look straight through her. He also offers his help, as tactfully as he can, in case she's in a bad situation and needs to get out. Nik just ducks the questions for as long as she can, but eventually admits that no, she's actually in the most stable home situation she's ever been in, and the wounds he sees are much older. She still avoids any offer of help, she's too proud for that.

#my friends!!! #answered asks #my ocs #jasper wilson #ophelia octavius #madison douglas #oc quinn/aces #oc kestrel #rae mckinney #robin cassidy #oc katherine johnson #gia pantazis #oc eris #nikoletta bordeaux

[phd-journey]

Review: Chameleon Street

      First off, watching this movie often felt like watching someone else’s fever dream. The best way I can describe the experience is stream of conscious on screen. Now, stream of consciousness is almost exclusively encountered literarily because of its natural reliance on capturing the inner thought processes of its main character, making it somewhat antithetical to the tradition rule of “show, don’t tell.” However, the film does a marvelous job of marrying this modern style with that very same traditional rule. The cinematography is rarely out of the ordinary, but the shining star in every sense of the word is the protagonist.

     The film opens on protagonist William Douglas Street Jr., played by the movie’s director and writer Wendell B. Harris Jr., being interviewed by a psychiatrist. However, what begins as seemingly normal conversation immediately shifts the moment the camera lands on Street’s face for his first close up. We begin to hear Street as a narrator, but his voice has been heavily distorted, resulting in a deeply unsettling cacophony of thoughts and making it clear that this man is not neurotypical. I’m unsure if this is intentional, but there seems to be little effort in this movie to portray Street as a character. Now, the movie is of course based on the escapades of real Detroit conman, but plenty of semi-biographical movies will boil out some key elements of their subjects to shape them into characters for actors to accurately portray. That never seems to be Harris’s approach to the role.

     Harris’s portrayal of Street feels perfectly human. Again, I find this character impossible to empathize with. He operates with no code whatsoever, external or internal. His motivations are lackluster at best. He’s a blatant, broke misogynist. And yet, I am undeniably pissed when I see him experiencing racism at hands of a white man while dining with his wife. I’m legitimately concerned when the story hints at him almost being sexually assaulted in prison. I’m admittedly impressed by his ability to think and react on the fly. Street never feels like a good person or even a bad guy with a heart of gold. There is no narrative to the man who is Douglas Street. In my opinion, the character is a massive narcissist who often borders on psychopathy, but he doesn’t invoke the feeling of disgust we’ve come to expect from characters based off these types of stories. The only exception to this is during a scene where Street is playing with his daughter and what is eventually revealed to be a prop knife and fake blood. The tension of the scene lies in knowing this man is capable of anything, but also having still recognized him incapable of crossing that instinctive boundary of human decency, like a victim of abuse asserting their abuser would never cross that line.

     Despite the absolutely insane cons Street pulls off, the movie feels grounded. The audience feels a sense of awe at what the character is able to get away with, but it lacks the typical glamorization. The mainstream movie audience is no stranger to heist films, where the crime is dipping toes into the world of the upper crust to rob them blind. The crime is treated with a certain level of prestige and artistry. Chameleon Street does not exist in that format. There are no masterfully crafted plans, and Street doesn’t have any special plot armor that saves him from inevitable capture. Rather than having a dedicated storyline centered around a character’s journey, the scenes create something like an anthology of Street’s experiences. The movie also offers very little in terms of developing relationships. This means when Street is sent off to jail for the last time in the movie, the revelation that it was his wife who turned in him has less impact, robbing the ending of what should be a gut-wrenching or at least cathartic moment.  

[abovebelowhalimekaraca]

Alternate Dimensions/Worlds- Research (2)

Stranger Things

Stranger Things is an American science fiction drama television series created by the Duffer Brothers. The show takes place in the fictional town of Hawkins Indiana in the mid 1980s.

Main Protagonists of Stranger Things.

Lucas Sinclair

He is one of the best friends of Mike Wheeler, Dustin Henderson and Will Byers and Eleven.

Max Mayfield

Max is the first character from Stranger Things to have a stepfamily and the first character to have a sibling die on the show.

Eleven

El is overall incredibly emotional and empathic, especially towards her friends and family when they're in danger or upset. She is willing to do anything and everything for the people she loves, even if it means it could kill her.

Will Byers

Will was a shy, artistic boy from Hawkins, Indiana who loved to play DnD with his three best friends, Mike, Lucas and Dustin.

Mike Wheeler

The leader of the Party, he is the boyfriend of Eleven, the best friend of Dustin Henderson, Lucas Sinclair, Will Byers, and Max Mayfield and the younger brother of Nancy Wheeler

Brenner's experiments on Eleven were inspired by a real, illegal human experimentation program named Project MKUltra. Project MKUltra was conducted by the CIA between the 1950s and the 1970s in a bid to develop mind control techniques to help the Americans beat the Russians during the Cold War.

Monsters/Creatures from Stranger Things

The Vines

Underneath Hawkins, connecting the town to its dark counterpart, lays sentient, terrifying vines. They resemble tentacles and are super-strong, capable of tying up anyone they lure into their trap. The vines are also connected to a hive mind, so if one is alerted, the rest attack.

Demobats

Small, flying Demogorgons that can be attracted to certain locations by using loud noises.

Demodogs

The Demodogs aren't as strong as the full-gown Demogorgon, but they're still vicious and hard to kill, especially when there are so many of them and the Mind Flayer is controlling them via the hive mind

Demogorgon

A tall, humanoid creature with a gaping, terrifying mouth in place of a face. It also possesses some supernatural abilities, such as telekinesis.

The Spider Monster

A disgusting, fleshy, spider-shaped monster and a weapon of the Mind Flayer, formed from the remains of its victims and only capable of being stopped if it's cut off from the hive mind.

The Mind Flayer

A tentacled shadow monster that attacks physically and can also possess and control its victims

Vecna

Is a human who transformed into a monster when banished to the Upside Down by Eleven.

Dimension X

Experiments at the fictional Hawkins National Laboratory inadvertently lead to the opening of a portal to a parallel universe know as the "Upside Down" .

The Upside Down is an alternate dimension existing in parallel to the human world. The dimension originally consisted entirely of sprawling mountains and floating rocks, and was home to a race of humanoid predators. Somehow, the Upside Down transformed from its original state and became a perfect copy of the human world, exactly as it existed on November 6, 1983. However, unlike the human world, this new incarnation of the Upside Down was overrun with alien vines, spores and membranes, and completely devoid of human life.

There are portals (as explained by the science teacher, Mr. Clarke) that lead directly into the Upside Down from Hawkins

The Umbrella Academy

The Umbrella Academy is an American superhero streaming television series based on the comic book series of the same name written by Gerard Way, illustrated by Gabriel Bá, and published by Dark Horse Comics

The Time Travel Paradox

In The Umbrella Academy season 3, when Harlan Cooper accidentally killed the Hargreeves siblings' mothers before they could give birth to them, he created a paradox that gave birth to a kugelblitz; a concentrated black hole slowly destroying the entire universe.

What is a Black Hole?

A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing – no particles or even electromagnetic radiation such as light can escape from it. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can deform spacetime to form a black hole

I really like the different powers each character has, my favourites being no. 3 (mind control), 2 (perfect aim) and 5 (space and time travel). They are not something that I haven't seen in other movies with characters that have super powers but I think these are the powers that work the best with the character they were coupled up with in terms of story and personality.

The Umbrella Academy was actually  based on the comic book series of the same name written by Gerard Way, illustrated by Gabriel Bá, and published by Dark Horse Comics.

I really like the style in which the comics were made. Before researching them, I was expecting to see a very conventional DC/Marvel style but I was presently surprised. I like how geometric and stylised it is and the directors of the TV series found the perfect cast to play the characters. I think it is a style I can learn a lot from even though it isn't necessarily something I would go towards. I also find it quite similar to the Addams Family comics.

The References To The JFK Assassination.

The assassination of John F. Kennedy plays a major role in the second season of The Umbrella Academy. Diego is determined to stop Kennedy's death, but as he watches the moment from the Commission's Infinite Switchboard, he finds that the timeline has already been changed. The FBI building in Dallas explodes moments before JFK is set to be killed, and the distraction allows the president to drive away.

I personally, am not a fan of either shows but I can understand the appeal they might hold for their respective audiences (which I don't believe to be very different as both shows are pretty similar, only difference is one fights the supernatural and the other is about supernatural) . However, if I had to chose between the two, I would probably chose UA simply because I find the story of the hero siblings fighting not only evil but also each other more intriguing than ST.

[thenexusofsouls]

I love how you write Dr Strange and how he's pretty in character actually, because of course some MCU's characters would be unimpressed by the stuff going on around them. He's actually really good and unintentionally funny because there's the fandom who just wants to love Wanda, heal her, and also protect Mantis forever, and then Stephen is like "keep. these two. AWAY from me. mkay?" *continues to bottle shit up DESPITE EVERYTHING THE ANCIENT ONE TOLD HIM*

{i am the caretaker of souls} Awww, thank you! ^_^ I agree, he is unintentionally funny. And then sometimes he tries to be funny and falls flat on his face, heh. But yeah, he is uncomfortable around the empaths. He likes Mantis, though, and he doesn’t wish her any harm. And Wanda... he didn’t really know very well before DSMoM but he thought she was basically a good person, and felt badly for her with everything she’d been through. But after DSMoM... she’s just the source of a whole slew of uncomfortable emotions for him. Guilt, sympathy, anger, fear, and also maybe seeing more of himself in her than he ever wanted to.

He’s not unsympathetic. He thinks she’s got a few very strong points to make and that she’s been let down by a lot of people. He also understands how compelling the Darkhold is... firsthand after he events of the movie, in fact. But his underlying fear of people like her with her type of abilities and his anger/guilt over what she did at Kamar-Taj and to America is causing him to overcompensate in order to not be too kind to her. What I mean is... he wants to stay mad and distant, rather than admit that she’s a victim as well as an antagonist. Because the latter is very complicated and messy and emotions are scary, so it’s easier to just be angry and say SHAME ON YOU WANDA and condemn her.

The problem is... if he finds her after DSMoM, he can’t stay mad. Not completely. Especially now that he’s felt how compelling the DH is, he fully understands. He doesn’t condone, but he understands. And that combined with Wanda’s emotions (my version of her actually has her wanting to die and being disappointed and sad when she doesn’t) leaves Stephen unable to do anything other than treat her like a patient who needs help rather than an evil magic user who needs to be disciplined. He’s been that low in his life too. More than once. He knows how it feels, and he knows what the feeling of being utterly alone is like too. So he comes in angry, but leaves wanting to give her the help he wished he’d been open too earlier in his life.

Knowing she destroyed the DH (except for whatever he’s got memorized heh) also helps because he truly believes that Wanda wouldn’t have done most (of not all) of everything she did if not for the DH amplifying immorality and obsession in her thoughts. So I think that also makes him more willing to work with her and help her to recover, more than wanting to just imprison or eliminate her.

*shrugs* That’s just what I’ve done with my versions of Stephen and Wanda in post-DSMoM threads. Everyone has their own interpretations of all this stuff, and that’s actually been really interesting to read. So many threads, Stranges, and Wandas right now all over this site and I’m here for them all. =)

#{ i am the caretaker of souls } ᵒᵒᶜ #TW: suicidal ideation

[gentil-minou]

Hey anon. I wanted to share what you sent me but there was some personal information I wanted to keep private in case it might be triggering, that's why there are screenshots. Just know that I read it and I hear you as someone who went through some of the same things. Your pain is valid and I'm sorry that happened to you. I can say with belief and experience that the journey to heal is long and hard but it can be done, and I have faith that you will, too.

Now for the comments you made about the fandom's opinion of Adrien's abuse:

I totally agree with you in that sometimes salters will invalidate Adrien's abuse and it looks bad on them because in reality they are not invalidating just a character. They are actually invalidating their friends and family who are going through the same thing or find their experiences resonate with Adrien's. Unfortunately, I cannot say this surprises me because the real world is full of people who invalidate or criticize victim's of abuse. That's why we stick with those who do believe us and take us seriously. For every salter out there, there are tons more fans just enjoying the show and quite a few of them find they can relate too.

Adrien isn't real, you're right his story will end with a happy ending. The real world isn't so kind, and that's why we need to remember to treat others with kindness. I'm sure just by reading what you wrote that you do that with everyone you meet. If one day someone comes to you for aid, I am sure you will be able to empathize and support them. And in the meantime, I hope you continue to enjoy the show and the catharsis it provides you with.

Block salt, block people. Do what you can to create a safe and fun space for you. And remember no one, not me or other fans or salters, or show's creators, can tell you how a character is supposed to make you feel. That's the beauty of storytelling, the ability to interpret it the way we want and the way that comforts us.

Read more for image ID and description:

An ask by anonymous

I don't know if you are open to talk about it right now but is about how people in the fandom view adrien abuse. I may touch in some personal stuff and will have some harsh things in here I hope it doesn't make you uncomfortable, so here we go. Sorry for the bad English is not my language and I was also shaking writing this.

They say adrien is dumb for not stand up for himself in his house, or that he is just a sad little boy that is not true abused and that is just a stupid boy that needs to rebel from his father and a bunch of other stuff.

I hate these takes. I'm happy that these people are not in fact in abusive houses but they are spreading bad things about what abuse can be and how it affects and happens.

It was a surprise to me see people just grab gabriel abuse just in chat blanc because it was physical (also mentally but people just focus on the physical) even tough he is showing it from the beginning of the series and I won't take this as the show made it bad because they also don't take a bunch of other stuff that literally comes out of the characters mouth, maybe they just don't care and want to sound intelligent making these posts.

[skip]

now that I'm better I hear these post and question myself what does these people have in mind? But them I remembered the images of preventing bullying were they say for the victims to say no, that they don't like being bullied and these people are exactly like that! The outcome of adrien talking to his father can be made on the show as something incredible but in real life it can come with punishment, with big and hurtful punishment.

[skip]

For adrien problaly is the same of course without some parts but he have the same difficulty as me in communicating and isolation also some things he does and acts makes totally sense to me because of all my past and present.

So yeah adrien is called a lot of names but when it comes to another gender people changes their views and their actions. It don't help anyone and when you said something to them they just ignore. Is not a good thing to a post like of them have so many notes and people act like they are the victims because "finally someone understands me" but they don't stop to think why people don't agree with them.

I just needed to put that outside, I'm sorry this is just a burden but they totally make the word stand up dirty. I just hope these people change. Be rescued is not weak, being afraid is not weakness and you are not lazy or dumb. I wanted to know that before.

#i hope it's okay that i didn't publish the whole thing i just didn't want to surprise folks with triggering content but i also wanted t #to make sure you felt heard and seen #asked and answered #anonymous #ml fandom salt #adrien agreste #mental health #tw 'abuse'

[reilliane]

Ilmestys ✥ Ⅰ

YIN AND YANG

✤ she/her

Summary: [Name] hints at a possible escape from her prison, and Chongyun tries to grasp the idea of having a spirit not fleeing from him right away.

※_────── ~ _ ❅ · ♰ · ❅ _ ~ ──────_※

,

"Just my luck, I suppose,"

The same wolf from a minute earlier appears in a black mist beside the spirit, pawing the ground with a low growl echoing from its throat.

A hand caresses the top of its hand, muting its threatening voice and reducing it to a loving grunt.

Chongyun flexes his fingers around the handle of his claymore, his stance not presenting any opening lest the familiar attacks.

Seeing this, the [c]-haired spirit crosses her arms, scrutinizing his form up and down as if appraising something.

Not a second later, she drops her arms and shakes her head, saying,

".. That energy is extraordinary—but you don't have it under control. What a disappointment," he recoils, stunned, "And here I thought you're my ticket out of this place. Ah, what a pity."

Is she...

The exorcist can't help but fidget under her derisive eyes, the blackness of her sclera doing nothing but agitate him further.

Is she insulting me?

The realization sends fire swimming in his blood, heating his temperature at the sheer audacity this- this girl has to say to him. He has met a couple of rude people, but never to this extent!

He hasn't encountered anyone who has no filter in mocking his abilities.

Yes, he still may not be in full control of his Yang energy, but his travels with Aether aided him in learning how to manage it better than before!

Ah—Aaaah, it's not like isn't used to receiving these scornful jabs (like those who couldn't believe his ability to ward off spirits just by sitting in their house), but this is... this is just too surprising!

An exorcist—being mocked by a spirit, who comments on how he lacks proper management with his positive essence. What derision!

He can't believe such an entity exists!

Oh right... she's, well, evil.

"I'd prefer you silence yourself. You know nothing about me, after all," he says with a measured tone, careful not to be swayed by the works of a supernatural being. A malignant one, at that, "Spirit."

Her visage clenches visibly at this, her lips pursing as she kissed her teeth. She doesn't look too happy being referred to as one, even when she's nothing but a fragment of who she used to be.

Does she not like being reminded that she's dead? He can understand that at the very least. Even he won't be able to adjust existing as a spirit when there's still so much that life has to offer.

Ah, no, no, Chongyun, he scolds himself with a disapproving shake of his head. This is what she wants you to feel—to pity- to empathize.

Classic for those who aimed to possess vulnerable people.

The notion of the victims who probably surrendered to the dark arts of this intimidating Yin-spirit... oh, it's getting harder and harder to keep himself from bursting. But he knows better.

He mustn't be strung along her obvious works to pull him six feet under.

He's read about all kinds of evil and their tricks to manipulate humans into feeling any kind of negative sentiments, for they feed off negative energy.

And—knowing that this girl in front of him is a literal counterpart of his; a host with excess Yin, it won't do him good if she's able to sap his energy.

"Yeah, yeah, okay, I'm going to get going now." says the [c]nette with an intricate roll of her eyes,

"If you don't want to be like me, it'd be better if you tuck your tail and scram. This place ain't for the likes of Yang."

You'll get corrupted. She means.

He's heard of it from his family of exorcists and read about it in the scrolls that spoke of every known thing regarding the behaviors of those to be exorcised—from demons to poltergeists, you name it.

Corruption is an affliction akin to an illness.

Everyone has a small seed of corruption, budding continuously when they continue to feed it with negative energy and sentiments such as anger and despondence.

The process is referred to as the darkening. No one is ultimately safe from it, hence why exorcists tend to meditate when they're driven by negativity.

He is no exception, though he's more difficult to succumb to it due to his Yang.

To be honest, he is surprised that the spirit informs of this before she departs.

One is not aware of their own darkening, after all, and they will not be in their right state of mind when they're fully encompassed by it—when they're corrupted.

He falters because of this, astounded.

This is the first—... oh.. no.

He can't really be the judge of that because this is his first and only (he hopes not) encounter with a spirit that didn't run away or fade into existence within the initial seconds of sensing his aura.

From his fellow exorcists' stories, however, there aren't any evil spirits who show an ounce of concern for people.

Especially to exorcists.

Obviously.

Chongyun snaps out of his stupefaction when he notices that the unnamed girl is beginning to depart for good, her trusty wolf familiar ambling after her with a wag of its tail.

She's really about to—without even... !?

"W-Wait!" he's not able to contain his shock, his voice already betraying him before he can even realize it.

He drops the weight of his Archaic on the ground, though his clutch remains on the handle in case a battle does spike up.

The [c]nette swivels, her expression exasperated as she places her hands on her hips.

The exorcist stops in his steps, swallowing at the eye contact. He's certainly not going to get used to seeing the atypical colorization of her sclera.

The very feature is straight out of a fairytale; a grim one without a happy end.

The surface of her skin chips off a little as she clicks her tongue in impatience, revealing the blackness inside. It nearly mutes him for the second time, but he quickly recovers from being stupefied with a bunch of blinks. He really ought to stop being carried away.

"You're not-?" he's unsure how to word his question.

Possess me?

Attack me?

I don't know, maybe even corrupt me??

Either way, she's able to decipher what he wanted to ask by the look on his face.

You won't hold it against him, what you're doing is very unusual for... normal malevolent beings.

Although there's a reason for being malevolent (not just because you harbor excessive Yin), it's not like you plan to smite every single human you come across. Seriously, being stereotyped is such a pain in the ass.

It doesn't help that this Yang-guy is an exorcist! Can you even call him that?

With his overflowing congenital positivity, it's a definite fact that he's had complications with proper exorcism.

What a pity. And he can't even control it for the life of him.

"Standing this close is making me nauseous," you groan, stepping back and widening the distance between you and the bluenette, "What is it? I may have until the end of time to wait, but I'm not a patient person, Yang. So out with it."

The first thing he does is frown.

There's plenty of reasons as to why he showed genuine offense, but you're not up for it—seriously, you may not flee, but that doesn't mean the feeling when you're near him is pleasant.

It's the exact opposite.

You feel like you're burning just by talking to him and you're not fond of that at all. He's utterly oblivious to this, of course.

Other than knowing that he's aware of what his excess Yang can do to spirits, he's not aware of the tiny, tiny details that spell why they flee the instant he's near.

You never had a Pyro Vision, but it sure as hell feels like you're drowning in a sea of fire.

"Yang..." he says in a strained whisper, as if he's grateful and hateful of it at the same time, "Don't call me that."

You groan, unable to control your shiver. Definitely not because of his Cryo.

"Shit, even your voice is painful to listen to."

His lips part open, appalled at your comment.

Ah crap, you said that out loud.

At his reaction, you raise your hands in surrender.

No shade! You mean it literally!

It's like there are dozens of knives digging into your ears whenever he speaks. Because of this, you're unable to hear his voice clearly.

There's always some interference like you're submerged underwater. To top it all off, just looking at him is enough to make you go blind!

There's this aura of pure white (literally just Yang) around him, flickering like the tips of a flame—a white flame.

And you know better than to touch a flame.

"Are you or are you not going to speak?" you demand, impatience evident in your tone, influencing your wolf to start growling.

You do not do anything to tame him now, it is better to imply that you're not willing to wait for him to speak.

The exorcist stiffens at the puissant malice, an outline of blue starting to trace his claymore in preparation to unleash cryo lest you attack.

You bite back the urge to sigh.

You only ever attacked because he did it first!

"Why aren't you doing anything?"

FInally.

You lift your chin with another click of your tongue. Gosh, was it that difficult to ask something? It took him a solid two minutes.

Eh, that doesn't matter now.

"Possess you? Corrupt? Sorry, Yang," he frowns again, "But I don't do those kinds of things. I have something to fulfill, and possessing random humans won't help me in my goal."

He makes another attempt to interrogate you on the spot, but you're not having it.

You're not going to waste time making small talk when you can search for things that can actually help you out. So you raise a hand and start waving it, unimpressed.

"No, I'm not here to play twenty questions. You asked enough. I'm dying just talking to you and I'm already dead."

The poor exorcist flinches at this, but you can only laugh. He's not one for dark humor, huh? Ah, that should be expected, he's basically a child of positivity—he will not be able to handle you at all.

"Besides," you turn away, "You're deliberately pushing yourself off a safe cliff just being near me. The darkening will consume you, you wouldn't want that, right? I'm doing us both a favor."

You don't plan to stick around, anyway, so you vanish in black fire. There's an echo of his stutter, but you dismiss it.

There's no need to.

As much as his ability as Yang is of tremendous aid, the fact that he cannot control it is beyond dismaying.

You're not going to risk the chances of evaporating into thin air, to be nullified from existence, just because he doesn't have it in him to manage his congenital positivity.

You're not going to disappear now.

Not yet.

✥﹤┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈﹥✥

「 Ilmestys's Scrying Glass 」 Ilmestys/Rancor Taglist

「 Joint Book : Rancor / Xiao 」

a/n: did i mention that this is an enemies to lovers fic because it is ehkjhfewgfe also- i mentioned it in rancor but will mention it here, too~ this is post-genshin au! i.. don't know what happens after the game but this takes place after Aether left Teyvat with Lumine. Assuming Teyvat isn't snapped away lmao.

✥taglist✥

@windyventi @lost-in-alula @alatusorrow

#chongyun #chongyun x reader #reader insert #post genshin au #chongyun fluff #chongyun angst #enemies to lovers fic

[tenthgrove]

La Squadra with a teammate who has a stand that gives them empathic masochism? Kind of like highway to hell from part 6, they can harm or inflict pain on a target by inflicting damage upon their own body!

Eye For An Eye

La Squadra x Reader (GN), Platonic/Romantic, SFW

Content Warning: Self-inflicted injury

Formaggio- Well, given that he has to cut himself to use his stand, Formaggio kind of gets the deal with your stand to a lesser extent. He appreciates your stand but is still open about how having such a power sucks. He’s always happy to commiserate with you after a particularly tough mission. Nothing helps absolve you of the numbness like a good talk with your pal Formaggio.

Illuso- He’s not really used to getting hurt on a mission. Having the ability to prevent all stands and weapons from entering the mirror world, battles tend to be quite one sided for him. Consequently, he’s perhaps one of the more squeamish of the team, though he’ll go to great lengths to hide it. Seeing your stand in action always turns his stomach a bit, but again, he’ll brush it off if you ask him he’s okay. He always keeps a worried eye on you over the next few days.

Prosciutto- You’re clearly a highly brave person to volunteer yourself for danger when your main defence is such a masochistic stand. He admires you greatly for that reason and encourages your potential, whilst also dissuading against recklessness. He mentors you on how to assess the situation to decide the correct level of response- vital in using such a potentially self-endangering stand.

Pesci- Do you have to use your stand to win? Sorbet and Gelato don't have fighting stands and they still take on targets. Maybe you could try learning to fight the way they do? It's just that... Pesci really hates seeing you in pain. Furthermore, if you want to use your stand as a primary weapon then you would have to injure yourself quite severely, which is dangerous! If you must use your stand, then make sure he's nearby when you do, okay? He wants to be able to be there for you so he can patch you up as quick as possible.

Melone- As the team’s de facto medic, Melone is frequently assigned to work with you to stop you accidentally maiming yourself on a mission. He teaches you how to injure yourself in a way that causes maximum pain without causing lethal blood loss. He also encourages you to get creative, buying you a set of electrodes so you can disable your opponents through pain while minimising permanent damage to your body. Failing that, he knows how to patch you up.

Ghiaccio- Converse to Melone, he can help you hurt yourself without suffering, leaving you with solely physical scars to worry about. He can chill your flesh with White Album to the point your sense of pain is numbed, all making your stand much more pleasant to use. Your victim on the other hand, is not so lucky. Ghiaccio is the one you go to when a mission requires you to really hurt yourself. It makes it much more bearable.

Risotto- He's no stranger to letting himself suffer in order to win a battle, and it's part of the secret to his seeming invincibility. Any attempts by his targets to throw him off his tracks with pain just don't work like they do on a normal person. It's like he's immune to feeling pain. Risotto appreciates the necessities of your stand and will not stop you from utilising it well. His only request is that you do not needlessly harm himself beyond what is necessary for winning the battle. Like any teammate, you are very important to him.

Sorbet and Gelato- Damn. They can certainly admire you. Sorbet and Gelato are always fans of the morbid. It’s different if it’s one of their team getting hurt, but as long as you’re fine with it and it isn’t harming your mental/physical health long-term, then frankly they think you and your stand are fucking awesome! They actually envy your stand a little because it’s so cool a concept, and will reassure you often about it’s usefulness. You’re so strong, and you just need to see that.

#la squadra #la squadra x reader #la squadra di esecuzione #formaggio #formaggio x reader #illuso #illuso x reader #prosciutto #prosciutto x reader #pesci #pesci x reader #melone #melone x reader #ghiaccio #ghiaccio x reader #risotto nero #risotto nero x reader #sorbet and gelato #sorbet and gelato x reader #self-harm cw

[blushnik]

I love love your works and posts. Always looking forward to more content from you. Anyways my question is that in Punisher season 2 really trashed billy. What do you think about it. Personally I Hate Krista and Madani. Do you think billy and frank would have eventually started a relationship if billy hadn't been outed for betrayal.

*SOBBING HAPPY NOISES* Lemme just- uh, lemme calm down, this was so much praise I didn't expect to see when opening the inbox 😭🙏💙💙💙💙💙💙

Okay, now to your question *breathing exercises initiated*

First, I just wanna say that I kinda pushed the entire season 2 out of my mind, especially THAT part (y'all know what I'm talking about, I ain't gonna say it out loud) cause it just really hurts but xD I think I can handle it for this one occasion.

Season 2 really went ahead and said: Let's just punish Billy Russo for 13 episodes straight, yeah? Cause the show's name is PUNISHER. And he's PUNISHER's nemesis, right? So we PUNISH him, that makes sense, right? *clown mask here* And people will totally cheer when we finally get rid of him cause he's BAD and deserved to be PUNISHED, RIGHT? *clown levels intensify*

Lemme just point out that Billy Russo DID get his punishment when Frank introduced him, quite intimately, to a mirror. He suffered consequences of it during his coma in his dreams and after with memory loss and all conditions that came with it. And that'd be okay to have at the start but NOT FOR THIRTEEN FKING EPISODES.

You can't beat up a character that much, for that long, and then expect us to be cheering when he meets the shittiest end you could possibly think of. Not to even mention the monumental waste of potential in that story.

Remembering what he did and being told what he did are two VERY different things. If he doesn't remember shit then ofc it doesn't make sense to him how could he ever betray Frank like that. For all he knows, everyone just turned against HIM and made up this lie, his best friends and people he cared about going after him for – in Billy's eyes – no reason. Forget Maria and kids and Rawlins, just the fact my best friend, the only person I ever truly felt connected to and trusted and cared about ground my face against a broken mirror would be A LOT to process.

I seriously expected Billy to remember what he's done somewhere in the middle but somehow the writers thought new characters nobody cares about and an overly complex plot is a better way to go? That letting Billy be just a confused screaming crying mess for the entirety of season 2 while ten meaningless subplots get resolved so he can die right after will somehow work?

Look, I get he was supposed to lose everything he had in season 1, that being not only his wealth and company and good looks (he's still hot shut up and those feeble scars, bitch, what was that, Shadow and Bone did a better job at doing accurate scars) but also his self-control, his control over his emotions, composure, his ability to keep his cool, smooth-talking, etc.

But you can't let him be the victim and then expect the audience to not empathize with him or feel sorry for him and to NOT be okay when he dies right after it seems he finally found some peace, happiness, and love (I hate Krista too but shit, he was so happy with those stupid flowers, Ben sure knew what he was doing when he gave those blue flowers to Alina right before everything turned to shit).

Granted, he did shitty things in season 1 and season 2 too but the difference is this;

In season 1, those were his conscious choices. He never was a victim even in his own story. He knew he stepped on other people in order to get himself higher, he decided when it comes down to it, better someone else than him. He decided that after building himself up, no price was too great to pay just to make sure he was never hitting the bottom again and he had no problem with doing it because he's incapable of compassion and 'even though he loves Frank more than anything or anyone, Billy loves himself just a bit more' – Ben Barnes' words, not mine.

But in season 2, he doesn't know about any of that. He does feel like a victim because from his POV, everyone is simply attacking and somebody close to him hurt him for things he can't believe he did because at that point, he believed he would NEVER be capable of doing such things. And when he does something shitty – it's because he feels attacked, he feels like he needs to protect himself and that he's pushed towards it.

Pretty fking hard to see him as a villain, at least for me -.-

It's almost like the writers were too scared to explore that emotional turmoil and impact it would have on him and how it'd change his character if he remembered. Which is SUCH a shame it hurts. Ben Barnes has put so much nuance and depth into Billy's character, he had dimensions and so many layers so just imagine what it would be to have all of that go through some serious angst and explore his relationship with Frank further.

But no.

Instead, we get this imitation of angst where Billy Russo becomes a punching bag and we're supposed to go OOOH HE STILL EVIL BITCH when he darest to punch back.

And don't get me started on the worst character kill-off I've ever seen. Just no. I am not even sharing my opinions on this cause it's too much to think about.

So there you have it, season 2 is trash in my opinion, they really did Billy so dirty while throwing in subplots and characters that were absolutely unnecessary to have. It could totally be just about Frank and Billy trying to come to some closure (violent or not) and maybe Dinah sprinkled in cause she got a lot of beef with Billy too.

Now just to quickly answer the other question, would they have started the relationship eventually if Billy wasn't outed for betrayal?

Marvel and the Mouse are cowards so ofc not in the canon, but in my humble hcs opinion, ofc YES. Frank's the only one Billy feels a connection with and vice versa. And while it's easier for Frank to care for other people than it is for Billy (since, unlike Billy, Frank is capable of compassion), nobody gets him and accepts him the way Billy does. I like to think of that quote from the Darkling for this:

"I've seen what you truly are and I've never turned away."

That's Billy @ Frank. Together with the reasons, I listed in the previous ask where I pointed out how they complement each other ^^

PS: I just wanna say I actually love Dinah but it may be because of my hcs. She was really getting on my nerves at the beginning and then I just made up stuff in my head that made me really fond of her, like Dinah dating Karen Page and being the good bro for Frank and Billy.

Thank you for the reading if you made it this far, THANK YOU for the kind words and keep invading my inbox if you like 🥰💙💙

#asks #brank #frankenbilly #billy russo x frank castle #frank x billy #more brank rant #i love you anon 💙

[asuglyasiseem]

Hello my INSANE Will-Graham-Is-Trans-Coded essay is about halfway done at this point and I’m posting my progress here in hopes that someone will give me some kind of feedback? I’m literally just writing a goddamn manifesto for my own enjoyment/hyperfixation/therapy as I haven’t written an essay since college. I’m also citing various peoples’ metas and stuff from here. CW for the usual Hannibal stuff as well as liberal use of the words vagina/female with regards to transmasculinity, mention of SA/r*pe

First, because of the depiction of Will Graham’s mind as vaginal, and because of his alienation from traditional masculinity that that vaginality causes him, I am defining him as a metaphorical transmasculine figure: a man whose talent is coded as debilitatingly female. Graham is introduced as a thirty-something professor at the FBI academy, antisocial despite his intelligence and physical ability. The reason for his alienation is his “pure empathy” disorder, a way of “[feeling] way too much” (“It’s a Matter of Taste"). This is a pure fantasy invention, explained at points as “too many mirror neurons” (cite). He describes it as manifesting “[close to] Asperger’s and autistics” (1.01). This makes him a medical and psychological curiosity, although he avoids professional attention, as well as leading to his recruitment as an FBI Special Agent by Jack Crawford. Crawford gives him a job as a criminal profiler; he visits particularly brutal crime scenes and, alone in the room, imagines himself acting out the crimes of the murderers, including their feelings. The murderers’ thoughts, feelings, and actions, lingering at their crime scenes, penetrate his overly empathetic (empathic?words lol) mind. Unfortunately, he cannot compartmentalize these penetrations. Like a trauma survivor, he finds motifs, urges, and feelings from these scenes following him into his psychic life. At times, his control slips, and he will blurt out a thought from one of the killers rather than himself (cite?).

Will constantly being described as “liquid”/ “fluid”

Graham’s power, rather than lying in a masculine field such as analysis, forensics, or violence, is distinctly feminized; his mind is a psychological vessel for violent men, whose penetrations corrupt him, body and soul.

Secondly, Graham is non-functional socially as a masculine figure. He has no close personal relationships, instead rescuing stray dogs. At one point, he initiates a kiss with his colleague, but she rejects him because he is “too unstable” (cite). In his past as a police officer, he retired because he was unable to shoot and kill a dangerous suspect, an obvious phallic failure in a show full of weapons. In addition, the show sets up Will’s unfulfilled longing to be a parent through Abigail Hobbs, the daughter of a serial killer who he catches and kills in the show’s opening episode.

Throughout the narrative, Will’s masculinity is contrasted with the masculinity of his boss and paternal figure Jack Crawford. Crawford, despite his tenderness and care for Will, often misunderstands him, either patronizing him or treating his unique needs with impatient scorn. In the first episode, Crawford asks him about his autism, leaning down to gently push up his glasses and force him to make eye contact (Fig 1). Crawford and Graham frequently clash over his inability to compartmentalize and deal with the workload Crawford puts on him, emphasizing how Crawford misunderstands the toll the work takes and expects him to be functional in ways that he’s not. In Jack’s world, the properly emotionally repressed, masculine world of the father, there is no reverence for either Will’s vulnerability or his talent. In addition, Jack’s relationship with Will is caught between the personal (as his quasi-father-figure) and the professional. Jack ultimately values Will’s importance as a tool over his personhood, and a tool that needs to function correctly within its place to be valuable. This further communicates to the viewer that Will’s existence is something unique and dysfunctionally extra-masculine.

If Jack Crawford represents the morally correct masculinity of the father, Hannibal Lecter is a morally neutral, but highly destructive masculine power. It is not a functional masculinity, but a pure force of masculine power that exists beyond good and evil, and even beyond traditional gender and sexuality roles. Hannibal’s pansexuality- Tobias, Will, Alana 3some. The show’s creators represent Lecter as he sees himself, as a godlike figure. A few sentences about Hannibal and god?

Although Lecter is somewhat queer-coded, he’s also by far the most functional, moral, and successful character on the show, a kind of modern renaissance man who charms and is useful to everyone around him. His life is immaculately groomed, planned, and predictable, “without friends, family, or messy romantic attachments” (ailichi). However, as a surgeon and a serial cannibal, he is deeply involved in the work of life and death through bodily violence. At one key early moment, Graham watches Lecter perform emergency surgery on a dying man in the back of an ambulance. Graham and Lecter make sustained eye contact while Lecter is wrist-deep in the man’s chest. At this moment, Graham realizes Lecter not only has the skill set to be the killer, the Chesapeake Ripper, but also more broadly that he possesses the great power to reach into bodies and determine who lives and who dies- he is not simply some fussy European with strange taste.

In general Lecter’s cannibalism is in contrast with his overtly immaculate life- it is a “‘dirty’ crime; gore and liquidity and uncivilisation”. It reveals his true “fertility and passion and eroticism in the quiet abiotic clinical sterility that is his life … his only vice in the eyes of the world… is actually the only thing that humanises him” (ailichi). His dinners with the other characters, in which he feeds them his victims, represent not simply a joke he is playing on them, but also his only ability to provide for and connect honestly with those around him.

Lecter therefore for the viewer and for Graham, comes to represent the truth of a masculinity that can be accessed by them- an amoral masculinity that includes breaking the boundaries of the body, as is Graham’s mind’s power. Lecter and Graham quickly connect intellectually; he is in a unique position to understand the violation, the pleasure, and the shame involved in Graham’s work, because his own humanity depends on his ability to break the boundaries of the body and mind in a way that is too messy and bodily to be simply masculine. The abject as corrupting the gendered?

#trans will graham #will graham #hannibal #nbc hannibal #hannibal lecter #hannigram #diary #ftm will graham #hannibal meta

[softer-ua]

I wanted to explain a bit of Bakugo's 'jealousy' to Deku starting new friendships, I think it's more a matter of insecurity rather than jealousy. Like Bakugou can't empathize as naturally as other people, most of the time he can't identify his own emotions and has an attitude that people, in general, disapprove.

He is aware of this and is one of the main reasons why he resented Izuku, he had all this traits and used them effortless.

I think what bothers him the most is how easily this people who meet Izuku for less than a year can bond so well with him with little effort. I think he mainly is upset with how others can say what they mean...and he doesn't.

I think it's more of him being insecure and petty, he really is not that angry, but...sad. It also points out how he was the one who threw away their friendship.

Ugh, everytime I stop and think about Bakugo I get sad, he is still a jerk but i'm glad he got a second chance and upset in how people doesn't stop to notice he really doesn't want to screw his second opportunity

I couldn’t agree more

I think the saddest part is that until recently Katsuki couldn’t articulate any of those thoughts, like it’s hard to imagine for more well adjusted people just how pure and raw Katsuki was really running on just a “This situation makes me feel bad and it needs to not” baseline

It’d be like living your entire life with a thought on the tip of your tongue but always out of grasp, but it’s with just about everything that isn’t a hands on skill.

Empathy is very much a skill you have to learn to use correctly and grow it. We’re all born with the ability to be compassionate but if you don’t grow up in a home that values that and encourages you to use it than you won’t have the guidance need it for it to flourish.

It’s even worse in homes where it’s actively discouraged purposely or not, the child ends up trying to suppress on of the key elements to the human experience.

Katsuki is someone who naturally feels a lot but is never taught how to deal with them, all he’s ever learned is that if you don’t like someone’s behavior being angry will stop them. When the only tool you have is a hammer every problem looks like a nail.

Katsuki feels like there’s something special and unique about Deku that makes him more heroic, but no one else around him seems to see it or acknowledge it. Which I can only imagine feels like a constant undercurrent of gaslighting.

Deku never wins at anything but he still reminds Katsuki of AM in a way he quite literally can’t explain, and it’s something that he knows/feels he’s lacking.

Not only is Deku naturally kinder, he’s also grown to make it instinctive. He doesn’t have to think about it, he’s not bound to a “what do I say” mentality because he’s comfortable enough to know that his goal to save everyone with a smile shines through.

He’s mastered the art of making people feel seen and understood, and as he gets older he starts adding more practical hero skills to his tool belt.

This scares the absolute shit out of Katsuki because he doesn’t understand or see himself, and doesn’t want others to either. He wants to project the idea of strength and victory without any of the human vulnerability attached to it.

But regardless of how calloused, afraid of vulnerability, and closed off you get, no one out runs the desire to feel connected. Katsuki underneath everything is suffering from a profound amount of isolation, that is often self inflicted to keep control.

Katsuki is smart and physically gifted, it doesn’t take much to master something and make it muscle memory for him which makes his reflexes insane. But it’s not instinctive, Deku can walk into a situation blind and figure out what the objective is and how to achieve it as long as his body can keep up with his mind.

Katsuki needs a clear objective, telling him to rescue or win isn’t enough. Left to his own devices he will achieve those ends and nothing else, if the victims are physically rescued he’s not sticking around to make sure they feel safe, if the objective is to defeat a villain than everyone else better get out of his way. Katsuki needs to feel in control and to make guesses leaves you open to getting things wrong.

It’s not until he’s pretty much directly told he needs to be kinder and more careful about how he goes about things does his behavior change. Which has lead to an avalanche of character growth, because before now Katsuki had a very pinhole view of what being a hero is being he fit in the hole no one corrected him until reality slapped him in the face.

Deku had to have a full picture, and that’s why now even if he doesn’t know wtf is going on he’s very quick to put the context clues together and understand the quirks around him and the objective because he’s okay with getting things wrong and trying again.

Basically Katsuki has been very lonely and confused for like 90% of his life, and he keeps learning how much of that is his own fault ☹️

#softy answers #this got much more rambly than intended my bad 😅

[jokertrap-ran]

(光与夜之恋 Light and Night) Main Story Chapter 3-14: 海水与火焰 Seawater & Flames Translation

“The more capable you are, the more troublesome the things you have to take care of.“

*Light and Night Master-list *Spoiler free: Translations will remain under cut *Join the Light & Night Discord (＾▽＾)~ ♪ *Main story tag will be #For Light and Night

❖ Location: Abandoned Building

The old store heralded the arrival of another wave of visitors.

A black sedan car stopped under the shade of trees. A tall and built figure exited from the passenger's side of the car, standing in front of the door that had been left unlocked.

Evan scrutinized the ground before the door.

 He turned to shoot Zhou Yan a look before he strode through the entrance.

❖☆———————————★❖

Osborn took away the small piece of orange-coloured paper on my fingertips. 

I snapped back to reality. My tears had already slid down my cheek to the edges of my mouth. Osborn brought his thin, calloused, fingers up to my face, gently wiping the tears away.

Osborn: What's wrong?

MC: ……

I stared blankly at my palm, feeling a stifling feeling in my chest.

Here it was again. This feeling didn't belong to me. Once, twice, thrice… It had occurred with such frequency in my life that I was dying to know just what it was.

MC: Just now…

Osborn: What?

MC: You might not believe me, but when I touched that piece of paper earlier, I felt something very strong from it.

Osborn: You felt something very strong?

MC: I felt warmth and hatred that didn't belong to me, and with acute clarity.

MC: As if another soul was living within me.

Osborn slightly furrowed his brow in thought.

Osborn: Is this the first time something like this has happened?

MC: No. This has already happened thrice recently.

And it got fiercer and much stronger each time it happened. It was something I couldn't control.

Osborn lowered his eyes, his expression gradually turning serious.

Osborn: That's probably your "Ability".

MC: …."Ability"?

Osborn: It's an inherent special ability that you were born with. If my guess is right, it should fall in the spiritual category...

Osborn: You're an Empath.

MC: An Empath? And what's that?

Osborn: You can see things that others cannot. Or perhaps you can feel lingering emotions that have been left behind on items. They all fall under Empathy.

MC: I can feel… emotions that have been left behind on things? And I can see things that others can't?

MC: Are you sure you’re not talking about something that can only happen in fantasy movies?

I looked up at him incredulously, unable to help the scoff that escaped me. I thought he was joking with me. But when he maintained his serious look, I started to inwardly panic.

Since he said that I could feel things…

I quickly reached out towards the skull necklace that he wore.

A surge of anger exploded in my heart, followed by the cold emptiness of having no place to belong to. It felt as if the whole world had turned onto a single, innocent, soul.

MC: This necklace… I feel a strong thrum of anger coming from it. Have you been wronged in the past?

Osborn dropped his gaze, removing his necklace from my grasp.

Osborn: That happened a long time ago. Do you believe in your own ability now?

I quickly sorted out and digested the huge amount of information packed in his words, and even bigger questions made themselves known.

MC: But, why would I have an Ability like this? I’ve been living a normal life for the past 23 years...

Osborn: Looks like it's time for you to get to know yourself again.

Osborn: Actually, I started suspecting that you might be one when you mentioned my blue flames. Ordinary people can't see my flames.

MC: ...So the blue flames I saw in the afternoon were real? Is that your ability?

The words had only barely left my mouth before deep-blue flames erupted, appearing within his palm once more, lighting up the dark space.

I never thought that there’d be a day where I’d be put in relation to these seemingly preposterous terms. I repeatedly questioned myself inwardly: Is this really happening?

But, with the flame currently burning within Osborn’s palm, the sudden wave of emotion I felt in my head, and the strange man who was suspected of draining his victims...

All these things that shouldn’t make any realistic sense at all were now happening before my eyes. What else is there to doubt?

Looking into Osborn’s eyes that reflected the dancing flames, I felt like I’d touched upon the reticulated network of blood vessels that were behind the world.

And I had a faint inkling that these invincible blood vessels had long since interwoven themselves into my past and future, just that they’d never come to my notice.

When I snapped back to my senses, I turned to look at Osborn, only to find that I still had a huge pile of questions for him...

★Night Choice: When did you realize that you had an Ability?

MC: When did you figure that you had an Ability, Osborn?

Osborn: When I was a kid. I happened to find out by chance when I got into a fight with someone.

MC: ...So you won the fight with your Ability?

Osborn: Yes and no. We didn't actually throw hands or anything. They all got spooked from the heat in the air and scrammed before that.

MC: Did you find that many things changed after finding out that you had an Ability?

He shot me a look, raising his hand and flexing his fingers in the same manner as one would when playing with something soft and squishy, manipulating the shape of his flames.

Osborn: There's nothing particularly different. This word's still the same.

Osborn: But the more capable you are, the more troublesome the things you have to take care of.

MC: Oh… You're right. I mean, you've always been protecting me.

Osborn: So quick to write yourself off as trouble?

MC: But since I have an Ability now, I can protect you in the future too.

Osborn smiled as he retracted his flames. He patted my head.

Osborn: Your Ability naturally has strong points where it excels in, but you can't go forcefully barging in headfirst when things get dangerous.

MC: Got it!

☆Light Choice: How has your Ability affected you?

MC: You must have found out about your own Ability a long time ago. Did it affect you?

MC: Did you feel different from others around you, for example? Do you feel… segregated from people?

He paused for a while, as if I’d hit the bullseye, but his usual carefree smile quickly returned.

Osborn: Nothing that serious.

Osborn: 'Sides, don't I still have you?

Osborn smiled as he retracted his flames. He patted my head.

The icy feeling of emptiness, of having no place to belong, that had its grip on my heart all these while suddenly subsided.

Yes; it doesn’t matter whether I accept this Ability or not, for it is a fact that this Ability exists within me whether I like it or not. The trouble that may come with it may be inevitable, but fate is still something that can be affected by choice.

MC: Suddenly, I feel like it’s not all that bad being one of the odd ones out. I mean, you’re with me after all!

As soon as the words left my mouth, Osborn suddenly looked at me with a deep and inexplicable look, almost as if he’d just unexpectedly fallen into a vortex of memories.

It was obvious enough that he was thinking about something. Shock, joy, doubt, among a myriad of many other emotions that I couldn’t quite put a finger on buried bright in his eyes, like embers of a smouldering flame.

Seeing him like this made my heart thump loud and violent in my chest. I had a fleeting delusion in his trance-like moment: perhaps those memories he was reminiscing had something to do with me...

MC: ...What's wrong?

After a moment’s silence, he broke eye contact, lowering his eyes with a somewhat self-deprecating laugh and shaking his head.

Osborn: Nothing. It’s just that someone once told me the exact same thing you did back in the past.

Osborn: Unfortunately, I only ever saw her once.

So that's what it was…

MC: You never know, you might meet them again one day. Aren’t all encounters a long-awaited reunion after all?

Osborn merely smiled. When he looked back up this time, his usual playful expression had eased back in almost naturally.

Osborn: My bad; I digressed from the topic. What was I talking about again…? Oh, Abilities.

Osborn: Okay. Don't overthink things.

Osborn: You need to understand that you can use your Ability, but you must also lead a normal life. You're not all that different from the average Joe.

Osborn: Also, your Ability doesn't seem to have stabilized yet. In any case, don't tell anyone else about it; got it?

MC: Okay.

Osborn: Good. Now we have something much more important to do.

MC: Yeah.

I nodded, holding up the small shred of orange paper between my fingers.

MC: If I’m not wrong, I think the one who left this piece of paper behind was the same guy who attacked me before.

Osborn shot me an approving look.

Osborn: Looks like you CAN find him.

MC: I'll try.

I focused hard, concentrating as I carefully touched each door.

These doors didn’t invoke any special feelings within me. I was starting to think that my so-called Ability was actually just a fluke… Until a stabbing pain erupted in my head!

Grief, fear, despair… It felt almost as if all the deep dark emotions to ever exist in the world were assaulting me at once.

I could already feel the strong emotions seeping out from the door before me despite not having touched it.

Osborn: This one?

MC: ...Yeah.

Osborn signalled for me to step back and was just about to bring the door down when a small noise came from behind it.

MC: !?

I grabbed him by the sleeve and he instantly nodded in understanding.

I watched as he knelt down, taking out a small delicate tool from his pocket and used it to fiddle with the door’s lock.

As the minutes went by, the sound coming from within became increasingly active. It made me a little uneasy.

Then, a click sounded in the otherwise silent surroundings.

The door was open.

❖☆————— ⊹ For Light & Night⊹ —————★❖

Previous Part: (Chapter 3-11) | Next Part: (Chapter 3-16)

#光与夜之恋 #Light and Night #Otome #Translations #Tencent #萧逸 #Osborn #齐司礼 #Sariel #陆沉 #Evan #查理苏 #Charlie #夏鸣星 #Jesse #For Light and Night

[solatude]

ATLA Unpopular Opinions

I’ve had some thoughts about various aspects in Avatar: The Last Airbender. So, in order of least to most controversial, here we go:

Sokka looks better with his hair up. Sokka’s wolf tail is one of the more unique hairstyles in the show, at least for the guys. He looks so basic with his hair down. The wolf tail adds to his personality, his dramaticness, and humor. How can a water tribe warrior fight with hair in his face? Please also refer to his topknot in Book Three.

Sokka didn’t have as much pull as fans think he does. Pull, in this context, means to attract someone romantically/sexually. First of all, Toph is a child, so I’m not counting her because a 12 year-old crushing on a 15 year-old should be nothing more than that---a crush. Yue and Suki pulled him first, as he fell for them before they fell for him. Suki could care less for the sexist guy who insulted her on her own island; but teaching him the ways of the Kyoshi warriors, plus a kiss on the cheek had him blushing---HARD! He thankfully changed his mindset after that. Yue, while she barely had a choice, had accepted her role as princess and was prepared to dedicate her life to the values of her tribe in an arranged marriage. The amount of times she ran away from Sokka was both tragic and hilarious. But that only made Sokka want her more, she never chased him. To be honest though, he was probably the first guy who treated her normally, despite her status. I think she mainly wanted a friend, but was surprised to find a potential lover in Sokka. Plus he made her laugh. Ty Lee thought he was cute, but Ty Lee thinks everything is cute. That is all. If you wanna talk about pull, Aang had Zuko risking his life chasing him for three seasons (I’m joking, don’t think too deeply about that).

Azula and Katara are almost equal in power. I get that Azula is a firebending prodigy, but sometimes her skills are overestimated by fans and she’s made to seem as though she can overpower everyone. It makes perfect sense that she lost to Katara in almost every fight. Before meeting her, she’s only ever fought nonbenders, firebenders, and earthbenders. She never had experience fighting a trained waterbender, so her losing to Katara shows that even she has her limitations. Whenever she did win a fight against her, it was because she got help from her friends, brother, or subjects. Katara never hesitated to fight her, and being 14 years-old herself, allowed for an even exchange of combat. Let’s be honest, what bender would go up against Azula fearlessly except the one who’s element puts out fires?

Ursa was not a bad mother. Ursa was a victim of an abusive, arranged marriage. For context, Fire Lord Azulon wanted Ozai to marry Ursa because she was the granddaughter of Avatar Roku, and he felt that they would produce powerful heirs to the royal family. Ursa was forced to leave her village, family, and fiance behind for this marriage; because who would dare turn down the request of a Fire Lord? Ursa never really loved Ozai, but he never cared. He just wanted to increase his status and power. Ursa is often criticized for giving Zuko attention over Azula, while scolding Azula and not showing her any love. However, Azula was praised by Ozai, and as a result showed more of an obedience towards him. Ozai showed a great disdain for Zuko. Ursa was simply doing her best to show Zuko how much he mattered. He was living in his sister’s shadow, while being neglected by his father. I also really feel for Azula, because she was only valued for her firebending skills, and she probably had no emotional outlet that she trusted to help guide her. However, I do think Azula was too far along for her mother to really help her. Ursa encouraged Zuko to play with Azula; she genuinely wanted her children to get along like any other parent. I just don’t think there was anything she could say or do to encourage Azula to be less destructive and show remorse for her actions. She should have never called Azula a monster, but she was a woman filled with fear. She feared her abusive husband and the repercussions of speaking out against him, she feared the destructive tendencies of her daughter and the ways she hurt other people without caring for how they felt, and she feared for Zuko’s life for not living up to the impossible ideals of the royal family. Ursa was not a perfect mother, but she tried given the little power she had. Also, to be fair, we only see Ursa’s life from Zuko’s perspective in the show. Azula probably had many memories with Ursa but she most likely blocked them out to hold space for firebending forms and her father’s approval; one of which she never really secured.

Bloodbending is overrated and unnecessary. Some fans claim that Katara should have had a more positive reaction to becoming a bloodbender. However, it was never in her character to be so controlling, especially against another person’s will. Bloodbending is also not as useful as it’s made to seem. Since one can only bloodbend on a full moon, you would have to wait an entire month to even utilize the skill. That’s extremely inconvenient and because you have to wait until nighttime, it’s even less practical. How often does Team Avatar fight during the night compared to the day? They would be sleeping if anything. Also, when your team consists of an agile airbender, a master waterbender, a powerful earthbender, and a weapons strategist, plus Appa and Momo; why would anyone need to bloodbend? Most of the Gaang’s enemies never required that level of power in order to be defeated. Bloodbending is also VERY niche. If this is allowed, should bonebending be allowed since there are minerals in bones? Should soundbending be allowed since sound is produced from vibrations? I admit it’s a really cool ability, but it’s not that important in the grand scheme of things. Also, speaking of Katara...

Katara gets too much hate. I’m not sure if it’s the surge of new fans since the Netflix debut or the repressed thoughts of old fans but lately Katara’s character has been mercilessly criticized. It’s been said that she brings up her mother too often, and that she’s overly emotional and selfish. First of all, Katara was eight years-old (and Sokka nine) when her mother was murdered. During the run of the show, only six years have passed since then, as she’s 14 when she finds Aang. She lives with survivor’s guilt due to her mother lying about who the last waterbender was so that Katara wouldn’t be taken prisoner. Unfortunately, the firebender soldier Yon Rah wasn’t taking prisoners that day, implying that he was going to murder her. Katara mentions her mother only a handful of times, usually to relate to another character who lost someone close to them in an effort to empathize (Aang, Haru, Jet, Zuko). People forget that she saw her mother’s dead body after running to get help. It was definitely wrong for Katara to tell Sokka that he didn’t love their mother the way she did in the Southern Raiders episode, and she definitely should have apologized. But, she was right. Sokka was shown to be closer to his father. She was in extreme emotional pain and instead of being comforted, she was criticized by Aang and Sokka for wanting revenge. How many times has Katara sacrificed something for the sake of others? She barely had a childhood considering she took on a maternal role in her tribe after her mother’s death. She had to deal with Sokka’s sexist comments, she had to suppress her talent for waterbending, and she felt isolated and alone because the one parent that was alive left to fight in the war. When someone needed encouragement, Katara was always there to encourage them. When someone needed help, she never hesitated to assist them. She often put herself in harm’s way if it meant someone else didn’t get hurt. For a 14 year-old girl in a war torn world, she is immensely brave. How many times has Zuko gone on and on about his honor, or lashed out at his Uncle for a seemingly small reason? How many times has Sokka talked about meat? Or Azula and her speeches about controlling and manipulating people? Toph and her rebelliousness? Even Aang’s laid back attitude turned into carelessness every now and then. Every character has a crutch that they attach themselves to, but Katara isn’t given the grace that other characters have been given. Yes, Aang lost his entire nation, and Katara would never know what that felt like. However, Aang wouldn’t know how Katara felt either. Aang was in the presence of children his age and was able to travel around the world to make friends (i.e. Bumi from the Earth Kingdom and Kuzon from the Fire Nation). He was taught to be less detached, so his idea of family is very different from Katara’s. He never witnessed the dead bodies of his people firsthand, though he did see Gyatso’s skeleton later on. Katara grew up in a world ruined by war. She had little to no friends, and the one person she was closest to left her life very early. Her tribe was VERY small and I doubt she had a lot of people to talk to. She had never left the Southern Water Tribe before, so it’s very likely that she was going to stay there her entire life had she not met Aang. She’s been accused of not allowing Sokka to feel sad about their mother, but why should she? It’s not Katara’s job to burden the weight of Sokka’s emotions, especially about their mother. She cannot force Sokka to open up about his feelings, that is something he must do at his own free will. Sokka hides his pain behind his masculinity. He’s protective because he feels guilty about not being able to do anything to help his mother. He doesn’t even remember what she looks like, he could only picture Katara’s face in her place. He felt even worse when his father left and he, understandably, couldn’t go with him. Sokka is not upfront about how he feels, but Katara should not be blamed for that. Overall it may be said that Katara was a flawed character that has recently been more scrutinized for her flaws than acknowledged for her strengths. We can do both, but there’s been an imbalance. She successfully revolted to free Haru’s father as well as other prisoners of the Fire Nation. She guided her friends out of the Si Wong desert despite the obstacles that stood in their way. She healed Aang and Zuko when shot by lightning, ultimately saving their lives and the lives of many other people who have been physically hurt by someone. She even washed Sokka’s underwear and sewed his pants. We can cut the girl some slack if she wants to talk about her mother, can’t we? She’s the glue that holds everyone together. Katara’s emotions make her a stronger fighter. Her trauma has shaped her into someone determined to master waterbending and has allowed her to be more empathetic to those around her. But she shouldn’t have had to go through all of that. She was forced to mature faster in order to survive. Katara can sometimes be arrogant, misguided, oblivious, and doubtful, yes. But she is also resilient, brave, selfless, and generous. That is the duality of her character. She is NOT to be disrespected. After all, as she said to Sokka in The Painted Lady, “I will never, ever turn my back on people who need me!”. And she hasn’t.

Iroh should be banned from the Earth Kingdom. It’s not an unpopular opinion that Uncle Iroh is a war criminal, but I just don’t think he should be allowed anywhere near the Earth Kingdom; either temporarily or permanently. Yes he played an instrumental role in Zuko’s redemption, with tea in his left hand and wisdom in his right. However, that does not excuse his invasion of Ba Sing Se. He laid siege to the impenetrable city for 600 days. Surely hundreds, maybe thousands of innocent people died under his commands. He broke the lower ring, home of the poorest members of the Earth Kingdom. The only reason he stopped was because his son, Lu Ten, died in battle; not aware that many citizens also died as a result of his actions. How many children’s lives has his army taken away? How many sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, aunts, uncles, and grandparents have died under his siege? Not only does he get to establish a business and earn money, he is elevated to the upper ring of the city; meanwhile an entire population can barely afford food and stable jobs. I understand that is was for plot purposes, but It’s a slap in the face to allow him to thrive in the city after Aang defeated Ozai. His wanted poster should be everywhere, not just for supposedly betraying the Fire Nation, but also for crimes against the Earth Kingdom. The very least he could do was shut down his tea shop and hand the building over to a family who may need it, and establish a tea shop in the Fire Nation. I’m not saying Iroh couldn’t be redeemed for his war crimes, but it definitely would take more than what was seen in the show for him to be forgiven for them.

Anyways, let me know what you think. This took an ungodly amount of time to write.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #sokka #aang #katara #toph #zuko #iroh #ozai #ursa #azula #ba sing se #fire nation #water tribe #bloodbending