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lilisouless · 10 months

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Grishaverse characters as disney lyrics

Alina

I know every mile Will be worth my while I would go most anywhere To find where I belong

Mal

Riffraff! Street rat! I don't buy that! If only they'd look closer Would they see a poor boy?

Nikolai

And for once it might be grand To have someone understand I want so much more than they've got planned

Zoya

Who am I if I don't have what it takes? No cracks, no breaks No mistakes No pressure

Genya

That perfect girl is gone Here I stand in the light of day Let the storm rage on

Kaz

People down here think I'm crazy,but I don't care Trials and tribulations,i've had my share There ain't nothing gonna stop me now 'Cause I'm almost there

Inej

I will hear their every story Take hold of my own dream Be as strong as the seas are stormy And proud as an eagle's scream

Nina

What can you do when you are deeply, madly, truly in the moment? What can you do when you know who you wanna be isn't perfect? But I'll still be okay

Jesper

Now I see That if I were truly to be myself I would break my family's heart

Wylan

And how can the world want me to change They're the ones that stay the same They can't see me But I'm still here

Matthias (i think this is from an extended version)

All the things I thought I'd be All the brave things I'd done Vanished like a snowflake With the rising of the sun

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wlwlwlwlwlwlw · 9 months

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if jonathan were wishing on a shooting star, he would wish for his brother to always be safe and happy

if steve were wishing on a shooting star, he would wish for the party to be successful in killing vecna and, if someone had to die, for it to be him

if robin were wishing on a shooting star, she would wish for a softer world and a less doomed life

if nancy saw a shooting star, she would wish she still believed in sacred childhood magic

#and i love them all so deeply for it #i welcome disagreements or discussion #nancy wheeler #robin buckley #steve harrington #jonathan byers #jancy #stancy #ronance #stobin #the real fruity four as far as i’m concerned #stonathan #stranger things #can you imagine that road trip?#the ‘we’re young but we’re old and we’re cannon fodder and we’re invincible teenagers and we only have each other and this night’ vines #*vibes

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blue-chimera · 3 months

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Re: Dean killing Amy (and lying about it)

I know this is a controversial thing in the fandom, and — for the record — I think that the way Dean handled this situation was wrong. But I think that Dean's primary sin was not having an honest conversation with Sam that got both of them on the same page before he took action. Not the fact of killing Amy by itself.

The thing is this: what Sam & Dean do is not "dispensing justice." Justice doesn't really exist outside the trappings of society. None of the sentient monsters they kill ever get the benefit of a jury of their peers. They don't try to rehabilitate any of them. There is no probation. There's no social contract. There's generally no second chances. The monsters are too powerful, and hunters simply don't have the resources to even approach the concept of justice without an institution behind them.

For example: When they attack any given vamp nest, Sam & Dean have no way of knowing whether all vamps they're killing are murderers or would-be murderers. Maybe some of the vamps inside are newly-turned & haven't even had the chance to kill someone or choose to abstain. Maybe some limit themselves to blood bags & just stay with the nest for protection. They don't know, and they can never really know. They just gather enough evidence to satisfy themselves that they've got the right target (with no oversight — they themselves are judge, jury, and executioner) & then they kill the monsters in front of them in an attempt to minimize the loss of human life.

For the most part, they are saving lives, and that's a good thing. But they walk morally ambiguous lines while doing it all the time.

On to Amy's case: Amy defends her actions by saying that these deaths were necessary to save her child's life. Is that sufficient justification for killing multiple people? What if her child turns out to just be sickly for the rest of his life? What if it turns out that he can't live on dead flesh like she can? Does anyone seriously think that Amy would stop killing for him if, at some point, the body count got too high? If some night she couldn't get her hands on a criminal, but she spots someone changing a tire on a lonely highway & has the chance to grab him instead?

And that's not even to get into the whole question of whether any of the criminals she killed could've been rehabilitated themselves or whether they really deserved execution for their crimes. If I recall correctly, we get to see that at least one of them seems to be a really bad person — the show goes out of its way to get us to side with the pretty woman & her small child over these "scumbags" — but that doesn't mean they were all complete wastes of life.

Ultimately, then, was it right or wrong to kill Amy? I think it's impossible to say. But I think Sam & Dean make that same kind of judgement call together all the time. And, in the absence of any other system, that's the best they can do.

Now, I understand why Dean went behind Sam's back: he was trying to spare him the pain of her death, much like he'd tried to spare him the pain of Madison's death. He was also concerned that Sam wasn't mentally healthy/stable enough to deal with her death, either. (And it didn't help that Sam snuck out to deal with the case solo — something that surely gave Dean flashbacks to the last time he'd taken off alone, thinking he was with Dean the whole time.)

But Sam deserved an honest conversation on the subject. And Amy deserved to at least have the two of them deliberate together before killing her.

#spn meta #crit & disagreement welcome!#understanding dean winchester #dean winchester #sam winchester #amy pond #spn

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xieliansbignaturals · 6 months

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I don't know if it's an unpopular opinion, but I don't think Hua Cheng would ever forgive Mu Qing. Maybe Feng Xin, who left because Xie Lian asked him to (his crime was just loyalty of the wrong sort), but not Mu Qing, not after the mountain scene.

I like shipping the Xianle Quartet together, but I think the relationship between Hua Cheng and Mu Qing would always be tense. Hua Cheng would play nice, but only because Xie Lian asked.

#tgcf spoilers #that mountain scene hurt so bad... i get it hua cheng #but this is NOT an anti mu qing post #i think he's cool and pretty and i want xie lian to be friends with him!#tgcf #xianle quartet #hua cheng #mu qing #gentle disagreements in the spirit of discussion are welcome

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airlock · 2 months

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so I made a tier list ranking the Fire Emblem lords based on the socioeconomic status of their upbringing!

I did this so I could aggresively point at Ike not being at the bottom of the list.

#my stupid text posts #Fire Emblem is tagged in this post #I'm aware that most everyone at the top tier there ultimately goes through some Significant Troubles. but not in their upbringing #well. it's a tenuous line anyway.#anyway you're welcome to field disagreements but since I don't have a dog these days I will eat them myself

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totwototwo · 2 months

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Just rewatched in the flesh and finished watching young royals and i have to say Wilhelm and Kieren are so beautifully similar that if you love one, you will no doubt love the other

#in the flesh #kieren walker #prince wilhelm #wilhem young royals #young royals #they will both make you cry #tv shows #i welcome disagreement but i dont accept it #lgbtq shows #but so much more at the same time

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separatist-apologist · 9 months

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Back by unpopular demand: Acotar characters as Tumblr shit posts

Rhys:

Feyre:

Nesta:

Cassian:

Elain:

Lucien:

Gwyn:

Azriel:

Emerie:

Mor:

#no one asked me to do this #I merely took initiative you're welcome #if you disagree idk you know how I feel about disagreement #(because I'm never wrong)

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randomfoggytiger · 3 months

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Yeah both Scully and Mulder suffer their fair share of traumas but the fact that Scully's (the female character) is so heavily focused on her reproductive system is absolutely misogyny, the fact that it's not malicious/intentional doesn't make that not misogyny, it's the nature of the trauma that makes it misogynistic not the amount of it

Agree to disagree, Anon! :DDD

The villains of the show view women as vessels to be hollowed out for their own nefarious purposes, not the writers-- the distinction is important. And the villains overlooked Scully's capabilities and prowess because of this, relegating her to second place after Mulder and his quest-- not the writers. From the very first episode (written by Chris Carter), Scully was given agency and equal footing with Mulder; and that continued through the series despite the executives and other busybodies trying to make Scully walk behind Mulder or do this or that because of societal expectations still lingering in the 90s.

Misogyny specifically is "hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women or girls. It is a form of sexism that can keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the social roles of patriarchy"; and one could argue Scully's treatment throughout the series might merit that criticism... except the show and its writers stated over and over how wrong, sick, and twisted the villains were for those actions. Moreover, those same villains inflicted trauma and dehumanizing torment on Mulder as well; and his "manhood" didn't prevent him from being used as a pawn in their game as far back as his childhood. It's messed up all around.

Furthermore, I've come across tons of literature and series featuring similar plotlines that were written by women, for women (even in the fringes of this fandom, fics taking place outside of the mytharc storyline.) Is that misogyny or an exploration of the depravity of that cruel and misogynistic mindset perpetuated by evil, twisted men (and women, lest we forget Diana Fowley)?

The problems begin when the writers felt the crunch in S7, trying to think up a way to keep the show going despite all signs leading to a conclusive ending. Thus the pregnancy arc.

Was Scully's pregnancy and motherhood arc inherently out of character? No, I don't believe so-- but as much as it reduced her to a parrot repeating "my baby" every two seconds instead of mothering little William, it also stripped Mulder of any on-screen connection with his son for the majority of S8 and all of S9. Both were robbed-- not because of misogyny (which would have viewed Scully and her personal problems and struggles as lesser than Mulder's) but because BOTH of their personal problems were less important to the writers than the mytharc (well, a few of the writers, anyway.)

It's clunky, lazy writing, that's all. I don't believe the writers have a misogynistic bone in their body; but I do believe that the storylines they pushed through stretched into absurdity because they were not properly set up, paced, fleshed out, or justified. That, however, does not make them misogynistic or bad people.

Those are my thoughts, anyway~. :))))

#asks #anon #Scully #misogyny #thank you for dropping in~#it enjoyed chewing over your points and formulating my own #always welcome to drop in with a disagreement #CSM #Syndicate #Mulder #discussion #thoughts #mine

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mayasaura · 4 months

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Hello I see you are succumbing to the Ace Attorney Brainrot TM. If Harrow is Edgeworth, then presumably Gideon is Phoenix. Does that make the very bad teens or Palamedes her court-assigned weird little girl?

WELL, thank you for asking!!! You might just live to regret it.

The main connection is really Harrow 🤝 Edgeworth: I only think I killed my own father daddy issues, and that special kind of dorky tsundere approach to relationships. "Thanks to you, I am saddled with.... unnecessary feelings." vs. "[You were born so attractive] because everyone would have throttled you within the first five minutes otherwise," ect.

Then, of course, there's the counterpart of Gideon 🤝 Phoenix: "All books are basically the same size, right?" vs. "I tried to read a law book, and it made my head hurt. Then I dropped it, and it made my foot hurt." A sarcastic internal monologue that rarely becomes external, a drive to help others boarding on the self-destructive. And, of course, so desperate for a certain someone's attention, they'd switch career paths and life's ambition rather than be ignored. If some spoilers I've seen for later AA games are to be believed, they also both get the depression and hole themselves up in response to the world's overwhelming shittiness. 😔

So! To finally answer your actual question, Gideon's court appointed weird girl could go two ways:

1) Jeannemary and Isaac assigned baby siblings at crime scene when Gideon's mentor, Abigail, is murdered.

2) Completely change the dynamic, and Camilla is the "assistant" who herds Gideon around, gives her hints in court, and is occasionally possessed by Gideon's kind and wise mentor, Palamedes. I think I like this one better because Abigail never actually met Gideon, and making her Mia is trading solely on her psychopomp cred. Palamedes and Gideon had a connection. She trusted him. And Camilla standing trial for Palamedes' murder is so juicy.

I think that's about as far as I can take it. Slotting the rest of the characters into the Phoenix Wright setting would mostly take writing entirely new mysteries.

Unless.....

Pyrrha should be high up in the police force, but she's no Gant. If John isn't Von Karma, he could be Gant as a different breed of genial monster with a taste for the grandiose. Ianthe has potential as Lana—extremely unhelpful, in over her head, and trying to protect her sister.

Ortus is Gumshoe. I am not accepting constructive criticism at this time. <3

#that's not true I welcome other opinions including disagreement #I'm completely sane and normal about both these series what are you talking about #the locked tomb #ace attorney #if not John I'm undecided if von karma should be Crux (sole guardian after her parents die. committed a murder she was blamed for)#or Mercymorn (shitty perfectionist mentor who's fond of elaborate schemes and technically started the events leading to her parents deaths)#long post #tlt aa xover #ps if john is gant then pyrrha is the lunchlady ex cop with a harem of informats and Augustine is the depressed cowboy with a dead brother #Tlt aa au

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basket-of-radiants · 8 months

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Proposal for Re-working the Kholins’ Character Arcs - a semi-coherent “essay” by me (feat. @akpaley, thank you for your contributions and for your attempts at editing.)

Hey guys. Different kind of post this time around, compared to my usual brand. It’s time for some fix-it fanfiction masquerading as literary critique. I won’t be using a readmore, I dunno, probably to punish anyone still following this blog or something. So! In this post I’m going to solve the all the issues of racial theming associated with the Kholin family.

I’m often very harsh on the Kholins for benefitting so much from exploitative power structures while doing little to help those below them. But then I’ve also criticized them for actually addressing these very problems in-universe. How can I be upset at them for their inaction and then also be annoyed when Jasnah ends slavery? The short answer to all of this is just that the ways these topics are addressed all feel very inauthentic. For example, in real life history it took over a century of protests, slave revolts, political campaigning, and civil wars to legally end slavery in Europe and America, and abolitionists were met with fierce opposition at every turn. A fictional world need not follow our same historical trajectory, but it still seems a little disingenuous for a monarch to just decide to end it within her first year of power because it doesn’t mesh with her philosophical framework. It’s more like trying to wrap up a subplot than actually address the topic.

Ultimately however, there’s only so far this line of criticism can ever take me because the Kholins are the protagonists and you can’t get rid of them without turning the whole story into something else entirely. And Sanderson shouldn’t have to, these are characters that he created and he’s allowed to tell a story about them. And I actually like a lot of their personalities and arcs and outlooks quite a lot. I do think it’s...unfortunate...to have used slavery and racism as disposable props in a story that ultimately turned out to be about a bunch of royals learning to be better people and saving the world along the way. So I guess what I’m interested in is if there’s a way to keep the premise, keep the characters, keep the general story beats, keep the themes of honor and personal growth, keep the basic structure of everything, and still handle those themes with grace. You know, could this be a compassionate story about addressing racism told from the point of view of nobility? Is such a thing possible?

Well, I’m going to try my best. And I’m going to be imperfect about it, obviously, so if you actually care enough to read all this shit, I welcome discussion and disagreement.

Jasnah is the most obvious example to point to as being indicative of the problem, but I also think she has the easiest character fixes. She’s already been established as an outspoken dissident on many of her society’s deeply ingrained values. Just add to her atheism and feminism that she’s also always been an outspoken abolitionist. Give her ties to an ongoing reformist movement. Have her lecture Shallan about it in Way of Kings. Make that a reason she’s butted heads with her family so much. I do think it’s poor writing to have a ruler end slavery on a whim, but I won’t deny that having the right person in power can make a huge difference. It’s not as cathartic as having Kaladin lead a slave revolt (or as having Moash destroy society <3) but that doesn’t make it inherently bad so long as the topic itself is still treated with weight. Have her moralistic ideology be firmly pre-established so that when she has to explain why she’s abolishing slavery, her reasoning can be purely pragmatic. The reason she’s moving so fast is because this is a historical point of heightened change, and so her reforms are more likely to work, but if she waits too long and things settle back into a new status quo, she may have missed her window. Not to mention, when her nephew comes of age, her own legitimacy as a ruler might be challenged, so she needs to do as much as she can in what may be end up being a short reign. As a character, Jasnah has always been able to girlboss her way past political realities through sheer force of personality, and that’s great and all, but I think it heightens her character’s competence if she does have to deal with real backlash, not just to her but to her policies as well. The narrative doesn’t even need to linger on her opposition, but acknowledging it and acknowledging that she’s simply a member of a preexisting and ongoing movement would have done wonders to portray slavery as a real and prescient issue. Then again, this is a topic which people have fought and continue to fight wars over, so it wouldn’t be unreasonable for her to have receive major backlash either; perhaps when the Kholins hear in Words of Radiance that she was assassinated, the news could come as tragic but not entirely unexpected so as to imply that her opposition has attempted such in the past. All this is to say, I don’t think it’s at all wrong for Jasnah to do what she did. I also don’t think her entire stance on abolitionism should have come down to a comment where she tells her uncle she’s trying to rule according to ethically consistent values. The fact that slavery was insultingly easy to end not only delegitimizes is as a topic worthy of discussion, but also is a really scathing indictment of literally everyone else in the ruling class who didn’t even think to try.

Jasnah done, easy, Dalinar next.

Dalinar is probably the most complicated character for me to discuss and form coherent statements on. He’s just so rife with contradictions down to his core. That’s probably why I continue to like him so much, why he’s still my favorite, even though I still consider him to be a Bad Person over all. I think deep down I’ll always lean a bit too pacifistic ideologically to ever consider a warlord/general to be a good person, no matter how honorable he may be or how much growth he may undergo. Don’t get me wrong, I still do love his growth. Dalinar is characterized by his constant change and forward momentum, even moreso than the rest of the cast. So for discussing him, at what point can I point to him and say “this is Dalinar, this is who he is, this is what he believes and what he cares about”? Of course, during any point in his arc, you’re going to have to grapple with the fact that all of his lofty rhetoric about honor and striving for personal betterment is ultimately going to be pretty useless to all the people whose lives he’s meaninglessly thrown away across his military career. For me personally, when I talk about his character I like to take the end-of-oathbringer approach, where I acknowledge everything he did in the past as Blackthorn, I agree that it was pretty fucked up, and I forgive him and grant him a clean slate. All this to say that even if I’m judging him purely by his behavior as the current Dalinar within the present day continuity of the books, he’s still a massive hypocrite with horrific amounts of blood on his hands which he’s never even bothered to consider. I dunno, when I first read Way of Kings and I first got to meet this general who’s leading an army in a literal genocide campaign, I sort of figured he’d get some kind of “wait am I the bad guy” moment at some point in the future. And he did get a moment in Oathbringer where he has to fully confront his guilt over past actions, it was great, I really really loved it! But it was also all about actions he took before the series even started, so I guess wiping out the listeners wasn’t a sin he thought needed any atonement. I’m not going to get into the narrative’s treatment of singers and listeners on this post (for no other reason than because I have waaaaaaay too much to say there) but the point I’m getting at is that however good Dalinar’s growth is and whatever direction it takes, it’s always going to have poisonous roots to me. And his treatment of class/racial issues is no different.

Fixing Dalinar is going to take a lot of what Dalinar does best: introspection. In Way of Kings, Dalinar dislikes how Sadeas treats his bridgemen because he believes it to be dishonorable, because he believes Sadeas is forcing others into a situation that he himself would never put himself into. He also has various sympathetic reflections here and there about how sad it is when soldiers die, and about how without the benefit of the Thrill, violence is actually kind of bad. You know how it goes. But I don’t think he ever put himself at risk to actually help or protect any of the people who are dying. Whether he wants to end the war or not, he still continues to participate in it. And he’s still willing to set aside the lives of literally everyone beneath him so he can pursue his dream of unity. The book ends with Kaladin and the rest of bridge four saving him and Adolin, and in gratitude, he purchases their freedom and gives them honored positions in his household. You know, because he’s so honorable. Everyone loves this scene, so I’m going to make it the catalyst for Dalinar’s new and improved character development. The problem with saying Kaladin helped Dalinar so Dalinar helped Kaladin is that when I’m being reductive and uncharitable (like I’m being right now), I can argue that their relationship basically started as a quid pro quo. This scene is meant to prove that Dalinar really is the most honorable person in Alethkar, just as Syl thought, only it doesn’t actually do that. See I don’t actually want Dalinar to start treating Kaladin as an equal. I want Dalinar to, in that moment, realize that Kaladin is better than him. That for all of his pontificating about honor, he would have never even considered risking his own life and the lives of his own family to rescue a bunch of bridgemen. I want him to see Kaladin’s honor, and rather than be validated in his beliefs, I want him to be thoroughly humbled. Let him spend all next book reflecting on all the lives of darkeyes he’s destroyed. Let it shame him, as Evi’s death shamed him. He already flirts with these lines of thought, and he already has an arc about confronting his past actions. Let the racial injustices he’s participated in be a part of that. Let him abandon his books and traditions instead look to Kaladin to learn what honor truly means. I don’t know how any of this would translate to his actions, because if we’re being honest his ideals are already quite incongruous with his actions, but the fact that he manages to have such strong theming regardless makes me think maybe that’s okay. I guess ultimately it would be enough for me if his character, as someone who symbolizes the ideals of a nation, was able to look at a darkeyes publicly be a follower rather than always trying to lead by his own personal example.

That’s Dalinar. Elhokar next?

I actually don’t think there’s too much wrong with Elhokar’s writing, especially in the first two books where a much greater emphasis on these themes were placed. He’s not a protagonist and we the audience aren’t supposed to endorse his actions. Most of what I’d change about his story is more about Kaladin and Moash than it is about him. I definitely don’t love that he can throw away the lives of his own people by the thousands in the genocide campaign that was the vengeance war, and then have the narrative just ignore all that in favor of him being sad about his own incompetence. If Elhokar is meant to be a sympathetic character, then when he calls himself a bad king, that’s what he should be thinking about, the number of lives he’s wasted over these years. I actually like him a lot more as a less sympathetic character, and I think I would have preferred if in oathbringer the narrative and the other characters would have stopped making so many excuses for him. Back to Kaladin and Moash, those are the two characters defined by their experiences as members of the downtrodden caste, so I personally sort of judge the problematic-ness of the whole story by how they get treated. Everyone loves to talk about how those two are foils. So. In order to strengthen Kaladin and Moash’s characters, either Elhokar needs to be as much of a monster as Amaram, or Amaram needs to be just as sympathetic and conflicted and having-of-a-toddler as Elhokar. Don’t get me wrong, I genuinely love the trope of finding at the end of a revenge quest that the person you hated has changed and grown. But I hate how this means that Moash’s hatred is wrong and unjustified, whereas Kaladin’s is validated at every turn. I don’t actually dislike Elhokar. I mean I think he’s a bad person, but I like a lot of characters who are bad people. I just think that if this story really wants to grapple with class and race (because it sure brings them up a lot for a story that doesn't want to talk about them), then Moash is a much more important character than him, with a lot more to add to that kind of discussion, which is why I think Elhokar’s characterization would have to come second to Moash’s development. (Obviously if this series were being reworked to be better on this topic, Moash would have to be written with a lot more compassion in general, but this post isn’t about him.)

Intermission time. Gavilar.

Gavilar is already perfect, 10/10, great character all around, what a guy, no notes, no wonder he’s so universally beloved among all of the fans, social justice icon.

Okay onto Navani.

I may not be the best person to talk about Navani. She has never been a favorite character of mine, and so compared to the others I haven’t thought as much about her values or the way she thinks or the narrative impacts of her actions. Someone who has more love for her would probably write better criticisms of her. (I’m going to reject any premise that falls along the lines of “Navani isn’t racist because she feels X,” but I’m not wholly confident in my analysis here, and I welcome any good faith critiques both of my own thinking and of her character when come at from other angles.) It’s hard to say where she should have grown from how she starts out viewing darkeyes because I don’t actually know how she starts out viewing darkeyes. I know I’m probably meant to assume she just treats everyone equally because she’s a Good Person on Team Good Guys, but it’s hard to just accept that she had all around good values when she married a warlord and was in love with his more violent brother. I dunno, was her “good guy” status meant to have always been an element of her character, or did she get it secondhand from her association with the new and improved Dalinar? With someone like Adolin, we got to see what shitty values he held at the start of Way of Kings (I’m talking about the Alethi warmongering, not his interest in fashion) but we also got to see how his father gradually won him over throughout the course of the book, and then later on we get to see him develop further on his own. For someone like Navani, I find it strange how she’s always so proactively supportive of Dalinar in everything, even when his own goals and values are in flux. I assume her character is just meant to be super ride or die when it comes to her family, and I do like that in a character, but that also means that she’s been wholly willing to support or at the very least excuse her family’s oppression and exploitation of darkeyes without comment. (See, Lirin is a much better parent than Navani, he would never have let his son start a whole genocidal vengeance war for fun and profit (I say this as if I’m joking but I’m kinda not.)) Some people have reminded me that she was pretty much shut out of the political process by Gavilar and Elhokar, and I agree with that, but I don’t really have any evidence that she would have cared much about darkeyes even if she had been more involved. In general it just seems like the whole topic doesn’t matter much to her. So what I would wish for the narrative would be to lean further into this. Draw attention to her cognitive dissonance and try and make the readers feel conflicted about her as a person. Highlight the fact that she’s willing to overlook the suffering that befalls other families if it means success for her own. I think one of my issues with her is that to me, this is a major (and interesting!) character flaw, but the books never seem to treat it as such. Honestly I think if this were intentional, I’d probably find her character really interesting, but from my reading of the text, I feel that I’m supposed to think of Navani as a generally decent person who’s by and large on the right side of things. The thing is, with the caste system playing such an integral role in their culture, I think she needs to have some sort of feelings about it, or else the fact that she doesn’t should be an issue to overcome. Otherwise she becomes another factor delegitimizing racial oppression as a real and important problem. If she’s a good guy and she doesn’t care about racism, then that’s saying you don’t have to be antiracist to be a good person in this world.

Probably could have done that one better. I dunno. Leave me angry and hateful comments if I’m totally misrepresenting your favorite character. Moving on.

Adolin already has some great character development across the books. And he already has kind of engaged with this stuff in his story. Unfortunately, that’s less used in the “this person was racist but is becoming better sense” and more used in the sense of “Kaladin learns that #NotAllLighteyes are bad” which is pretty unfortunate for a number of reasons. Especially since, if he actually was going to prove he’s different from other lighteyes, out of all the Kholins I think Adolin is the best candidate for being a full on class traitor. I’m serious, looking back over the events of his plotlines, it would suit him shockingly well while disturbing the overall narrative shockingly little.

Adolin’s current plot is loosely as follows: in Way of Kings he likes all the things someone of his station is supposed to like, clothes, violence, dueling, warfare, swords, hangtime with the guys, all the good stuff. At the beginning of the book he doesn’t understand why old, stuck-up Dalinar can’t just let loose and be a relelntless war-monger like everyone else, but by the end of the book he’s come to understand a certain value to honor and thus has begun to become a better person himself. Words of Radiance has him lose his popularity, fall out of favor with all of his friends, grow disillusioned with his society, perform a prison sit-in in solidarity with Kaladin, and murder Sadeas. Most of this is done again, because of his father, and how Adolin now wants to help and support him and his ideals. In Oathbringer he mostly isn’t involved in courtly politics, being away on a mission for much of it, but he does make a pretty big move by rejecting the throne. In Rhythm of War we see the schism that’s formed between him and his father until he leaves on another long-distance mission. Summary over. In general I reject the idea that making the Kholins be individually less racist makes for a better, or more nuanced and compassionate discussion of the topic, but if anyone is primed for a “lighteyes learns racism is wrong” character arc, I think it’s Adolin. Imagine him following a bit less in Dalinar’s footsteps and a bit more in Jasnah’s. You almost don’t even have to change any story beats: in getting to know Kaladin, something clicks in Adolin where he realizes that if he wants to treat Kaladin as his equal, he has to treat all darkeyes as equals, and so he realizes to his horror that he and his entire caste of friends and family are all monsters for treating them the way they do. (Actually, there is one plotline in WoR I’d probably scrap, and that’s his slowburn bromance with Kaladin. I mean I get what Sanderson was going for with the ribbing and then eventual friendship, but Kaladin was an absolute stranger who risked his own life to save Adolin and his father from certain death, and so I feel there should probably have been a bit more overt respect upfront there.) In pushing for his newfound belief in equality, he ends up burning through all of his intracaste goodwill and political capital, causing all of his friends to drop him. When he kills Sadeas, it doesn’t have to be about protecting Dalinar or about personal revenge, it could also be that he’s gotten to know Bridge 4 and learned firsthand about the atrocities they’d gone through, and so there’s no way he’d allow such a pioneer of human rights violations to stay in power. In the following books, maybe he’s become so politically toxic due to challenging the very foundations of his own power, his own family has to send him away on missions so he can’t rock the boat too much at home. Maybe refusing the throne was more of a political statement than a personal one, because he’s come to understand that being a ruler means oppressing thousands of others. Maybe this is another form of hypocrisy he criticizes Dalinar for, how Dalinar might claim to value darkeyes but how he still retains power bought with thousands of their corpses. None of this has to modify actual events very much, it just affects the reasons for them. And it would also meaningfully show why he gets to be a “good lighteyes” if he actually engaged with his status and rejected it, knowing it comes at the expense of others.

Okay, enough about that. Renarin maybe?

I won’t say too much about Renarin here, because I’d probably just end up repeating a lot of the same criticisms of how he’s used as a “good lighteyes.” From a narrative standpoint, all those criticisms hold for him as well. You know, he wants to join Bridge Four, and future-villain Moash doesn’t like the idea because he doesn’t trust lighteyes, but Kaladin reassures him that Renarin is a good boy, so don’t worry about it, and everything works out fine in the end, proving that lighteyes are good people just like you and me. This isn’t a problem with him as a person or character, it’s just more of that general theme of “the caste system is fine so long as nice people are at the top” which I clearly think should be interrogated. Thus far, in contrast to the rest of his family, Renarin is very young and has had much less of a political presence, not to mention fewer POV chapters anyway, so I think delving too much deeper here will feel a bit hollow to me.

Does Shallan count as a Kholin? I’d like to talk about her super briefly.

Unpopular opinion, but I actually think Shallan is one of the better characters on the topic of race insofar as how she’s written, especially compared to the other Kholins. But wait, I hear you say, what about all of her dozens of instances of casual racism? Yes, that’s what I’m referring to. I like how Shallan demonstrates how ingrained these harmful ideologies are in their society. I like how every time she has a distasteful thought, we the audience are reminded that racism still exists and even good people will continue to promote it if they don’t view it critically. I like that Shallan is problematic, because their society has problems! At least with her it doesn’t feel like the story’s trying to sweep the fact under the rug. There are plenty of issues with her writing, plenty of jabs at Kaladin that probably shouldn’t have been treated as cute. She’s actually the main character whose racism and classism I see criticized the most. And I think that’s a good thing! My issue with the Kholins isn’t that I think they should all be less racist, my issue is that their positions are inherently oppressive, and it seems as though the narrative doesn’t think that matters so long as deep down they’re good people. When people critique Shallan in specific instances, I tend to see a fair amount of consensus and agreement there, but when I critique the Kholins people will argue with me by pointing out that Dalinar/Adolin/Navani/whoever actually treats darkeyes as equals, so my arguments are invalid. Purely my own anecdotal experience of course, but it tends to make me think that there’s something in Shallan’s writing that’s working right, something that isn’t working for the other lighteyed characters.

Now obviously with all of this, I’m not saying I want these books to have more racism in them. What I’m arguing is that if the books are going to explore the topic (which they do) then they should treat the topic with an appropriate amount of gravity rather than acting as if it can be solved by having aristocrats become nicer people.

If you’re still here with me, thank you for reading, I love you, I hope you enjoyed yourself through my descent further and further into rambly nonsense. If you just scrolled to the bottom, that’s fair enough, there won't be a tl;dr but you’re welcome for filling your dash with massive text blocks.

#i'm going to be super nice and not put this post in any of the respective character tags #you're so welcome #i don't even know what to tag this as no one actually blocks ''long post''#i could tag it as discourse but my discourse tag is usually reserved for moash posting #also i genuinely am happy to read discussion about any of these points #i can't guarantee i'll reply to all of it but i welcome good faith disagreements (or agreements i suppose.)#except for my points about gavilar #try to argue with me there and i will make fun of you sorry #i should fully reactivate this blog but JUST for gavilar posting #preemptive faq response - q: why is this so long please put this under a cut. a: it's literally your fault for following me.

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charizardstolemynickname · 9 months

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"Aziraphale would have confessed his feelings first if Metatron didn't give him a job offer"

OKAY BUT YOU ARE NOT UNDERSTANDING ME, CORRECT, EXCEPT HE DID CONFESS

Aziraphale is an angel who more than anything loves God/Heaven and Crowley. He loves more things (his bookshop, human food, books, classical music, etc) but the things he loves more than life itself is heaven and Crowley

And so, often, those 2 loves would contradict each other. His bond to Heaven told him that all Demons were evil and wrong, that demons shouldn't be trusted. And his bond to Crowley told him everything Heaven said was wrong, or in some capacity was wrong. It took years (literally hundreds if not thousands) for Aziraphale to find a rhythm that worked best

Aziraphale KNEW Crowley wouldn't want heaven back, and he also knew heaven wouldn't want Crowley back. He respected both of those wishes and cared deeply for both still. He knew what Heaven did to Crowley was unfair, and knew heaven was sometimes wrong (season 1) but to him, that doesn't make Heaven as a whole wrong, only flawed

He also knew Crowley had done some not very nice things as a demon, that he didn't agree with. Again, that doesn't mean Crowley was wrong, just that he had some flaws

And so when given the opportunity, to fix Heaven's flaws, in the way that is proper, why would Aziraphale not take it? For 6000 years he had the 2 sides of his heart fighting over what is right, (and who/what is right, Crowley or Heaven). But NOW? He can fix Heaven, none of those Angels in charge before knew anything, they hadn't been to earth, they hadn't felt human emotions, they didn't understand TRUE good and bad, didn't understand what the colour grey meant.

This was proven by Gabriel CHANGING AS A CHARACTER COMPLETELY once he fell in love with Beelzebub. Gabriel in season 1 was for the war, was actively going against everything Aziraphale stood for. Gabriel wouldn't listen to Aziraphale, no matter how much he spoke about how the war is wrong. But then he did listen, because he felt love, and the love made Gabriel realise the fight was ridiculous, and unnecessary

So YES Aziraphale saw that since Gabriel left, there is only 1 Angel left who understands the complexity of right and wrong with humans. And even then, Aziraphale knows he doesn't FULLY understand it, he couldn't on his own. Because the reason he did understand it was because of Crowley

Never once did Aziraphale try to get Heaven to bring Crowley's angel status back, and never once did he try convincing Crowley to go back to Heaven (before all this anyway) because he KNEW Crowley would say no

Of course Crowley would say no to Heaven (run by Gabriel), why would he not, it was incredibly flawed and they casted Crowley out for no reason

But now? Heaven could be better. Could be fixed. By Aziraphale, and Crowley

And Aziraphale KNOWS Crowley didn't really "fall" or "become evil", and so to Aziraphale, Crowley becoming an angel again isn't a crazy idea

Especially not when Crowley is exactly what Aziraphale pictures when he thinks of what an Angel should be. Crowley cares, Crowley trusts, Crowley does things for no other reason than to be kind. Crowley is the perfect angel to Aziraphale

SO, Aziraphale saying to Crowley "Come to heaven, come recreated heaven with me" IS a love confession. It's him saying "You are my everything, you are everything right in the world. I would never dare suggest you should forgive heaven, but heaven was wrong, we both know that, but you and I both know you were the perfect angel and still are. Heaven created by you will be the true heaven"

It's Aziraphale saying "I have loved you and Heaven for thousands of years, and never once asked either of you to change. Today, I want Heaven to change as it is wrong, I want it to change, and I want it to change to become perfect for you. I want it to realise that punishing you was wrong. I want Heaven to be completely different because I love you, and you deserve so much better than to be treated as you have been for these 6000 years. I have seen what Hell does, and I have seen what Heaven does. And I have the opportunity to fix one, and you are what inspires me to do so. You helped me see the flaws, loving you is the reason heaven gets to be better"

AND I KNOW CROWLEY DOESN'T UNDERSTAND THIS, AND IT HURTS, BUT STOP SAYING AZIRAPHALE DIDN'T CONFESS FIRST BECAUSE ALTHOUGH HE DIDN'T SAY I LOVE YOU, HE MAY FUCKING HAVE

thank you for coming to my tedtalk

#this doesnt flow at all #and i kept thinking new things and forgetting where i was going #so i am so sorry for that #BUT FUCK OFF IF YOU THINK THIS WASNT SOME FORM OF CONFESSION #dont get me STARTED on “nothing lasts forever”#BECAUSE IF YOU THINK THAT IS ANYTHING OTHER THAN AZIRAPHALE TALKING ABOUT BEING IMMORTAL WITH CROWLEY #you are wrong #i dont care who you are you could be neil himself and you would be wrong (/j)#these immortal beings are idiots and terrible at communication #feel free to tell me if you think i am wrong #i welcome all disagreements but draw the line at aziraphale slander #i will defend his actions until i die #chr post #good omens #good omens 2 #good omens season 2 #go2 #good omens s2 #good omens spoilers #good omens analysis #good omens s2 spoilers #go2 spoilers #go2e6 #good omens season 2 spoilers #long post #aziraphale has religious trauma and we all know it #this is a mess and a late night ramble so its all over the place #crowley #aziraphale

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kienansidhe · 3 months

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hey um if youre following me from that one post im just gonna tell you here straight up that i talk abt transmisandry/transandrophobia also sometimes because i believe regardless of who has it worse, diff types of trans ppl experience some overlapping n some unique forms of oppression and the solution for that is not lateral aggression and infighting, its solidarity and lifting each other up.

the current mess on tumblr is absolutely a transmisogyny issue and if yall are running into ppl trying to make it an all trans ppl thing and derailing posts about transmisogyny im sorry there are idiots on your dash, but that doesnt mean transmasc ppl people never experience oppression. if you think im somehow transmisogynistic for this idk what to tell you, but id rather you know who youre following now than later.

i just want ppl to be compassionate. i know we are all traumatized and i know there are bad actors who try to drive wedges between us but we are stronger together and the people villainizing other trans people are not representative of who we all are as a whole, theyre just very loud and annoying.

i love you. i see you. i know you want to be safe and happy just as much as i do. lets do our best together.

#headspace #about #im getting some new followers and some seem rlly mad at 'transandrophobia truthsrs' so like #and like youre welcome to follow i follow a lotta ppl i have some disagreements with cause im trying to keep an open mind #but like you deserve to know who youre following

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