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clanwarrior-tumbly · 1 year

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Can I ask like Glitched Red x Npc reader

Reader was just like a normal npc but they starting releasing that something wrong,like why are saying the same lyric or why they ask some random boy to make they quest.

When reader was trying to do their quest by their self or trying to say something else they feel pain in their body,after some time reader like Red being removed from game.I just wondering how would Red react when he saw someone else that understands that their in game?

“Hi, Mom..if that’s even who you are.”

"RED, if you drive your Pokémon too hard, they’ll dislike you. You should take a rest.”

“I can’t rest. I already told you that. Can you say something else for once?”

"RED, if you drive your Pokémon too hard, they’ll dislike you. You should take a rest.”

"....do you even love me?"

"RED, if you drive your Pokémon too hard, they’ll dislike you. You should take a rest.”

“...screw you.” Red glared at his “mother”, sighing heavily in agitation as he stormed out of the house, wondering why he even bothered coming here to begin with.

Maybe it’s because he hoped that at some point, any of these stupid NPCs would start talking to him and actually perceive him as a real person. But just like them..his “mom” was just made up of codes, programmed to repeat the same damn script every time he interacted with them.

And he slowly began to realize that they were completely unaffected by whatever he said or did to them.

He could be rude and say the cruelest things, scream in their faces, cry about why they get to live in ignorance while he suffered, and even threaten to kill them....yet none of their responses would change a bit.

It was all pointless, much like his existence in this cursed game.

Why did it have to be so goddamn boring?

He thought he’d get used to the loneliness now, but it still hurt like hell.

Instead of venturing to Glitch City like he usually did, he decided to fly into Lavender Town--a place that he found some bit of comfort in. It’s a town built from sorrow and mourning.

And in a way, Red was mourning all the time; mourning for the life he’ll never get back; mourning over how his own fate is predetermined by the players..and how they frequently torture him for the sake of “fun”.

They haven’t come around in a while, which meant he was leaving a real-world impact on them to deter them from playing this game. He wished they would just stop and move onto other things...even though it killed him to know he was essentially abandoned.

He didn’t know which was worse: to be alone in this broken world or in the company of his tormentors.

Shaking his head to clear the thoughts, he entered the Pokémon Tower, seeing the usual NPCs paying their respects to their dead Pokémon. He simply scoffed as he passed by each one and spat on the nearby grave of a Raticate, knowing that nobody would be shocked because they weren’t programmed to react to him in any other way-

“Red? Is that you?”

“...huh?”

Stopping at the staircase leading to the next floor, Red froze to look over his shoulder, wondering if he was hearing things.

But no, out of the shadows of the dimly-lit room, you appeared to him with a Gastly at your side. You looked just like one of the normal resident NPCs, with the exception of glitchy particles being around your body and Gastly’s smog being replaced with purple glitches as well.

You..actually saw what he did? And you responded?

How was that possible?

He couldn’t believe it. His eyes only grew wider as he turned around, watching you step closer. “You..can see me?”

“Yeah, I’m just as shocked. But I-I-I---I-I think Gastlys are misunderstood. I want one, but I’m not good at throwing pokeballs. You seem brave, so could you catch one for me-e-?”

You winced, the glitches suddenly jabbing your body like Beedrill stingers; they hurt for a few moments, but once the pain subsided, you exhaled shakily, eventually calming down. “Ouch..s-sorry about that.” You chuckled, embarrassed that he had to witness that. “Just ignore that stupid side quest, I got this Gastly all on my own-”

“Y-You’re...talking to me..” Red whispered, still in utter disbelief. “How is that possible?”

You blinked as he suddenly glitched in front of you, his hands keeping a tight grip on your shoulders as he stared at you intensely. “How are you...h-how can you understand me?! Are you trapped too? Do you know where you are?!” He could feel his eyes stinging as he questioned you nonstop. “For so long, nobody else in this goddamn game could hear me...so..why you? Why now?”

Then he paused, lowering his head; the shadow over his face grew even darker. You could feel the poor guy’s hands trembling, which proved that he was very real to you, just as you were to him.

As terrified and confused as he was, it felt..liberating to finally have someone to talk to--someone who could respond to him normally and not spit out the same dialogue like a broken record.

“I don’t get it..am I going crazy? Is this some sick prank they’re pulling on me?”

“No. You’re not crazy, and..I don’t think anyone’s pranking us, Red.”

Looking back up at you, his gaze was exhausted, desperate for answers. You could see the whites of his eyes tinted red, along with the bags underneath them, revealing just how upset and lost he truly was.

You smiled sadly. “I don’t know why I can only see you now, but..I’ll tell you what happened to me. Let’s sit down somewhere.”

............

“So you’re saying that...you asked yourself why you’re giving a random kid some stupid quest, and then it all went to shit?”

“Pretty much, yeah..” Nodding, you finished sharing your backstory with Red.

To sum it up, you were a hidden NPC within Pokémon Tower. Your “quest” involved having the protagonist catch a Gastly for you since you’re apparently inexperienced at throwing pokeballs, and you were supposed to reward them with a TM.

Then one day..you suddenly wondered why you couldn’t just go catch it yourself. You don’t even know where such a thought came from--it simply popped up in your mind and made you question a lot of things.

So you tried going off on your own to find a Gastly. But clearly the game didn’t take that too well as you experienced excruciating pain just from taking a single step away from your programmed spot. Though you kept going anyways, forcing yourself to find that damn Gastly and finish your own quest.

And once you did..the world began breaking, allowing you to see the truth in it: that it’s all just predetermined by code.

Next thing you knew...they tried to delete you, keeping you and your side-quest out of future versions of Pokémon Red. But you weren’t completely erased and made your home here within Lavender Town, wondering why you were the only one to gain free will...and whether the other NPCs around you will “awaken” someday. But you had doubts about that.

Never did you think would you cross paths with Red, of all people, who was apparently just as aware as you were. Though it’s a relief knowing you weren’t alone in this situation anymore.

“That sucks..” He muttered, unsure of how to exactly comfort you.

“Yeah, well..it is what it is, I guess.” Smiling, you patted your Gastly on the head, who purred as it nuzzled against your palm. “So the only question is..where do we go from here? How do you kill the time in this game?”

"Dunno.” He shrugged and stuck his hands in his pockets. “Sometimes I train my Pokémon even though it’s pointless...other times I just wander, waiting for a change that’ll never come.”

“Oooh, that’s pretty deep. But I suppose I’m that change now.”

“...yeah.” Nodding, he managed to smile back at you a little bit. “You’ve ever been outside this tower?”

“No, but I’ve mastered glitching between floors so..I got that going for me. I wouldn’t mind seeing the rest of Kanto with you, though.”

For some reason, the way you said that made Red’s heartbeat spike, and he coughed awkwardly as his glitches began pricking his flesh. But they were only mild, albeit noticeable as you frowned in worry. “You okay, Red?”

“..y-yeah...I’m alright now.” Flustered by his coughing fit, he cleared his throat and stood up. “C’mon. Let’s get out of here.”

You grinned and jumped to your feet, returning Gastly to your pokeball and eagerly following him out of the tower.

Even though this doesn’t change the fact that those people will eventually be back to torture him, nor will this give either of you any hopes of escaping or resting...

At least you’re together.

#pokemon x reader #pokepasta x reader #glitchy red #glitchy red x reader

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hannigramislife · 1 month

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so i have a question that i swear is meant with complete sincerity (i just want to preface that because i know some people send shitty passive aggressive asks and i dont wanna be misunderstood).

I dislike dazai a lot and for most of the same reasons that you do but i also really dont like jgy for basically all the same reasons. I just know you're a big jgy fan but you really hate dazai and i was wondering how you reconcile those feelings? i assume we just have different interpretations of jgy (mdzs is a vast piece of media and there's a lot of different ways to interpret each character) but i've just been getting more and more curious so i wanted to ask. to be clear, i think it's totally okay to like jgy! the same way i think its okay for dazai fans to like dazai, they're just fictional characters. so this is in no meant as an attack or an 'ah ha!' moment. i just sort of don't understand liking one character and not the other when to me, all of their worst traits are the same and jgy has actually done far worse things than dazai (like murdering his own son)

i hope my ask isnt upsetting at all. you mentioned before liking to discuss meta so i really just want to introduce a conversation and maybe understand your perspective a bit better

Firstly, thank you so much for your polite ask!

I just wanna clear something up – I am not a Jgy fan XD. I see where one might think that, but I can guarantee you, I wanted him dead as fuck and I do not condone his atrocities.

Now, I do have some friends who have talked to me about Jgy, and they're Xiyao and Nieyao fans, respectively, so by talking with them, I have come to understand better some parts of Jgy's character, which have made me more forgiving towards some of his actions. Emphasis on some. Like you said, he and Dazai share the same annoying/frustrating traits, like the fact that they're lying liars 😊

I do appreciate Jgy as a character much more than I do Dazai though, that is correct, and I guess it's because of their narrative roles. Jgy has a very solid and interesting position in mdzs – in a world where social standing is such an important part of the story, the genius, bastard son of one of the wealthiest clans is constantly kicked down (lol couldn't resist), because the system has decided he doesn't deserve the same power as his half-brother, simply because of his birth situation.

And the narrative stays true to it! Time and time again, he is shut down, even when he goes to Lanling with Nie Mingjue's recommendation letter, even when he kills Wen Ruohen, even when he is married to secure his status, fate has fucked him over. It's like trying to watch Icarus reach the sun because he feels he is entitled to it.

Plus, I'm a huge Nieyao fan XD in a "they could have totally gotten married and lived happily ever after, but nooo; some of us have daddy issues *glares at jgy*"

So, this is the reason my posts have stopped being so antagonistic to Jgy, as I like to live in a delusional world where they've reincarnated in the modern world, jgy has some morals, and 3zun is happy 😇

Now, Dazai, on the other hand, I simply can't stand him. Nothing about his story or personality makes me go even as far as "yes, and?" I don't care for him as a character (though I get how he is appealing to people). I don't understand his actions 90% of the time. Plus, his actions are also frustrating and make me mad.

Like when Chuuya used corruption and he was like, "take me back at the place," and Dazai just left his ass there. "Oh, but that's their dynamic," yes, well, it annoys me. Plus, his whole thing with Akutagawa drives me up a wall because how dare you??? Motherfucker??? His first words to Akutagawa after 4 years live in my head rent-free because you could have shown that you became a better person, but nope. Still a dick. "Oh, he did that to set up the rivalry with Atsushi," you know how Beast Dazai did that? Set them up on a date. Boom. Take notes.

I also personally think Dazai either doesn't get Akutagawa fr, or he simply doesn't care to do so because Akutagawa flourishes with encouragement, it's actually sort of insane to see. Anyways. Went on a tangent there.

So yeah, Dazai is annoying, his personality sucks, he's a manipulative bastard, and he is mean to my baby :(

#the untamed #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #jin guangyao #bsd #bungou stray dogs #bsd dazai #dazai osamu #ask #thoughts and feelings

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theluminoussunflower · 5 months

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I always felt kinda weird about the dps 'novel' and thought it was so strange how many people seemed to love it. (And how often nancy kleinbaum was credited for quotes she had no involvement in..)

Like.. i'm glad if people enjoyed it. But at the same time i was crushed that i couldn't form a connection with it? Because all i yearned for was a long and detailed book of dps, but the book we've got is just a (worse) version of the script, where all the characters feel off.. finally someone put into words what i had trouble articulating.

So... thanks!

(And if i may ask: what do you think of the 'deleted scene' where mr. keating comes to the cave? It obviously doesn't have much to do with the book (just like everything else it was part of the script), but for me personally it was the first time i had encountered it.. do you think it adds to the story or not?)

Anonymous because i have a horrid fear of being misunderstood :) have a nice day

anon you and i are on the exact same page. i think within the fandom it's generally disliked on some level, but i see a lot of people who aren't in the trenches with us who praise it. and it's like, i think they just like the movie, but quoting from a movie isn't aesthetic enough or something? so they quote from the book? idk i have never liked the book, i don't understand the appeal of it at all.

there is another universe where the dps book is what you want: thorough, detailed, maybe even expands on the characters in minor ways (like we finally find out what clubs meeks and pitts are in). unfortunately, we live in the darkest timeline

i have quite mixed feelings about that deleted scene tbh. there is some context to it and i even see the vision that schulman was going for when he wrote it. to my understanding, that scene where todd reads out his poem was supposed to be intercut with the scene of neil going into his father's office. it's a pretty sick juxtaposition: todd, the character who could barely form a sentence at the beginning of the film, is reading out his own poem to his friends! and neil, who started all his friends on the dps path after being inspired by keating, isn't there because he's committing suicide at home, ending his life because there is nothing to live for if he can't seize the day. the thing is, in the original script, todd's character arc was a bit more complete in my opinion. he stands up to mr nolan and his parents and he doesn't sign the contract which terminates mr keating. he see him put keating's advice into practice and the effects/consequences of that (for some reason, todd does not get kicked out of welton in the og script, not sure why). but in the film, he is presented with the reality of not being able to follow mr keating's advice (yet), so he has to sign the contract. thus leading to the epic finale of the film where he thanks mr keating for his lessons and then we just presume they all put those lessons into practice. (dps 2 me thinks). now, for the film, weir wanted that grim/tragedy ending, so he cut a lot of that stuff with todd out. it still works, just not in the traditional way.

in terms of the rest of that, like everyone singing and dancing together... doesn't really do much. again, it was supposed to be intercut with neil's suicide, but neil's scene is harrowing enough without seeing his friends not know what's going on with him.

so there is a world where that deleted scene works, but they deleted it for a reason.

if i could for a moment talk about knox's storyline relating to that scene. i hate that his relationship with chris comes to a screeching halt when neil commits suicide. literally, after the play, we don't see or hear from her again. in that deleted scene, they kiss or whatever. still doesn't really wrap it up. now i'm not saying i'm rooting for them, because i'm not. but i think it would have been interesting like.

okay imagine chris' boyfriend chet finds out that she went to the play with knox (or kissed him). and chet is furious so he marches up to welton, set on punching knox into the ground. only to be confronted with a guy whose friend just killed himself. and what if knox, much like todd in the film, relents. and says "you can have chris, i can't seize the day anymore, my friend is dead" and we see him lose. knox, who has been pining after chris the whole movie, has to give up. i think that may have just reiterated the point, so maybe that's why it's not addressed. idk it was just always odd that knox didn't get a proper ending. not that he deserves it.

i don't know if that actually answers your question or not. i guess in short, i don't really think it should have stayed in the film as it was, but i see how it could have worked.

end post lol

#dead poets society #dps #dps fandom #dead poets #dead poets fandom #dead poets headcanons #the dead poets society #me #answered

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raydianbluesandhues · 7 months

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Any headcanons about Mungo, that mutated Inky that nearly tore down the Inky Fabricator?

This little guy,,, yeah i have a few things

——

So a few things about Inkies before I talk about Mungo, and keep this in mind as the post goes on:

(And yes I thought about these over my hiatus)

Inkies are somewhat colorblind in that most colors on Raydia are harder for them to process. Bright colors can overload them and overstimulate them, and if they’re too bright it can disorient them

Inkies come from an environment where there is little to no lighting; their eyes are implants that allow them better vision and their actual eyes are ass

Because of their shit eyesight (without the implants we normally see them with) every other sense is heightened, specifically their hearing

They communicate via sounds such as clicks or beeps or whistles, Morse code is also a fan favorite and is something they use regularly

So with that in mind:

Mungo was an accidental creation at the inky factory, a mishmash of inky parts and pieces forming together into a large blob-like mass. Von stated that Mungo hated both color and ink, and very weak to heat for obvious reasons.

Mungo was most likely overstimulated by everything. Not only was he being attacked by his own people, but the sound of mortars shooting at him, helicopters flying, as well as shouting soldiers could have stressed him out. And this would make him hating ink understandable despite him being made of ink.

Him disliking color could just be the base programming in him responding to Blob and the Color Underground’s presence, but also keep in mind that sharp and bright colors are very hard for inkies to process. Mungo has a lot of eyes, and seeing so many bright colors (MOVING colors, mind you, referring to Blob and Pinky) could have very well overstimulated him to the point of lashing out and attacking everything.

Including Pinky, who could’ve made everything worse if she wasn’t smacked down by him

Throughout the level, it seems more like we’re chasing him rather than just following a rampaging and aggressive monster. It’s more like he’s trying to get away than actually wanting to cause trouble. He’s getting attacked from both sides of the war and he was just created two seconds ago. He could very well deal with both sides very easily, as seen from the destruction he caused in the opening cutscene and how easily he dealt with Pinky, but it seems like he doesn’t really want to. It’s more of a defense, a last resort if you will.

That being said I think that Graydian in that cutscene is probably fine. That inky is most likely dead, but unless the Graydian was trying to fight it (and you can see it cowering and shielding itself), I don’t think Mungo perceived it as a threat. More like a curious toddler really.

Him going to the Fabricator was most likely an attempt to get away completely; it was one of the last few places it could hide and even then it still couldn’t be left alone. It’s like cornering a cat, you’re going to get smacked and clawed because it’s trying to get you to leave it alone. By any means necessary. Blob was an issue and a threat to him because Blob had been attacking him, which paired with the fact that Blob was BURNING him it didn’t help much.

Him being melted at the end of the boss was honestly very sad to me; he was a misunderstood monster who had just been created, only to be attacked by everyone.

I do think that he’s still alive somewhere, in a smaller and condensed form since he lost most of it to the heat, but maybe he’s just hiding out somewhere. He probably is terrified of everything now, and I don’t blame him :C

#de blob #de blob 2 #headcanons #long post #mungo was very tragic in my eyes #like even if the cu stopped for a second and thought about it im sure it would’ve ended differently #he was literally like a scared animal and being constantly harassed was not helping #the fabricator was a last resort #he literally didnt have anywhere to go #and at that point even if blob had approached peacefully mungo would’ve seen him as a threat #blob was probably mad as fuck after watching pinky get obliterated too #so blob coming in with that hostile energy was NOT helping him at all

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nekropsii · 2 years

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I think you misunderstood why I dislike Tavros and how he's seen, which I will preface you are absolutely right to misunderstand, upon rereading I didn't actually make my point, which is 100% on me. And you are definitely allowed to disagree with me however I do want to make sure that my point isn't misread.

My dislike of Tavros isn't from a place of being annoyed at him or thinking that he's not a victim, he absolutely is. It's that his victimhood is used by fans and by him as an excuse for his behavior which is often really damaging and kinda shitty.

This is the troll that found out that he seriously hurt Jade and basically responded with "I had good intentions and that absolves me of fault and anger, and I'm hurt that you're still upset at me! But it's okay I forgive you, and I forgive myself for hurting you" which is such a cruel response!

In every instance he "gains confidence" he almost immediately starts uncomfortably flirting with whoever has shown him any kindness. You see it with him flirting with Jade after the aforementioned interaction as soon as she showed any sense that she might not treat him like trolls treat her, or flirting with Kanaya (who is a lesbian) when she helps him in Pesterquest.

After dying and the Tavrissprite debaucle he again starts acting like an absolute tool, getting in everyone's face and acting like a spoiled child.

And the worst part is on the rare occasion that someone calls out his behavior he starts to claim victimhood and claims that that absolves him of his actions, like because he was hurt he now has a license to act however he wants and people have to give him pity.

Again you're allowed to disagree, and he is absolutely a victim, but that doesn't give him a license to act how he does

I’m glad you’re taking the blame on the fact that you did not, in fact, make any point in your original ask outside of insult. I’m also glad that you’re open to disagreement, because I’m gonna take you up on that. So, yeah, if you don’t mind, I’ve got a few counterpoints for this:

This level of shitty behavior is typical for… Just about every single Homestuck character. Sure, you can dislike Tavros for his specific brand of shitty behavior, but he’s absolutely not special, nor is he an isolated case in this regard. He’s not even the only character to behave in this exact manner- I get that he’s the focal point here, but I still need to point that out. He isn’t special. Hell, some fan favorites are known for doing worse things than this.

Pesterquest is not canon, and therefore is not a valid example of his character within canon. Yes, it is official content, but it is quite literally not canon. These two labels can coexist.

Tavros is a socially inept 13 year old boy. He’s 13 years old. 13. He is a middle schooler. He is an awkward 13 year old boy who has been put through the fucking wringer, the fact that he’s doing shitty things makes complete and utter sense. Genuinely, he could be so much worse. Yes, the things he did were shitty, but he’s a kid. They do that. Kids are shitty sometimes. They don’t fuckin’ know any better, dude. I guarantee you that you were kind of a bastard when you were 13.

When you are abused, you do not become a good person. Abuse almost never makes someone a good person, especially not immediately. It makes you an asshole. That’s why Vriska is like that. That’s also why Tavros is like that. In fact, Tavros is like that… Probably largely because of Vriska. Tavros kinda just… Acts like your average 13 year old abuse victim.

Our collective understanding of Tavros as a person- as well as Equius and Eridan, since we’re discussing problem children now- is based on a very troubled literal child with zero sense of self worth. We can’t really judge his morality when his sense of morality/reasonability genuinely is not fully formed yet, and is honestly being actively impeded upon. This is just speculation, but I’m betting that if he’d been given the room to actually grow and mature as a person- you know, past the age of 13- he wouldn’t be nearly as bad.

I’m willing to bet his, yes, highly awkward flirtations were just what he thought you were supposed to do when you were confident. Does that make it ok? No. It’s still weird! I’m not enacting apologetics for that. But as I’ve stated previously… Socially inept 13 year old with no sense of self worth + there’s characters that are worse off than him. Again… 13 year olds are just… Like that, sometimes.

I understand that this could have just been poor wording on your own part, but in your original ask, you literally said that Vriska was “keeping Tavros in check”, so I’m not exactly willing to trust that you have an objective view on the actions of either of these characters. Say that you’re aware he’s a victim all you want, that line just personally raises a lot of red flags for me, and I don’t think you understand the implications of calling abuse someone being “kept in check”. Was Vriska really “keeping him in check” by purposefully physically disabling him, and then constantly ridiculing him for the disability she caused? Was she really in the right for that? Was that something he deserved?

I don’t know, dude. He’s a fictional character, yeah, but it feels kind of weird to be weighing a 13 year old boy’s morality on a scale like this. He hasn’t really done anything warranting much heavy insults, or a callout post, or anything- he’s just a kid who was kind of a social fuck-up. If you’re so heated about Tavros’s level of shitty, I kinda have to wonder if there’s any Homestuck characters you even can tolerate. They’re all kind of assholes. You know… Because they’re children.

#homestuck #beta trolls #tavros nitram #vriska serket #tavros.pdf #nekro.pdf #nekro.sms

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ink-flavored · 1 year

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Cherry, tomato, pear

Thank you!

I'm gonna do Pride from P&J since he's who I'm thinking about right now.

🍒 [CHERRY] Who is your OC's perfect companion?

Up until the events of the story, he has been perfectly happy (""""happy"""") being a loner. You don't have friends in Hell, you don't have relationships, you don't have companions. At most you have "business partners"—someone you can convince to help you out as long as they get something in return. In that way, he fell into quite a toxic dynamic with Lust, but I wouldn't call them "companions" or "perfect" lmao

It's quite appropriate (and corny) to say it's Justice. The one angel in all of existence to give Pride a chance at redemption, urge him to think about others, and listen to his pain. And Pride, in turn, gets to have encourage Justice to have a bit more self-respect, break rules if it suits him, and introduce him to the idea that being holy and righteous 100% of the time is impossible and unhealthy. They really do complete each other <3

🍅 [TOMATO] How misunderstood is your OC? In-universe or IRL.

In-universe, I'd say it's a mixed bag. Pride did, genuinely, throw his lot in with Lucifer. He ended up in Hell for extremely prideful reasons, and one might say he deserved it.

But he's also been suffering for tens of thousands of years, and has learned nothing other than God will punish any who disagree. To him, the world is a cold, cruel place, and he's molded himself accordingly. He can't trust anyone but himself, because no one has allowed him to take that step. He trusted God, that didn't work out. He trusted Lucifer, that went even worse. He trusted the other angels (the ones that drove him out of Heaven), that went poorly too. He obviously can't trust other demons. Who else does he have, but himself?

Pride has a lot of legitimate about him to dislike, but he also has a lot of pain that I would say is not deserved.

IRL, I don't think there's enough Content yet for people to misunderstand him. Although my partners do call him babygirl more than I expected.

🍐 [PEAR] What is their current social standing? If they could change it, would they, and to what?

Pride is possibly the lowest rung on the hypothetical ladder, as a demon, and does everything he possibly can to try to change that.

He has to be the best at everything. He has to be smarter, funnier, and stronger than you. If he's good at everything, he'll be a leg up. He'll get some respect. He hates you if you beat him at something—even if you don't know you're competing. He hates angels most of all, because they have the respect and prestige he knows he'll never get back.

Pride's ideal, the thing he thinks would fix him, would be to go back to Heaven. To be holy again, loved and revered by all. Then again, he did join a revolution to escape, so I'm not sure holiness suited him very well in the first place.

[send me an OC fruits and veggies ask]

#annika talks #answered #ask game #P&J #Pride & Justice #Pride

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firendgold · 9 months

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Harry for the blorbo opinion bingo

and with this ask, the other half of fireandgold/this blog's ship is now complete! thanks~

And would you look at that, Harry earned himself a bingo! *confetti*

Expounding on the squares again from the top down--

blorbo: not as much as Albus, but Harry is very special and I like how he defies the "everyman" tropes people try to put on him. He is definitely a distinct character in his own right.

I respect them: Harry is extremely compassionate, and extremely forgiving. He makes a lot of choices I would not and could not personally have made if I were in the same situation. I think it takes a lot of courage and for someone so young to stick to unpopular opinions and feelings. For example, if Harry were real, I think he'd defend to the death all his children's name-choices, and heaven help you if you thought you'd change his mind with some half-baked, rehashed argument.

(but like, Harry. why Severus. why Severus as a middle name--)

my opinion changed a lot over time: I've never disliked Harry, but I've definitely disagreed with him at times (especially in DH over Dumbledore, because he was being such a fucking idiot). It's also easy to get the real canon Harry confused with all the fanon Harrys who are meant to "improve" on him (but sometimes don't actually do so), 'till you get to the point where you hardly remember what your unbiased opinion of Harry James was in the first place. But when I'm fresh off a re-read, I find that I am far fonder of him than I was when initially reading his story in the mid 2000s. I was more or less neutral then.

I can make them worse: Mmmm, imagine. A genuinely Dark Harry who wasn't Voldemort's pet or lover, but a dangerous individual in his own right who was the patron saint of misplaced orphans and serpent king of the underworld. Ruler of dementors, and the only dark wizard able to cast a Patronus. A man whose only true love was control because he spent so much of his pre-Hogwarts years without a shred of it. Similarly to Albus, people write the most bland, nauseating independent!Harrys and Dark!Harrys and Harem!Harrys and PoliticalAsshole!Harrys and every type of Harry who isn't Harry you could think of. Even if I restricted myself to writing those repetitive genres only, I'm pretty sure I could do better. You know, if I ever hit my head on the sidewalk and had a personality transplant.

they intrigue me: Auror Dad is perhaps the least interesting route That Woman could have had Harry take, so of course that's where he ended up. Harry wasn't The Next Merlin by any means, but he was skilled with magic and a quick thinker, and I would have loved to see him unleashed on the world as he was at seventeen, fresh off dancing on Voldemort's corpse.

I have so much to say about them: It's not as easy to get me going on Harry as it is on Albus, but the parts of him that do get my mouth running send it off just as passionately as any Albus-related-rant does. ^^

they're hard to understand; I get it tho: I... sort of get it and don't get it... because it definitely feels like people are projecting what they wish Harry was onto him, or their own experiences or whatever. I do that too but I have to be so careful not to let my own voice seep through when I'm writing him. so in true Virgo fashion I'm all, if I can watch myself when analyzing Harry why can't literally everyone else? lol. But yes. Harry is very hard to understand. His compassion, his temper, his mood swings, his reactions to how he was raised... any and all have been misunderstood by all of us at the best of times. He's very intriguing because he's not as easy to pin down as he might seem. (That's why I don't buy into the idea of him as a bland protagonist. Y'all just aren't reading deeply enough into him. If he was that bland, wouldn't there be even more versions of him in fanon, instead of people slowly starting to come to a consensus about just who Harry James Potter is?)

I'd fuck them: oooh, a NSFW one. well. I'm far too old to think of canon Harry in that way, and he wasn't really pushing any teenage heartthrob buttons for me when I actually was a teenager (that was more Percy Jackson's role, lol). But sometimes I see fanart of adult Harrys that look delicious. Like, shaggy tied-back hair, lightning-bolt scar accentuated to the point where it looks like an epic tattoo across his face, brilliant bottle-green eyes, long flowing Quidditch or professor robes... it hits sometimes.

#blorbo opinion bingo #empatheticeyeroll #thanks for the ask!#fireandgoldposts #not fireandgold #Harry Potter

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rose2jam · 3 years

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Why It Was Practically Inevitable That Severus Snape Would Join A Cult, an essay by Rose Jam

So, let’s talk about Cults. Disclaimer: This is just information I’ve gathered over the years from my personal fascination with religious cults. I’m in no way an expert or a psychologist or whatever. This is just my personal understanding from the research I’ve done.

A cult is started when a wildly charismatic Leader feels like they have a purpose, a higher calling, or a mission to be fulfilled (or they could also just be an egomaniac). Maybe they really do feel like what makes them special comes directly from a higher power, be that God, or the Heir of Slytherin, but either way, this person has a pathological need to be worshiped, and they need followers in order to do that.

So, how does one obtain Followers easily? By finding the misunderstood misfits of society, and promising them something. The people who feel like no one else understands them, or their ideologies. But this Leader? This Leader GETS IT, MAN! The Leader understands them perfectly, vindicates them, and makes them promises along the way. Like, if they stick with the Leader, then not only will they finally be understood, but they themselves will also be revered. That they will rise above all of the others who have put them down for so long, and will come out on top as a superior being.

Any of this sounding familiar?

Charles Manson preyed on young people in the middle of the hippie movement, mostly women, who were feeling lost, lonely, and in need of guidance, or in terms of the men he recruited, seeking power over others. Not all of these people were poor or helpless; some of them came from middle class, or even rich homes and families. Yes, some of them came from broken homes, but all of them felt “broken” themselves, in some way. So Manson used their desires to have a family to draw them in. He then used LSD and other drugs to keep them under his control, and he created a manipulative environment where the members of his “family” felt they could never leave him, and if they didn’t follow his commands, something horrible would happen to them. I’m not going to go into full detail on the Manson Family Murders, but if you’re personally interested, check out the Podcast “Cults” on Spotify.

So back to basics, this Leader draws in Followers with flowery promises of community, power, family, or whatever. But once the Leader has that following, the terror will begin. Cult Leaders are usually master manipulators, and have completely brainwashed their followers into believing the “us vs them” mentality, that the outside world is evil, that the outside world will only harm them, that the outside world would never understand what they’re doing on the inside. And that the Leader is the only one who knows the truth, so they better stick with him. Or maybe the Leader has gaslit his followers so completely, that they become dependent on him for everything, to the point where they don’t know how they would possibly function without the Leader. Or, the Leader has created an environment that’s so hostile, that Followers are too afraid of what might happen to them if they tried to leave, or didn’t do what the Leader commanded. Typically, it’s a combination of all of the above. Destructive cults will either hurt others outside of their circle (The Manson Family, Sect of Nacozari), harm themselves (Heaven’s Gate, The Ant Hill Kids), or both (The People’s Temple, Aum Sinrikyo).

Now that I’ve laid this foundation, I’m going to tell you why it was practically inevitable that Severus Snape would join a cult.

Snape’s childhood ultimately laid the foundation for the mental state he would be in when he decided to join the Death Eaters. He grew up in an abusive household, where his father, the muggle, had his magical wife so thoroughly whipped, that she couldn’t (or chose not to) use magic to defend herself, or her son (1). Eileen had obviously told Severus about magic, about Hogwarts, about what a wonderful place it was, and what a wonderful gift magic could be. Severus also watched as Tobias beat the magic out of her. (I know it’s debated whether Tobias actually physically abused his family, but he certainly verbally/mentally/emotionally abused them, so the term “beat” could be used figuratively as well). I don’t think it’s unreasonable to believe that Severus developed an extreme hatred of muggles with “burn the witch” mentalities from a very young age because of this.

Enter Lily, perhaps the only other magical person in his life besides his mother up to this point. He sees her using magic out in the open, perhaps recklessly, for fun, and he sees an opportunity to make a friend (and, admittedly, to be smarter than someone about something for a while). He was so eager to tell her all about magic, because getting to learn magic, and go to Hogwarts, has possibly been the only thing keeping him going in his young life. And now he’s made a friend, a real friend who doesn’t think he’s weird because he’s magical. Unlike Petunia, yet another muggle who makes fun of him for being weird (2). And Lily actually seems to like him back. For a kid who probably hasn’t received a lot of affection in his life, this is monumental. This friendship is everything. Why wouldn’t he love her?

So the time finally comes to go to Hogwarts. Severus gets to escape his abusive household, and finally has an opportunity to embrace magic for the first time in his life. But almost immediately, he’s met with a hic-up. Specifically, James Potter and Sirius Black. So Severus is no longer facing abuse exclusively from muggles who think he’s weird, but now he’s also getting it from other magical people who think he’s weird (3). And this started on the fucking TRAIN before he even GOT to Hogwarts. You can’t tell me that wouldn’t sour a kids dream right off the fucking bat. And then, when he finally gets there, he’s separated from his only friend, by being sorted into different houses (4). What a way for a life-long dream to be thoroughly dashed in less than 24 hours.

Let’s look at Snape’s Hogwarts experience. He’s a good student, and he pours himself into learning as much magic as possible, and at being the best he can possibly be, probably motivated by a desire to be better than what his Father thinks possible. During this time, he is regularly bullied and abused by the Marauders. Sometime before his 5th year, the Incident at the Shrieking Shack took place. It definitely sucks to have been so thoroughly fucking duped, and put into a life-threatening situation involving a goddamn werewolf (5). But perhaps even worse than that, the salt in the wound, was that no one fucking did anything about it (6). He saw Sirius and James and Remus get out of that situation without facing any sort of proper punishment (as in, they all still stayed at the school as opposed to being expelled like they DEFINITELY SHOULD HAVE BEEN (At least Sirius should have been)). Dumbledore was looking out for the Marauders, but no one was looking out for Severus. On top of that, Severus isn’t allowed to TELL anyone about it, not even Lily. So, he goes through what was possibly one of the most traumatic experiences of his life, and he can’t even tell anyone that it happened.

So, what sort of support system does Severus have during all this? He has Lily, sure (who literally told him he should be GRATEFUL to James, one of his abusers). But, what he really has, is Slytherin House (7). I’ll say it plainly: Severus was sorted into a house that was already full of existing cult members. McGonagall says in Sorcerer’s Stone that “Your house will be like your family” (she at least says it in the movies, I’m too lazy to get up and reference my books rn lol). So, Severus’ family, his support system, for 10 months out of every year, is a house that is already full to the brim with pureblood elitists with prejudiced ideals, who would absolutely vindicate Severus in his dislike for muggles. As a kid first getting sorted into the house, it’s obviously not unreasonable to become friends with the people you’re literally living with. His dorm mates became his family. So, when his dorm mates started to become Death Eaters… This is headcanon, I fully admit, but like, fuck, Severus didn’t have a lot of friends, and was probably already drifting apart from Lily. Do you really think he was going to tell the people he had to live with every single day, not to mention the only people that had been supporting him for years, to go fuck themselves for using Dark Magic? Especially when he was probably feeling like he was on the verge of thinking that their rhetoric made some sense?

On to Snape’s Worst Memory (8). At this point, he’s spent 5 years in Slytherin House, with fellow students who casually throw around the M word. He gets attacked by James and Sirius, he’s practically defenseless, and then the girl who he’d considered his closest friend for so long… has to force herself not to smile when he’s thrown upside down and exposed to everyone on the grounds. Sure, she was trying to defend him at first, but she also fucking nearly smiled at his humiliation, his pain, his abuse. So he hurls the one word that he knows is going to cut the deepest, that will hopefully hurt her as badly as she has hurt him. And it works.

Severus had been beaten down his entire life. By Muggles and Magic Folk alike. And finally, he’s betrayed by Lily, his last lifeline to the light. He betrayed her as well, of course. But he did try to show remorse. And she doesn’t forgive him (9), which was her prerogative, of course.

So. Who does he have left?

I’ve placed little (numbers) throughout my writing here. Each of those numbers denote the specific events that led Severus to becoming an angry young man, who hates muggles, hates (some) magic folk, and resulted in him feeling weak, helpless, and desperate. For what? For power, for a family, for a community. For a world where he is no longer the weird one. For a world where he’s respected, strong. For the world he thought he was going to be a part of, when he arrived at Hogwarts in his first year.

And it just so happens that this is the exact world that Voldemort is (allegedly) trying to create.

Severus Snape was angry, and vulnerable, and as such, he was practically the poster child for the type of person who would be susceptible to falling for a cult. Maybe he was recruited by his friends in Slytherin House. Maybe he was recruited directly. Either way, charismatic Tom Riddle came along, understood how he felt, where he was coming from, told him he deserved better, and offered him all of the things he never had in his life. And being at rock bottom, being the lowest of the low, to Severus it must have seemed like a miracle of an opportunity, or perhaps, like the only chance he had left.

Now, let me be extremely clear; everything I’ve written is not trying to EXCUSE Severus Snape for his actions. There is always a point where personal responsibility must come into play. Except for children born into cults or victims of kidnapping, nearly every person who has ever joined a cult has made the personal decision to join it. I’m just trying to express how unbelievably easy it is, for a Cult Leader to find people with damaged lives and low self-worth, to suck them in with promises of a fulfilling life and grandeur, and for those people to be easily swept up and brainwashed into believing that what they are doing is right. (Or that what they are doing is required, because the alternative is more horrifying.)

The type of people who joined the Death Eaters are the same type of people who joined Heaven’s Gate, or The People’s Temple, or yes, The Manson Family. Now, I’m just going to say, from my own personal point of view, I do not vilify anyone who’s ever joined a destructive cult. On the contrary, I feel sorry for them. Because most people who join a cult, don’t necessarily do it signing up for the… end result of what happened to them. Some of them totally do, like Heaven’s Gate. Most of them knew that the end result was going to be the “evacuation of their earthly vessel”. But the people who joined the Manson Family, for instance, did not initially join it KNOWING how it was going to end. They were part of the family long before Manson even came up with Helter Skelter, and by the time the Tate-LaBianca Murders took place, they were already too far gone to go against it.

I highly recommend anyone who’s interested in a humanizing view of former cult members, to read the essay “Leslie Van Houten: A Friendship” by John Waters. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/leslie-van-houten-a-frien_b_246953

Or, at the very least, listen to this 7 minute NPR interview with John Waters about the essay https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111585116

It’s the story of how notorious film maker John Waters, became friends with former Manson Girl, Leslie Van Houten, and about how she broke away from the cult after her conviction, how she’s spent the last 51 years of her life recovering from the psychotic influence of a maniac who’d promised her the world, and how even though she was convicted to life WITH a possibility of parole, it’s never been granted to her, despite the fact that she has done literally everything possible to try and atone for her crimes.

Maybe I’m just a bleeding heart. I’m pretty much the only person I know who feels sorry for Leslie Van Houten and other cult members who were brainwashed, abused, and manipulated into doing a lot of the horrible things they’ve done. But there are people in the world, who have committed FAR more heinous crimes than the Manson Family murders, and who are far less repentant than Leslie, but because those crimes weren’t as notorious, they get to walk free.

Addendum: When I first posted this, I had a few people point out to me that they had always associated Voldemort and the Death Eaters with Hitler and Nazi Germany. This is a perfectly fair point, but one that I personally don’t jive with, and the reason is simply the numbers. There were literally millions of people in the Nazi party during WW2. Death Eaters don’t even reach triple digits, as far as I’m aware. As I hinted at in this essay, I consider Voldemort and the Death Eaters to be MUCH closer to Charles Manson and the Manson Family. The Manson Family 100% had Nazi ideology, of course. "Helter Skelter” was Charles Manson’s prediction that there was going to be a massive race war; one that the Whites were going to lose, and that he and his Pure White family would emerge from it in order to rule over the remaining Blacks. Kinda... sounds like a Death Eater thing, huh?

Sorry. Back to Snape. There is a lot we don’t know about Severus’ actual time as a Death Eater. I think it can be reasonably assumed he’s never actually killed anyone before Dumbledore (In Prince’s Tale, Severus questions if his soul would be safe from killing Dumbledore, and Dumbledore implies that his soul would not be damaged by helping an old man avoid pain and humiliation. This leads me to believe that Severus never committed any soul-damaging murders before this). Beyond being a sneaky spy and delivering the prophecy to Voldemort, his time as a Death Eater is all up for conjecture.

Severus does make one important deviation from the typical cult member mold, however. In the end, he manages to break away from the cult. The scales fall from his eyes. In a figurative sense, the LSD has worn off. What made him sober up, was the threat to his last lifeline to the light. The one good fucking thing he’d ever had in his miserable life. He was brought back by genuine love. Ya know, the ENTIRE MESSAGE OF THE HP SERIES. And not only did he leave the cult, but he then spent the rest of his life actively attempting to destroy it, and atone for the mistakes he’s made, in an effort to bring back the world he’d been excited for, as an 11-year-old kid, so full of hope.

#Snape Meta #Severus Snape #Pro Snape #Snapedom #Snape Community #This will be the TRUE test of the tags #Essay Jam #Why It Was Practically Inevitable That Severus Snape Would Join A Cult

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misssakurapetal28 · 3 years

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#Sabrina Raincomprix Deserves WAY Better...

You know...

I find it SO FUNNY how this fandom preaches about “peace and tolerance” or “let these bullies learn and grow” or “They are are just misunderstood!” when it comes to characters like Chloe and Lila. It doesn’t matter what they did or always do, people have faith in them no matter what. However, when it comes to Sabrina, ANOTHER mistreated and misunderstood girl (in my opinion), just because she’s no “important” or “one-dimensional” or “not developed enough”, no one bats an eye, no one doesn’t care, no one gives a shit, NO ONE SEES HER mistreatment and potential and completely turns their backs on her. Even when a small handful of people DO care, it’s suddenly “not that serious” because she’s not that important, it’s a kids show, or people will try to make it about Chloe in some way.

It makes me mad because...most of us have been bullied and mistreated in school. Some of us been manipulated, intimidated and belittled by people that we once loved, cared about or saw as our friends and I’m sure of it. Some of us, we were kids once and sometimes we did things that we didn’t want to do, but we DID do in fear that we would get bullied or have something be taken from us. Sometimes, we were misunderstood or wronged for things that could of been or should of been at least understandable. Sometimes, we did wrong things to keep toxic things or friendships.

Now, of course you can say that some of this COULD apply to Chloe and Lila too. It VERY likely and possible, but in my opinion this fits Sabrina’s situation a more than Chloe and Lila’s. Also, I would have been a lot more fine with this applying to Chloe and Lila IF Sabrina gotten the same amount of sympathy, empathy and compassion for that too. You see, I bet A LOT of people dealt MORE with people like Chloe and Lila in school. And I know at least 1 person AT LEAST saw people like Sabrina too.

My point is...when I see all this passion, controversial opinions, constructive criticism and even hate when it comes to Chloe and Lila, people always say that “their children, let them grow and learn” or sayings like that all them time. They want to defend them, no matter what they do because “they had it hard”, “they’re relatable” or “because they’re children”. However, Sabrina??? It’s always the same kind of answers:

“She’s undeveloped”

“She contributes nothing to the story”

“She knows what she’s doing but doesn’t care”

“She WANTS to do bad things”

“She’s spineless”

“She one-dimensional”

“Chloe is better than her”

“She’ll be terrible with a miraculous”

“She doesn’t feel sorry for what she does”

“She only uses Chloe’s friendship to benefit from being friends with a rich girl”

“She’s not important”

Like, even if ANY of that was true (which I admit it might be to a CERTAIN DEGREE), not only people don’t look at the subtext of the situation, but where are you guys compassion, sympathy and empathy for HER though??? As teens???? AS ADULTS????? Not Chloe, not Lila, SABRINA? Why does Chloe and Lila deserve 78 chances when you can’t even give Sabrina even 1!?!? It means she’s undeveloped, that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have potential! She does bad and questionable things sure, but that’s what happens when you have bad influences in your life and no real responsible adults -___-.

Is Sabrina competely innocent? Of course not! Sabrina is responsible for her own actions and she owes everyone SHE has personally hurt an apology, but I still believe she has a chance to gain confidence, grow a backbone and change for the good. I don’t think Sabrina is a bad kid, just misguided. Maybe she doesn’t deserve a miraculous at this point of time neither, but neither does Chloe. I’m so sick of the double standards when it comes to Sabrina and other bully characters in the show.

And you know what???

Even though I do feel sorry for Chloe to a degree, even though I DO stand of Chloe over Hawkmoth/Gabriel/her creator (Thomas) now, even though I DO think Chloe had potential to be great and developed, I really don’t like Chloe as a character.

Never did.

I don’t think she deserves a miraculous and I personally don’t think she deserves more attention or better in general than Sabrina. I’m not afraid to say it anymore. If you want to go after me for that, fine, but I don’t care anymore. I like Sabrina, I relate to her and I think she deserves MUCH better than the show and the fans give her.

Regardless of you like or dislike Chloe, you can’t deny that she has shown time and time again that Sabrina isn’t truly her friend outside of what Sabrina can do for HER or if it boost her ego in someway. Sure, they might have their nice moments every now and then, but come on??? She basically admits to her mom that not only she’s using Sabrina (Queen Wasp), but she also has said that Sabrina would be NOTHING without her (Evillustrator).

“BUT WAAAA! SHE CAN GROW!!!”

And OK! I’ll give that to you! She CAN grow, but that does NOT mean that people don’t have the right to say anything about her behavior or be irritated/disappointed/angry when she does something wrong! YES, her actions do have UNDERSTANBLE REASONS, but they aren’t JUSTIFLIEABLE REASONS. It means it’s understandable why she’s this way (mom issues, absent mother, spoiled, her dad is a bad influence, fear of being bullied so she does it first etc), that doesn’t mean she gets to get off scot free and keep doing/acting the way she wants (the show won’t do anything about, so fans do, which is why I sometimes understand the Chloe hate).

Also, what are the chances of ANYBODY (let alone Chloe) having any development at this point???

It really baffles and annoys me how much attention this fandom gives to these girls (Chloe and Lila) because of “redemption/reformation”, “what they’ve went through” or because “it’s much more interesting”, but then gives SO MUCH LESS attention to an very underrated character who can have just as much as a good redemption story as Chloe and Lila can. It’s even you like Chloe over Sabrina or you equality dislike both of them. I NEVER hear more than a handful of people liking Sabrina more than Chloe.

Also, we barely know anything about Sabrina outside Chloe. How about we try to ask for some development for her? Some development? Some backstory? SOMETHING for Sabrina???

So basically the “let the children grow” argument only implies to characters that you like and are interested in apparently and you ignore their “followers/friends”, even though they themselves have potential and understandable reasons to THEIR actions too 🤷‍♀️ People only care about Sabrina when it comes to shipping or if it has anything to do with Chloe’s development, and it’s not fair.

Seriously, you have people still having faith in Chloe and Lila, who HAS arguably done more harm than Sabrina, with or without Hawkmoth’s influence, but then dislike Sabrina MORE for what? Just being someone’s sidekick because they don’t have a spine yet? Because she’s just simply bland or undeveloped? YES, Sabrina has done some messed up stuff too, but she NEVER did that stuff without Chloe specifically telling her to. And if she does seem mean? It’s just to blow smoke up Chloe’s chimney.

I don’t think she does mean things because she’s a toxic and mean person, she does it for Chloe’s approval. Sabrina just has a twisted mindset on how friendship works. It doesn’t make it anymore right, but can you at least TRY to understand where Sabrina comes from instead of focusing on Chloe and Lila all the time??? God, as much as I do like it when people notice/don’t ignore/callout the bad writting in MLB, this fandom when it comes to Sabrina REALLY pisses me off...

And before you say “why are you so serious about a nothing character from a show for children????”

1). Why are YOU when it comes to Chloe and Lila???

2). If None of you are going to defend Sabrina, who will???

As for Lila, I’ve already said my reasons on why I don’t like her as a character/person neither in the past, but I’ll just make a separate post about her in the future. My point being in this post is that Sabrina really isn’t that bad like people make her out to be. At least not as worse as Chloe. I belive that both girls have the possibly of growing and changing for the better (now Lila is a different story, but I digress), but I just think Sabrina deserves more attention and love. In short:

#SabrinaRaincomprixDeservesBetter

P.S. I am looking forward to see her with the dog miraculous, but I know it’s probably not going to be good...

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thehollowprince · 4 years

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I love Legacies, but to be honest, Hope is so annoying but most of all when it comes to her family. Her family caused untold mayhem for centuries and Klaus was the worst. Her grandfather burnt towns and cities down, and worst of all her grandmother unleashed a curse that would never stop. Hope's selfness led to Hayley's,Poppy's, and Henry's death.

Her family has caused death and destruction wherever they went. Klaus definitely deserves the title of the great evil and she should stop acting her family especially Klaus never did anything to deserve the ire of everyone hell, even dead witches hated him!

I still haven't seen any of Legacies and I don't plan on it. There was a moment there during quarantine where I considered it, but I stopped myself. And there are a number of reasons I haven't watched. The first obviously being that I never finished The Originals and the second being the character of Hope herself.

I never liked Hope, even long before she was born, I never liked her. Way back when the backdoor pilot aired during season four of The Vampire Diaries, I was just happy to finally have the Mikaelson Family gone from Mystic Falls so we could get back to the Mystic Falls Gang. That being said, when I watched it and they revealed that Hayley was pregnant with Klaus' child, I remember very vividly shouting at the screen.

Really? We were going the Twilight route with a magical, miracle baby?

But, aside from the Mikaelson Melodrama, I was intrigued by the other aspects of the show. The war between the witches and the vampires piqued my interest, especially with Jane-Anne's use of ancestral magic, which was very clearly influenced by Louisiana Voodoo. Also, Marcel was really hot, and I'm not above admitting that I'm shallow.

Sadly, the aspects of the show that I liked dwindled fast. The magic was now just the same as TVD but with a blurry special effect. Marcel was usurped so that Klaus could reclaim the throne that he abandoned and they ruined everything I liked about characters like Elijah and Rebekah. Also, the creepy, pseudo-incestual relationship between Marcel and Rebekah 🤢. When they finally got to the birth of the baby (longest pregnancy ever) and they named her Hope, I actually booed.

What is it with these shows and movies always naming their daughters Hope? Can people really not think of any other name than the one that puts pressure on a child's shoulders to make the adults' lives better?

But I stuck around, because as much as I disliked the Mikaelsons, I liked the other aspects of the show. The supernatural gang war between the different covens and packs and factions was interesting, and almost enough to ignore the racism and the misogyny and how the writing treated New Orleans and how they completely rewrote the Mikaelsons' backstories. But the longer I stuck around the worse it got. Suddenly Hope was the most powerful witch to ever witch even though she was just an infant. And now she's a tribrid mix of werewolf, witch and vampire and blah blah blah. By the time they introduced her as a toddler, I was just waiting for the inevitable "my daddy was nice" bullshit, indicating that Hayley told her kid how Klaus was just misunderstood or whatever fantasy lived in Plec's head to justify her fixation on such abusive characters.

There's also the fact that they really double-down on the "family only means blood related" thing, which infuriated me to no end.

Halfway through season four I rage quit and so thankfully I was gone before teenage Hope was introduced. I couldn't stand to watch as the narrative went out of its way to forgive and erase the horrible deeds the Mikaelson Family, Klaus in particular, committed. For what reason, I don't know, but I couldn't sit through it. I was sicked by TVD using Bonnie and Caroline and Matt to forgive Damon in the final season of that shit show.

The only way I'd ever watch Legacies is if I knew they actually acknowledged Klaus and Damon and Elijah as the horrible people they were, and that's something Plec is never going to do.

There's also the whole format of now there are phoenixes and dragons and trolls? Really?

The sad thing is, they could have done so much just by exploring the wider world of the supernatural as opposed to following a few families between a small town in Virginia and the Crescent City. Show me what the vampires of New York City are like. Are the witches in Sedona New Age hippies? South America, Africa, Asia... so many places to explore and yet nothing!

#ask and ye shall recieve #my thoughts #anti legacies #anti hope mikaelson #anti klaus mikaelson #anti mikaelson family #anti the originals #anti the vampire diaries #anti julie plec

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takirasu · 4 years

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Why I cannot understand how a huge majority of the Persona 5 fandom ships Akira/Protagonist with Akechi if you’ve played the game and what is possibly wrong about it

First and foremost: I do not mean to offend or hurt anyone personally with this. This is purely analytical from the viewpoint of someone who is interested in analysing characters and character dynamics. The group of people mentioned that I dislike regarding this ship is targeted to certain types of people in the fandom that will be explained at the end, meaning if you ship this No, I don’t automatically dislike you and even if I would, who cares? It’s just me. I don’t know you and it shouldn’t matter to you. I also want to mention that obviously Persona 5 will get spoiled in this analysis as well as slight mentions and spoilers of Royal, especially the third semester. Read at your own risk! Without further ado, let’s jump into a very interesting dynamic between two characters that had potential, but – in my opinion – leaves a bitter aftertaste in my mouth due to what fans did and do with it most of the time and how Atlus ends it in both Orginal and Royal. I will try to be about this as neutral as possible, since an analysis shouldn’t take a side and then put my opinion about it at the end, because the aspects and whys about this matter more than one person’s opinion alone. Also, the analysis will help form an opinion and back it up. There is nothing worse to me than giving an opinion, but not having anything to back it up with.

To analyse the relationship between the two I will be taking important parts of the story in this dynamic and analyse it as well as analyse the characters briefly according to the situation and towards each other. I will be taking the Anime and Manga into this for certain parts as well. I would like to do a whole character analysis one day if I find the time and fans are interested, but since the main focus of this is a ship and what is up with it I will only analyse the moments that they either have together or that further underlines the topic.

Starting with Akira, it is clear from the very first hour on that he has a strong want of helping other people – in need or not - and cannot stand injustice. To underline how important it is to him you have to understand that in Japan’s society it is considered incredibly rude to interfere between two adults in whatever situation given. It is not your business, like Sojiro Sakura – his guardian in Tokyo during his probation – explains to him and much more the player at the beginning of the game. In short, Akira knew what he might possibly get himself into. Even if Shido wouldn’t have tripped and hurt himself. Even if Shido wouldn’t have threatened the women to tell the upcoming police Akira apparently assaulted him. The only thing important to those who found out about the incident and know that he did not push him was still this: You do not interfere between two adults, keep your business. People who do that are considered delinquents and you really do not want this stamp on your forehead in Japan. Further, I assume Akira might be suffering from a Saviour complex. In all three media – game, manga and anime – he puts other people’s needs over himself and gets incredibly upset if he is not able to help someone or better, in Akechi’s case, save them. As helpful and kind a someone can be by nature, you have to understand that not everyone will either want your help or will be able to accept it. Not everyone can be saved and you do not have to save everyone. People who have trouble with accepting this suffer from a Saviour complex. A moment to justify both this and my first point is during the beginning of Madarame’s Palace, with one of my favourite quotes of Akira being,

“I want to help. I just want to be sure what we're doing is right. Trust me I'm not saying we should turn a blind eye and do nothing...”

After this event, Ann and Ryuji call him out for being both too timid and yet in haste at the same time. They’re barely out of the Metaverse and obviously have a private life that they need to care about when he already wants everyone to gather information on if Yusuke is really being abused and used by his teacher as fast as possible; on the same day. Again, he puts others over himself. While of course Ryuji and Ann aren’t any less concerned, to him someone might be getting hurt and there is no time to waste on matters like this. When they do find out through Nakanohara, a former student of Madarame, that he steals his pupil’s art, threatens everyone that leaves him and makes students even hurt themselves, Akira as the Phantom Thieves leader decide on saving Yusuke. Said complex also feeds his need of wanting to protect others, shown and explored more in two major scenes in the anime. When Phantom Thieves meet Akechi for their finale encounter they captured it very well. Akechi reveals he has the power of the Wild card, being able to handle more than one Persona, like Akira does. When the Thieves try to either talk to Akechi or attempt to walk up to him and handle it, Akira as Joker takes his role seriously. He tells the others, “He’s mine. Hold. Don’t worry, I’ve got this.” knowing full well that nobody else would be able to take him on other than another Wild card. Another scene is when he protects Sojiro from a few police men. He knows he shouldn’t step in between two adults and he is still on probation, but the want of protecting the person that offers him shelter and that warms up to him is stronger than his own desires. He stands in front of Sojiro and shields him.

Akechi on the other hand is one of the most interesting and misunderstood characters I have seen in a long time. While not outright admitting it himself, Akechi has this immense and unfulfilled need of being loved since his past was pretty much empty of it. His resentment towards Akira is fuelled by this since he sees how said one has a lot of supportive friends when he’s nothing special in particular. This possibly means that in Akechi’s eyes you have to have a certain standard to achieve to be special and lovable, which would explain the way he made himself for the public. He further insults Akira as a criminal who lives in an attic during their last meeting and asks himself what he has that Akechi lacks, not knowing that it is something he never grew up learning. He hates Akira, but deep down he does not. It pains him to see the exact opposite of himself and how out of place it is for him. Akira is nothing yet loved, while Akechi build up this perfect self that is special, but not actually loved. It messes with him whenever Akira is in front of him and does better than him. He is the reason he gets reminded of the things he hates the most about himself. Similar to Akira he is an outcast to society – just carefully sealed and hidden behind his Ace detective mask. Shido, who is actually his father and he only works with to get revenge on, did not care that he got someone pregnant and left, which lead to Akechi’s mother giving him away and committing suicide. In Japan these kind of families are frowned upon on, being the kid of a possible one-night stand gives no meaning to your life and only tarnishes the mother, which is most probably the reason why the women took her life. It wasn’t bearable for her in this society and she couldn’t life with Akechi’s existence. He was given from foster home to foster home, never had any parents that would give him love and that he could look up to as well as forming actual bonds with people. You see him both struggling to form an actual friendship with Sae, an adult, as well as adapt to people his age, for example the Phantom Thieves. He feels odd and has this unpleasant aura of superiority around him, since he has never learned anything regarding love and how to work and be with other people. So Akechi decides he needs to build his mask to be lovable to the public since his actual self, in his eyes, is not. He’s smart and basically reforms himself completely new for the public. His public self is near to perfect for the role of a student detective. Justice driven, charming, funny and smart. During the game while he is on stage it slips his thoughts during the moment everyone cheers for him and adores him, that none of these people know he’s an unwanted bastard child, which means that he does not think as highly of himself as the player tends to think at the beginning of the game. He is sure nobody would like him and he would never be able to become a detective if it was him as his true self that is worthy of nothing. These two things lead to him being able to be cold-blooded and cause the mental shutdowns, as well as try to kill Akira. First, he has never gotten love and affection. These things are needed for a child to grow and learn empathy, which Akechi lacks. It might almost sound mean, but from a neutral viewpoint this is why it was so easy for him. He does not feel for other people as openly as others do. Also, you have to keep in mind that every shutdown being demanded by Shido would eventually bring him closer to his goal. His father to acknowledged his existence in the perfect moment, the apex of his power, and to take revenge on him for the life he has to live and most possibly for his mother to be driven to suicide. Lastly important for this analysis, Akechi knew what he did when he decided to let himself get killed by his cognitive self, Shido’s so-called security system. First, it would have either been him and the Phantom Thieves who were the only ones able to use the Metaverse next to him and change Shido’s heart, or only him which means that there was a possibility to at least ruin his life and not make him the new Prime minister of Japan. He knows that they won’t kill Shido, but taking everything from him that is important to him, his only desire, and the reason Akechi had to live life like this to begin with seems enough in the moment he faces death. Second, he does not believe in second chances and he does not believe in forgiveness. Akechi’s believes that are present during the whole game aren’t just towards others, but also himself. He hates his true self the same way he dislikes Akira. Both his true self and Akira are nothing in society therefore neither worthy of love or forgiveness. To him, there is no other way to atone for his sins. When the Phantom Thieves defeat Akechi he states,

“You (Akira) are so lucky to be surrounded by teammates who acknowledge you. Once Shido confesses his crimes, you’ll all be heroes. As for me, people will find out my past deductions were just charade. My fame and trust will vanish. In the end, I couldn’t be special…”

The only place he could eventually feel loved was when he faked those crimes and fake investigated them, since they were his own the public didn’t know about. He could feel important and respected, have a place in Japan’s society while working on his goal of his father’s downfall. The moment the Phantom Thieves won over him, he knew this would be taken away from him since to him the only possible outcome of this is the Phantom Thieves winning over Shido and either turning Akechi in or Shido spilling during his change of heart. People relying on him and trusting him, people acknowledging him. That is what the trust and fame was about to him. The moment they meet in Shido’s palace and Akechi is defeated, it would all be taken away from him. Putting this together is the reason he decides to trap himself with the summoned shadows and his cognitive self. His father would lose everything that was important to him if he saves the Phantom Thieves and he has no reason to live in a world where he has no fame and trust from the public, since in his distorted mind he will not be worth of love and worth of existence. He wouldn’t be special. When the Phantom Thieves do reach out and tell him all the things they admire about him and give him a chance to join them against Shido, he laughs about them. His true self is out and to him, it is not lovable or special no matter what they say.

From the reasons shippers bring up for these two, Akira being devastated about Akechi’s death and wanting it revoked is a big one and the first one I want to analyse and explain. As analysed earlier, it is important to Akira to save others and help them, especially when they cannot help themselves. In certain parts, the two aren’t far from each other yet polar opposites. Akira knows that and despite everything feels empathy for Akechi after said ones tells the whole story. Witnessing someone’s death whether it is hearing or seeing it is traumatizing and it’s normal to think about it later back at home in the real world how Akira does, but taking his character analysis into consideration it probably messed with him more than it would with other people, like the other Phantom Thieves. In the anime, Akechi throws a chess piece with Akira catching it. Akira, who is not someone to have emotional outbursts, gets so worked up and angry that he hits the wall that came down in front of them with his fist before he quickly catches himself back in the role as the leader who always had and has to stay calm and collected. If you look at it, Akechi is the only one Akira couldn’t save when he knew he needed it and, to Akira, deserved it. Because throughout the whole game with so many different cases of people not being able to save themselves or being in unjust situations not once does he care about how the people are or if there is any certain character trait etc. to them in particular. Akira probably shares the same belief like his friends. Everyone is special in their own way and so was Akechi deserving of a better life like everyone else is. It messes with him so much, that in Persona 5: Royal, a game that came out 3 years after the original game and it is still tightly being fought about if it is canon or an alternative reality to which the developers have yet to make an official statement to, he tells Maruki, the school’s therapist who is interested in cognitive science, that if he could change reality, his wish wouldn’t be that all of this had never happened, but that Akechi would still be alive. While this is the number one situation people who ship the two use ever since Royal has come out, it just further underlines Akira’s character and my suggestion of him having a Saviour complex. He cannot live with the fact that he couldn’t save Akechi, when this is what the Phantom Thieves stood for. It pains him so much that his wish is actually beneficial to someone else. We know nothing about Akira’s past, but it is impossible that there isn’t something he wishes wouldn’t have happened that is outside of the game. Instead, he chose something that helps someone else and puts himself back to ease. He knows, this is what pains him the most and will for quite some time. Having Akechi back would ease his complex and give a person he thinks that deserve a second chance another tries. This is once more better shown in the anime during the last confrontation when Akira tries to talk to Akechi multiple times during Akechi’s small monologue, but eventually realizes it will be of no use. Akechi is too far gone and Akira tells the group to finish it.

Second are the moments we got early in the anime. While the game doesn’t allow this, the anime explores Akechi’s detective side a bit earlier and more for the viewer. In game, we only see Akechi working on the cases he created while he is actually really good at “real” cases as well and able to solve them. During Yusuke’s arc, Akira and Akechi work together on a few of those and Akechi teaches him how not to be fooled by rotten adults. This all goes quite wholesome, but at that point the interrogation nor the black mask reveal had happened yet. The story is early and fresh, not even having picked up the pace. It almost feels like Akechi either tried learning how Akira’s mind works, or honestly just wanted to spend time with someone he felt like was similar to him. All of this gets revoked though when he massively insults him at the end of the game, making it hard to put this in canon. It might be that Akechi was trying to give himself a chance, because Akira was probably the first person who could handle Akechi just like how he is and also accepted him just like that - since that is what Akira does with everyone throughout the game and also gets complimented and aknowleged for - but instead Akechi couldn’t stop himself and pulled through with the rest of his plans. Looking at it from another side, taking this from the anime into consideration makes the next thing and points even worse.

Last is the interrogation, probably one of the most well-known scenes in the whole game, that I want to analyse further. To begin with, Akira finds himself getting arrested due to Akechi’s betrayal. While it is not exactly explained how, it is obvious that Akechi lead the police in since only Metaverse app users can enter the Metaverse. If you have a non-user nearby, you can pull them into it. Akechi probably did this beforehand, told them to hide and gave them either a time limit or symbol. After the fight against Sae Futaba picks up enemy readings, so many that they’re being surrounded. Akira and the Phantom Thieves part ways and the leader makes all the attention go to himself so that the others can escape. In the end he gets ambushed, cuffed up and knocked out by drugs. What the player does not know is that the group had known about Akechi’s plan all along and they had to play along. All throughout Sae’s palace, Akira knew he would most probably be cuffed up by the end, but it was necessary to let it happen. Otherwise they would never be able to defeat Akechi. I would like to add that this in particular sounds pretty traumatizing and stressful as well. Moving forward and the Phantom Thieves’ plan succeeding, Akechi is unknowingly being dragged into the Metaverse. He outright plans to kill Akira, which reveals his true motive on why he worked with them on Sae’s palace in the first place. The Phantom Thieves are blocking his path of the mental shutdowns and destroying his father. It is so soon that he cannot lose due to them. He is smart about it and wants to kill their leader. Once again and as stated earlier, Akechi doesn’t feel empathy and he has killed before. He gets things done so that they are beneficial to what he needs to do further, just like how it was beneficial for him to work with the Thieves together for at least a while. Be that figuring out how they work, or just messing with them. What he doesn’t know is the person in the interrogation room is the cognitive version of Akira. He is only in there, because he just entered Sae’s palace and in her cognition Akira is in the interrogation room, which she does not have much control of. Therefore, it keeps being the interrogation room instead of anything Casino related. Akechi proceeds to shoot an innocent guard and then Akira. While doing so, he seems like on a high, fully enjoying it getting rid of him and it is almost uncomfortable to watch that is how good it is made. It is Akechi’s first time he kills someone in the real world, but it doesn’t seem to be much different for him. He shoots Akira right in the head when he has nowhere to go, tied up and completely drugged to a point that both in the game and anime he can’t talk properly and even passes out. The state Akira is in is portrayed very well and just underlines the atmosphere further. A murderer just aiming at their helpless victim. Akechi puts the gun in his hand to report it as a suicide and leaves. He never shows any remorse when they meet again, only throwing in that the two might possibly would have become friends if having met earlier. He does not mention the faked death, because there is nothing to say. It might be, because both know Akechi wanted to do it. It was necessary for his path and nobody, especially not someone like Akira, would be standing in his way. Shippers defend this situation, saying Akechi had to kill Akira. To some extent, I would analysis this as true and say that it was a possibly way of getting rid of the Phantom Thieves and continuing his plan, but is your first idea really murder to this? In such a special way? Concealing it as a suicide and not have any respect to the person you just killed? It is unlikely as smart as Akechi is that this was the only possible option he had regarding on how he would get rid of the Phantom Thieves or their leader. Killing the person is just probably the most convenient one to Akechi and again, he does not feel for others properly, since he has never learned how to. This is why he is able to plan this, kill someone he acted like a friend with, saw multiple times for weeks and just walk away. In conclusion that means it is not because he had to and also not because he wanted to in particular, but because Akechi did not care and therefore made it possible to just shot him and continue with his life. It is one of the most important scenes in the whole game and does a lot to the development for all three characters involved (Sae, Akechi and Akira) yet shippers throw it under a bus with the sole statement that he had to.

Putting everything above together, the major moments these two had, shipping Akira and Akechi is complicated and probably not the best.

To finally conclude my opinion to this. In another world, Akechi could learn a lot from Akira. He has a lot of empathy for others and wants to help, which Akechi lacks. It would have been good for him and the part where Akechi mentioned that they might have become friends if met earlier made me emotional as someone who does not support it in a romantic way. In this moment, I thought of them as friends. I thought myself thinking of what would have been if they had met one or two years earlier. Two people who get better through each other and learn from each other. As much as I love this character trait from Akira, I have had my personal fair shares that having this can be negative at times. It would be good for him to have someone that shows him the opposite or at least a middle path. Both characters go All-Out on this. It is either full on empathy or complete lack of empathy. Either you want to save everyone or you’re okay with killing whoever as long as you obtain your ultimate goals.

Many people have stated already that the ship is quite abusive. Anything that comes out of Akechi’s mouth towards Akira in both game and anime (I’m only referencing the anime since the last two times because the manga is barely at Futaba’s arc yet) after revealing his true motives, is negative. Either he insults him directly or the way he lives, just because he found someone that reminds him of himself deep inside if he wants to or not. That gives him no right to act like this, even when psychology is complex. And if you want to defend this, it gives him no right to shoot him and actually visibly enjoy it – which you cannot deny and a lot of people in the fandom stated as well. He didn’t have to, but he did. He wasn’t forced to, but he did it. I wonder if Akechi tells Akira he hates him for the fact that he did make him feel something. Not in a romantic way, again, but more in a way of empathy and this feeling of friendship and he knew he had to stop this.

There are a lot of good people in the fandom fan of his complex character. I don’t necessary like Akechi as a character, but I find him interesting and good to talk about. As for liking or hating him…the interrogation scene happened the way it happened let’s just leave it at that. Sadly, there are also a lot of people in the fandom who will shove this ship down your throat. Somehow, it is superior to them and it should be canon. I have seen so many tweets and Tumblr posts, especially with Royal and its’ third semester that genuinely leave me concerned. What started as 3AM ramble to my friend ended up being this 5000 words essay on why the situations and character traits stated above get taken out of context or misunderstood by shippers. It goes further when you find out that some people ship it because it is abusive to begin with. They acknowledge it and love it and while there are more important things in life than this, I just found it too concerning and also very annoying at one point, I had to make an analysis about it and clear some things up. I have blocked a lot of tags regarding this ship and I still see it every day in the fandom and get attacked if I say something against it, so I just made this post, knowing that people will eventually get mad at it. But, I honestly really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed writing about Akechi’s character. He is interesting, complex and there is so much to talk about him, but do I ship him with my favourite video game character? Hell nah.

If you want to add something to this, feel free to. I also enjoy respectful and normal discussion about this! I researched a lot for this, re-watched a few anime and game scenes and wrote for a total of 7 hours. If you enjoyed it or it made you think a little, it would be kind to let me know. I haven’t written anything in a while and my last character analysis was years ago, so this was quite a challenge, but knowing how popular this ship is and how much worse it got with Royal’s existence, I had to put this out. I’m going to be honest here. If they would’ve met a few years earlier, who knows if this wouldn’t have become one of my ships (I don’t interact in a lot of shipping to begin with so), because the basis of it is nice. But then the actual plot happens. All this stuff from the interrogation until the end happens and shippers just dismiss it or try to make it sound less bad. Like it’s the actual plot. It’s there. This is how P5 goes down. Akira’s one of the most traumatized characters I’ve come across in fiction and Akechi does a fair share to that. Don’t just dismiss that so your ship can be cute. It won’t, I’m sorry. And if you want to come at me for shipping in general, I as well ship something with complex and interesting dynamics within this game. It’s appealing, but not like this.

Thank you for reading this if you got through all of it! I seriously appreciate it and my non-existent sleep does to! - May

#persona 5 #p5 #persona #akira kurusu #ren amamiya #goro akechi #video game #analysis #persona 5 analysis

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bakugou-simp · 4 years

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⚠️SPOILERS for bnha, and the heroes rising movie⚠️

I have rarely voiced these opinions, but I think it's about time I did.

See, there is a fine difference between ships and what is more likely to be canon, for me at least. As of right now I do not believe that bkdk will come anywhere near to being a canon romantic relationship, not only because of the type of manga/anime bnha is but also because of the development and change that would need to happen in order for it to even be possible. For the type of manga, I also believe Izuku or Katsuki being with anyone of the same sex is also out of the question. Horikoshi has put two transgender characters (and supposedly a bisexual character) in his manga, yes, but I do not see us getting anything more than that.

I am a multishipper through and through however, and I ship almost anything you can name that isn't incest, pedophilia, or abusive. Kirideku, for instance, and Todobaku as well. I like those ships, I think they're very cute and make a lot of sense. The only ships I don't like (I won't name them) I dislike purely because of the people who ship them. The way they act completely disgusts me.

But let's take a look at why BakuDeku, in my opinion, is commonly misunderstood.

I think there are a lot of misconceptions about the BakuDeku ship, and I don't say this just because I personally ship it.

Katsuki

Season 1, as soon as Katsuki was introduced I hated his guts. I couldn't stand watching him bully Izuku, let alone telling him to go and jump off of a building. I wanted to reach through the screen and punch him myself. I don't take things like that lightly, and so I thought to myself I will never like this character. Even as time went on, season 2 and all the way up to season 3, I couldn't stand him.

He was an abusive person terrified of his childhood friend becoming something that perhaps he feared that he himself could not. He's disgusting towards everyone, showing only disrespect and arrogance.

When he was kidnapped is when things started to change for me.

Not just his reaction alone-- "Deku, stay back"--but also Izuku's. Izuku is one to forgive way too easily, in my opinion, but I doubt he forgives someone if he truly doesn't think they deserve it. So for whatever reason, Izuku thinks Bakugou deserves his trust and forgiveness.

If you look at it like this-- Izuku knowing Katsuki better than anyone else, not only from his observations but as well from his up close interactions with the other. Taking this into account, maybe Izuku knows something we don't about Katsuki. We know for sure his mother was borderline abusive--as seen from that conversation with Todoroki as well as just how she treats him--, but is that all? We can't know for certain, but it seems that Izuku might.

Let's say that none of that is true, let's go ahead and say that Katauki is just what he seems to be: an arrogant prick with a superiority complex. Even so it's impossible to say that he hasn't changed at all.

Take this scene for example. Just from this scene alone, from this one thing that he tells a kid he doesn't even know, you can see how much he's grown from when he was 14 years old.

This is turning into more of a Bakugou thing rather than a bkdk one, but hang in there. This is important too.

He has gone from believing that he is the best of those around him, thinking that everyone else will only get in his way, to recognizing that he has weaknesses just like everyone else. That in its self is a feat to be praised, but top that off with the realization that if he keeps putting others down he'll never see his own weaknesses and you've got one heck of a character development process. Granted, that won't be enough to make up for things he has done in his past.

So let's take a look at his past, shall we?

Raised in a home with, while loving, a push over father and a brash and aggressive mother. Whether or not she realized what she was doing, or even if she had been raised in the same way and doesn't see it as wrong, the way she yelled at him undoubtedly rooted something not short of some sort of trauma (disclaimer: I am no expert on trauma) into him. Not only that, but she probably pushed him to be better. Constantly; be better, you aren't good enough, you call that trying? So on, and so on.

Being told his entire life that his quirk is amazing, those around him letting him believe he is an undeniable leader, all of that has made him into what we see in the beginning.

Even before he got his quirk he probably thought he was better than those around him and that they also knew that, that they would follow him for protection or some sort of recognition from great power.

So, we have a 14 year old who thinks the world eats out of his hands. He sees Izuku, quirkless Izuku, as something not worth his time. Someone as great as him has no reason to play around with someone as worthless as Deku.

There is obviously the hinted at miscommunication, as shown during the Deku vs Kacchan 2 fight. The fact that apparently Katsuki sees everything Izuku does as looking down on him, mocking him, calling him weak and so on.

As a person who struggles with this, I can assure you it really is hard to tell the difference between someone genuinely wanting to help and secretly saying they don't think you can do it. Obviously I realize not everyone looks down on me, but because of the need to be independent and to prove myself to those around me, it feels like every outstretched hand is going to burn me when I grab it. Katsuki is far worse in that regard than I am, so I can only imagine how hard it is to admit to himself that someone is offering help and not mockery.

So let's say this entire time, their entire lives spent together, Katsuki has seen Izuku--someone who was quirkless--as one of the many people who doubts his abilities. Of course he's going to treat him worse than he treats others, but none of that makes it okay. None of that, any of this, erases what has been done.

That being said it does create a bridge for his redemption, for a deserved forgiveness, and yes I truly do believe he will earn that forgiveness.

It's going to take a long time for him to grow into the fact that accepting help doesn't equal to accepting defeat, and that offering it doesn't equal to the belief of weakness.

Katsuki, in my opinion, started to see his faults around the time be befriended Kirishima. Kirishima is strong, so obviously Katsuki is going to want him on his side, but there is more to it than that. I truly believe that Kirishima sparked the change in Katsuki, or at least held the match for the flame to be sparked.

Kirishima and Katsuki's friendship is what I imagine Izuku and Katsukis's might have been like if Izuku had gotten a quirk, as that is all that mattered to Katsuki. He never cared much about the person attatched to the quirk, only how it might help him. Meeting Kirishima, a person who believes everyone is strong and that they can do anything they want with the resources handed to them, must have irritated the piss out of him. Another person who seemed to think that the weak could be strong.

Being around that kind of thinking will eventually rub off on you, however. Even off onto someone like Katsuki. Especially after seeing Izuku's potential with his own two eyes.

So all of those thoughts of Izuku being a weak nobody turned instead to thoughts of Izuku being a threat to him and his goal. It's better than the first, but it really doesn't do well for them being anything other than rivals.

So, right now in his character development process? BakuDeku even being friends seems like a far off thought.

So now, let's take a look at Izuku.

Izuku

His entire life he's been told by Katsuki that he is lesser, he will amount to nothing, he's completely worthless. That never stopped him from arguing, denying, or wanting to be a hero. Finding out he has no quirk didn't stop him, and being told he might as well die didn't stop him.

Izuku is a wonderful person with a huge heart, a heart that wants to save every single person it comes across, and a heart that sees the best in everyone around it.

He went from being someone in the background, never standing out or doing extraordinary things to a person who will stop at nothing to save one single life. He no longer lingers at the sides, or fears his own abilities. He strikes with confidence in himself, in his peers, teammates, and all of those around him. He uses the hearts of those he wishes to save as a boost to help him win the day.

Meeting Iida and Uraraka, and many other amazing individuals, helped him realize that there are people who believe in him and want to see him succeed. Not everyone will treat him like Kacchan, or only see him as being in the way.

Do I believe that he had to have resented Katsuki in some way for some amount of time? Absolutely. In fact, he might still.

Him forgiving Katsuki wasn't out of the others development at all. It was out of his own achievements, his own confidence, that he was able to come past all of that negativity and believe in himself as a hero. For that reason, he was able to at least not hurt from what Katsuki done to him, if he hasn't yet forgiven him.

Sadly I don't have a lot to say about Izuku's development, or his thought process, but I do know that Katsuki has always been his image of victory, and I do now believe that he can finally see himself as his own image of victory. Or at least, more than just his tormentor.

Heroes Rising

I want to talk a little about the events of heroes rising, dispite it not being a canon part of the universe. It has been said that the movie was what Horikoshi imagined the end of bnha to be, and that is what I'm going with here.

In the movie Katsuki is still his usual superior self, treating Izuku the same as he always has. When there is no immediate danger, and even during a fight neither of them expected to walk away from. Now this may be do to Horikoshi changing it to fit more into just an alternate period of the present instead of perhaps a more time skipping version, but I am not aware of that being false nor true.

Even so, Izuku showed the same amount of care for every individual person as he always does. Katsuki on the other hand, he seemed to care just a little more than his typical self.

Even going as far as to use Sero's actual name when he's calling out, concerned for the other.

Especially, in the way he treated Izuku suggesting giving him one for all just so they could win the battle.

They both knew what this would mean for Izuku, and it's pretty obvious Katsuki didn't want to do it at first, but he's not clueless. He knew that Izuku was right, without two one for all's they and everyone on the island would have died. Throughout the process never once does he say anything about himself, he's only ever concerned about what would happen to Izuku and about saving the island.

Izuku was willing to give up his dream for an entire island, because that is his dream. His dream is to save lives and become the greatest hero, and saving an entire island is exactly that. He trusted Katsuki because he knew All Might would, and if All Might would trust this quirk with a person such as Katsuki, clearly others besides us, Katsuki and Izuku can see his development.

Their Relationship

Now, in regards to the actual conversation of misconceptions. I do believe that at first glance, that being not taking into consideration home life and miscommunications among these two in their own time, any sort of romantic relationship for these two would be seen as abusive. Because right now, if they both weren't more busy with training to be heroes rather than relationships and for some reason decided to be together, that's what it would be. Katsuki has a lot of things to sort through in his own head, and after he gets that settled they both have a long road to being able to be anything close to friends.

So being rivals is the best for them at the moment. They are each others core motivation, the reason they push and push themselves even when there's nothing left to push. Which over time is going to build a strong connection, more than what they have.

Eventually I do believe they could be friends, a hero duo is even more likely as they've already proven just now as training heroes that they work well together.

That being said if anything romantic were to come of it, it would be in a much later date.

Another misconception might be that bkdk shippers either ignore the way Katsuki has treated Izuku or just don't see it at all, which may very well be true about a lot of younger (or even older) people who might just see their rivalry as some sort of romantic tension. Which happens a lot in anime. However many of us see this ship and see the development, the huge development that will take place in order to be something more, and that is something we would absolutely love to see.

Shipping (for me personally)

I think that most ships in this fandom have good reasons for being shipped, and even if they don't as I've said there is a difference between shipping something and thinking it will become canon.

Personally, I think any ship becoming canon would ruin the manga. I see bnha as something that is perfect without any building romance, that being said a little background romance wouldn't hurt.

As far as relationships among the students goes, I'd hate to see any of them actually start dating. At this age, when they're doing things that are far more important, it doesn't seem like the right decision at all. That doesn't stop me from reading fanfictions, or looking at fanart, or saying that I ship two or more characters together. It's all harmless fun, until you turn into an Anti. I have absolutely no respect for antis and I severely hope they never interact with me.

In conclusion

I do not think that bkdk will be a canon ship in the mangas current timeline. That however, doesn't mean I can't ship them or think that eventually something could come of all of their character development.

Like it or not a good part of Izuku, his development, his personality, his dreams and life goal come from Katsuki. They come from knowing him nearly his entire life, from seeing him as a symbol of victory since they were kids and even up until now.

You can dislike bakudeku as a ship, you can ship other things and all that, but to deny that they aren't important to each others entire character-- and yes I do mean both of them, Katsukis's character also revolves a lot around Izuku--is to be blinded by your "hate" for the ship or even for Katsuki as a character. BakuDeku as a friendship/rivalship is way more important than as a relationship, and I think that's something everyone who loves either of them needs to respect.

The entire reason that they are were they are right now is because of All Might, their shared admiration for a strong hero for different aspects of said hero. That he never loses, and that he always saves everyone. Both traits make up their own respective heroes, Izuku and Katsuki happening to be opposites on that spectrum.

Their current existence thrives off of each other. Where they once looked to All Might for motivation, they now find it amongst themselves. As seen many times, when Katsuki asks Izuku "when are you going to hurry up and make that quirk your own?" You can choose to see that as him looking down on Izuku, but all I see is him wanting Izuku at his fullest potential so they can both give their all against each other, while at the same time with each other (though I doubt the second part is what Katsuki is thinking, those are just my thoughts.)

All in all, they push each other to be better, and I can't help but respect that.

(I'm sure there will be at least one person who will come around and reblog this just to say how much they disagree with me and why I'm wrong, so if you're that person I'd appreciate it if you just didn't. Your opinions are your opinions, but I'm not going to tell you that you're wrong so I don't want to see you telling me that. Thank you.)

posted on tue, Aug 25th

#don't come for me #these are just my personal opinions #and how I see it all #so if you disagree #disagree in silence #thank you #bkdk #bakudeku #bakugou katsuki #izuku mydoria #katsuki x izuku #bakugou x midoriya

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arethereanyoriginalusernames · 4 years

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Vivziepop Accusations: Re-examining Screenshots p.1

Disclaimer: I have tried to hide the name of the account that I have gotten these screenshots from. Now, the reason for this is that this particular user has already been the victim of harassment from over protective members from the Vivziepop fanbase. I encourage you to respect this person's privacy, and if you do find out who it is, DO NOT ATTACK THEM. Just because they may have a different opinion then you does not provide you a reason to act like a dick. I'm serious, if I find out that any of you have gone to attack this user because of this post, I can assure you that I will find a way to make you pay the appropriate consequences.

Also, this post contains opinions from me. I am not some omniscient god, so you are completely free to disagree with me, and I even encourage you to come to your own conclusions. Whatever your feelings are, all I ask is that you remain civil to everyone in replies, comments, etc.

--------------------------------------------

Ok, so I explained in a previous post that I was going to do a series where I give my opinion on some of the accusations launched at Vivz. I thought it'd be best to start with an easy, not as serious accusation. Ok, so I'll give you guys time to read over the screenshots, then you guys can come back to read my take on the situation... You back? Good. Now, let's recap the issue. From what I understand, at some point, Vivziepop stated that she disliked a comic known as "Ava's demon". Now, having not read the comic myself, I can't speak on its quality. But anyway, Vivz brings up her issues with the comic's background, and its' pacing. She also brings up how she does not approve of the author's past actions.

The claim here is that Vivz is a hypocrite. The evidence being that 1. Her story has similar flaws and 2. She dislikes her past being brought up. That is the situation as far as I understand it, but I am willing to accept the idea that I may have misunderstood something, so if I'm wrong about anything, feel free to tell me. Now let's get into these claims, shall we?

"Her story suffers the same flaws “

For anyone out of the loop, it is well known that Vivz does not take constructive criticism. Taking constructive criticism has been proven to help people improve, and not taking it is not something that is encouraged. That being said, not taking it is not a sin. People have a bothersome thing known as “free will”, so if they wish to not take criticism, they’re allowed to do that.

So what’s does that have to do with anything? The implication here is that because Vivz’s stories had pacing problems and boring backgrounds (according to critics), she has no place saying that “Ava’s Demon” has these issues, thus making her a hypocrite. Except hold on professor, since I have characters that some people could see as generic in my story, does that mean that I can’t have an issue with generic characters in other works? How does her having similar issues in her story suddenly mean that she cannot have this opinion? It isn’t illegal to be a hypocrite, and whose to say that Vivz doesn’t see these issues in her own work? She has admitted that “Zoophobia” was heavily flawed, so perhaps this is the case.

And before you clap back with “Oh, but she doesn’t like people pointing out that her story has problems OwO”, I don’t want to hear it. Spoiler alert, this is an issue that I find to be reoccurring in these accusations. Seriously, has nobody considered that Vivz’s apparent disliking of criticism comes from the fact that she doesn’t want criticism? And that she’s made it apparent that she doesn’t, and yet some people don’t take the hint? You can still critique her work, sure, but I wouldn’t advise expecting her to take it. Hell, the reason I critique Zoophobia is because I plan to apply my own criticisms to my stories, learning from the mistakes of another person.

“She doesn’t like people bringing up her past”

And? She can still have an issue with what the creator of “Ava’s Demon” allegedly did. Also, I would like to point out that is responding to someone who also doesn’t like this comic. She’ s having a discussion with someone. She’s not making some call out post flagging the creator for stuff that happened in the past. She having a conversation where she explains why she feels the way she does. That’s it. I would also like to point out that Vivz herself has been vocal in how she’s not proud of her past. Just because she doesn’t like what this one person might have done doesn’t mean that she doesn’t recognise her own mistakes. Also, sweetie, this is Vivziepop we’re talking about. Someone whose past has been brought up to accuse her of pedophilia, bestiality, etc. (Accusations that still exist to this day, might I add) A past she’ s apologised for, and one that people still bring up nonetheless. Honestly? If I put myself in her shoes, I wouldn’t blame her.

One more thing. I realize that this is just a small issue that can be used in order for someone to make Vivz look worse, but I have to ask

“Who the fuck cares?”

Vivz is supposedly a hypocrite? Cool, so is most of the human population. She doesn’t like this comic? Cool, she can have whatever opinion she wants, I don’t give fuck. I fail to see how this is anything worth talking about. She doesn’t like a comic and its’ creator. So what? She has problems similar to the ones she believes the comic and its’ creator have. So what? Also, while I still won’t expose who the og poster is, I remember this issue being brought up on their old blog about, oh... one or two years ago. Vivz’s opinion may have changed on the matter for all we know. I’m not going to make any assumptions either way since I can’t read minds. Also, since she was replying to someone who also had negative feelings towards the subject, it’s possible that her response could have been influenced by this person somehow. Again, just a theory, not making assumptions. I swear, if anyone makes a post trying to criticize Vivziepop, and they include this, I am not going to take that person seriously. This is a petty issue meant to be lumped onto bigger issues to make someone look worse. That’s all this is...

At least as far as I’m concerned. Tell me what you guys think.

I apologise for wasting your time.

- Spooky S. Skeletons

#vivziepop #vivzmind #zoophobia #hazbin hotel #screenshot

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lucarioisinthevoid · 4 years

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Oh god, oh fuck, what did you ask, why did you ask this, this is instantly growing out of hand- I legally have to put it behind a “read more”. Sorry, but this gets really long for no good reason. I’m so sorry, when it’s about music, I just lose it-

- Mike scoffed. “This ask was clearly asked by someone who doesn’t listen to music. Asking for a favorite songs as though there is ANYONE on this fucking world who would go “ah yes, I have ONE song for every event that I ALWAYS want to listen to, no matter my mood.” That is absolutely ridi-“ “FREDBEAR AND FRIENDS THEME SONG!” Jeremy instantly screamed, a big smile on his face. “It’s so cute! So happy! I love it so much!” I’ll be your friend, right to the end! Join the party! Don’t be afraid, we’ll find a way! Join the party! Follow the pack, we’ll have a blast! Join the party! I’m here for you, we’ll make it through! JOIN THE PARTY!

Irritated Mike glared at him. “Is that even a song? Technically speaking? It’s a fucking INTRO.” This disagreement was quickly dismissed by Jeremy. “No, it is a song that I love very much.” There was an annoyed sigh, but not much pushback. “… fine. I have a SHITTON of songs I like, but… I think my currently favorite song is… ULTRAnumb by Blue Stahli. I don’t know. It hits just right.” VIOLATED! SO DEGRADED! The show has just begun! (Three, two, one!) DOMINATED BY ALL YOU HATED! This will make you ULTRANUMB!

Phone Guy seemed a bit embarrassed. “U-uhm… I don’t, uh, listen to much music. I really like the stuff they put in the background of documentaries is actually pretty impressive stuff. I like that, but I can’t really… access that? I mean, I don’t know how to. But I like having something calming in the background.” So… soundtracks, huh? There are pretty good soundtracks, like “Winds over Neo Tokyo” from the movie Akira- “I think though as a SONG, I really like… a bit dumb probably, but “Feel Good Inc.” by Gorillaz? It’s probably pretty standard… but, uh. I like the light distortion. Makes it easy to sing along. And I kinda, uh- relate to the feeling of hopelessness in it…” Windmill, windmill for the land… Turn forever hand in hand! Take it all in on your stride, It is ticking, falling down Love forever, love has free, Let’s turn forever you and me! Windmill, windmill for the land Is everybody in…? “Uh- I know the song is probably about something completely else, but I just-“ Scratching the back of his neck, Phone Guy looked away. “I don’t know. I’m sorry.”

Materializing out of thin air, Nemo proceeded to T-pose. “YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT MUSIC. YES. MY TIME HAS COME. I have the best taste from everyone here. I have the EDGY music.” Getting out his MP3-player, he began searching through the music library. “Ah, there we go. This one. “Arrested Youth” – The Kid I Used To Know. That the one!” Life is a voyage some people try to avoid it- I seek to try and destroy it, I swear I feel like a toilet bowl, Shitting on everything I’ve ever said or I’ve done You told me this should be fun! Thanks for the talk, are we done?! This is my masterpiece, a tragedy, I wrote it myself, It’s full of irony and blasphemy, it’s practically hell, But the perfect part about it is it’s all that I’ve got! I’m over wasting time in life trying to be something I’m not!

‘Cause fuck that shit! Yeah, I don’t want be that kid. No, I’m not going to hang my head, And be another accident!

So long to the kid that I used to know! So long to the place that I used to go! I’m not an R.I.P. I’m not another sick, sad tragedy! “The song is great, I absolutely relate to it.” The teen laughed. “Especially the tone of the singer. Really fits me. I could imagine writing songs like that myself!” A bit too excited, he began oversharing. “I always wanted to write songs. And I did! A lot, kept them in a little book.” His expression broke a bit. “… then I lost it. At home. Somehow.” He turned a bit bitter. “Yeah. Asked mom. She didn’t see it. Asked dad. Of course, he had NO idea. Anyways.” He threw his bitterness away with a shrug. “Now you know the reason why I’m actually not rich and famous yet. I lost like… 3 years of absolute riches to that setback and I feel stolen from. The world OWES me and castle and I WILL get it. But until then, I guess I listen to other artists like me!”

Dave was jumping up and down excited. “Oh, oh, Anon Sport, you don’t even KNOW how many I have! Like everything Sportsy whistles! And Rasputin- that one- oh, oh, no, in one car I stole there was a CD- and they had a group- Royal Republic? Funky songs, pal, lemme tell ya. Listen to it while rushing down the highway, it made it some of my favorites! The best is “Good to be Bad” though, no contest!” Oh lord come help me die! I can’t believe my eye! I’m not the same that I was when I got here! I´ve made a dirty mess, My lord I do confess, I know I’ve been bad, So bad! I’m not the only one! I’m not the bastard-son! The other kids made me do things that I don’t usually do… Misunderstood, I’m the plague of the neighborhood! And it feels so good! So good! “Seein’ Sporty making a flip in the running car while this was playin’ was somethin’ MAGICAL!”

Marion scoffed. Was he even included in “the gang”? Well, if Jeremy was, so was he. “Seeing as I never had much choice in listening to the music I could like, I don’t really have a taste. Everything that isn’t nursery rhymes made into songs is GREAT. Especially if it has nothing to do with music boxes.” It still calmed him down to hear music like that, but he developed a bit of a grudge against it. Sure, he and Jeremy were working on that, but he really couldn’t call it his favorite kind of music. “… well, Dave oftentimes played the CD he just mentioned while transporting me. I guess I liked a few songs from there? Somewhat? “Everybody Wants to Be an Astronaut” was pretty good.” I can feel my body shiver, the lights are everywhere! They marvel at my heartbeats inside the atmosphere… And I’m looking at the world, in a way you never could! I knew I’d be a traveling man, but I misunderstood… So tell me, why is it we’re never happy?

‘Cause everybody wants to be an astronaut! And take the long tall trail into the stars! Everybody wants to show a brother what they got! Everybody wants to be an astronaut! Marion looked away. What he kept for himself was that he really disliked the last line. Everybody wants to be a superstar! No. None of the kids wanted to be a superstar. … ‘cause everybody’s happy when they’re playing the guitar! Everybody but them. Everybody. But them. So tell me, why is it we’re never happy?

Old Sport smiled, for a moment a bit sadly. “Oh, it used to be “Not too late” by Lemaitre.” Not Too Late my friend! Take it up and try again! I’ll stand right here… While you walk to face the end, As the skys clear up again I’ll disappear- And have a go again… Snapping out of his emotional side, he laughed. “But now I actually have TASTE, thus it’s TAYLOR SWIFT’S “Look what you made me do”, RIGHT MIKEY-“ “YOU HATE THAT SONG TOO, ADMIT TO IT. YOU FUCKING HATE IT. ESPECIALLY THE REFRAIN. IT’S ALL SUCH UTTER SHIT, YOU ONLY PUT IT ON TO FUCKING TORMENT ME. FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU!” “Like clockwork. It’s a thing of beauty.” He laughed until Mike quieted down from the back, then looked back at the Anon. “But seriously, why did you even include me. You know what it is! THE CLASSICS! “All Star” and “Never Gonna Give You Up”! Well, maybe with a dash on “We are number one” for good measure. You know, the songs people with TASTE listen to.”

Ethan was sitting in the back, looking at the golden guard badge he had received for signing up with the company. Quietly he sung. “Sven Korner was in the newspapers this Monday Big picture from a time he danced the waltz Yes, he took the life of Victoria Come home, explain to Christiania “Come here, officer, here are thousand bucks I’ve saved” And give me Korner, and give me him soon!” He closed his hands around the badge. “It’s a song by Kaizers Orcherstra. I just happened to stumble over it- originally it’s in the Norwegian language- I do not even know how I found the translation. But I like it a lot. It helps me work.” He hadn’t found her. He wasn’t even quite sure in what kind of afterlife he was. But it gave him great satisfaction to know the man who did this to his daughter was in a far, far worse place. “I know what’s in store for you… I know what it is you’re hoping for, I know what’s in store for you.

Oh, you have a tune you think everybody will follow! But I wouldn’t follow that tune, not on my life! We’re playing poker with a revolver, Having no respect for Fredrik Meltzer… Now you shall dance to our tune 'till you bleed! You shall dance Ompa 'till you Die!

Think about it, Sven, how good it will be in Heaven… I hope you fold your hands before you go to bed… Cause it can get hot down here. It can be hot down here. Sven, it can get hot as hell down here!” -

Henry leaned back bemused. “The best thing about this ask is certainly that everyone now knows what a horrible taste you have.” Says the guy who has his head so far up his ass that he basically only listens to classic. “Oh, no. I listen to everything. But at least I acknowledge that everything I hear has some form of merit, even if it is not my taste. You however, do not, thus you can be shamed for your taste.” Screw you.

#the Group #rip your dashboard

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just0nemorepage · 4 years

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The Hate U Give || Angie Thomas || 464 pages ------------------------------------------------------------ Top 3 Genres: Young Adult / Contemporary / Realistic Fiction

Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

Finished: March 26th, 2020.

Progress: 9 / 10. 90% complete.

My Rating: ★★★★★. [5/5]

My Review: [Under the read more - SPOILER FREE]

So I finished this last night, and I’m just as much at a loss for words now as I was at the time.

This book is a fucking masterpiece and perfection incarnate. I’m usually very anti-required reading, as that’s a real good way to ruin reading as a hobby, but THIS BOOK should be fundamental to every school and book group in America – perhaps even globally. It perfectly explains SUCH a drastically misunderstood issue and paints exactly WHY it’s so important and manages to touch on all of the nuances of police brutality and – ugh, it’s SO POWERFUL and SO GOOD.

To the point where the only reason I will accept dislike of this book is if it’s for technical or stylistic reasons – like not liking the writing style, or not liking characters. And even so, given the nature of the writing and the characters and WHY they are like they are, I’m giving serious stank eye to anyone who thinks those kinds of things, as well.

I actually scrolled through my Goodreads friend reviews of this book immediately upon finishing it and got rid of anyone who disliked the book for any pro-police reasons (Still! Yes! They exist, even AFTER reading this!). That’s how fundamentally important this book is. Liking or disliking it isn’t a matter of difference in opinion – it’s a difference in morality. Do black lives matter, or do they not? That’s not even a question. And if you disagree, we are morally incompatible and you don’t belong in my life in any capacity.

There is SO MUCH about this book that I love, and SO MUCH that is done right. I need to admit my personal favorites: Starr’s mirroring of that photograph from Ferguson, picking up the tear gas the cops threw at her, throwing it back, and a picture of it getting captured mid-throw; and the course of Starr’s relationship with Hailey. Ultimately: FUCK Hailey. But her character is so important – it illustrates the attitude most white people have towards racism, and HONESTLY, the fact that she was pro-feminist, but EXTREMELY racist, makes her all the more infuriating. That, ladies and gentleman, is a perfect example of what we call White Feminism! And an extreme example at that – not only does Hailey disregard issues that may apply to anyone other than white women, she actively contributes to those issues every single time she opens her mouth about race. And I shudder to think what she thinks about any OTHER kind of minority lol.

I also love that the only two real white characters in the story are Chris, and Hailey – polar opposites, and great representations of the two kinds of white people you’ll find concerning racism. There’s.. well, there’s Hailey, the walking garbage can who I hope dies alone, and there’s Chris, the aspiring ally, who’s not perfect, makes mistakes, and still has many things to learn, but is actively pursuing learning them and admitting when he’s wrong. (Also – how rich Chris’s family is low-key pisses me off for entirely different reasons LOL.)

I truly don’t know what else I can say, other than recommend this book at the top of my lungs and with a great deal of force to pretty much every single person in this country – particularly every single white person. I know I want to throw it in the face – like literally throw it – of anyone who still tries to spout “all lives matter” or, even worse, “blue lives matter,” and then pick it up, and throw it at their face again, and again, until their nose breaks.

There’s nothing I can say that will do any kind of eloquent justice to the majesty and importance that is this book. Although, I should at least try to sum it up, and put into words exactly WHAT was done so well. Normally, my brain fails me utterly here, but for this book in particular, I won’t let it.

I do know it perfectly captured the experience of growing up black, poor, and in a gang-infested neighborhood (at least, to my knowledge). I know it illustrated the difference between good cops and bad cops, and how no one should be picking apart “fuck the police,” because if you’re a true ally you know DAMN WELL that doesn’t apply to the good people. I know it FLAWLESSLY illustrated the difference between a riot and a peaceful, but obstructive protest, and it made me want to get out there and scream my anger into a megaphone and find some way to become a better activist – even if there aren’t many opportunities to do so in my area. I know it somehow managed to capture many, many microaggressions directed towards black people, and therefore explained exactly how frustrating and infuriating they can be, even if one individual act was “little.” I know it did a great job of illustrating the difference between jokes the oppressed use against the oppressor, as coping methods, and jokes the oppressor use against the oppressed, which are never not inherently shitty and dangerous. And I deeply, deeply enjoy how often “your life matters” was stated – never once was Black Lives Matter explicitly named, but you know damn well that’s what they’re referring to.

Oh, man. And that list of names of victims of police brutality at the end gave me chills.

Ultimately, I don’t have much problem saying that if you don’t like this book, you’re racist. Much in the same way that voting for and supporting Trump automatically makes you racist, or toting a US flag with a thin blue line or a Confederate flag automatically makes you racist. Or spouting “all lives matter.” Or honestly believing preventing police brutality has ANYTHING to do with “complying with orders” or “taking responsibility for your actions.”

If that displeases you, die mad about it.

And be happy I’m not throwing this book at your face until your nose breaks right now.

To everyone else – I won’t throw the book at you lol. But it is just as important that you read it. This is FUNDAMENTAL to understanding societal issues, and understanding societal issues is fundamental to being a responsible member of society.

If more people understood these issues with any kind of empathy, the world would be a much better place – to ALL who live in it. Not just those who were lucky enough to be born white.

And this book is a perfect stepping stone to beginning to understand racism, police brutality, and why Black Lives Matter is so crucial, as a movement and as a belief.

So, if you haven’t yet – even if you think you already understand BLM – READ IT. Your functionality as a human being depends on it.

#book reviews #the hate u give #angie thomas #★★★★★#young adult #contemporary #realistic fiction #racism #family #death #favorites #owned #print book #stand alone #jomp original

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