#i resonate with his character so much

[the-blue-wraith]

When you're living in a household full of cruelty and bitterness and you were never given any kindness, you'll believe the world hates you for being who you are. You'll believe you don't deserve any kindness because the people around you never gave you that. When you see someone being kind and gentle you can't help but feel disgusted. As a child, I experienced this and I hated the world. In Astarion’s perspective, I definitely understood that. This part of his narrative is really relatable to me because I've been there.

He hated when your Tav helped people and treated them with kindness because he was never given any of that when he needed the most. No one came to him during his lowest moments. Until he met Tav who originally he planned on seducing them so they would protect him, and the first person who treated him with genuine kindness. After facing Cazador he realized he can be much more than what he was made for, someone who can break the cycle of terror that he endured for 200 years. He had nothing for so long, with his freedom he can finally start healing and be able to make decisions for himself. He will never be used as a toy anymore because he is his own person now.

I have never loved a character like this before. His story means so much for trauma survivors just like me. Astarion means so much to me and I'll be forever grateful for knowing this character.

#i could definitely write a thesis how much i love this man #especially his spawn route his character development there was so resonating #'you're not alone in this none of us are' 🥹 #bg3 #baldur's gate #baldur's gate 3 #astarion #astarion ancunin #larian studios #neil newbon #stephen rooney #tw: abuse #pat rambles

[neolxzr]

you do see my point though, I was saying that yes a piece of media can have a character imply they are queer, but it’s frustrating when they won’t explicitly confirm such, because of (in the case of… checks app store purchase statistics…. A multi million dollar game franchise!) the need to market to as many people as possible. Shumika will never be “canon” because some people just don’t like shumika and won’t spend money on the game if shu and mika are in a relationship, whether or not that’s because they like the ship or the characters or are genuinely homophobic or whatnot. If the writing team cared about telling a love story, they would tell a love story, not go “well maybe they’re in love, it’s up to viewer interpretation!” like this works, sometimes it adds to the meaning of the work, but enstars really doesn’t have an excuse for their constant “this character might have feelings for this other character, but we’ll never have them say it out loud!” except the fact it makes them a lot of money, since they can market to people who like a character being the way they want that character to be, whether that’s with that character being in love with another in game character or self-shipping or whatever else. Outside of shipping, this is why some characters like Shinobu haven’t changed despite wanting to change (he continuously talks about how he wants to be more mature and taken seriously but his cards continue to make him look small and cute because his fans like that about him and god forbid we change anything!) I just think enstars should not be your first thought when someone asks you about a good piece of queer media because they’re doing just about the same job as large cast games with characters of the same gender (minus Arashi) who continue to have characters go “we’ll do all these things to imply we could be in love, but we’ll never have our characters actually date! teehee!”

i can understand being frustrated about your ships not being "confirmed", but the obsession with what is "canon" and "not canon" is just straight up not a very interesting discussion to have. what happyele's or the writers' agenda is is not of particular importance to me. one of the first things they teach you in classes about media analysis is that once a work is out there, the intentions of the creator no longer matter. the only thing that matters in your analysis is your own thoughts and the way you interpret a text.

if we were having a conversation about how much the creator of something sucks, then sure, talk about that all you want, but i am specifically referring to discussions about the piece of media and these characters and their relationships and their growth and the themes of the work etc. those things are removed from whether or not the company writes the way they do because of profit motives or whatever. companies make money, that's just what to expect. if you want art that is free of profit motives, read something by an independent creator.

even so, it feels strange to place enstars into the bucket of "stuff that should be gayer but the bad company that makes it wont let it be" because the characters ARE so very openly queer. there are so many instances in it where characters pour their heart out to each other or offer themselves to another character in beautiful and poetic ways, and i think it's wrong to claim it doesn't count because they didn't confirm their relationship status at the end of it. if you ask me, there is absolutely no way to interpret enstars in a way completely free of queerness. there is so much explicitly queer text that ignoring it is just plain incorrect. but, if homophobic people like this game and choose to look the other way at all of the gay shit, again, that is not my problem.

why is canonization the only thing that matters? is a shitty BL with awful writing better and more worthwhile than enstars as a queer narrative because the characters had explicit gay sex on screen? are poorly written gay characters in the background of other media with nothing going on more worth talking about than shumika or wataei or rinniki or whoever else just because they say the words 'i'm gay' out loud?

queerness is so much more than all of that. it is so much more than labels and it is so much more than relationships that are easy to understand. it is so much more than the extremely narrow view of it that the internet has concocted about it over the last few years, where you’re only allowed to talk about queerness if you yourself are openly queer and out of the closet, and even then you’re only allowed to make art that makes for “good representation.” that is just so incredibly limiting. i would rather tons of companies who are trying to profit off fujoshis make vaguely gay media with unconfirmed romances and relationships that aren't easily defined by labels than have less queer art in the world.

more queer art means more queer people who will find something to really connect to. more queer art means telling more queer stories. why should who is allowed to write lgbtq media be limited? why should the kind of media people are allowed to make be limited?

its fine to criticize happyelements if youre unsatisfied with the way they do things, im not always 100% in love with everything they do either. i wouldn't even consider enstars to be the worlds' best example of a queer piece of media. but no one is forcing you to like or engage with it or give the company money if you're unhappy with how they write and market their game. they don't owe anyone explicit confirmation that any of their characters are dating, and it doesn't even matter if they do provide that confirmation or not.

regardless of who made it or for what reason, queer stories are worth talking about, "canon" or not.

#cryn answers #anon #enstars #listen i dont want to be mean to you anon but this is very much just an extended version of the first ask you sent me #i will leave anon on but im not going to make another post like this ive more than said my piece already #also sorry i guess for not getting into the shinobu character growth part of this ask? #it was just. so far off from the topic of conversation #this isnt even getting into the cultural differences between the west and japan and how that affects the way companies make things #but again thats a different conversation #anyway #fun fact me and my girlfriend started talking more partially because of shumika #so if that doesnt make them a good queer narrative idk what does man!! #they certainly resonate with lesbians somehow!!! #if anyone actually read this far hi!! you are so strong #media analysis

[sol-insidious]

“Din Djarin’s identity as a Mandalorian will always be central to his character, and his devotion to his orthodox religion, warrior’s creed, and its chivalrous code of honor is a truly noble one.”

and

“Din Djarin’s devotion to his creed has fundamentally isolated him from love, his role as The Tribe’s breadwinner was as unsustainable as it gave him purpose, and the fierceness of his faith stems from unprocessed trauma and the guilt he feels as an orphan and a foundling. His views on what it means to be a Mandalorian were narrow until he met others who didn’t conform to his own creed, and in this, his status as an voluntary oathbreaker is equally as integral to his character.”

…are both takes that co-exist in my mind.

#Star Wars #the mandalorian #din djarin #character analysis #sol rambles #obligatory this is not meant to be a hot take and nobody has to agree with me on this #2nd obligatory I can interpret this character however I want to within reasonable limits #and as a person from a religious background who now identifies as agnostic #I find this more than reasonable #I honestly love entertaining the idea of Din renouncing his orthodoxy as much as I loved his redemption #Din’s relationship with his faith in S2 was so realistically messy #and it resonated with me greatly #the “is it truly faith if people just get to pick and choose what to adhere to and what to disregard?” #“wtf does that make me?” #people do turn to religion after deep personal loss #and it can be a beautiful thing as much as it can be dangerous #faith can consume you to the point where you can no longer recognize yourself without it #and I saw Din being well on that path if Grogu hadn’t come along #transcending religious identities is such a juicy motif in Star Wars #all starting with Luke declaring he’s a Jedi like his father before him #while also fiercely defying both his masters by refusing to sacrifice Han and Leia in order to complete his training #the training Yoda dictated for him #literally the embodiment of The Old Order #and what’s that saying? #none will be free until the old ways are gone forever #oh my god I am rambling #THANK YOU FOR LISTENING #Sol out

[spicerackofblorbos]

Hiiii, I hope I make the deadline for your March 14th event. 😊 so here’s my blorbo:

An exciting date with Connie Springer. 🩶 He takes me to a Dave and Busters type place where we play laser tag and bowl. After, we hit up some food trucks downtown for dinner. He’s very flirty and makes me laugh a lot. Of course he doesn’t forget to kiss me goodnight when he takes me back home.

Thank you so much!

Xoxo, Maggie 💖

#hi maggie welcome!! #you just made the deadline #thank you so much for sending in a request #the way i got so excited when you requested con man #i'm not a big simp for him but i enjoy his character and his silly goofiness #it just resonates with me so hard #he'd be so fun to laugh with #i really took that fun and laughter and goofiness to heart and put it all in so i hope i did your vision justice!! #connie springer #attack on titan #aot #shingeki no kyojin #snk #self ship #sky.events.whiteday #sky.moodboards

[andromeda3116]

"One day when I was a young boy on holiday in Uberwald, I was walking along the bank of a stream when I saw a mother otter with her cubs. A very endearing sight, I'm sure you will agree, and even as I watched, the mother otter dived into the water and came up with a plump salmon, which she subdued and dragged onto a half-submerged log. As she ate it, while of course it was still alive, the body split and I remember to this day the sweet pinkness of its roes as they spilled out, much to the delight of the baby otters who scrambled over themselves to feed on the delicacy. One of nature's wonders, gentlemen: mother and children dining upon mother and children. And that's when I first learned about evil. It is built into the very nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior."

--Lord Vetinari, Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

#discworld #gnu terry pratchett #lord vetinari #havelock vetinari #discworld quotes #i love that philosophy and feel it in my gut and bones: #''if there is a higher power then it's our prerogative to be better than it'' #like that quote from nation about the gods letting you down and how kneeling to them would be bowing to murderers and bullies #or the whole theme of small gods where the higher power needs to learn to care about the people he demands worship from #pratchett often returns to this theme of ''what do you do when your god(s) fail you?'' #and having once felt like my god absolutely failed me - although i didn't have the words to see it like that at the time - that resonates #i've said before that that was such a revelation: those were the words of my last unanswered prayer #i have many intellectual reasons now to be an atheist but at the core it's... #if the universe is chaos then it cannot be cruel. there is no one who could have saved you but didn't for their own opaque reasons #if there is no god then no god failed me or left me drowning in despair for a whole year #small gods helped me conceptualize that in ways that defy words and literally changed my life and perspective for the better #anyway. this quote is magnificent. ''mother and child feasting upon mother and child'' #and it makes so much of vetinari's character make so much sense #he looked at the world through cynical and bitter eyes but instead of becoming a nihilist who manipulated the cruel world for his own gain #he said ''we can and must be better than this'' #(this is why i feel like kaz brekker - under inej's influence - should grow up to be like havelock vetinari) #(the one who clenches his fist and fucking *fixes* this goddamned place)

[hydatiid]

finally finished up this old pic for olivers bday you are my favourite character buddy

#he is just like me FR #sorry im about to gush abt oliver in the tags. sorry #i love how he is written so much....one his personality rules. its funny as hell #also. idk what this game wouldve done to me had i played it before i came out #i think it wouldve been..........something else. theres so many moments in it that just #man they resonate so hard. oliver as a character resonates so hard. obviously #the approach for him is so....nice. and extremely relatable #really like his hands on approach and idk i just like.....i just like him and his journey #means a lot...... #i really dont find many trans men characters that i can ACTUALLY relate to so. #its very nice to have that. thank you doggo #anyway tags over WHOOPS #dialtown #oliver swift #myart

[wholesome-cryptid]

makes sense that pokémon is a franchise that resonates so deeply with so many autistic people, literally the vast majority of NPCs in this series are the most autistic people you've ever seen/pos

#this is a sentiment i've held for a while #but i am once again thinking about Eusine and how much he resonates with me as an autistic person #like his games/masters incarnation especially shows special intrest behavior so similarly to myself #but just in general #the amount of characters that show autistic traits is wonderful and i love all of them #max rambles #pokemon

[blatantlyhidden]

people reducing astarion to just being "the hot flirty vampire" pisses me off so much. like ironically enough after ALL he's been through some people still just portray him purely as a sex object

#yes i KNOW he's a fictional character #but his story resonates with me so much #so it feels a little more personal #bg3 #astarion

[gio-cosmo]

He is NEVER leaving my team.

#JUNPEI WOOOO YIPPIE HOORAYYYY 🎉🎉🎉 #I am very excited. #persona 3 #persona 3 reload #p3 #he’s the silliest guy ever and his character arc means sm to me fr #I relate to him so much if I’m being honest #he’s so real #the entirety of SEES is a very relatable cast in general I think #not in every aspect ofc. but there’s a portion of each character I can really resonate with and I think that’s really neat :) #junpei iori

[slowlyvaliantmoon]

eegggghhhhhhhhhhhhh

#apparently those alex hirsch interviews came out #i'm not watching them because if i do i will go insane (negative) #so ofc my perspective here is flawed but #i saw a couple posts of some of alex's quotes from the interviews and #ohhhhh boy i am not having a good time right now !!! #yay more stuff about how ford is icarus #yayy more stuff about how ford is trapped too far in his head to have any meaningful relationships #yayyy more stuff about how ford ''result[ed] in Stan being this hurt and needy and mad'' #sooo glad to hear how meaningful it is when people say something resonated with them and they feel a connection to it #ohh but btw the character *you* resonate with his Too Far Gone for his own good and ruins the lives of everyone he comes into contact with! #that's right! the character who made *you* feel *seen* in a way you never had before!!! #ah... such a nice and impactful thing to hear 😌 #i feel so touched by these words 🥰 #can't wait to hear this in so much more emotional and provoking detail when the book of bill is released #(for the record the previous 9 tags are sarcasm.) #k ive said enough #good night #svm yells #svm yells about the fandom #<- or rather its creator #but i already know the fandom is going to eat this up if not already #fandom wank #filthy ford apologist squad

[goldiipond]

i will literally never understand when a character gets hate for being ‘overdramatic’ or highly emotional because like. i live for that shit. i fucking love when a character has a strong emotional response to a relatively ‘minor’ thing i love when characters cry easily and frequently i love when characters are loud and ‘annoying’ i live for drama. if a character is frequently hated on by fans for being annoying there is a 9/10 chance that character is one of my faves. no i dont think my neurodivergence has anything to do with this

#skye's ramblings #ihave been the number one annoying character defender my whole life and i dont intend to stop. dont worry little guy i get you take my hand #the 'emotionally distant traumatized emo' is almost never a character i get majorly attached to even if i alost always like them #but when t/pn said yeah we got one of those except he fucking sucks at hiding his emotions and has explosive anger issues iwas like #oh you. you are mine. my specialest little guy forever. i will kill anything for you. its been over a year and a half w no signs of fading #he has sooo much fierce love in his heart and its not negated by his ptsd or the less socially accepted symptoms. i fucking LOVE RAY!!!!!!!! #also the way don is sooo emotionally vulnerable and has a hard time regulating them. the way he loses the most important person in his life #and the fucking flood of emotions is so much that he doesnt even know how to process it and just starts LAUGHING?? god i love him. ilove him #yes its mostly the Comfort Characters but soo many emotional characters resonate w me deeply. everyone in this series is deeply autistic

[dent-de-leon]

i love hearing your widomauk thoughts, i only just finished watching campaign 2 for the first time and i am completely insane about them, so seeing others who are still active in widomauk spaces is super nice!!

aww thank you this warms my heart so much ;; I've been shipping widomauk since like episode 7 of C2 first aired and they are just very dear to me :') and it makes me so happy to hear that newer fans still love the circus man and magic man's relationship too!! :D

#i have so many fond memories of how much fun it was shipping widomauk in early c2 it was so good!! but I also love that it's still #something that resonates with fans all this time later :')) #I feel this way too about the impact molly has had as a character even after years #and then getting to see tal at nycc and hear how excited he was to talk about Mollymauk and his backstory like...there is just #something so special to me about how this little tiefling and his relationships with his loved ones is still something that people #are attached to years after c2 :')) who knows...maybe we'll even get a little widomaukery renaissance with the animated series-- #anyway thank u!! I hope you had fun with the campaign!

[kerorowhump]

keroro the type of person to get very upset if he's not invited to something

#and literally invite himself like ep21 lol #headcanon #musing #he doesn't just wanna be included he wants to feel like he Belongs. it is a subtle difference from kururu in my opinion #kururu wants to feel like he matters in people's lives! yep! and so he likes to participate and be asked #but he won't be heartbroken or anything if hes left out bc hes used to it and hes low energy so hes gonna be fine #keroro i think feels extremely like he doesn't belong anywhere rn #because earth is just a foreign unknown place. unwelcoming. everything is so big. he's not a human he's not a frog. he's not home #but he just as much doesn't feel like he belong with keron and the platoon because he doesn't really wanna succeed in his goal #not like his teammates' lament of wanting to at all (despite not wanting it either! giroro open ur eyes!) #and so and so... something snth why wont you resonate with me? thank u ep31 the perfect character study on keroro #anyway yes he wants to be included in the sense he wants to feel Part of it not just to hang out but Actually to. #be part of the family. part of the team. be . NEEDED. im saying. #make sense? #i thiiiink that is why the birthday thing stings. that and he wants to be appreciated as well. like praised. know hes doing a good job. #that hes loved . that he is needed. is what he wants to know. and doesn't. :) and when hes reminder he loses all strength #consistently from what ive noticed #kururu #keroro

[jiangzongzhu]

fun thing that folks really apparently don’t want to acknowledge if we’re discussing canon Jiang Cheng and the thing I think people are truly failing to grasp in regards to fans of his and why they care about him. His actions throughout the story repeatedly, over and over again, belied his words. Yes, he has a harsh exterior that is used as an armor against this world that repeatedly took everything from him. He uses words as a weapon at times, but his actions say everything his words don’t.

Additionally, he fucks up. He doesn’t always do the right thing, but that’s the thing about MDZS, not a damn one of these characters were in the right 100% of the time. But he cares and he works hard to do what is right by his sect and his family and yes, at times, those two groups come in conflict and he makes tough decisions because of that, but regardless he still repeatedly shows his love.

And it may take an additional time through the story to see that, but the narrative supports that fact time and time again despite the fact that Wei Wuxian as the protagonist doesn’t see it (but their struggles in communicating and understanding one another’s actions and intentions is a whole different discussion).

And that’s not even mentioning the whole plethora of cultural context that is being ignored, but again. different discussion.

#not tagging this anything fun I just wanted to ramble #because man the “high horse” the folks are on as if fans of the character completely lack an understanding of him #or like we got our understanding of him from a fic here or there and some fanart #its got me bummed at 8pm on a saturday night #I love me a good murder kitten #See: both of my DnD characters or Qi Rong or Xue Yang #but I love jiang cheng for his complexities and his pain and his imperfections but also his unwavering strength and his heart #and I don’t particularly appreciate folks acting like this character I resonate with so deeply is just something #that we as a fandom have collectively hallucinated #and yes I’m screaming at a brick wall that won’t be swayed by anything I have to say #I’ve been in fandoms since I was 14 and I’m… much older than that now. I truly understand this is not a winnable fight #I just don’t care for the shitty insinuations being made #because while he’s my perfect baby boy who I love with all my heart and has never done a thing wrong in his entire life #he’s also the man who kept chengqing in perfect playable condition for 13 years #and had it on his person at guanyin temple despite only going there for JL #he’s the man who begged to be taken instead of his nephew when JGY had a guqin string around the boy’s neck #the man who took a knife for wwx after everything #and who was willing to sacrifice himself to the Wens for WWX knowing there was no good outcome to that choice

[kanon-kun]

even on Tumblr, perhaps especially on Tumblr, I will continue to make my kavetham obsession everyone else's problem. and I endlessly apologize. I can't help this disease

#it's not just about the ship #it's not even the characters as individuals — I am obsessed with both of them individually — but it's not JUST about that #sumeru as a whole just hit different . in ways I kind of expected but still hadn't properly braced myself for #and so kvthm is more than just a good ship to me... #it's a good ship featuring incredibly complex characters that in my humble opinion are good representation from a well-crafted universe #sumeru isn't perfect by any means & genshin's writing leaves much to be desired. however #it resonates with me for the deep attention to detail; the very human and relatable stories of the cast; #and the feeling of being recognized and acknowledged. for the things I am familiar w/ to be portrayed as just as interesting & romantic #as stuff from other cultures. to be acknowledged as not just exotic strange characters; but a group of people who achieve great things #haitham ESPECIALLY represents that to me as a Muslim (although I hate his personality sometimes) #ramblings

[thatcrazycrowgirl]

Make Me Choose

@assassins-and-hidden-blades asked: Jacob Frye or Arno Dorian

“I’ve changed since the years of lessons from my father, and my sister, Evie, pushing me constantly to improve. Now I’m strong enough to free and wild through the streets of London. And run wild, I will...”

#I kid around but tbh there was never any difficulty in making this choice #I ADORE Arno so so very much; truly I do #but Jacob truly has my heart first and foremost #the jokes and the thirst aside; I just connected so strongly with his character upon first playing the game almost three years ago #(and while he never says that quote in the game; I just had to include it because it's always resonated so strongly with me) #anyway; I've babbled on enough lol #thank you for sending something in! #I had fun picking out the scenes of him to gif! #Jacob Frye #my beloved #Assassin's Creed Syndicate #Make Me Choose #my ac gifs