#like you make a character so sympathetic and people act like it's weird to like him even though he's not the main character

[tumblingxelian]

Trope - Disney Princess Syndrome

"Disney Princess Syndrome" is my personal name for the trope of a rich or powerful character portrayed as "Nice", "Good" or "Down to earth". Because they want to hang around "Normal/Real people" and want to be treated like a "Regular person" or otherwise does not think their phenomenal wealth makes them abnormal.

This trope/character concept is usually contrasted against another rich or powerful persons who flaunts their wealth intentionally, is aware they are rich and tends to be snooty, cocky or otherwise act in a manner that is more reflective of their phenomenal wealth.

Usually these characters are contrasted so that we like the former but hate the latter but weirdly… I often find myself either disliking both or liking the latter more. Largely cos they at least seem self aware of their circumstances and so come off as less frustratingly flippant or willfully ignorant.

Examples will be drawn from, Miraculous Ladybug.

I will largely avoid talking about how X character was raised, or trauma that might influence this behavior. But keep in mind people with bad home lives can often act out in ways that don't make them a "good" victim.

In ML, you have "Wants to be a normal boy" Adrien, "Wants to meet sincere people" Princes Ali, and "This is all so artificial" Musician Jagged Stone. They are contrasted against hotel heiress, Mayors daughter & smug about it Chloe.

Now:

Chloe's a brat, a jerk & a snob to be sure, however I still somehow find her less hypocritical or deluded than these other three because at least she seems aware of her circumstances and what they mean for her VS others. Jagged treats doing a small autograph session with the mayor like its some horrible imposition and he flips out at being expected to follow trends he deems artificial. But he also drags his literal assistant with him everywhere to manage his life, keeps a pet alligator on him at all times & can be extremely rude and demanding. But it never feels acknowledged in the same way as with Chloe, because he's 'real'. Prince Ali acts like its weird for people to try and charm or otherwise please him when assigned to give him a tour for a whole event about himself. He also seems to neglect what would be fairly typical greetings for someone of his class & position despite likely being taught them. This again ties into making him seem 'genuine' but comes off as just odd. Adrien balances it best by wanting his father to be less controlling and his father is indeed controlling. But he's also only bothered by Chloe, her parents or his fathers haughty behavior if it alienates him or people he wants to be friends with. He laughs it off or otherwise tends to ignore it with staff but is meant to be better.

This isn't to say a character 'can't' want these things, or find the trappings of wealth utterly unsatisfying. Especially children who are not themselves actually rich and exist at the whims of their parents who are often functionally immune to the law.

Its more an issue with how the trope tends to be executed. Both in terms of the "Disney Princess" who wants to be "Out there" having no self awareness of their wealth, or internal hypocrisy. With this being framed as more endearing than anything, despite often coming off as entitled or selfish by accident.

Or in how the rich jerk just ends up feeling more grounded, or accidentally becomes sympathetic because they are usually an antagonist. Thus meaning they not only have to lose, but usually are surrounded by people like themselves. Leaving the impression their behavior is less to do with having the money to get away with t and more born of mistreatment.

& that as they say is that.

#Meta #Text Post #Miraculous Ladybug #Disney Princess Syndrome

[cherrytomatoboys]

Gojo having to see geto seal him in the prison realm knowing it's not him but his body being controlled by a curse which he hated most must have been devastating but to then see his body try to kill himself to save gojo must have been so heartbreaking to know part of him is still trapped in there.

#i always liked gojo but they really made his character so heartbreaking and people are acting like it's weird to be upset on how he died #like you make a character so sympathetic and people act like it's weird to like him even though he's not the main character #watching the last couple of episodes it makes him feel like and i get that's the point because your supposed to care that he got sealed #i haven't read the manga so i dont know what happened before he died but everyone has waited for him to unsealed #to see him fight sukuna just to be killed off screen it's really annoying i really hope he comes back #even if he comes back with no powers to live a regular life like he sacrificed so much to not see his students change sorcerers #lmfao im rambling but that scene just stabbed me in the heart #jujutsu kaisen spoilers

[slut4teyam]

Neteyam wanting to breed loaks friend, she's always around and her curves don't help his boner every time he sees her, so one day when loak isn't around he HAS to get her

Make You Mine

(Neteyam te Suli Tsyeyk'itan x F!Omaticaya Reader)

minors dni!

Genre: smut, maybe sort of fluff at the end?

Warnings: missionary, doggystyle, breeding king (neteyam), dom!neteyam, blowjob, breast play, body licking, teasing, swearing, p in v, size warning (please tell me if theres any i've missed!)

Backstory: Y/n and the Sully’s two boys, Neteyam and Lo’ak, met during one of the attacks of the sky people. Y/n and Lo’ak connected instantly, as the both of them had snuck out to fight, but Neteyam was very distant because he did not approve of the action and was just there to protect his little brother. As time passed, y/n spent more time with the Sully’s and started to gain feelings for him, and would be flustered with red cheeks every time she was around him, and Neteyam loved it because it turned him on. Every time Neteyam was near y/n, her every action would want to make him put his babies in her.

Neteyam and Reader are aged up to 19+ years old!! (Other characters except for Tuk too! Tuk is 12 here, don't be weird)

--

“Hi y/n!” Tuk exclaimed as you entered the Sully’s tent with your friend Lo’ak. You and Lo’ak met during one of the sky people’s attacks, and have been close to him and their family ever since. “Hey Tuk, hi guys!” you replied back to everyone, gaining their attention. You noticed that Jake and Neytiri weren’t home, as Kiri looked at you with a smile while Tuk jumped into your arms, making you grab her. Your eyes, however, couldn’t take themselves off of the eldest Sully’s son, Neteyam, who seemed to be ignoring you, completely focused on sharpening his knife.

Ever since getting closer with the Sully’s, you’ve liked Neteyam romantically, though you doubted his feelings of liking you back because he was always somewhat distant towards you, never acting close like Lo’ak. ‘Maybe he likes another girl?’ Your eyebrows furrowed at the thought as you placed Tuk back on the floor, sitting in front of Kiri with Lo’ak next to you. “What’s the matter y/n? You seemed bothered.” Kiri asked, with a genuine tone and face. Your expression turned optimistic once again after the realization of your thoughts being displayed on your face, “Oh nothing, probably just some random thought I’m overthinking” you chuckle, as Kiri’s expression eases.

“Nah don’t lie y/n, I know first hand damn well you’ve been stressed about finding a mate.” Lo’ak playfully slaps your arm with his hand, chuckling when you hiss at him. It was true, you had been thinking about finding a mate recently. You were of age, and even though the only male you ever wanted to mate with was Neteyam, you doubted he liked you back, which got you a bit impatient as you wanted to know. What you didn’t notice, which could’ve been a sign as to what Neteyam felt, was that his ears perked up and eyes turned towards you when his younger brother mentioned the word mate.

Neteyam knew he was acting distant from you, and that you probably didn’t like him because of it. However, he also knew that his only reason for the act was because you got him so damn hard every time you were near him. He couldn’t pinpoint exactly when everything started, all he knew was that whenever your precious little body; curvy hips, big breasts, plump ass, was around him, he wanted to put his babies in you. Eywa, did it turn him on just thinking about you with a round belly, carrying the future mighty warriors of his clan. He turned his gaze back to the knife he was sharpening, while all the blood in his body flew to below his lower stomach with the thought of you pregnant.

Tuk chuckled at Lo’aks comment, as Kiri leaned in to hold your hands. “Aww, y/n, it’s completely okay. You will find the man perfect to be your mate soon enough, everyone does.” She said sympathetically. You smiled at her comfort, feeling better about the situation. On the other hand, Neteyams jaw clenched at the thought of you with another man. Another man touching you instead of him, touching your curves, your beautiful hair, another man getting you pregnant, it made him mad. He was all you could ever want and deserve, a warrior who was the son of the Olo’eyktan. You didn’t need any other man touching you, he had to make you his eventually.

After some silence, Tuk spoke up with a sarcastic frown on her face, “Kiri weren’t you supposed to drop me off with mom and go to grandma for herbal things?” Kiri panicked and began to stand up at her little sisters reminder. “Shoot! I completely forgot, mom is going to tour Tuk with her ikran and grandmother promised to give me extra herbal teaching! Excuse us please, y/n!” Kiri said while packing her things, leaving for the door soon after as Tuk follows. You chuckle, “Bye y/n!” Tuk exclaims as you wave at her. “I gotta leave too” Lo’ak says while standing up, which makes Neteyam gulp. If you and him were left alone, he didn’t know how he’d be able to control his ongoing boner.

“To where?” Neteyam asks his brother, eyeing him suspiciously. Lo’ak heads to the entrance/exit before adding, “dad said he’d help teach me guns better, why you jealous?” while chuckling. Neteyam tilted his head and watched you through his eyebrows as you said bye to Lo’ak as he left. Turning your gaze to the eldest son of the Sully's after your goodbye, you quickly looked down after noticing his hard gaze on you.

“Aren’t you leaving?” Neteyam finally asked after seconds of silence, making you turn your eyes back at him. Realizing he was focusing on sharpening his knife again, you reply “I-I mean I can if you want me to”, thinking he didn’t want you there. He stops his knife work momentarily, before replying in a mumble, thinking you wouldn’t be able to comprehend the sentence "Leave if you don't want my babies in you"

Heat like you've never experienced before rises up to your cheeks, as well as in between your thighs, while you gulp at his sudden sentence. You clench your thighs together before looking away. "What do you mean N-Neteyam?" you ask, acting like you don't know what he's talking about. "Fuck, don't stutter my name like that," he grunts while standing up, walking closer to you. You fall onto your hands behind, and bend your legs, never unclenching your thighs, as he sits down on his feet in front of you, placing his right hand on your left ankle.

"You know, y/n, you turn me on. So much." he breathes out the last sentence, making eye contact with you as he rubs your ankle. Caught unexpected by the dirty behavior of the man you've adored but didn't expect the feeling to be returned, your only response to his sentence was the sound of your heartbeat, beating louder every touch he placed on your ankle. "Tell me, do I turn you on?" he asks, slowly sliding his hand from your ankle to your upper calf, now rubbing that area. You nod your head obnoxiously, watching his every move, trying to resist the throbbing in between your thighs.

He smirks at your response, and with one swift move, pushes both of your knees down onto the floor, and places himself on top of you, hands next to your neck. Fuck, his hands. His long fingers, which led to his oh so veiny hands, which led to his muscly arms, flexing to hold his body on top of you. He leaned in, bringing his face closer to yours. You threw your head back, not being able to stand the tension his body heat was radiating. "No, look at me" he whispered in a raspy voice, taking his left hand to your chin, and pulling your face back down, forcing you into eye contact. His eyes were so beautiful, especially when they were filled with lust. Eywa did it make him hotter.

He got closer to your face, holding it stable with the hand still on your chin this time. You gulped, looking down at his lips. "Good girl" he breathed out, directing his gaze from your eyes to your lips, and then back up again. He slid down the hand he had on your chin to your neck, slowly continuing from between your breasts, and then to your stomach, before finally stopping on your right thigh, placing his hand in between your clenched inner thighs. Your back arched at his touch, which made his already hard on grow bigger. Eywa, he wanted you so bad. He wanted to plunge into you so hard that you'd definitely be pregnant when he stopped fucking you.

With a harsh movement, he flung open your thighs and aligned his face in between, kissing your inner thighs, getting closer to your core with every kiss. You bit your lower lip, and threw your head back, leading your hands to hold him by the hair and pull him into your wet cunt. He smirked as he gave your inner thigh one last kiss, before placing his tongue onto your lower stomach, slowly licking up towards your breasts. Your breathing hitched, and your stomach felt fuzzly at his wet touch. He had completely ignored your aching womanhood, he was teasing you. Neteyam on the other hand, never took his eyes off of you, watching your every squirm, every movement, as he touched you. He stopped when he came into contact with your top cloth, and placed himself to align his face with yours once again. "So, do you wanna leave?" he asked, smirking as he already knew the answer.

"Stop teasing me Neteyam, you already know I want you to fuck me" you replied to his question, not expecting the words that came out of your mouth along with the confident tone. His eyes widened, not expecting your words either, but a smirk crawled up his face soon after, as he got off of you and began to untie his loincloth. You got up on your elbows, biting your lower lip as you watched the cloth getting looser. Leading your hands to your top cloth, you untied it at the same time Neteyam's loincloth fell off, your eyes widening at his sight.

Both of you were staring at each others now bare skin, as Neteyams breathing got heavier. You gulped at his size, it was already dripping with pre-cum. Looking back at his face, you saw he was licking his lips, the lips you had always wanted to kiss so badly. And just with that though, Neteyam grabbed your neck with his right hand, and pulled you into an aggressive kiss. You fell onto your hands in front of you (quite literally a doggystyle), facing up to kiss him as he held onto your neck. He was kissing all over your upper lip, aggressively licking and sucking on it, and your efforts of kissing his lower lip looked weak compared to his kiss. A moan left your lips as he plunged his tongue into your mouth, and you didn't even want to fight for dominance because all you wanted was for him to dominate over you.

A string of saliva remained to connect your mouths after pulling away to breathe, but you quickly took the opportunity to adjust yourself in between the knees he was sitting on, and with a quick smirk, you placed your mouth on his tip, licking it all over. "Fuck" he breathed out, as his eyes rolled back along with his head. Little by little, you started taking all of him in your mouth, sucking on his length and licking his tip. "You're taking me in so good pretty girl" Neteyam looked down at you concentrating on making him feel good, as his mouth opened wide as the sensation of reaching his climax. "You're doing so good pretty girl, fuck" He grabbed your hair gently with his right hand, weak from what you're doing to him, and started bobbing your head harder on himself.

"Fuckk" Neteyam whispered out, biting his lower lip as he came into your mouth. You separated your full mouth from his cock, and swallowed his whole without breaking eye contact with him, and that was what made Neteyam snap. He pushed you onto your back by your shoulders, as his hands went to untie your loincloth right after. You placed your hands on your breasts, feeling your heavy breathing and back arching at his dominating aura. He was losing his control over you, and that gave you confidence that you could've gained no other way. He threw the cloth away immediately after it was off, taking in your naked body in front of him as he gave himself a couple of strokes.

Neteyam adjusted himself in front of you entrance, and without another word, slammed right into you, getting a scream like moan out of your mouth. He was pounding into you. Hard. You continued to scream out voices of pleasure, which was like music to Neteyams ears. He couldn’t care less about who was there to hear, all he cared about was that he was making you create such beautiful noises. You held onto both of his muscly arms placed next to your waist with your hands, which led him to fully placing himself on top of you once again. "I'm gonna fuck you so hard, you'll be carrying my babies" he said in a raspy and breathy voice, before lowering his face to your breasts and taking the right one in his mouth, sucking all over it.

He loved your tits so much, they’d be swollen soon along with your pregnant belly. The thought turned him on even more, which led him into thrusting into you harder. "Neteyam!" you screamed out at his speed increasing, as he started licking all over your other breast. He was going to make you his, by putting his babies in you and claiming you as his woman. He had to do it, he had to raise babies as beautiful as you and as mighty of a warrior as him. Leaving your breasts with a string of saliva attached, he slammed his lips onto your moaning pair, kissing you so passionately. Even though you were having sex, the kiss felt nothing sexual. It felt passionate, filled with love, with protection over each other.

He pulled away soon after, placing his head at the crook of your neck while continuously fucking you reckless. His right hand was now placed on your hip, and the left on your waist, as your hands went to fumble with his braided hair. "Don't stop 'teyam" you moaned out as you felt your climax reaching, and that's when he pulled himself back up from your body and turned you around and onto your hands and knees, still inside you. Without even being able to look back at him, he continued thrusting, holding you by the hips. He watched himself go in and out of you, as the ass he's been getting hard off of for so long was bouncing on his dick.

Neteyam slid his hands to your waist, pulling you up, making your back touch his toned torso. You threw your head back onto his right shoulder, as he kissed your neck, holding you by the waist. "You wanna carry my babies?" he asked you, grunting into your neck. "Mhm.." you managed to moan out, too overstimulated by his touch to reply properly. His arms wrapped tighter around your body, "You wanna be my woman?" he asked once again, continuously kissing your neck. "Mhm!" you managed to moan out louder this time, but that wasn't a satisfactory answer for Neteyam.

"You wanna be the mother of my children?" he asked louder this time, thrusting into you faster. "Fuck yes! I want your babies!" you managed to scream out, your already closed eyes rolling back into your head. "Good girl, fuck, you'll be such a good mother" Neteyam breathed out, getting closer to his most desired climax. You, on the other hand, were moments away from snapping the formed knot in your lower stomach.

"I'm gonna cum, yeah right there Neteyam!" you said, desperate to reach the orgasm the man you love brought to you. After a couple of more speedy thrusts, you released all over his cock, feeling all of the pleasure filling your body. The man behind you was still going, fast, but you could tell he was close as his thrusts were getting sloppier. "Fuck I'm coming" he said in a raspy voice as he released deep inside of you, while thrusting a couple of more times to ride out both of your highs.

He pulled out of you shortly after, gently holding you by the waist to help you lay down on your back, as he stood up and went to gather some cloth and water to clean the both of you up. Meanwhile, you gathered the pieces of tossed clothing and place them by your side. Neteyam came back with the materials, as he sat down beside you, prioritizing cleaning you up before himself. After some silence, which was filled with you in awe of Neteyam's gentleness, he speaks up "You've been stressed about finding a mate?" he asks, not making eye contact with you. "Yeah, but I don't need to stress about it anymore. I've already chosen." you reply to his question, making him look up at you with a soft smile, which you returned.

"I'll take care of you, y/n. I'll protect you, I'll be gentle with you, I'll do anything for you. We can create a family, it's all I've ever wanted." He speaks, making you tear up at his words. 'Eywa, I'm so stupid' you thought to yourself, but you couldn't control the happy tears rolling down your face. All you've ever needed from Neteyam was reassurance, that he'd want to be your mate, that he would take care of you, and receiving that affection from him made you emotional. He placed his right hand on your cheek, rubbing it before kissing you affectionately and passionately.

You and Neteyam both held onto your braids containing your queues after pulling away from the kiss, bringing them in front of you. Neteyam looks at you, as you bring your gaze to his eyes, slowly combining the queues together. His pupils dilate as you close your eyes, gasping at the feeling of your emotions combining. Neteyam pulls you in for another short but sweet kiss, placing both of his hands on your cheeks, while you place yours on his shoulders. You remain with your foreheads touching after the kiss, still trying to comprehend the emotions.

"I see you, ma'teyam" you whisper, smiling softly.

"I see you, my woman" he whispers back, returning your smile.

--

GUESS WHOS BACK

i fr took a 1 month break without telling anyone 😭 IM SO SORRY

im back now and ill try to be more active, i already have another neteyam request halfway done so that will be out soon

im trying to get on every request you guys are sending in, tysm for your support on my other fics <333 you guys are all so sweet and it means the world to me 😭

also not me fr forgetting to add warnings until after publishing 💀 different breed fr

anyways, enjoyyyy

until next time,

-dero

#neteyam #neteyam sully #neteyam smut #neteyam x reader smut #neteyam x reader #smut #fluff #angst #aonung #avatar #avatar the way of water #atwow #atwow fanfiction #loak sully #tsireya #kiri #avatar 2 #18+ #spider socorro #rotxo #neteyam avatar #neteyam atwow #neteyam fluff #neteyam angst #metkayina #omaticaya #jake sully #neytiri #spider sully

[leoleolovesdc]

It’s so weird that Heathers the musical toned down so many things from the story (Veronica’s gray morality, JD’s behavior as a whole, Kurt and Ram’s sa on the girls, etc.) but decided to make the Heathers way bigger assholes than they are in the movie.

McNamara doesn’t do anything in the movie, she just goes along with Chandler and kicks Veronica one time at the beginning but then in the musical she’s setting up a fcking date rape??? She goes along with the boys during Sword Fight in Her Mouth and is just a bitch to Veronica all of the time, but everyone in the fandom (and also Veronica somehow) kind of ignores it because she acts innocent.

Duke, even though she isn’t made that much worse from her movie version, (except for the date rape thing with McNamara) is also way more agressive and obnoxious. In the movie, even after Duke turns into a Chandler carbon copy she’s still a funny and likeable character. In the musical she is an asshole even before Chandler dies and her and Veronica keep antogonizing each other from beginning to end when in the 1989 version they were pretty much friends until the last minute.

I think one could make an argument that Duke’s bullying of McNamara is also worse in the musical, but I’m a bit lazy to adress that, so just have in mind that in the musical she’s also more agressive, screaming at Mac at live TV instead of just writing “poor little Heather” on the board.

Chandler in the musical is more of a cartoon character than a person. She screams at everything and everyone for no reason whatsoever, she isn’t necessarily a worse person, just very flanderized and, I’m sorry, but I can’t believe that somone who acts that way could even have a chance of climbing so high on the social hierarchy of a school. Heather in the movie was a bitch, but she knew how to keep up appearances. She acted nice, she played people, she never had to scream to get things to go her way, that was how she managed to be so powerful.

The movie is a parody of teenage narratives, the musical takes that parody and plays it straight. That’s how you get an absurd story where the three mean girls of the school are annoying bitchy monsters and the literal murderer is a sympathetic villain.

I think the Heathers 1989 is interesting because of how literally everyone is a bad person, but at the same time not everyone is the same kind of bad.

You have bad Chandler, an fatphobic asshole who doesn’t care about anything unless it affects her. You have bad Kurt and Ram, homophobic, sexist guys who have raped multiple girls. You have bad McNamara, only follows other people’s leads which makes her act like an asshole. You have bad Duke, is not evil when controlled but when given the opportunity she will become an asshole. You have bad Veronica, an uncaring and murderous person who in the end makes the right choice. And you have bad JD, the kind of guy who he thinks he’s justified in blowing up a whole school just because everyone there kind-of-really-fucking-sucks.

All of these people are assholes and some of them should be in jail, but that doesn’t make the psycho who’s killing them some kind of martyr, he’s still just as bad, maybe even worse, than all ofthe others. The musical makes JD look justifiable.

He was good person, he was just traumatized!

If only he had gotten help!

No. Just no. JD was psycho. He was trying to blow up a school. That’s not justified, doesn’t matter what sort of heroic reason he may have he had. Which, by the way, he didn’t. He wasn’t killing people because they were assholes, he was killing people because he was an asshole.

Anyway, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. Yes, I still love all of thsoe characters despite how much shit I talked about all of them, sorry this got long, one thing lead to another, and now I have spent like two hours writing this and my arms hurt from holding an ipad. Bye.

#heathers #heather mcnamara #heather duke #heather chandler #veronica sawyer #jason dean #jd #heathers the movie #heathers movie #heathers the musical #heathers musical #heathers 1989 #heathers 1988 #kurt and ram #kurt kelly #ram sweeney

[m3nt4llyr4v3d]

Miraculous and Redemption

You know, I think I understand what my issue is with this show’s stance on redemption. It’s not specifically who gets the redemption, even the hypocrisy of who does or doesn’t get redemption/forgiven is only one part of the issue.

It’s specifically how they treat the characters who don’t get redemption.

I have seen, in media, where terrible characters who’ve done terrible things get a redemption, and the mean characters, who are just mean, don’t change at all. That’s fine! People are complex, some change and some don’t, some have done horrible things and some are just school yard bullies. It’s fine to showcase this, I mean hell, in the Owl House, Boscha was still an asshole in season 2, and this was past the point that characters like Lilith were forgiven (Lilith isn’t really terrible in Season 1, she just has done a lot worse than Boscha)

Miraculous’s massive issue with this, however, is that the narrative/the authors treats those mean characters as worse than those characters who’ve done horrible things.

I mean, what other media has one of the creators say that some high school bully is comparable to Trump when her literal rich, corrupt, politician father is right fucking there?

Usually the media where a terrible person is redeemed and the mean character isn’t doesn’t treat it as a moral issue. It’s not “oh well this person can’t change” or “oh this person is even worse!” It’s usually “they’re mean, and that’s annoying, but oh well”. That media never treats the character like Satan incarnate, or treats their meanness compared to actual villainy as a moral issue. When characters are around them, they aren’t treating that mean character as literal scum compared to the former villain, the narrative doesn’t treat them as more than an annoyance or, for lack of better words, “small fry”. I mean, while Owl House acknowledged that Boscha was still a prick in season 2, they didn’t act like she was worse than Belos.

Miraculous treats Chloe and Lila, some petty, mean teenagers, as the literal devil compared to other characters. Lila is a master manipulator who somehow convinced 3 people she’s their daughter and has a trillion disguises! It doesn’t matter that that twist came out of nowhere, and it makes it a little weird that this teenager has multiple disguises that she uses around the city apparently, one where she looks like a 20 year old, making people theorize she’s an adult because how on earth is she smart enough or resourceful enough to do this. Chloe is a villain comparable to Gabe, even when she was a hero! Her backstory doesn’t justify any of her actions, but for literally everyone else, we are going to justify their actions! If they don’t do that, they’ll just sweep their actions under the rug completely! It doesn’t matter that she’s consistently being manipulated by the fully grown adults around her, she’s terrible don’t think about it! She neglected her father somehow (???????????????????) so it’s fully justified to send her off with her abusive mother! We aren’t even going to acknowledge that Andre literally had a part in raising her and her turning out this way, because somehow he did no wrong! And what sucks is that it’s succeeding at making those characters appear that way, because some fans are completely genuine when they say that Gabriel is more sympathetic than them. I mean, if you frequent the Reddit (which you absolutely shouldn’t, one way or another it will melt your brain), you’ll consistently see character rankings with Gabriel, Lila, Tomoe, and Chloe in the same category. Somehow the show put the bullies in the same categories as the literal abusive terrorist and his helper in these people’s eyes. You will constantly see these literal teenagers be put on the same category as adults who have done infinitely worse. Even Andre, who is a corrupt politician and terrible role model and literally RAISED CHLOE… is “woobified” by some fans, even going as far to say that Chloe abused him! Nevermind how that would even be possible when she was like, 5-7 when her mom left! I can’t point my fingers at the fans for this though, because the show goes out of its way to place all of its sympathy on the adults, even when they don’t deserve it, EVEN WHEN THE PAST WRITING LITERALLY PAINTS THEIR ACTIONS AS BAD

(It also doesn’t help that the fully grown adult’s actions are all forgiven but god forbid you’re terrible as a teenager, then you’ll get sent off to live with your verbally abusive mother while your basically deadbeat father adopts your half sister literally right after wiping his hands of you)

I will talk about the hypocrisy in redemption at some point, and how bias and forgiveness is handled, but godDAMN, this sucks

#ml salt #ml writing salt #ml writing critical #ml chloe #ml lila #andre salt #gabriel salt #this damn show

[picturejasper20]

I want to talk about Vlad Masters characterization in the game "Nickelodeon All Star Brawl 2" story mode.

So, Vlad is the main antagonist of this game, or at least that's what the game makes you want to think at the start until the weird time loops start happening and Plasmius keeps repeating things like "Mind controlling everyone is the way to save everyone" and "Don't you understand?!", which comes off as weird to the hero character.

The last time you beat him, Clockwork transports him into the same void "safe space" other characters are in. You can go and ask Vlad what he was talking about and he will answer how there is a bigger enemy at moment: Clockwork.

It is later revealed that Clockwork got infected by Vlad's mind control device, which in reality doesn't work as it should and makes people acts volatile and agressive instead. The "evil" Clockwork has been sending the hero protagonist to stop Plasmius from fixing his mind control machine and make the universe destroy on purpose again and again. Vlas has been trapped in these time loops like that player has been and he remembers what happened each time, forced to see the same event repeat all over again

Meaning that all this time the hero protagonist has been the "bad guy" while Vlad was trying to fix the mind control machine to prevent the universe from getting destroyed. Vlad even mentions this near the end of the game, calling himself "the hero of the story"

Of course, that's incorrect because Vlad was trying to freaking brainwash everyone. But it is interesting is how he is potrayed as sympathetic to some extent as he was trying to do the "right thing". He talks to the hero protagonist about how Clockwork isn't himself and he shouldn't be trusted.

This characterization reminds quite a lot from the one that he has in "A Glitch in Time" graphic novel. In the novel he helps Danny with searching for the source of ghost power and defeating Dan. He realizes the wrong of his selfish past actions and starts a path to redemption near the end of the story.

Considering that Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 involves time travel and time loops like A Glitch in Time, it wouldn't be out of place to say that Vlad's characterization in the game is intentional, probably being written with the goal to be close to his character version in A Glitch In Time.

While Vlad doesn't exactly regret his actions at the end of the game, the idea of him not being as evil as he looks/ having standars is still there. There has been certain change of how his character gets potrayed lately. To someone more sympathetic, less emphasis on "evil" and more "he doesn't understand what he is himself getting into" vibes.

It also suprised me how he was chosen to be one of the main antagonists for this game and one of the characters that has the most lines in the story mode. It makes you wonder why they didn't make a Danny Phantom game instead since all the plot revolves around Danny Phantom characters.

On smaller observation, despite Vlad's motivations being "taking control over the universe" there are some lines of dialogue that hint as his own loneliness such as saying the game player that "they would make a good sidekick" and regreting "not having an audience" to see how he activates the mind control machine. In part it is understandable this doesn't get expanded upon since there are likely people who play the game that don't know about Danny Phantom.

I don't know who was behind writing the dialogue from this game but one thing i can say is that they seem to get Vlad's character in a good part, specially how he doesn't seem himself as a villain in certain moments.

All this emphasis in Vlad from AGIT graphic novel and the Nick fighting game makes wonder if he is going to have some important role in possible future stories from the series. It seems to me that it is trying to build up to something to be more than just pure coincidence. If he does gain more protagonism on long run, i hope they continue with this potrayal of his character because i find it pretty interesting.

#danny phantom #vlad plasmius #vlad masters #dp a glitch in time #his dialogue in the game was cool #Like not exactly evil but not good neither #As doing a bad thing to avoid a bigger bad thing from happening

[laniemae]

Why I believe John/Orekoto was lying about his motive in Neoplasm

Ok so double just came out and I have a lot of thoughts. When a new MV comes out I usually wait a while until I can make a proper analysis but this one is mostly going to focus on neoplasm. And in particular one thing me and my friend found particularly suspicious about John’s (Orekoto’s) testimony when it comes to the murder(s).

When Es questioned John about their murder, he responded very clearly with “Yeah it was me, I killed them off”. And after that Es questioned why he did it, only to say that he did it only because they were annoying him and it was whoever was walking by. Es goes quiet at this which might imply to me some sort of suspicion on his testimony. John goes on to say that he can’t remember how many he killed because he was just born back then and his memory is kinda fuzzy.

Instantly this set off a ton of red flags for me, it just doesn’t make any sense when you think about it. Earlier on when John fronted he started acting all violent and threatened to beat up Es, who just calmly laughed it off. Es seemed to be quickly notice something was off, as their calm demeanour enacted an also suspiciously calm demeanour from John. Es then said it was strange because they assumed him to be a monster. After hearing that John instantly went back into that violent persona that they were showing as soon as they fronted.

This scene is very telling to me. John is not violent, or evil, heartless or anything like that. He’s only acting that way to potentially come out less. And be even straight up says “if I had stayed a monster… maybe that would’ve been better.” Then instantly takes back what he said by just going “…what?”

From this it’s very clear, like I said, that John isn’t evil. But then that takes what he said about his murders into question. That he only did it because he just got annoyed and killed random passers. This clearly isn’t true when you take into account the whole interaction with Es, because otherwise he would’ve attempted to kill Es the whole time and not go docile when they weren’t acting scared.

I believe that John is trying to dip back into his monster persona he made for himself here. He probably figured out that acting evil all the time wouldn’t work, and when questioned on such a sensitive topic such as the murder he just went with the option that made him the least sympathetic, and Mikoto more sympathetic in order to lower his stress levels by not telling the full truth. 

As for who committed the murder/s, I’m still pretty unsure. In double it looks like both sides are perpetrators. But this also takes into account, what about those scenes of John killing the mannequins? It seems like it matches up enough to what he said in the voice drama but I don’t think that’s the smiling gun.

Milgram is an extremely complex series, and in no way should the easiest option be assumed as the right one. Unreliable narrators are a big thing in the series, and we should look at a character’s MV with how they view themselves in mind. For example, Kazui thinks himself as a monster and this is especially prevalent in Cat, where if you’d take it at first glance you might assume that he’s evil or whatever, just as he views himself.

The same should apply to John as well. He wants to believe he’s a monster in order to protect Mikoto from more mental stress about his murder, and might end up with him fronting less. This likely subconsciously played itself into double and even MeMe, where John portrays himself as evil as that’s what he wants people to view him as.

I feel like when discussing who’s the murder and if John is evil, we should definitely take this into account otherwise our future opinions will be biased.

Ok so someone just mentioned the fact that he had a baseball bat in the first place means it was likely a premeditated murder. So him killing people just because they annoyed him would be a really weird thing to say because that would’ve been an impulsive murder, and he had a weapon at the time.

#milgram #mikoto kayano #Milgram theory #yes I am calling him john I think it’s hilarious and fitting for a little goober #This was basically a theory me and my friend came up with when we were watching neoplasm together #I could’ve gone into more depth with this but I feel like this summarises what I want to say good enough #From the start I felt like it was very clear he was lying about killing those people because they annoyed him #Im surprised so many people took that at face value #Remember prisoners can lie in their voice dramas and their view of themselves can affect the mvs #People should really take this into account otherwise it’d probably prompt even more “john/orekoto is evil” bs again #And I don’t know how to fit this in but I’m still thinking alot how #In the first trial voice trailer mikoto says “my (boku) life it wasn’t supposed to be this way…” #In the glitched out segment which is heavily implied to be when/around the prisoners committed their murders #LanieMae’s theories

[goatpaste]

watching through p2 of jojos again and it never like, it never stop feeling weird to me how weirdly human araki wrote the pillar man. with so many traits and points make them feel like complex characters, heros of their own story, just weirdly feel sympathetic and human to the point of connection to them.

Like Josephs point in making on meeting santana that 'we can assume he's just bad, this is a fucked up situation to be in maybe so we should give him the benefit of the doubt'

whams WHOle character good god could i put a lot of talk into him

Esidisis behavior and way of acting

Kars enjoyment of animals and plants and for nature in general, a wish to walk in the sun and just kinda a dislike for human people. The way he violently mourns for his fallen family

but none of it matters because you know araki wanted them, even with flaws, to be the main villians. thats all it is. a greatest evil on earth to deal with even if they show human traits.

but it feels so weird, because when im like 'idk i dont think the pillar man did anything wrong, let them do what they want, like sorry joseph but im not rooting for your side' im kinda not kidding. like yes your supposes to assume the worst of the pillar men and their intentions and what they'll do to people if they can walk in the sun. but like, they barely did much when walking around people at night unless they deamed them a threat to themself or something they cared about.

idk i think this comes back around to my feelings that BT really should have been a lil bit longer and fleshed out. its such a shame because while i knoW araki was just wanting to get shit done and move onto his stand stuff, he introduced such a rich cast of characters who if given a bit more time i think could have made such a fucking wonderful and complex narrative... like to the point of the pillar man but to everyone else. Joseph got a strong character introduction only to just kinda get worse and stand still imo. i still like him but i think he could have done a lot more if the story was a bit more fleshed out. Him a caesar actually getting to develop some sort of actual relationship on screen that isnt the two of them fighting and sometimes caesar admires joseph's skills or whatever. JOSEPH AND LISA LISA TRAININGGG, i would have KILLEd to see joseph and lisa lisa do anYthing togeatherrrr... the subtle hints to be dropped of lisa lisa past and her connection to joseph..

idk what point im trying to make actually, im just thinking about how weirdly soft and kind we see the pillar men in moments at time and not just as pure evil being and it feels so weird to remember that were supposes to be rooting against them is all. i feel like we were should have had more insight into their group and lives and feelings and maybe even what they were up to while joseph trained. idk man idk, just kinda thinkin out loud

[ladysophiebeckett]

Some of you are being really weird about Aura Maria in regards to her treatment of Freddy and her overall character\personality traits. Overall, if you dislike a character its fine. It means nothing to me. But these posts about Aura Maria are getting a little misogynistic.

The facts are, that yes--she is immature, she does string Freddy along, she is very extroverted and charismatic and a lot of men like her.

You know who else is immature, strings someone around, is very extroverted and charismatic and a lot of women like them?

This guy right here.He's gonna string around his assistant for at least half a novela.

But there's already some excellent meta on Aura Maria and Freddy vs Betty and Armando and u can read them here and here. so I'm not gonna get into that.

Again, if you don't like Aura Maria thats fine. She's a flawed character in a show with other flawed characters. I don't like Patricia, for example. I think she's annoying, she's mean, her goal is to find a man to fix all her problems and she fails at it. She's immature. She's classist. She gets paid 3x more than the other secretaries bc she's a nepo hire and yet still can't make any payments bc she's terrible with money. I could go and on.

But a lot of you like her and sympathize with her and her problems and how nobody wants to help her.

Aura Maria is also sympathetic character. She became a teen mom. The guy that got her pregnant is not in the kid's life nor in hers. She's a receptionist at a company who's alternate slogan is 'women don't advance here'. Her parents kick her and her son out, yes it was a consequence of Aura Maria's party girl antics. But that's not a good enough reason to kick out your daughter and grandson. Knowing that she's a receptionist and doesn't make much money to begin with.

And then the Mario of it all. No, she shouldn't have gotten involved with him but he's the one in the position of power. He shouldn't have gotten involved with her, he shouldn't have encouraged it, nor should he have been seeing her and Patricia at the same time. Both women who work where HE works. And who does he want to fire when he gets caught? Aura Maria. She's the one who gets the low end of the stick.

Aura Maria and Patricia are looking for men with money to support them and don't do well in this endeavor bc the only man that looks like a prospect is using them in some way. That or the men they encounter don't take them seriously.

Freddy likes Aura Maria and yeah she does like him but she doesn't take him seriously as a prospect bc he's not rich and when you're a poor young single mom--bc REMINDER Aura Maria is in her early 20s forced to grow up quickly (she was a child having a child)--living in your friend's\co workers house--he doesn't completely fulfill her list of requirements of what she needs financially. She's not looking at the full picture. Much like Patricia, who doesn't look at the full picture when it comes to her transactional relationship with Nicolas.

So because Aura Maria mismanges her relationship with Freddy, I'm supposed to what? Have her burned at the stake? That because Freddy is kind to her, and does things out of his own free will over and over again, that Aura Maria needs to be devoted to him? Automatically? Because people think she owes him?

If you don't like Aura Maria, that's fine. But a lot of the posts I've seen in the general tag are past not liking a character bc the vibes are off--it's becoming about hating her bc she's not reciprocating to one guy bc you think he's earned it. Or it's about her not being a good mother bc she's not acting 'like a mother'. And want to see her punished for it as a result, as if getting sexually harassed by Gutierrez (ON TWO OCCASIONS) isn't punishment on it's own.

Because reminder (again)---that Mario AND Gutierrez have taken advantage of Aura Maria in some way bc of their position of power. Bc Aura Maria is young, beautiful, and poor. She can be easily be taken advantage of and tossed away. (Much like another character who gets utilized as a consequence of financial fraud)

But Freddy is the true victim in all of this bc Aura Maria sometimes take advantage of his kindness. Do you realize how dumb that sounds?

There is a double standard in how Aura Maria is being viewed bc she's not acting grateful or humble or self sacrificing enough to gain sympathy. She's being judged solely on how she's treating (1) man and not about all the other factors she's living in--some of them out of her control.

If one can feel bad for Patricia even tho it's primarily her fault that she's in the predicaments she's in, then I don't see why one can't extend that same grace to Aura Maria.

#ysblf #betty la fea

[ariesbilly]

so many things to be studied in post s4 era fandom like

the way in which everyone jumped onto a band/genre of music they never once in their life previously thought of touching all because some guy played a song on a show they liked. which like... in itself is not inherently bad. i too have gotten into certain music because of characters/shows i like. but also it wasnt a huge leap because i was already into those genres to begin with it just introduced me to new artists. what IS weird is acting like you have any leg to stand on regarding history of the culture. thats weird. thats a choice

the mass  amnesia of previous seasons and characterizations. the way people were bullied into not liking a character that they previously enjoyed. weird ass hivemind mentality

the way in which yall fell straight into baiting with a new character 4 seasons deep into an established popular show... a character expressly written to make money. to only survive one season. yall got played and still cant even admit it thats weird

the writers themselves hellbent on punishing a character/fans of said character that THEY WROTE SYMPATHETICALLY! soooo much to unpack there we have neither the time nor space

the mind games the tomfoolery the trickery the delusion of it all.... i could teach a college course

[eelfuneral]

I know I seem to be writing a lot about my issues with certain aspects of how the Jedi were written lately, but I will say that I do like them over all—especially when we look at individual Jedi characters. What has been prompting my flurry of dissection of the less than nice aspects of the Jedi as an organization has been seeing a number of really uncomfortable arguments in their favor. I’m going to elaborate on this, but I’m putting it below a cut and tagging it as “jedi critical” so you can avoid it if it’s not your thing. So here is a list of fandom Jedi takes that I don’t love:

1. The insistence that the Jedi having a repressive view of emotions is nothing more than a fanon myth. Star Wars canon isn’t terribly consistent: it has a number of different writers and George Lucas is famously indecisive about his beliefs regarding canon. As a result, you have a hodgepodge of differing portrayals of Jedi, but the one that people are most familiar with is the one from the sequel and prequel trilogies. While it can be argued that the Jedi are more about controlling how you react to your emotions and avoiding harming people, especially if you look beyond the films and at other canon material, the first six films don’t do a great job of portraying the Jedi in that way. When Yoda himself has multiple lines about how certain emotions (not reactions to them, but emotions by themselves) are of the Dark Side, can you really blame people for coming to this conclusion? The same goes for the idea that they don’t *really* forbid romantic love. When you have a whole subplot involving a prominent Jedi Knight having to hide a romantic relationship or face expulsion from the Order for having a romantic relationship in any capacity, then this argument doesn’t hold a lot of water. A rule stating that “romantic partner = automatic expulsion” does not line up with the idea that Jedi only ban possessive love.

2. Having any sympathy for Anakin Skywalker means you think that he’s never done anything wrong ever. I acknowledge that rabid Anakin stans who bash every other character to prop him up are very much a thing, but I don’t believe that we need to shut down every discussion of Anakin that doesn’t paint him as an ungrateful brat who needed to stop having so many damned emotions. Anakin was intentionally written as a sympathetic antihero and later a sympathetic villain. People picking up on the sadder elements of his life and the times where he maybe didn’t get everything he needed from the Jedi Order are sniffing out intentionally placed story nuggets that are designed to make his betrayal of everyone he loved in ROTS that much harder to watch. Also, acknowledging that the Order may not have been a great fit for Anakin isn’t the same as saying that it was somehow abusive or evil. No organization, real or fictional, can meet the needs of every single person. Anakin was certainly loved and cared about in the Jedi Order, but his personality and trauma arguably made him incompatible with their lifestyle.

3. The weird vitriol at the idea of Gray Jedi. Gray Jedi were very much a thing in the legends continuity and have been a fanon staple for literal decades. A lot of people aren’t fond of this concept, because they feel that it misrepresents how the force works, particularly in current canon. That’s perfectly fine, but acting like this type of Jedi was never, ever a part of canon is silly. Insisting that it’s a cardinal sin to depict a Gray Jedi in fanworks, which exist specifically to be a free-for-all that may not be canon compliant, is just mean. You didn’t have to like every fanwork or concept, but you cannot control what other people create for fun.

4. Outright denial that the clones are enslaved by the Republic. Clones are described as “property” and “equipment”. The Republic BUYS them. They do not have a choice but to go to war and don’t seem to be paid much, if at all. When a group of people are owned, bought, and sold, they are slaves by definition. I understand that the Jedi were dealt a bad hand and weren’t in a great position to do much about the situation, but I and a lot of other people would have loved to see more instances of Jedi advocating for clone citizenship and freedom. People noticing that the Jedi could have done more for the clones are not stating that they think the Jedi were 100% okay with the situation, and it is entirely possible to acknowledge the deep Jedi/clone friendships that we see in canon while acknowledging what the Republic was doing to the clones. Justifications of the clones’ enslavement mentioning that they liked being soldiers (they didn’t know anything different) or were treated well by the Jedi (Pong Krell existed, and they were still owned by the Republic) make me very uneasy. If your defense of your blorbos reads like Neo-Confederate chattel slavery apologia retrofitted to be about pretend space people, then maybe it’s time to do a little bit of self-reflection.

5. Ableism. When you throw takes like “if the Jedi philosophy regarding emotions is so hard for you, then you are a baby or a sociopath” into the tumblrsphere, they are always going to fall and hit people with disabilities that cause emotional regulation issues. The line between stating that people should not use emotions as an excuse to harm others and outright attacking people for having intense emotions in general is one that I have seen crossed, shat on, and lit on fire in defense of the Jedi.

6. Equating criticism of the Jedi to real-wold prejudice. Saying that criticizing the Jedi is the same as being antisemitic or homophobic is uncalled for. Queer and Jewish people exist in the real world, and pretend space wizards do not. Comparisons like this are insulting because they put real-world prejudice and fandom wank over space wizards on the same level. Do better.

#jedi critical #okay #really this is more fandom critical #fandom wank

[insufferableprotagonistpoll]

Propaganda why Beca Mitchell is insufferable:

I can get behind this one because she’s very cooler-than-thou throughout the trilogy. Like if you’re too cool and employed to do this, why are you still… doing it?

shes not like other girls

This girl gets to go to college FOR FREE but would rather go try to be a DJ and is so bratty about it that her father has to offer to pay for it if she does the bare minimum for one year. She joins an equally insufferable group of acapella singers then acts like she's better than them by making it clear she doesn't want to be there.

Propaganda why Rachel Berry is insufferable:

omg she acts so entitled and always gets what she wants even if others get put down and she NEVER PAYS FOR IT

She constantly does weird and villainous stuff such as; sent someone to a crackhouse, accused a teacher of molestation coz she didn’t get a part in a musical, dropped out of glee club when she didn’t get a part, a black character (mercedes) asked if glee club could sing more songs by black artists and rachel said « it’s glee club, not krunk club », tried to hook up with a gay man who she also knew her best friend liked, cheated on finn with his best friend, also her bangs post s3 are a crime.

Despite all this she always acts like she’s hard done by and the victim, barely ever apologises or takes accountability for hurting people, and is treated like a sympathetic main character by the show. Not only is she insufferable, she’s a malicious manipulator glorified by the narrative

Watched two episodes of glee. Two were enough. Everyone else was a bastard in at least a somewhat entertaining way but she singlehandedly ruined everything. If she went to my high school I'd probably bully her too and then she'd whine and throw a karen fit about how I'm literally just better than her. At least I don't need autotune lol.

#beca mitchell #pitch perfect #rachel berry #glee #insufferable protagonist poll #insufferable protagonist tournament #tournament poll

[just-a-whumping-racoon-with-wifi]

sooo I have some questions about mason becuase he seems like a really interesting character. Also it was kind of funny how he’s fine with beating up or electrocuting a pet but the second someone lets them go online or gives them slightly lax rules, he’s like oh no this poor sweetheart, this is so sad😞 . Would he punish a pet for panicking a lot or getting freaked out easily? Or what if a pet was transgender? Would he tell them they were just being silly or would he actually listen to them? What if a pet saved his life? Would he be grateful?

Thank you for the interest!! Mason is what I like to call an evil therapist with a HEALTHY dose of condescension.

Would he punish a pet for panicking/freaking out easily?

Not necessarily, it depends on why the pet is scared. If there is something genuinely stressful going on (getting a new owner, tension in the home, medical, even something like a thunderstorm) he would not punish them. In his mind, that is not willful disobedience. They are scared, they are stressed, and pets are simple creatures that struggle to regulate themselves. That is part of the owners job. If the panic stems from like a panic disorder, Mason is incredibly sympathetic of that. He would train the pet with calming exercises they can use and suggest medication if needed.

If he gets the vibe the panic is an act of manipulation, that will be punished.

What if a pet saved his life? Would he be grateful?

Very! But it wouldn’t change anything. You know those news stories of dogs dragging children out of fires or cats alerting parents that the child was having a medical emergency? He’d see it like that. He’d absolutely thank the pet and do an interview on the news but in the end the pet is still just a pet.

And this one was a fascinating question Nonny!!! I did put it under the cut because of some transphobia, however I mostly just talk about gender in my worldbuilding. Perhaps gatekeeping or delusion is a better term but the end result is transphobia so I’m gonna warn as such.

What if a pet was transgender? Would he tell them they’re just being silly or actually listen to them?

It should be emphasized again that Mason does not believe pets are human. He does not think they are people. You cannot change his mind, he is stuck in this delusion.

… you know what. I don’t think Mason believes pets know what gender is. In a way he sees them as toys or dolls, and he is the one making decisions about what they wear. If he thinks Rudy would look cute in a dress he’d just buy Rudy a dress. Rudy does not get a choice in what he’s wearing, not in any meaningful way.

If a pet (for some reason lmao) came to him and said they’re trans, he might laugh and say “from what?” He’d also ask where they even heard that and likely dismiss it as “that’s something for humans. You don’t need to worry about it.”

I mean, also in this world I’ve created literally what WOULD gender mean to a pet? There are no specific gender roles or expectations- they’re all just pets. And sterile. There’s no social influence of how they’re supposed to be acted based on their assigned gender at birth. Oh for sure they have expectations but they’re all based on their “class” for a lack of a better term.

Fuck me my ocs should have way more weirdness with their gender identity after being freed. That would be so bonkers to go from a world where it doesn’t exist to where it dictates everything.

(Also in the end this still ends up having a lot of my own feeling and opinions about gender in it. Your characters are the biggest fucking snitches every time. Honestly I have tussled with gender specific stuff for a while but it’s mostly based in religious trauma. I’m trying to sort it out but it’s a complicated ever changing messy thing. Idk. Slowly chipping away at it. I’m saying this to be transparent and as a plea to not be abrasive. I don’t expect it but I am fucking delicate sometimes and need to explicitly explain why I do or think the things I do. Is this too raw for a post on tumblr.com about my silly little ocs? Yes absolutely. Should i delete this part? yes. Will I?)

#mason is good at his job #thank you Nonny these are SUCH interesting questions!!! #I will ponder this for so long #I don’t think either Rudy or Clyde would take super well to gender roles after being freed #like why do they have to choose so people can judge them #I am very raw lately I’m sorry #not specifically a bad raw but still completely uncooked

[somethingpersonarelated]

On how Futaba views Akechi

A piece of fanon I've noticed that comes up a lot is how supportive Futaba is of anything that involves Akechi. I don't want to go "Oh she just hates him and any interpretation otherwise is WRONG!!>!" or like she'd totally be cool if he randomly waltzed back into their lives.

It's not something that particularly annoys me or anything. It's just something I've noticed and wanted to comment on because I feel like Futaba's character gets overly simplified. I think it's an interesting dynamic that should be explored more! NOTE THIS IS LONG SORRY LMFAO. Also, I should clarify this isn't a ship post. (don't make this weird)

At the beginning:

We all know the infamous "wait why are you telling me about your trauma, this is a wendy's" scene but it gives us our first insight into her perspective.

When he talks about his mother, it's a fairly similar scenario to Futaba's own. So much so that she has her own cut-in looking sad/sympathetic towards him.

But she's still defensive when he asks about the Phantom Thieves' and their popularity by deflecting sarcastically with,

"...You're popular too, Ace Detective Akechi."

They definitely don't start off on the right foot, much like his relationship with pretty much all the Phantom Thieves, for obvious reasons. Although at this point they don't fully know the extent of his suspicious behavior, just that he is generally sus.

During the Casino + Shido Arcs:

Futaba cannot stand Akechi at this point, but as a part of the plan, she has to act naive even though arguably she probably knows the most about all the mechanics of the plan. She does get to mess with him though (making the newbie do stuff, the whole cognitive akechi part of the plan, bugging his phone). Her perspective is probably still similar to the others and it shows how much she was able to improve by being able to face him without cracking at all.

Shido's Arc and Third Semester is when it actually gets interesting though:

Futaba: You know... sometimes I think about that fake Medjed that you guys made up... Futaba: That was the worst trap... but if not for that, I don't think I'd be here right now. Futaba: Uhhh, basically... it doesn't matter where you start over!

This one gets me, I think this line is where her perspective begins to shuffle a bit (and it will be important later). She's trying her best to sympathize with him, as this is before the black mask part of the breakdown, and get him to see that there was some amount of good that came from his actions. It doesn't work, and I kind of think she doesn't really believe it, but they are all trying anything to get him to come to his senses. But I do think she means the part about him starting over, in a "I did it, so could you" kind of way.

And of course this engine room dialogue which is peak (even if it may be an incorrect description of his abilities):

Futaba: But you trusted no one, so you only got two Personas: one for your lies, and one for your hate. Futaba: Still, you thought that was enough, right? That part I totally get.

Okay the first part of the dialogue may not be accurate to how his Personas work but I don't want to talk about that (there's some good posts on that though). But the point isn't being accurate, she's throwing back what he's done in attempt to get through to him. Like this is where you went wrong and here's why I can relate to that. The second line confuses me and I had to sit on it.

One point she makes is that he's operating on his own without teammates (the translation is a bit different), "playing in single player mode." I think this refers to how she thought she could manage her situation on her own, but wasn't able to. Additional note, it could also be referring to the way she attempted to push people out of her life (like how she tries to stop the PTs when they say they need to meet her to change her heart). That she needed the help of the Phantom Thieves (I think, even beyond the change of heart) and those bonds proved her wrong. So even though she initially thought no one needed her and that her life was meaningless, she did something Akechi couldn't conceive of doing, reaching out for help. This is her way of extending a branch even though there's no reason for her to.

Third Semester

Source:

An additional line I can't screenshot:

"So please let me get back to navigating! I wanna navigate so hard that I won't be able to think about anything else."

When this happens, I think it's pretty clear that there's a strong inner conflict for her when it comes to forgiving Akechi. Even though they reasoned it out by saying they needed him on the team due to Maruki's abilities, she's still trying to look for a better reason to work with him. And she just can't find one. I wouldn't say it's necessarily out of pity, but it shows that she does on some level still feel bad for him. I guess the word I'm looking for is compassion? A thought that comes into my head is that she does want him to start over, just not with the team. If it was only Shido, then it would have been justified, but the circumstances are different here. Knowing that he might be alive changes the way all the thieves interact with him (they aren't trying to get through to him anymore, and some dialogues are just awkward- you can tell no one knows what to say to him now that he's acting 'normal').

A counterpoint to this dialogue would be her dialogue in the engine room and Mementos. She's pretty open to talking to him in these dialogues. In Akechi's section there are some really interesting interactions imo:

Akechi: You may not like working with me, but I'm counting on your assistance until our goal is achieved. Futaba: You better appreciate just how open-minded I am.

The fact they don't play together in Tycoon but they still get Mementos dialogues confuses me a bit but eh. Without Haru and Futaba's approval it's pretty clear the others wouldn't be on board with Akechi on the team. The delivery kind of makes it sound like she's forcing herself to be open minded about it, and that's what the safe room dialogue implies too. She doesn't want to be around him.

Akechi: Do you prefer my previous outfit or this one? Moving around's become much easier for me. Futaba: They both work fine. Just wear whatever you want.

Akechi: You think I'm frightening when I fight? Well, I'm afraid you're just going to have to accept it. Futaba: I was pretty shocked at first, but now I'm used to it.

I think these are pretty clear. She hasn't forgiven him, hell she probably doesn't like him, but she's come to accept him for who he is. But she isn't scared anymore, nor is she trying to reason with him, he just exists.

Conclusion/TLDR: She goes from actively disliking him at the beginning of the story to still disliking him but it's complicated™. She understands what he went through to get to that point, and wanted him (like the others) to face Shido with them. But when it comes to third semester, the circumstances are far different, complicating it further. She doesn't need to forgive him at all, she knows that, but after everything that happened wants to find a reason to forgive him. But she can't. At the very least, she's begrudgingly accepting of his existence, and can deal with it only for the sake of the team. She doesn't hate him, at all, actually, but to say she's okay with him is also a stretch.

edit: some edits for clarity/demonstration.

#this is basically a ramble on why I think the half-sibling theory is interesting and complicates their dynamic #spreading futaba propaganda just as god intended #i wonder why ik so much about this #looks at the 60k longfic i have saved #text #long post #futaba sakura #goro akechi #p5 spoilers #p5 meta #spoilers #give futaba credit for being interesting! #thinking emoji

[chaifootsteps]

In a weird way the show kind of shot itself in the foot if it wanted us to like Stolas when it changed the tone to try to be serious and meaningful. In the pilot there was a tone of Wacky Hijinks and more of a sense that demons just did awful stuff to one another on the regular and it was way more normalized in that setting. Stolas was a 'sex pest' sort of character, but he was also over the top and villainous and fun. Even in Murder Family, it's treated as odd that Moxxie has any qualms about killing a human mother, not as the norm.

but when the show shifted to try and act like it took abuse seriously & simultaneously became just Earth But Colored Red, it caused massive problems for itself. Because that would suggest to any viewer who thought about it for longer than five seconds that Stolas coercing Blitz into the deal was worse than just 'sex obsessed demon behaves callously but isn't that unusual among his kind', it would suggest that what he did was abuse and should be recognized as such. It would suggest that Blitz yelling and demeaning Moxxie all the time is workplace bullying, and should be recognized as such.

But the show didn't want to do either of those things. It takes the view that some characters are Good, some Bad and when a Good Character does bad things they should be excused for it - or they should offer the thinnest veneer of an apology for it while continuing to do the exact same behavior.

I don't mean to imply what Stolas does in Murder Family would ever be OK and frankly I think SA and sexual coercion being treated comedically is a landmine of a topic that a writer far more skilled than Viv would struggle to pull off. There's a big difference in history and cultural context between Murder as Punchline and SA as Punchline. What I'm getting at here is that if the show had stuck closer to the usual notion of Hell having different social mores, they might have gotten away with selling Stolas as 'flawed but with comprehensible motives & sorta pitiable' instead of trying to make him 'a flawed (but not really) and sympathetic (not even close) character you should root for'. We could have had a character study of awful people without having to feel like the show expected us to like or root for them, and in a setting where everyone sucks most of the time, Stolas' behavior would stick out far less.

but all that would require Stolitz not being endgame, most likely.

tl:dr; but if the show wanted to switch gears and act like abuse and exploitation are not supposed to be The Norm in Hell, then it needed to acknowledge Stolas for what he really is: a manipulative abusive crybully who makes everyone's lives worse, actively abuses the underclass of Hell both in their labor and for sexual slavery, and is incapable of ever admitting anything is his fault. Gaslighting the audience into thinking Stolas is one of The Good Ones does not address his lousy behavior or a sympathetic character make, especially since he lives in a setting where even the Sin of Lust places massive value on consent. If Stolas' upbringing and surroundings had nothing to do with why he is the way he is, he doesn't even have that excuse for being such a massive self-piting heel most of the time

It's true. If Vivzie wanted to "fix" Stolas, she'd have to retcon Murder Family, but she can't do that because his coercive deal with Blitzo is so deeply entangled with everything else in this show. So the only alternative is to call him out for exactly what he is and exactly what you said -- a manipulative abusive crybully who makes everyone's lives worse.

But even that will never happen, because Vivzie is a manipulative abusive crybully herself who finds him adorable and his behavior sexy and charming.

#Anonymous #helluva boss critical #stolas critical #vivziepop critical #actual blog post

[crimeronan]

re: your empathy posts. As someone who probably has higher than normal empathy (I used to ask people around me how they deal with sympathetic distress in common situations that occur in a job and only got blank stares) you're so valid!! The lionizing of this random subconscious process called empathy is so useless! It says nothing about the person and their values! As your other commenters suggested, people disparaging you may just be trying to boost their own shaky feelings about how their own emotional stability is deeply tied to their people-pleasing tendencies.

If anything, I think learning to function "normally" in society with "empathy" makes you more messed up. I understand this person's distress. I acknowledge it, and know how my actions will make it worse. I make them feel worse anyway, because that's the organizationally approved behavior, causing more pain for both them and myself. All the while I must behave as if I am cheerful and unbothered. Internalizing that hurting others and yourself to achieve your goals is Fine is necessary in order to stay sane. This is counter to everything people say they believe, so lying also has to become a virtue.

Buying kindness from the store seems like a really kind thing to do tbh. I am passing you on the street as I am schlupping over to pick up some callousness.

this last sentence made me giggle a lot. but YEAH!! a lot of this is spot-on to stuff i've been thinking about lately. like, "normal" empathy levels seem to be socially defined as "you care about people and want to help them, but you don't care so much that you'll harm yourself in pursuit of that" and it's all just..... i dunno. so much pathologizing of how we think and feel and whether we're Human (TM) about stuff. it's all so Weird

like..... i keep thinking that my lack of empathy gives me certain advantages in social situations. but in a similar vein to the ppl worried about sounding like tiktok empaths for being hyperempathetic, i worry that this makes me sound like an alpha male influencer writing youtube essays about why emotions make you weak, or whatever.

it's not that emotions make people weak or that having less empathy makes me like, a Cold Logical Calculating Math-Loving Strategist. i'm a writer who focuses solely on character-driven stuff, u probably wouldn't expect that from a stereotypically sociopathic person. part of why i LIKE writing character-driven stuff so much is BECAUSE i've had to actively teach myself how other people think, how they feel, how they struggle, etc

a lack of empathy means i can choose not to get invested in other people's feelings or lives, i don't feel guilty for emotionally disconnecting, i'm not afraid of being disliked. but i still know how to act like a decent human being. there's that one post about how stupid it is not to realize being nice gets people to be nice back, and fuckin. YEAH!! it's astonishing to me to read about cases of """clinical sociopaths""" (who are just people who didn't get the 'pretend you give a shit, moron' memo) manipulating and gaslighting people and whatnot. everyone in the comments will always be like "ooo so scary... they didn't feel bad at ALL... so terrifying that people who don't feel guilt exist..." and i'm like.

IS GUILT THE ONLY THING THAT KEEPS YOU FROM COMMITTING ATROCITIES???

BLOWS MY MIND. IT'S LIKE..... THE LEFTIST EQUIVALENT OF SAYING EVERYONE WOULD BE MURDERERS IF THEY WERENT SCARED OF GOD. LIKE. YOU ONLY AVOID DOING BAD STUFF BC IT MAKES YOU FEEL BAD??????

good LORD. at least having no empathy means i've had to grow my principles organically. oh my GOD.

anyway what brought these thoughts up today was that i was thinking about gansey and luz noceda, since theyre extremely similar characters & on my All Time Faves list. and i've said this before but the things i love about them (the kindness, self-sacrificing shit, anxiety, etc) are things i don't see in myself. but Wish I Did. like i wish i was kinder on the inside than i am.

but i know that i admire ppl with luz and gansey traits both in fiction and in real life. so i simply just..... emulate the luz and gansey actions. not always successfully, esp because i have a temper and very little patience, but like. i try to be kind where i can bc i wish i was someone who tries to be kind when they can. so i'm just going to be. u know??

#replies #long post #havent edited this so if its incoherent.... sorry #low empathy