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tumblingxelian · 1 month

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Near Uniquely RWBY - Main Characters

I was chatting with my sibling the other day and we were joking about the fact in 90% of the media I consume I generally don't like the main characters.

Not in the sense I necessarily hate them, but I generally don't find them to be the most interesting, engaging or enjoyable person on screen or page. Instead I tend to gravitate towards secondary or minor characters and even minor antagonists before any of the big names.

Some of this is rooted in my often rooting for what tends to feel more like a real underdog or characters that feel like they got dealt a bad hand by the author unfairly. But its also that in a lot of media the main characters tend to immediately, slowly or quickly go into personality lockdown.

Becoming less a personality and more the embodiment of expected tropes and themes, or they lose their unique edge or circumstances because the plot demands one benefits or personality changes be heaped on them to keep the tone and story going.

Some examples of this would include say:

Ichigo from Bleach, with him and his supporting cast being very unique and super interesting during the initial arc. But as Soul Society came in, he became a much more standard Shounen determinator a the expense of his personality and his supporting casts were largely watered down & left behind.

Or how in Naruto or Dragon Ball the whole underdog/hard worker aspect of the characters felt undercut by legacy power ups and an endless wellspring of natural talent, alien biology, ETC.

I know these are just two examples, but they cover the general gist of what I mean.

So, what makes RWBY different?

Well, off the cuff, is simply that the four main characters are women.

I've often felt simply putting anyone other than a cis-het guy into the main character slot of say, a battle Shounen, or Isekai stands a good chance of making it more interesting by default. Even if the author does nothing with it the audience reaction would be different because the MC would be an exception to the norms.

In that vein, while one can call RWBY some sort of Shounen or adventure fantasy or magical girl show the main four are unique in how they manifest on screen at the very start. From how they participate in action, to how said action is structured and framed and the kind of adventures and topics they tackle.

But being unique alone is not enough, that would simply make it more interesting than the bog standard but what elevates RWBY is the execution and exploration of such elements and its characters.

Going into every aspect would be difficult, but in light of what I said above would be how each of the main four are initially presented as familiar archetypes, only to subvert or deconstruct them.

Ruby is a peppy goth who just wants to be normal but has inborn powers from her mysteriously vanished mother and serves as a beacon of optimism to others.

Except Ruby's version of normal still involved fighting death monsters with a sniper rifle scythe and she is actually one of the more ruthless characters. Her peppy persona obscures that she can have a pretty vicious temper when pushed and has displayed strong bloodknight tendencies.

Her unrelenting optimism and desire to fix the world is a complex mix of true beliefs, coping mechanism for trauma and her grappling with positions forced on her against her will. Her inborn power is potentially useful but also not that much of a game breaker outside specific contexts & said power sure as hell didn't save her mom.

Weiss Schnee is the Tsundere heiress of a powerful family, with a haughty attitude that hides her loneliness.

Except the "Tsundere" is more of a defense mechanism born of coming from an abusive home where every member of her family manifested a different trauma response. Freeze (Mother), flight (Sister), Fight (Weiss) Fawn (Brother).

Despite her upbringing & some projected trauma, she's far from ignorant as to the worst excesses of her nation early on, and her journey was more about overcoming the impacts her abuser had on her and finding a family in her team that let her be safe enough to let down her walls. Also despite being "The ice queen" she's actually one of the characters least inclined towards more ruthless actions and is extremely empathic.

Blake Belladonna is a mysterious and silent rougish woman, something of a shrinking violet even, but she carries with her a wounded heart thanks to her old flame, the edgy Adam Taurus.

Or more accurately, Blake is the daughter of activists and politicians who represent the worlds main discriminated against minority. She spent her youth on the road as a protestor and where even her father could be nearly killed by a lynch mob. She was targeted & groomed by a man who claimed to want to fight the same injustice she did but who was only interested in using the movement to grow his own power.

Her initial aloof-ness was a trauma response to having spent years under his thumb and overcoming him and the idea she had to 'save' him was one of the main corner stone so her character. Also, despite the "Revolutionary fighter" backstory she like Weiss is much less inclined towards ruthlessness than her team in large part because her past experience with it.

Yang Xiao Long, introduced as the fun loving big sister of Ruby & boisterous bruiser of the team who loves to party & flirt.

Except no, Yang was parentified as a child and forced to raise her own sister as their family unit fell apart. Her "Party girl" persona was outright framed as judging a book by its cover in her own trailer and something she put on or took off as she needed.

She became disabled over the course of the series run as well as entered a Sapphic romance with her partner Blake. Unlike the stereotype of characters with her design, Yang is actually an excellent student, fighter and engineer/mechanic. Plus much like her sister she tends to be of the more ruthless and pragmatic persuasion despite being from the "Normal" background.

Character Conclusion

So, all the characters break out of their initial archetypes, which already makes them more interesting. What's more, these sorts of characters just being oput together and made the main characters rather than circling a dude is in of itself unique.

But there are other aspects of the writing which endear me to how it handles the main characters and what keeps them interesting.

Anger & Violence

See, while in various media women do express anger at times it is still often far less so than men. What's more, often women's anger tends to be presented in... Less flattering lights.

With the anger obscuring fragility while in a man it conveys strength. Or implying a sort of hysteria rather than an appropriate or controlled response. Or worst of all being demonized in general unless its rooted in or coming from traditionally feminine places.

The same tends to be true when it comes to violence with a lot of media either trying to find some way to make women in battle less... Brutal than their male counterparts. (More more like fanservice) Along with rarely letting women fight men, unless they are a special exception to the norm.

RWBY does not do this.

The main characters, hell, all the women in the series express a multitude of different forms of anger and violence. They battle men, they battle each other, they battle monsters all with no distinction nor fanservice shot in sight.

What's more though is that said anger and violence are not presented as, for lack of better words, wrong. The writers don't draw overt attention to this fact, they don't hang a big sign up saying "Girls can fight & shout too" or the like.

They just present these women with a range of emotions, motives and actions that are treated according to what fits the theme of the show rather than hewing closer to gendered lines.

This isn't to say anger & violence are lionized, but more that the experience and usage of them is not demonized or undermined because of the characters gender.

I suppose what I am saying is that CRWBY by and large lack double standards when it comes to exploring these things that I see so often in other media. The women in the main cast, among the villains, both sides respective allies and beyond can be flawed, or angry or do both good and terrible things.

But the writers are always treating everyone's pain as equally valid regardless of gender or situation. Which means that the situations that cause anger exist within a tone of respect that forms the depiction and framing of anger itself.

Which is just something I really enjoy.

Thanks for reading!

#RWBY #Save RWBY #greenlight volume 10 #Team RWBY #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #Some other series that do this or touch on it are She-Ra #The original Sailor V manga but less so Sailor Moon #& to varying degrees the Owl House #Thanks to Adam for helping me with the conclusion!

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chickenoptyrx · 3 months

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You do so right by z Broly, you understand his potential. Your au with him and Trunks is a delight

Glad we all appreciate my blatant misrepresentation of the character 😌 im partly joking but man fr, 12 year old me would hate that instead of him bein a badass edgy monster, I draw him as.. *checks notes* .. an immature loser with bad coping mechanisms uwu

Ok but in true ask tradition! :U im hijacking this ask to talk about a dumb theory thats been rolling around in my head for like 2 years now: android 16 and broly similarities:

Ok so. If you aren't aware. The android arc of dragon ball was originally going to focus on the androids 19 & 20 and trunks even names them specifically

But Toriyamas former editor, Kazuhiko Torishima, didn't like them as the main antagonists and so Toriyama changed it to focus on 17 & 18 as the bad guys and introduced 16 as a sort of mystery

Now. This gets almost completely dropped once that same former editor ALSO doesn't like these androids and cell becomes the main villian for the arc (yeah yeah, the bomb thing is technically *there*, but its so inconsequential most people forget its even a thing :T )

So. Idk exactly when movie 8 went into production, but we know Brolys LSSJ form was inspired by trunks SSJ grade3 form that appears several chapters after cell has been introduced and the androids have become power-up fodder, so im gonna argue its safe to say the decision to move away from their story had been made

(side tangent that I find absolutely hilarious btw- despite gokus commentary in the HTC, SSJ grade 3 was the strongest form of ssj we saw at this point, so its pretty appropriate to use it as the basis of the strongest scariest ssj form.... rrriiiiiiiiggght up until toriyama introduced SSJ2 on Feb 2, 1993- near exactly 1 month before the first Broly movie hit theaters. Completely undermined what, up til then, looked like a trend in stronger form = bigger and beefier right as the big beefy strongest guy ever movie came out 🤣 absolutely love it!)

So anyways. The movies overall also tend to have varying degrees of similarities with recent arcs in the show and Toriyama, while not overly involved, would give the studio designs and story notes. And. Idk. Yall can tell me im reaching if ya want, but: A guy who's made into a weapon by his father who's on a quest for revenge and has this conflicting view of his son as both someone he feels he failed to protect, someone he cares about, but also as a tool for that revenge, and someone who's destructive power hes become deeply afraid of.. now where have we seen somethin like that 🤔 may be an extra reach but I also think its neat that despite their different face shape, Toriyamas gave em the same expression

Lol they're also both just ridiculously tall bastards. Like for no gd reason. And yeah, to me atleast, it explains why hating goku specifically gets shoehorned into brolys backstory (listen I can absolutely do the mental gymnastics to make it make sense! I'm fine with it! Its fine! I actually like it! ... but it IS a dumb shoehorned plot point! Both things can be true D:< ) look just lookit these tall ass shits

Anyway. My last note is just this statement from Toriyama about 16 and Gero. The way gero is presented is really in line with how I see Paragus as this tragic failure of a father- honestly caring about his kid, but letting grief and revenge drive him into conflicting corners where he wants revenge FOR the life denied his son, but also actively shaping his son into such a terrifying weapon that ultimately hed rather his kid just never be conscious cause thats the 'only way to keep them safe'

“Dr. Gero’s son who died young a long time ago served as the visual model for Android 16. He was a high-ranking soldier for the Red Ribbon Army but was shot down by the enemy. Dr. Gero reserved special feelings for 16 as “his son,” and although he equipped 16 with immense power and a frightening destructive device, he didn’t want to see him be defeated on the battlefield and thus programmed him to have a gentle personality. 16 was consequently considered a failed creation.” The smaller caption below Toriyama’s quote reads: “Was the reason Dr. Gero didn’t want to activate 16 perhaps because of his parental love to not see him destroyed?”

#asks #rant barely related to the ask :D #i just think its neat #if 16 wasnt such a pain in the ass to draw from MOST angles #id probably draw him more #but broly just sparks so much joy to draw #really cant beat it #just a fun design #android 16 #broly #dumb nothing theory that means nothing #ask

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punkeropercyjackson · 3 months

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Ichigo Kurosaki,Percy Jackson and Hobie Brown are my favorite kind of male characters because they're all super strong and tough guys with brutal childhood trauma that made them become actual punks instead of just EdgyTM(as in being anti-authority because it's corruptive instead of for the sake of it and taking direct action all the time)but Ichigo's also a Shakespeare nerd who's favorite food is chocolate and gets pouty when he's not percived as edgy despite being goth and is down bad puddy dog eyes in love with a bubbly pastel weirdgirl who's name means 'princess' and her superpowers are literally fairies contained in her flower shaped hairpins,Percy's main coping mechanism is being super silly and is obsessed with blue food and loves kids things and acts like a doting dad and mom figure thanks to his transfem bigender swag to the two kid mcs of his cast because their bio ones can't or won't and Hobie's a big ass dork who salutes babies and is physically incapable of not making stupid jokes that are somehow hilarious and is openly gnc and it's sold in-universe as making him attractive instead of played as a joke and the best part is that is that he does all this while being one of the blackest character's ever in every way.They should be standards for male characters AND irl men,i'm deadsass

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possessionisamyth · 7 months

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Here's some RE Separate Ways analysis that isn't about shipping because I like Ada. I'm happy her DLC actually focuses on her, but some of the takes I'm seeing are Insufferable. Main statements in bold for ease of reading and skipping purposes.

-Wesker and Ada haven't been working together consistently for the past 6 years. This dripless bitch is calling Ada every five minutes to babysit her. I don't think that's the relationship dynamic of someone you're regularly employed under, and when it is, Ada is not the type of character to tolerate that behavior for 6 years. We know Ada is a contract worker. We can understand she's worked for Wesker on and off, but she's a freelance agent period. She must've done enough jobs for Wesker that he feels the need to check on her and have this constant reporting in to make sure she stays on task since he's clearly used to her not always following his orders. He 100% hired her for this assignment because he knew the situation and compared to the other options, she had the highest survival chances. Which, he was right. High risk, high reward.

Sometimes Wesker's babysitting works: Ada holding Luis at gunpoint when he tries to negotiate saving Leon and Ashley. Sometimes he knows when to step away: "Keep your dog." All of it is in the effort to get what he wants. Look, he let her live. He worked with S.T.A.R.S for years and wanted them all dead. If he worked with Ada regularly and she pulled this shit with the amber, he would've had that helicopter blown out of the sky. There's always some restraint with personal distance, especially with a guy who thinks so highly of himself.

-Luis is a drama queen. In the regular game, Luis acts cool and under control to the best of his abilities around Leon and Ashley. It's a part of his newly found hero-complex even though he does still know when to ask for help: "save me prince charming!" In the DLC, we see the real side of Luis. The one who's scared, and dramatic, and knows when he's not shooting with a loaded gun so to speak. When Ada tells him to leave her to fight, he does. He wants to help, but his respect for her abilities sends him fleeing like she orders him to. Also, like every scientist, he has zero self-preservation! He ran into a fire that clearly would kill him to get medicine. And the exchange afterwards? "No! Now you'll all die!" "Make some more medicine." "Oh..yeah...I can do that. I do have that ability."

The flamenco dance. "Are you mad at me???🥺 You're mad at me!😭" This man understands Ada can kill him without blinking, but still can't keep his composure around her. This is such a fun dynamic to explore in fic for expansion stories and "Luis lives" au's. The DLC gives him breaks to freak out and panic, whereas the main game holds the "cool persona" moments after Leon saves him. Even his dying words to Ada. This man is bleeding to death and still can't shut up. I love him.

Okay, that's all I gotta say about the loser men. Now for the star of the DLC. Ada. :)

-Ada "Sans Undertale go into my eyes" Wong. The methods Ada uses in the DLC are fun and appropriate. It's not invasive and in your face unlike another agent, but more subtle. She can track footprints, fingerprints, gauge the safe distance required for her grappling hook, and she knows when she needs to fight and whens he needs to run. Her practicality has always been the cleanest of the entire cast due to her being a spy, but this time we actually get to see this trait utilized through her tools.

-Ada is silly and quips her own jokes to get through it. Something I'm not seeing anyone talk about including the aeon people who are claiming anything they can get, is this specific humor parallel between Leon and Ada in the remake. Both of them have gone through the horrors of Raccoon City. Both of them went right back into very difficult military in function style work which always has a body count. I talked about Leon's humor coping mechanism here [X], but to hear Ada do the same thing? I feel like they went under the radar because they don't sound as stupid as Leon's quips, but they are still so stupid. "Nighty night." "Lights out." "Bring me a real challenge next time." "Now look at the mess you've made." "You think that gun will be enough?" She and Leon even share the same "Next," line!

If I had 80GB to spare on the game, I'd see just how many more I could get out of her. Like, these are dumb as hell. She's found a method to cope with the horrors she's witnessing that just so happens to coincide with Leon's. I'm not saying this as a marker of whatever romance you've tossed them in or even to diss any other romances. What I am saying is that they have a similar type of mental illness resulting from trauma, and they ended up using the exact same coping method despite never seeing each other.

Ada fans who hate Leon! This opens a door for you when it comes to character analysis and how Ada deals with her PTSD and/or depression! Run through it RIGHT NOW!

-Ada's infection pulls a lot more weight than it seems. I've seen some people say Ada's parasite should've been removed the same as Leon's and Ashley's. (Which is an extremely unsubtle argument to get them all in the same room for your shipping nonsense.) However, something I noticed with the DLC were the parallels to the troubles in RE2. The Black Robe/U-3/Pesenta monster is the first time where we get to see Ada dealing with a stalking enemy. Due to RE4 being so much more plot-lined streamed to maintain the flow of gameplay, these events were not allowed to be random, but the narrative purpose remains. Ada gets to have a stalking enemy in her DLC like Claire and Leon did in RE2 with the addition of a hubris check.

The hubris check? Well, Ada has never been infected until this DLC. In the original games, she can step back and watch people die because she doesn't know what it feels like. Now she knows what it feels like. The lack of control. The pain. The slow turning. Her job has had her flirting with death for years, but not in a way she can't fiddle with the odds. A parasite is not something a person can distract with words. The action to steal the amber is backed up via personal experience not just a morality code slapped on. The addition of Wesker's correction to "billions of causalities" means she's included in that number and just cements her incentive to flee. She's not doing this for Leon. She's not doing this for Luis. She's doing this for herself, and if it so happens to help other people then it is what it is. After being on both sides of the coin when it comes to viruses, she can no longer function as entirely impartial to the work she's doing.

-Ada doesn't ask for permission but asks for forgiveness. Don't take this phrasing literally. She doesn't ask Wesker to forgive her. What this means is that she'll do something before asking, and if it upsets people then she'll course correct. Her job is not the kind of job where she needs to take orders for every action she implements which is why Wesker calling every five minutes was annoying as hell. In the OG RE4 she kind of argues with Wesker for Leon to live for "his usefulness", but it's swiftly shut down until it's convenient to Wesker for Leon to live. This forces her to sneak around and betray Wesker multiple times to save Leon secretly, and the concept rightfully gets thrown into the garbage for the remake DLC.

The scene in the bedroom where Wesker tells Ada not to become a liability after taking her blood? Ada doesn't fight to get her shit back. Some people said this was flirting. Wrong. This is Ada seeking forgiveness after the fuck up of passing out in the middle of an active field by letting Wesker walk off with an infection sample. She then makes sure not to fuck up a second time in the same way, and she doesn't. She learns the signs of her parasite so in case she does pass out again, she'll be somewhere much less conspicuous. She listens for the changes in her environment and the feelings in her body and prepares herself for what's next.

-Ada saves Leon and Ashley for Luis' sake. I stated earlier that Ada's action to take the amber was for her own sake but ends up helping others. This is the exact situation going on when Luis talks about getting the suppressant. She needs the suppressant in order to do her job and kill the black robe so she can heal. It just so happens that Leon and Ashley need the suppressant for survival reasons too. They are an afterthought until Luis dies.

We watch Ada question Wesker and his plans all throughout this DLC, and she comes to her own conclusions after her experience working with him. She could've gotten the amber back and let the whole place blow into smithereens like Wesker intended. Who cares about the president's daughter? Who cares about another dead federal agent? Luis did. He cared so much he died for it, and just like that other clown in Raccoon City (aka her), she got emotionally attached. If there was anything she could've done for Luis to make his death mean something, it was this act.

-Ada sells Leon's jacket. This isn't analysis, but I thought this was funny as hell. ACAB! No exceptions! Freeze your tiddies off, Leon! I don't give a shit!

-Ada's new outfit is still better than her old one. It's still not the best they could've given her. I'm also not speaking from a fashion point of view when I say this. In the OG RE4 we see Leon in a jacket which is forcibly removed to show off his pecs to the ladies, but it clearly marks a colder time of year. OG RE4 Ada has arms out, legs out, and tits out because a hoe never gets cold. The sweater dress for the remake re-establishes that it's colder here because even Luis doesn't lose his jacket. Ashley doesn't lose her jacket either until they yoink it off her for ritual reasons. I still hate that the thigh high boots have that heel and would prefer the flats, but that's going to be in the complaint paragraph below.

-Capcom sexism at play once again. I don't give a shit about rigs and motion capture or whatever, her walk cycle was 2 adjustments from being full Bayonetta, and I hate it. The ass shots? Disrespectful. Her heels didn't have to be that high. Never heard of a kitten heel? They exist. The people who worked on RE3 Remake and worked on this DLC sure love to make a woman vomit don't they? Why the fuck was she so clean the entire game? She was being thrown around and tossed in the dirt a lot, but this woman's skin is shinier than a waxed apple. Either she has some wet wipes on hand, or god forbid women get filthy. Absolutely zero reason she shouldn't have been looking as rough as Leon by the time she gets on the helicopter! No reason at all!

That's all they wrote! I love Ada. I loved this DLC, and I loved the dynamics going on here even though I hated every time Wesker was on screen or opened his mouth at all.

As much as I would love to expand this post and go further into the changed Ada and Leon relationship, I frankly hate all the takes I've been seeing so much on either side of the Aeon debate. I hate the ongoing conversation around it so much that I don't know if I want to discuss this at all. The Aeon should've gotten this if not for Luis and Ashley side and the Aeon is dead side going back and forth with each other? All of you put on your clown noses! None of you are looking at this situation objectively to see where the lines cross and where they run alongside each other, and frankly I'm tired! I could clear this whole table off so both of you can get exactly what you want based on what you're not actually interpreting from this media, but I won't! Kill each other!

#resident evil #re #separate ways #separate ways dlc #ada wong #albert wesker #luis serra #luis sera navarro #leon kennedy #re analysis #re4 remake #i wont tag this with ship names cause im nice but i was so tempted to be mean like ada <3

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certifieddorianandcassiansimp · 2 months

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Bryce Quinlan

okay. I don’t think I’ve expressed my dislike for the main female of Crescent City enough. Here are my reasons and a little bit of ranting and comparisons.

Bryce Quinlan is SPOILED. She always gets what she wants for the consequences be damned.

Bryce refused Connor for so long only to promise a date THE DAY she breaks up with her boyfriend and he dies.

She acts like Danika couldn’t have kept anything from her and continues to be hurt over it when she was a rebel. Danika had the right to keep things and didn’t do anything wrong.

She ignores everything, not just advice, but common sense. In HOEAB, she basically doesn’t listen to anyone who says anything to her, she also doesn’t shy away from literal demons trying to kill her. (This is a common case of MCS but still.)

she’s a terrible mate. This is shown mostly in HOFAS when she dismisses Hunt over and over again, when his fears are very much valid.

she doesn’t take responsibility. Bryce Quinlan murdered two Fae kings and basically said that she didn’t want the kingdoms and all fae should suffer except her small group of people because of her father. That’s petty.

She doesn’t have a sense of urgency, she turns everything into a joke. And yes I know humor is a coping mechanism but you’re seriously going to stand there and joke about dying to your mate? After treating him like shit, and saying you’d come back to him when you knew you were going to sacrifice yourself, that’s not okay. And yes I know that Rhys basically did the same thing, but he never made such promises.

She is too stubborn to talk about her feelings with her own mate. Her mate begs for communication when she doesn’t give it and expects Hunt to repress his feelings as well. That’s just toxic.

She practically orders the queen of the underworld to make an antidote for a problem that’s been here for about 15,000 years in about an hour. That’s just not realistic.

Those are some reasons in general, but now I’m going to ramble about the first half of HOFAS when she was with Nesta and Azriel.

10. Bryce KNEW she was leading a deadly creature to strangers who were allowing her to live and explore as she pleased. I can’t fathom how angry this made me reading it, not just for the beloved ACOTAR characters having to do it, but it’s just unkind to your very kind captives.

11. Bryce listened to the story of Silene (I think that’s her name) with Azriel and Nesta beside her, and still didn’t trust them. 12. Bryce joked around with them, trying to understand them, but kept herself guarded, while yes, knowing your enemy is a great survival tactic, you could tell they didn’t think of her as a threat. 13. Bryce Adeline Quinlan awakened an Asteri in Prythian (or the prison, idk it’s been a while since ACOTAR.) and she didn’t even know how to kill it. In fact, she couldn’t kill it. Nesta, her badass self, slayed the crowd and the asteri. (not a complaint but I have to add the part where Az legit says ‘stick em with the pokey end!’ Love that part.)

14. After (not) defeating the asteri, she STEALS Azriel’s dagger and LEAVES. One, she stole from shadow baby and that’s never okay, two, she didn’t have plans to return it, and three, she didn’t even know how to wield it.

I also feel like Bryce should have to give something that’s a part of her up. In Feyre’s case, she gave up being human. In Aelin’s case, she gave up 90% (if not more) of her power. But then you have Bryce Quinlan. Around 24 years old, all three parents alive (until book three), and has nothing sacrificed. She should be shot down.

Okay I think I’m done now. But I have to say that after all of this I’d like to point out that I love the Maasverse and Crescent City, but I personally think it would be best without Bryce Quinlan as the main character. Thank you for coming to my Blab-Tok, goodbye.

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sloppy-rants · 30 days

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Rottmnt Rant #2

(Leonardo centered)

One thing I adore about rise is that if you pay attention there are no character traits that ever come out of the blue. They have always been present within the show, they just don’t have any spotlights on them.

One example of this is Leo’s martyr complex, as well as his habit of making jokes out of serious situations. These traits are very present in the movie, and are even main plot points that push the narrative forward. These traits have always been present in the show, however one episode that I think contains multiple examples of these is the episode “Flushed but Never Forgotten.”

⚠️SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE EPISODE AND THE MOVIE⚠️

In the episode Flushed but Never Forgotten, the boys accidentally flush their dad’s pet fish, Piebald. They decide to cover it up, lying to their dad and replacing piebald with a ‘perfect’ replica (a rock with googly eyes glued on). After about a year, Mikey starts to feel guilt over the loss of piebald, and tells the rest of his brothers about writing on the walls and voices he’s heard that he thinks are coming from her.

We find out that Piebald has returned, and is now a mutant capable of talking and possessing abilities such as turning invisible/camouflaging with her surroundings. Upon initial discovery, the boys are terrified. All of them except Leo.

Leo responds to seeing piebald with “Okay so she’s a mutant.” While the others are obviously scared shitless. This only lasts for a moment, but it demonstrates his true nature, as in this moment he hasn’t had enough time to lie and come up with some sort of fake or funny reaction. He uses one of his coping mechanisms, humor, to deal with the situation. Now of course, after this he goes right back to being scared with all of his brothers, as one would do, but I find it interesting that his initial reaction was to tone down the situation and after that he showed fear, rather than the other way round. Moments like this are sprinkled through the whole show, but I decided to focus on this one simply because of how small and fast it is. It would have been so easy to have Leo just scream along with all the others, but the writers decided to add this bit in. You might think of this as just a joke the writers added in for shits and giggles, but he does this multiple times in the series. A rather popular example of this being his line “Soo.. you guys from Jersey?” in the very first episode.

Now his Martyr complex, I know is a very popular topic for Leo. It provides juicy angst, and it’s a wonderful topic to use for drawings, fan fictions, and rants such as I’m doing now. But usually, those are all centered around the movie. The movie’s climax features Leo locking himself in the prison dimension with Krang prime, sacrificing himself for those he cares about. What I don’t think people talk about enough is that this isn’t the only time Leo does this. This is another reason why I decided to focus on this episode specifically.

Later in the episode, Piebald ends up taking Leo’s entire family. His brothers, his dad, even the paper foot ninja they took in. Initially, he has a plan to gain the upper hand against Piebald. He uses her own trick against her, camouflaging with his surroundings to use the element of surprise against her. Once this fails, however, he finds himself backed into a corner. His family is tied together, hanging behind him as they dangle over a large whirlpool of sewer water, about to be flushed as they had done to Piebald so long ago. In one last desperate attempt to save his family, he pleads with Piebald to let his family go, and take him instead.

He says, “flush me and let my family go.” Clearly stating the he wishes to sacrifice himself for those he cares about. He’s been running this whole episode. Running from the monster, running from the responsibility of Piebald’s “death”, and running from telling the truth to his dad. Now, as the only one left, he knows it’s him who has to save his family, and when given no other choice, he chooses himself as the sacrifice. It’s not even suggested to him that he sacrifice himself, he came up with that on his own. He doesn’t know what will happen to him, he just wants his family to be safe.

Sadly, this moment is short lived as immediately after he says this Piebald cuts the rope to drop the others into the whirlpool, which is where the whole thing is revealed to be a ruse made up by Splinter and Piebald to teach the boys a lesson. But I still think this moment should be talked about more. It’s so interesting to me.

It’s one thing that I think people get wrong a lot. A popular trope I see with Leo is that in any danger whatsoever he will deliberately go out of his way to sacrifice himself first. It’s his first and only plan, and he truly believes it will 100% work out. Watching the show though, this just isn’t true. Leo is a good leader, and he knows what his brothers are capable of. He’s able to use their skills to come up with a clever plan that almost always works when he really puts thought into it. It’s when he’s backed into a corner, stuck between a rock and a hard place that he resorts to his final plan. His last chance to keep everyone he loves safe and more importantly alive. If it comes down to it, he will use himself as the scapegoat willingly, even if the others don’t want it. I love Leo angst so much, and I love it even better when it’s done right. Leo is a smart guy, he knows when he can find an easy way out of things. That’s what makes it even more devastating when he resorts to his martyr complex, because it’s always either a last resort, or a split second decision. I think what people try to do is make it his first instinct, which I can agree with if written to be believable.

Moments that represent these traits come and go quickly, but I think that’s part of why Rise is so well written. The creators trust their viewers, and are aware that things don’t need to be spelled out in order for us to understand them. This show is honest to god just so amazing, and a wonderful example of when artists put out a work that they really care about for others to enjoy.

#rottmnt rants #save rottmnt #unpause rottmnt #rottmnt #rottmnt leo #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #save rise of the tmnt #rise of the tmnt #rottmnt leonardo

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luthordamnvers · 1 year

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Proud

((Prompt by an image with the text: "Can someone please be proud of me like fuck I'm trying…"))

The Probate Process was in full swing, and the press, the paparazzi, the tabloids and the conspiracy youtubers, were having a field day with it. Lillian’s assets, and Lex’s assets were up for grabs, and she was in the middle of it. It was a shit show.

She didn’t even want any of it, really, but she also didn’t want it to end up in the hands of someone who could keep up with her brother’s schemes.

She vividly remembers, once upon a time, on another life, another earth; telling Kara how everyone had an opinion of her for testifying against her mother. Ungrateful daughter. Heroine. Bitch. Apparently not much has changed, even when in this reality her family was less of a nightmare than in the previous one.

She gets tired of it all, and turns off the TV, fighting the urge to bring back her little boxes, coping mechanism. She sighs and mumbles to herself; “Can someone please be proud of me, like, fuck I'm trying…”

“I am proud of you,” a voice says, clear and full of conviction. She shouldn't be surprised that someone heard her in the middle of the Tower’s main room, but still, the voice is not from the someone that always sneaks up on her, but her sister. “Incredibly proud, actually. I should tell you more often.”

“There is no need to lie, Alex. I will share my stash of scotch with you, regardless,” Lena let’s out, as she fakes writing something on the tablet in her hand.

“I’m not lying. Let alone in exchange for alcohol.” Alex asserts. “You grew up with that cursed family. And they tried their best to make you like them; from manipulating you and playing mind games with you, to literally using talismans to get rid of your magic.” Alex leaves all pretenses and just sits on the desk, looking at Lena directly. Like trying to drive the point home. “And while you lost your way for a second there, here you are. A hero on your own right. Still good, and still trying your best. I’ve told you before, you have a huge heart. I really need to tell you more often, one day you may finally believe me.”

Lena really doesn’t know what to say, but there are tears prickling at the corner of her eyes, and when Alex sees them she glares at her, like forbidding her to spill them. Instead, she goes for the eternal joke.

“In fact, you have such a huge heart, that Kara cannot stop looking at it.”

“Oh my God, I hate you.”

“You might really have to start having safety pins around, so she stops looking at it.”

“Stop.”

#supercorp #lena luthor #kara danvers #alex danvers #supercorp fic #kinda #nicnic writes #agentcorp besties my beloved #post s6 stuff i deserve #Alex mocking sc brings me joy. She has suffered enough. But her suffering also brings me joy #anyways these stuff is so i can maybe perhaps finish debs because she's being incredibly difficult

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marsti · 5 months

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the feedback i've gotten in calling the 14th doctor age regression is mostly people agreeing with me but also a few people saying "wouldn't it make more sense if it was 11? he's more childlike than 10" so i feel like i have to clarify my thoughts a little more here. get ready for some genuine analysis to justify a joke i made.

i specified that i think this is time lord age regression, because i don't think it'd manifest in the same way for them. their stages of life simply don't go baby -> child -> teen -> adult, each regeneration is functionally a different person with their own thought processes and dominant personality traits and that's their stages of life.

i don't think it would make sense for 13 to regress to 11 because 11 is a fakey fake fake. his whimsy is performative. 11 is a man who's done the work, understands his feelings, but refuses to process them so he's still a little mentally ill with it. that's why everyone who is or has ever been a lol so random emo groks him. if anything he WISHES he could be an age regressor, he doesn't like that he has to have the complicated mind of an adult. but he fully drops it at the end and reveals he's always been a grumpy old man underneath it all, and then literally regenerates into a grumpy old man.

that's decidedly not the mental framework 13 was working off of at the end of her life. she was confused and crushed by guilt. what was supposed to be a new start for the doctor after 12 finally worked through their feelings and re-discovered what being The Doctor means and took responsibility for their actions? tough luck sucker. everything you thought you knew about yourself was a lie. half of the universe is dead. it's your fault.

to me this is very close to the mental framework that underpins everything about 10. a man who had lost his main coping mechanism (rage) and was now forced to actually confront the guilt he felt, a man who was just so so so very sad. someone who was just so... lost, and alone, and fucked up in the head. desperate for someone to understand what he was going through. and genuinely a little silly with it too! it's all very teenage-like, to me.

14 has a lot of that, and especially in wild blue yonder you can really see how much he wants donna to remember what it's like to be him. he wants someone to LITERALLY read his thoughts, because he craves understanding but doesn't wanna talk about it. the words wouldn't come out anyway. i also think that the ways 14 differs from 10 are interesting, because he's not an exact copy. it really feels like the doctor wanted to go back to before all of this happened, they don't want to be changed. they don't want to be affected. but they were, and the only way they can cope with it is to pretend to be 10 again.

#shut up sender #doctor who #dr who #dw #doctor who spoilers #fourteenth doctor #14th doctor #wild blue yonder #keeping this entirely 10-13 because this is all very contextually dependent on the emotional fallout from 9 letting go of his anger #also see what i did there at the end im kinda clever sometimes #long post

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burnin0akleaves · 6 months

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Day 7 of drawing the hottest ranger every day:

Since this is the last day of my little TRR Will appreciation week, I wanted to draw something special and let you all in on an opinion of mine.

I think Will had a beard during his marriage with Alyss.

Now I'm not going to go too into detail about Will's character, how some people seem to infantilize him or how his 30s largely get forgotten by the fandom because I actually want to dedicate a huge masterpost on all of these later. Not anytime soon, because I don't have that much free time, but ideally it would be me going over and analyzing Will's character progression throughout the entire series and presenting some arguments against common (what I believe to be) misconceptions on how he is portrayed in TRR.

For now though, I'll just talk about the beard directly.

After the prologue where we see Will on his revenge mission, the first time we are actually introduced to him is in his cabin when Halt and Gilan are there to talk to him about Maddie. This is the first time we actually learn about how Will looks in detail.

Now that he mentioned the fact, Halt noticed that his clothes were crumpled and stained and his hair and beard were long and uncut,

Will's depression leaves him "messy", both his house and his physical appearance not cared for. He doesn't care about daily tasks anymore, he just wants to see the killers of his wife behind bars. It's probably the only thing getting him to get out of bed everyday because have no doubt that this is a coping mechanism. After seeing him probably for the first time in months, Halt realizes that his hair and beard are both long and uncut.

Notice how this doesn't say anything about Will growing his beard out recently? Hell, I'd say its proof that Will's beard isn't new. Halt isn't suprised that Will has a beard, he is suprised at the lack of care he shows for himself. Will's hair is long and uncut too, did he grow out depression hair from scratch??

I think what most people forget when they read TRR is that at minimum 15 years have passed since Will and Alyss' wedding. Both of them had around 13 years to grow and mature and we as an audience don't see them during their 30s at all.

I think most of the traits people attribute to TRR Will believing they are a result of his loss of Alyss, are just signs of him maturing. People are NOT the same in their 20s and 40s, and they shouldn't be. Everyone reading this post has the right to shoot me point blank in 20 years if I'm the exact same person I am now.

Will, after his initial and very understandable period of depression, earns a lot of the traits he used to be associated with during his younger years back. He starts laughing again, he starts to make bad jokes, he allows the people he loves back into his life and learns to move on. He also still has a beard.

The point I'm trying to make here is that even if Alyss hadn't died, Will would still be closer to what we have in TRR now compared to the main series. Because he shouldn't be the same Will. He is a grown ass man in his 40s, while some traits like his high energy and joking personality will stay with him for the rest of his life they will be filtered down. They should be. That's what maturing does to a person and 30s are the prime age for this.

Going back to the beard, Will has no reason not to have one. It suits his personality, Will doesn't care too highly for his looks and likely wouldn't bother to shave daily. All the men around him had beards as he grew up, including his father figure, and he has no reason to not follow the same pattern. Beards are also very common for the time period we're speaking about.

Is the beard used by Flanagan as a simple plot point to show him aging? Absolutely. But it's really not tied to his depression as heavily as people think. The reason he becomes dark and grim for 2 years before learning to enjoy life again is the same reason his beard is unruly and not taken care of before becoming better shaven. Will, even if at the lowest point of his life, is still Will. He has a beard because he wants one, not because he is depressed. And I believe it makes the most sense for him to start growing his beard out during his marriage mainly because of the fact that there is no reason for him not to.

Howls you just talked to me about why Will has a beard while married to Alyss for 4 hours, why does he have just stubble in the drawing then? Easy, artistic choices. It's easier to separate Will in his 30s than Will in his 40s by giving him different facial hair. That's it. It's a bit of a cheap narrative device but it's also realistic and fitting for his character.

Will had a beard during his late 30s with Alyss and that's it, that's the post.

#will treaty #alyss mainwaring #willyss #rangers apprentice #the royal ranger #🍃 fanart #dilf will week

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extasiswings · 1 year

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I have been noticing things, and I don't know what to make of them, so I am bringing them to you, because you have been blessed/cursed by Apollo's dodgeball and are also great at connecting dots. I apologise.

I am worried about Buck's lungs. His sats dropped when he was in a coma, to the point of needing ECMO, but during his recovery we only saw him see a cardiologist, no respiratory rehab was mentioned. Now his PT scores are down. The show has also been weirdly pointed about focusing on sats monitors being put on people's fingers during calls. They've done it on at least 3 of the calls since Buck's been back, and at no point have the people's sats been mentioned - even the woman face down in dough, who was started on oxygen. That in itself isn't a big deal - they're a quick way of getting a heartrate, and its standard practice to put one on. But why keep showing them? Then this week, Maddie had the call with the kid where she had to remind him how to breathe.

So, what do you think? Is there anything there, or am I projecting because I'm having to have respiratory physio after covid?

Just when I thought I couldn't get any more unhinged! No, there is DEFINITELY something there and I'm not gonna be normal about it. There are a couple of different places my mind went to (because it's not just Buck, Eddie's in this too) so apologies if this is scattered:

Buck + Death is the big overarching theme looming over Buck's healing journey. Buck's life has been about Death since before he was even born, when he was conceived to be a savior baby...and was a match...but Daniel still died anyway. And Buck has been running towards Death ever since, seeking it out, courting it like a lover without even realizing why, never knowing that Daniel's ghost was haunting him. He has internalized so completely this idea that his value is entirely dependent on what he can do for others, on how much he can sacrifice, can give, up to and including his own life. The fact that the problem was Buck's lungs in the episode where he was reckoning with Daniel for the first time while trapped in his subconscious mind was inspired and a huge callback to Buck Begins, after Buck first learned about Daniel, with Buck in the warehouse fire taking off his mask and telling the guy he was trying to save that he would just hold his breath. And Buck's been holding his breath in a sense ever since. Spiraling. Stagnating. Regressing. He quit therapy. He trapped himself for a year in a soulless relationship because he was already depressed but then the shooting happened and Eddie basically told him he wasn't allowed to keep trying to kill himself, taking away one of his main self-harming coping mechanisms (passive suicidality brushed off by telling himself he's actually helping people), all of that.

There are also the crush injuries surrounding him (which I wrote about in 6A as being super sus). Thomas and Mitchell and a car accident crush injury, the first call where Buck begins explicitly associating romantic love with death. Buck being crushed under the ladder truck, which ultimately led to the blood clots and a pulmonary embolism because he wouldn't let himself rest and recover, wouldn't let himself heal or slow down, because he was too focused on getting back to work where he could (in his mind) be useful, be worth something, could save lives. And he admitted then that he didn't know what/who he was without the job, and ironically almost torched all of his relationships with the people who love him regardless in order to get back to it. And then of course there's also Lev. Lev trying to find the secrets to happiness but instead being crushed to death by a walkway that collapsed because the hotel identified the problem but never made the repairs. And it was through him that Buck started thinking that he could find all the answers he's been looking for in death.

But...Buck died. Actually died. And despite his joke about his math powers and being the guy with the answers, he doesn't have them all.

At the end of 6x11, he took a breath. He took a step. He allowed himself a little bit of self-awareness, of self-reflection, he dipped his toe into the water of the root trauma that has led him to all the others. But he's awake now, and what has he done? By all accounts it looks like exactly what he's done every other time/like he's falling back into the same bad habits. He let his mom steamroll him into getting him a couch that he didn't want. He threw himself back into work as soon as he could and keeps trying to brush off the fact that he went through a serious trauma (physical/mental/emotional) to the point that the people who love him have to keep reminding him that he literally died. He has the tools he needs to heal, but isn't actually taking the steps to get there. And, as you point out, they're potentially foreshadowing that there are still problems with his lungs that may still get worse.

Because Buck is, at heart, one big crush injury. He has been suffocating under the weight of trauma after trauma since he was born, conceived in grief and then discarded. He has been suffocating under the weight of hiding his true feelings from others (up to and including hiding them from himself) and leaving so many necessary things unsaid. But it also makes me think about Eddie and Home Invasion and the call at Marisol's and everything that I've been saying about insulation as protection but too much protection stifling you so much that you can't breathe. Buck being "the settler" in romantic relationships because he can't get hurt (at least not as badly) if he's not actually attached to the relationship, never going after/asking for what he really wants. Eddie being his own variation on "the fugitive" always running from the things that he's most afraid of. Both of them trying desperately to protect their hearts from getting broken and instead ending up in a place where they are both always dying...

Idk, there's something about Buck + Death and Eddie + Fear and Buck constantly suffocating vs. Eddie drowning, and Buck starting the season not wanting to make the same mistakes but also possibly "misunderstanding the assignment" with this death doula, and water finding its level...yeah...yeah...

#chapel talks #so-much-purple

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petty-pumpkin · 8 months

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Ik most of us came to the conclusion that Dazai is an alcoholic (bc he is) but chuuya isn't and that his hobby is just drinking alcohol. Personally, I think that both of them are, here's why:

I dont really have to explain dazai cause we all know why we perceive him as an alcoholic (hence all of those bottles in his room and him going to the bar repeatedly when he was young), but I'll explain chuuya.

First of all, Chuuya's likes in the character's chart is "dogs" and "booze". Of course you can like alcohol and not be an alcoholic, that is obvious, but it's the way that drinking alcohol (specifically wine) is one of his main likes. Now, you can obviously love alcohol and not be an addict, most people who are addicted don't like alcohol because of its taste, but because it's a way to forget all of your problems, at least for a moment. It is a way to relieve the pain. And this doesn't just apply to alcohol, it as well apply to technology, food, self harm (wich may not be an addiction but it is a coping mechanism, that's why it's so hard to stop), smoking or vaping, drugs, etc.

Also, we see in wan that they use a lot the joke that chuuya is a lightweight and can't control his alcohol, we see him drinking all the time in wan a joke. This might indicate that he does get drunk pretty often. I also wanted to add that, in the extra chapters, chuuya is seen drunk, upset and trying to call Dazai, and I think that explains a lot too.

If you'd read stormbringer and fifteen, you'd know that this man has suffered quite a lot, so it's very possible that one of his ways of coping is by drinking.

Another reason I think he might be an addict could be that he has been drinking since he was in the sheep, and that is quite a lot ago. This is canon, since shirase in stormbringer has mentioned that the sheep (and that includes chuuya) has been stealing alcohol before and they used to drink it, despite being underage.

We also saw that with the flags he drank, too. Since he has probably started drinking when he was an early teen, this must mean that his relationship with alcohol is not healthy at all.

I also want to add that this man has a lot of trauma and is in the mafia. It's very likely if not canon that he has addictions with substances. We've seen him smoke a couple of times. In fact, we saw that in the extra chapters he was drinking AND smoking at the same time. The times we saw him consume this stuff was when he was distressed, except when he, kouyou and mori celebrated.

I think that sums it all up. I wanted to make this analysis since when we all started realizing that dazai was an ACTUAL alcoholic, we've started to minimize chuuyas relationship with alcohol and reduce it as a hobby, including myself. I realized that both of them use alcohol as a coping mechanism and not just chuuya or just dazai.

(Actually, the only thing that contradicts my take is the fact that chuuya has a poor alcohol tolerance, and If you are addicted to alcohol your body would get used to it and it would be harder for you to get drunk as easily as chuuya gets. Either way, my point still stands)

#chuuya nakahara #bsd chuuya #bsd #bsd analysis #bungou stray dogs #dazai osamu

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canonmisogynyvictimstournament · 8 months

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PROPAGANDA

MIKAN TSUMIKI (DANGANRONPA 2: GOODBYE DESPAIR) (CW: Mind Control, Bullying)

1.) She is literally the saddest side character I know out of the series. She canonically went through severe abuse and bullying, oversexualizes herself as a defense mechanism, and has really bad anxiety that interferes with her interactions.

Does she get better? No.

Even though the whole theme of Danganronpa is overcoming despair, she never gets the support she needs despite having a lot of supposedly nice classmates. She CONTINUES to get verbally abused by another classmate nobody really bothers to stop, and one of her best friend even ENABLES some of her bad coping mechanisms. She's also the main source of fanservice for the second game.

Then she gets fucking brainwashed into one of the main villain's henchwoman. Yeah, the writers did NOT let her catch a break.

2.) The first two chapters are obsessed with having her do that stupid 'oh nooo all my clothes came off :"( u can see my panties :"(' shit and her free time events especially drift into the 'I'm accidentally saying something that's sexy but I don't know the connotations' brand of jokes. Idk what the spoiler policy is so I won't say much about her actual good points, but when she gets a chance to shine, she's really really interesting! For sure one of my favorite characters in the game! She's got nuance and character and relationships and motivations and interests and all that good stuff! She's even gay! It's just that its almost completely eclipsed by mediocre at best horny jokes for the first 2/3rds of her screentime in game and it drives me actually insane.

3.) You could put nearly all of the dr girls in this bracket, actually. But I picked Mikan because she's such a clear example. They just put her in there to sexualize her and her trauma. There were many ideas that could have been executed well with Mikan (I can relate to the aspect of her sexualizing herself, but the fact that they use it for fanservice is. Wow! And not in a good way) but they use her for fanservice instead. And she had the WORST execution or at least it was somewhere in the top 3. They unceremoniously cut off her development with the "despair disease" (hate that motive btw) and basically made her whole personality in what was supposed to be sorta love her 3rd act villain breakdown into "oooh my beloved ahaha I can't wait to be reunited with my beloved." I don't know shit about the anime but she seems to have been treated just as terribly there if not made worse! If it weren't for the fact that I refuse to acknowledge the animes existence it might have made me dislike her during the time I still actively liked the franchise. All the outfits they give her also feel like they were made just for fanservice shots (most of the outfits themselves aren't really bad at least not the ones I've seen it's that they were made with the intent to sexualize her and not to look good and fit her character) which is super frustrating. Oh and she was treated terribly in the game by Hiyoko but when she killed hiyoko it was just whoops she saw me kill ibuki gotta end her instead of giving her an interesting motive for even one of her kills. Honestly what makes me says she's screwed over by misogyny specifically is the fact that shit like this probably would not have happened if she were a guy. She wouldn't be written perfectly but her writing would be so much better. Like she was reduced to fanservice so so so many times and treated awfully.

OCHETTE (OCTOPATH TRAVELER 2) (CW: Racism, Ableism)

1.) SO. actually she's combod by the heavy anti-pasifika racism in ot2 but one of the strongest elements of that is that ochette herself is infantilized to the point of a 20 year old woman, who is a fully trained adult warrior and ingame stated to be like a week away from replacing her island's ultrabeast white lion guardian, being characterized by cool normal things like "having the white catholic inquisitor character promise to teach her backward people human language(the fantasy pasifika tribe she's from are kemonomimi because of course they are)", "haha ochette no understand human custom and have funny naive misunderstanding", "ochette draws the catholic inquisitor character a cutesy kiddie drawing", and being completely removed from any discussions around sex because octopath has this sexism problem where the only two types of women are innocent babies and femme fatales which is so cool AND normal. so ochette gets actually written to be essentially a "mental child" or sometimes an actual animal and is never, ever, ever allowed to have any dynamic with a human that is not paternal in nature because she is Baby. so she's also fighting the ableism. and despite all odds being stacked against her she manages to fuck super hard in a way that makes it so obvious that if ot2 was just less sexist and less racist and less ableist and someone suplexed the non-pasifika dev team and brought in at least a sensitivity reader, she could have fucked SO much harder. honestly imo the fact that the racism against her is superficially gender neutral is not proof that it's not sexism but proof that it IS, as a major part of racist sexism is treating the womanhood of woc as either unimportant or inferior compared to white womanhood, where pasifika woc specifically are often treated as eternal innocent girls who just can never understand an adult woman's relationship with gender. ochette not being allowed to be a woman and trapped at "child too young to even have a gender" is sickeningly sexist. she should have been allowed to have zest for life and be literally the "my daughter might have autism but god damn she can work a grill" lady and be unsure about taking on a hugely important position without it being used as shorthand for her being a toddler in the body of a notably very skinny girl considering she is canonically jacked enough to carry an iguana the size of a bus but WHATEVER. she should also have been allowed to hunt the white catholic inquisitor whose story climaxes with him killing an indigenous woman who secretly infiltrated the church in order to get revenge for them massacring her entire tribe that confirms ochette's people are kemonomimi because an ancient wizard cursed the brutish natives for their violence. actually fuck it i would put kaldena in too but thinking about her actually makes me depressed im so fucking sorry girl. they should BOTH have gotten a ten minute cutscene of beating hm to death with hammers

#polls #round 1 #week 1 #new #cw mind control #cw bullying #cw racism #cw ableism

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atarahderek · 7 months

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The Hunchback of Notre Dame - MBTI

This is my typing of each of the main characters, sans the gargoyles. I'm only going to discuss one of them in detail here, but I'll touch on each of the others as well.

Let's discuss what makes Phoebus such a healthy example of the ESTP.

Dominant Se: extroverted Sensing

Phoebus, as he's presented by Disney, just wants to live each day as it comes. He doesn't want to dwell on the past or stress about the future. He goes where he's called, thinking that wherever that is, adventure lies in store for him. His calm, collected, almost carefree demeanor makes one wonder if this man really has been at war for 20 years. Whether he has or not, he has learned through it all not to take a single day for granted. Sure, he can be impulsive and is just a little bit of a womanizer (moreso in the stage musical, but still far less so than in the book), but he knows how to keep these weaknesses in check and even use them as strengths. He's not as good of a flirt as he likes to think he is, but he stays humble enough to admit that. His Se is very well developed and shows all of its best strengths and qualities, tempered just enough by inferior Ni to keep Phoebus from jumping into everything without at least knowing and accepting the consequences.

Auxiliary Ti: introverted Thinking

This function is what gives Phoebus his skill as a strategist, a talent he's received numerous commendations for. Whenever he's presented with a new puzzle, he immediately goes to work breaking it down and analyzing each bit of it. His Ti also gives him a sharp wit, which keeps him cracking jokes. For a seasoned veteran, this is partly a coping mechanism, and partly a means by which he tries to relate to civilians in peacetime. But Phoebus is generally careful not to take it too far. His Ti is healthy, and is well tempered by tertiary Fe.

Tertiary Fe: extroverted Feeling

Phoebus' Fe is where his strength lies, and is the function that demonstrates the health of his personality type. He is in his early to mid 30s, so his Fe is at the peak of its development. It is the empathy function, seeking to relate to everyone around and tap into what they're feeling and experiencing. Phoebus displays a growth and maturity of this function in the right position at the right time that every ExTP should seek to emulate--quite the contrast to Clopin. Phoebus uses his Fe to key into what the other characters are feeling and is able to respond to them appropriately for the situation. This allows him to immediately respect Esmeralda as a person, for all that he admires her as a sexy young woman. He can remain stoic in the face of Frollo's flagrant admission to genocide, and knows the right moment to put his foot down. He stays in his position as long as he can with the clear intention of tempering Frollo's orders issued in rage, hoping to control some of the damage that Frollo is doing. But he also will not compromise when he sees others being put in immediate harm's way for Frollo's own ego. And he doesn't even consider his own safety or life when running into a burning building to rescue children, knowing full well he will probably be executed for saving such young lives.

Inferior Ni: introverted iNtuition

Phoebus is still a bit young yet to begin developing his Ni. But despite this, Ni doesn't seem to trip him up much, and it complements his Se well, even in this underdeveloped state. As mentioned above, Phoebus does not do much of anything without at least knowing what the consequences could be. Ni makes him accept them. It allows him to roll with them, and to change directions on a dime when need be. It gives him the focus necessary to see everything he does through to the end. No doubt that when Phoebus does start to develop this function in earnest, the end result will be a very wise and well rounded ESTP, who will be able to coach the next generation to become the best of themselves as well.

Leading with Se can make Phoebus appear shallow to those who don't know him well, and initially he is. But because of the strength of his other functions, Phoebus is capable of getting very deep. And the thing about the healthy ESTP is, once he goes deep, he never resurfaces. That's what gives this type its loyalty. And this is the type of loyalty we see in Phoebus. As far as fictional ESTPs go, Disney's Phoebus de Chateaupers is the single best example one can get.

Quasimodo - underdeveloped INFP

Because of Quasimodo's sheltered upbringing, he does not have much opportunity to develop his functions. He's 20 years old and should be working on his tertiary Si, but he's barely been allowed to even venture into exploring his Ne. However, despite being brought up by Disney's unhealthiest INFJ, Quasi has managed to develop a rather healthy Fi, making him an idealist. He's able to develop something of a sense of self and a defining moral center, and this allows him to connect with fellow Fi-dom Esmeralda. Quasi also has a very active imagination. If we consider the gargoyles figments of his imagination, this tells us that despite being isolated in the bell tower all his life, Quasi has still managed enough exposure to other personalities to be able to craft extremely fleshed out characters to reside in his paracosm. He can consider a multiverse of possibilities, and it gives him an idea of what he believes a perfect world would look like. His stunted Si will make adjusting to the outside world difficult, but at his age, his Te should be relatively unaffected.

Esmeralda - Blossoming ISFP

Like Quasimodo, Esmeralda is quite the idealist, with a solid moral core that she will not compromise on. Unlike Quasi, she has had time to discover who she is, and she is firm in her identity as a Romni, vocally proud of her heritage. She takes each day as it comes and doesn't consider a multitude of what-ifs the way Quasi and other Ne users do. Her outlook on life is shaped by her auxiliary Se. She doesn't worry about the past or the future because each day has enough trouble of its own. She is busy developing her Ni, which has her focused on rolling with the punches and using obstacles to her advantage. She serves as a nice foil to Phoebus' ESTP, bringing out the best traits in his type. And she offers solidarity for Quasi, who leads with Fi just as she does.

Clopin Trouillefou - ENTP caught in a loop

Clopin's age in the film is unknown, but considering he's the Rom baro (i.e. chief) of his community, there's no possible way he's younger than 35 (which is insanely young for a Rom baro) and little chance he's younger than 45 (which is still awfully young). So we have to assume that he is at an age where he should at least have started developing his inferior Si, the guiding function. But Clopin has a bit of a problem: He's looping between his dominant Ne and tertiary Fe, with his Ti being diminished to the point that he's capable of some very dumb things (not that we're letting Phoebus off the hook for falling for Frollo's ruse, but to be fair to him, he was suffering from blood loss and a concussion at the time). The Ne/Fe loop causes a person to tap into the toxic aspect of their empathy, feeding off of and reciprocating the negative emotions in the atmosphere, focusing on all the negative possibilities, and actively looking to suck all the energy out of others in a very unhealthy fashion for all parties. Clopin is in danger of becoming the Romani version of Frollo, albeit an extremely extroverted version. Letting his Ti become diminished is why Clopin foolishly takes all his guards off the entrance after capturing Phoebus and Quasimodo, which of course makes Frollo's work that much easier, allowing him to take the Court of Miracles without a fight. Hopefully with the pressure Frollo put on the Roma now gone, Clopin can claw his way out of that loop and start using his Ti and Si in a healthy manner again. He really is quite clever when he's a healthy ENTP.

Judge Claude Frollo - INFJ who should have gotten a grip, but ended up in one instead

Frollo had so much potential, and it all got shot to hellfire. As an INFJ, he had the rarest type, especially for men, and one of the most potent of all the types. His focus and empathy should've been bar none. He should've been the confidant; the compassionate priest he started out as in the novel. But early in his career, he allowed himself to slip into a loop between his Ni and Ti, and he never got out of it. He considered himself intellectually and spiritually superior to all around him, and could list out every last little reason why. And then Esmeralda came along and unwittingly plunged him into the grip of his inferior Se. He would've ended up there eventually, but Esmeralda is the one who sent him over the edge. Se is the sensory experience function, and at Frollo's age he should've already developed it in a healthy fashion that would allow it to temper his Ni. Normally, Se helps Ni remember the needs of the flesh--food, water, rest, relationships, etc. It acts as a reward system for Ni's focus and ambition. But when the Ni-dom is caught in the grip of Se, Se is taking revenge for being neglected for so long. Now it's all about the flesh. It's all about what Se wants right now. And you can't escape. Enjoy your guilt, Frollo, because Se is gonna pile it on as part of your punishment.

#the Hunchback of Notre Dame #MBTI #Myers-Briggs Type Indicator #ESTP #Phoebus #INFP #Quasimodo #ISFP #Esmeralda #ENTP #Clopin Trouillefou #INFJ #Judge Claude Frollo #analysis #typology #cognitive functions

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lorcandidlucienwill · 12 days

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Feytamsand, Part 5 for @polyacotarweek free day! (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4)

While Rhysand has clearly done some good, he has also done a lot of bad! I think it would've been neat to see Rhys take responsibility for his actions and have a true redemption arc! That is the main focus of my piece today!

Rhysand abhorred the Summer Court.

Most people loved it here. The glorious sun beaming down on this land, the ocean breeze, the mermaids and hippocampi and all the natural stones. But Rhys sunburned easily, and the heat was NOT being kind to him. He winced as the skin on his face began to peel. “The former High Lord of Night, defeated by a little sunlight,” Feyre teased. Tamlin reigned in his laugh, and Rhysand sighed. “And you would’ve been defeated by the easiest riddle of all time were it not for me,” he countered. Feyre griped, “You know that I couldn’t read because we lost our fortune early, and my sisters never bothered to teach me. Why are you making fun of my poverty?” “Weren’t you 11 when you lost your fortune? I believe that’s old enough even for a human babe to have learned. Or were you too busy chasing butterflies?” Tamlin quickly turned his laugh into a cough. Feyre rounded on him instead. “I hate to say it,” Tamlin muttered, hands up in surrender, “but he has a point.” Rhysand turned to look at Feyre smugly. “See? Even Tamlin agrees with me. That should tell you enough.” “Whatever,” Feyre snapped, storming up ahead. Rhysand cringed at himself but carried forward. “Do you two always argue like that?” Tamlin asked Rhysand, head tilted like a cat’s. Rhysand bit his lip, debating how much to tell Tamlin. Ultimately, he decided to tell him all of it. “Yes, but we usually have makeup sex after and forget about it.” Tamlin shook his head somberly. “Feyre feyre feyre. She always had a tendency to use sex as a coping mechanism; she did that with me too.”

Rhysand blinked. “As a coping mechanism?” Tamlin nodded. “Talk to her about it,” he pressed. “It’ll help her.” Rhysand scanned Tamlin’s face, searching for a trace of insincerity, but finding none. “Thank you,” Rhysand said quietly. Tamlin nodded. As they walked, they reached the entrance to the Summer Court house used for diplomatic meetings. Rhysand opened the door, bowing to Tamlin. “After you.” Tamlin grinned. “We both know you’re no gentleman, Rhys. Best stick to being an insufferable bastard.” “This is how I’m treated when I try to do something nice,” Rhysand complained, but it was lighthearted. He knew Tamlin was joking. Rhysand jolted when Tamlin wrapped an arm across his shoulders. “Thanks, Rhys. Better?” “Yes,” Rhys said. They walked together just as they had centuries ago, like nothing had changed. Tarquin sat there waiting for them. “Hello, Tamlin. I must admit, I am shocked to find out the present company you are keeping.” “They are here to take responsibility for what they did in Spring so that I may convince my people to return home,” Tamlin said. “Or more precisely, I am,” Rhysand cut in. Tamlin and Feyre both whipped around to look at Rhysand. “What do you mean?” Feyre demanded. “This is my mess too.” Rhysand shook his head. “You would’ve never done this if it weren’t for me. I was the one who made you this brutal, this vicious. And while I don’t regret it, because it helped you survive, I regret that it led you to cause harm to countless innocents needlessly. Let me protect your reputation and do this. Please.” “No,” Feyre snapped, pushing out of her chair and grabbing Rhysand by the shoulders. “This is both of our burdens. We will deal with it together.” “No,” Rhys said adamantly, placing a hand on Feyre’s cheek. “Please. I have been so stupid and selfish. I used you, Feyre. For once, let me do something for you. Don’t rob me of this chance.” Feyre blinked at his earnestness, pulling away. Tarquin and Tamlin both had strange looks on their faces. Rhysand ignored them. “Well, do you know what you’re going to say?” Tarquin asked. Rhysand nodded. “Would you mind running it by us first?” Tarquin asked. Rhysand shook his head. “I won’t do that. If I do, I’ll lose the nerve.” Tarquin sighed. “I hope you’re being truthful. Most would call me an idiot for trusting you again. Perhaps I am. What say you, Tamlin? You know him better than I.”

“I say, for the first time in centuries, Rhysand is acting honestly,” Tamlin said. Ironic, since Rhysand was lying to cover up for Feyre. Tarquin nodded. “Go ahead then, Rhys. Wow us with your apology.” Rhysand took a deep breath, ignoring the rising heartbeat of his heart, the blood rushing by his ears, the stiffening of his fingers, the slight trembling of his lips. He mustered a smirk with a confidence he didn’t feel. “You know I will.” Then he found himself facing a riotous crowd. Suddenly, he felt like an outsider watching his body facing the crowd. His mouth wouldn’t move. His body was frozen. Where were the words of acknowledgement he’d planned? He couldn’t remember a lick of the speech he’d planned now. For the first time in centuries, Rhysand is acting honestly. Rhysand ripped off the mask. Stared at the people of Summer. Some people in this crowd wished to return to their home court of Spring but didn’t trust the High Lord because of his wrongdoings. He must change that. He must right this wrong. “People of Summer, there are some of you in this crowd who have taken up residence here because Spring was massacred by Hybern. Your High Lord, Tamlin, has been taking painstaking efforts to rebuild Spring. His court is ready to start accepting your return any day now. I know many of you believe him to be a self-serving git who got his court burned by Hybern, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth. You see, Tamlin was playing double agent the whole time, gathering information to help destroy Prythian’s enemy. The destabilization of Spring was unfortunately my doing, as I believed him to be an ally of Hybern, and for my own petty selfish reasons. Do not hate Tamlin. Hate me instead.” Rhysand closed his eyes and waited to be drowned by the riot that was sure to come after his declaration.

#poly+acotarweek2024 #feyre archeron #tamlin #rhysand #feylin #feysand #tamsand #feytamsand #fanfic

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frostiifae · 2 months

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So, I dunno, thoughts about Witch from Mercury (including spoilers under readmore, so, y'know), because it seems like it's a cool thing to do, i guess. Maybe made more or less interesting because this is the first Gundam series I've actually paid full attention to.

In short, it's good! It's very good. But, I dunno, can't give it top marks as an alltime favorite. There are lots of superficial problems that probably mattered much more to me than they would to the average viewer, and like, you could argue that they just aren't even problems, I guess.

The biggest thing I can criticize without spoiling much of anything is that it dangles a lot over your head and then waits a long time to resolve almost any of it. It's tough for people who get anxiety, like me : ). No, that's not why I'm writing this post. This isn't a coping mechanism. Fuck off.

To reiterate, though, on the whole: good. Good show. Good stuff. Don't click "keep reading" unless you want to read a fucking novel, OK?

I have to say I think the strongest character of the show bar none is Prospera, but at the same time, she showcases the recurring problems I have with the show: firstly, that they spend way too long making Prospera sound sinister without you understanding at all why, and secondly, that it's a real shame we didn't get to learn more about her feelings and why (and how?) she'd gone to all of this trouble. I understand her goal in the abstract is to "create a world where Eri can exist", but it's not clear how exactly she intends to do that, and maybe it's just me, but those practical details can be really important in selling me on an idea.

Even so, I adore her. I adore the way she possesses so much influence over the plot despite having very little economic or political power herself - she just understands people, she understands what's at stake, and she understands how to manipulate things to get what she wants. I was so delighted to learn about her true motivation, imagine a girl kicking her feet and squealing as Prospera taunts Miorine about hearing the voices of her past that are urging her to seek vengeance. I wish she could have done more. I also wish she looked better. That helmet fucking sucked, dudes. C'mon.

I really want to say kind things about Suletta and Miorine, too - they had lovely character arcs in both seasons, Miorine in particular was a joy to have on screen at all times - but, ultimately, I also found them both very frustrating. The most engaging members of the cast by and large were side characters, my personal favorites being Chuchu, Nika, and Norea. (I guess Guel turned out pretty okay too.) It was a joy watching Norea go off the fucking deep end, even if her portrayal was a little shallow until it was a smidge too late; her final fight was beautiful and touching, especially the part where she went on a massive rampage and killed a lot of innocent people. I love me a hot girl who's a violent mass murderer.

Jokes aside; I found both of the main characters frustrating, but for different reasons. Suletta was the less frustrating of the two. Throughout season 1 I kept cringing at her total powerlessness within the narrative, which I know is kind of the point, but that doesn't mean I have to like it; at least in season 2 she develops a thin veneer of agency, and more to the point, the writers demonstrate that her lack of actual agency is in fact horrifying and not some kind of endearing country-bumpkin quirk, but it feels like it takes a long time before she can finally actually engage in the world she lives in.

To be clear, I don't just mean "she can decide for herself what she wants to do", that's her final arc, I know, I get it; more what I mean is, it feels like Suletta exists in a totally different show, an entirely different setting, for 75% of the show's runtime. She's not just clueless about all of the business politics and Earth vs Space racism; she's immune to it, it simply doesn't affect her, even when it badly hurts people she cares about, because she's unable to comprehend it, and can abstract away any threat behind Aerial's cockpit and duel herself to safety without ever understanding what was even at stake.

It's like Ender's Game but Ender himself never actually participates in any of the school politics, he just kinda is a prodigy in his own corner while the real story happens around him. If you're going to create a character who is powerless in the narrative, don't then shield her in the cockpit of a Gundam for the entire show, you know? If you're going to threaten me with her inability to understand what is going on, make good on that threat!! It just felt wasteful. She spent 16 episodes being a joke that we keep hoping will make Miorine smile, 2 episodes being depressed, and then the last 6 episodes being an actual character, and the tragedy is that I really liked that character and wish she'd been around for longer.

Miorine was much more fun, but also, much more frustrating. I wasn't especially into her character early in season 1, but she was at least a bitch in a fun (and highly sympathetic) way, and unlike Suletta she grew into a real character very fast, and got to spend the whole show actually having a meaningful impact on events around her. It was great! I have a few very small gripes about things she does - like the way she chooses to cut Suletta loose. I understand she's doing it for Suletta's safety, and I understand she's doing it because she believes Suletta won't be able to comprehend that reasoning - after all, their whole arc in season 1 was about depending on each other, and Miorine is being pressured into going back on her promise.

On the one hand, though, I feel like it was weird of her not even to try. At least try to explain to Suletta, listen, things are getting worse, you are going to get hurt, I don't want that, I need you to stop being Holder for your sake. You could even twist the knife further by having Suletta react with heartbreak but willingly agree when Prospera doubles down and tells her to do as Miorine says - imagine how betrayed and disgusted with herself Miorine would feel! For them to leave her completely in the dark, for her to fully betray Suletta with no warning and no attempted justification at all - and especially for Suletta to not question that - it just felt weird.

On the other hand, though, I'm really shocked and disappointed that Miorine didn't express more guilt over that decision. Given that her arc in season 1 revolves around recognizing that relying on Suletta is what makes Suletta happy, and she cares enough about Suletta to give her that kind of trust, you can't tell me that - even if she really believes it's necessary - she can just turn around and betray Suletta like she does and feel no remorse over it.

Overall this is a larger problem I have with Miorine; we don't get enough time with her feelings, so when everything finally collapses and she has a meltdown, it doesn't sell very well. I wanna be clear: I'll open the door myself is one of my favorite moments in the whole show, and that's why I'm sad. It could have been so much more, if we had had more time to see Miorine's heartache over what she did to her best friend, not to mention how tense and uncertain she must have been handing her full trust to Prospera, or leading a negotiation to Earth with the weight of Gundam's history resting squarely on her shoulders. I love cool, calm, reserved characters who can handle tense interpersonal conflict with a stern decisiveness. Miorine should be a slam dunk for me. But the best part about those characters is seeing behind the mask, even if only for little bits at a time, and there's just not enough.

Honestly, though, it's hard for me to hold anything against season 2 especially, because I think most of what frustrates me comes down to there not being enough time, and holy fuck, does that season go hard. I'm very ready to believe that there was all kinds of stuff cut from S2 because the sheer volume of things happening was so much. It's a shame to think that it's let down by its own density, that there was just too much happening to fit all of it into 12 episodes without a few things being left behind. There wasn't time for Miorine to introspect, there wasn't time for Miorine and Suletta to develop their relationship, there wasn't time for Prospera to get even more unhinged and weird, there wasn't time to examine how we could actually improve the world and its troubles, we just had too much to do. It's an unenviable position to be in, and I think it's fair to say the show does a great job with what it has.

Umm. Is there anything else? I could talk about the dudes. I could gush about Norea and Sophie, I guess, but I doubt I have anything particularly interesting to add there, I'm sure the takes "Norea is hot" and "I wish they could have been more toxic yuri on screen" are lukewarm at best. I could talk about Eri, I suppose, but I don't feel really strongly about her - I think she's weird, her presence as a character is very strange, the fact that she was a protagonist is weird, and just like with everything else, I think it comes down to a lack of time to be able to really get into understanding her. I can't say it's a mistake, really, so that'll just stay a mystery, and it's one I don't especially care to solve anyway. She can stay a weirdo for all I care.

Uh, I think that's kinda all? Oh, what, robot designs? Uh, Aerial over Calibarn, don't @ me. They're both sick tho.

#gundam #mobile suit gundam #witch from mercury #it's really funny how ellie couldn't wait like ONE day to reblog that srw wfm theories post. like really honey #it's okay though with full context yeah that's all pretty accurate #and like. realistically. what was spoiled even. like she said; the big space laser had to show up eventually #OH shit there was one other thing! Uhh I think it's a fucking crime everyone wants to make Suletta kinda masc coded.#Hyperfemme Suletta from the ED animation was a fucking goddess. I love her #Suletta and Miorine should both wear dresses to prom. Mio wears enough suits for work

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