#my point is. this was clearly supposed to be a character flaw. but this person got clearly upset bc they thought it was an author flaw

[teddiebearie]

seeing a post that was made after seeing another post and having the second post remind me of another, completely unrelated third post.... yeah.

#teddy's talk #that one was abt redemption arcs tho. the thing i'm thinking about now is flaws of the author vs flaws of the character #and how some people really need to realise the author's intent DOES matter #like there was this one post i saw abt a character where he misunderstood something another character was going through #in a story that has very clearly set up a narrative where patriarchy is a big problem #like. almost every single female character suffers under it. this is explicitly highlighted several times. #anyway the character misunderstood something another character went through bc he's a guy and despite being kind of outcast #still benefits from being a guy. and the other character had had specific problems *because of* the patriarchal hierarchy. #and he was like 'she hates me bc i'm privileged' which wasn't quite right. #and this person was like yeah the author doesn't quite get it :// #like!!!! no!!!! no that was exactly the point!!!! he's a good and sympathetic guy and the author was trying to show that even HE has trouble #understanding properly bc that's how this kind of stuff tends to work—people who benefit from oppressive systems don't... #fully realise just how bad it gets unless they actually Try to understand. and he's not quite there yet. #my point is. this was clearly supposed to be a character flaw. but this person got clearly upset bc they thought it was an author flaw #or when ppl talk about madoka and completely ignore the original intended message #but that's another can of worms

[ratrrriot]

How do you feel when people call Amy a stalker?

People can call her what they want, however…

Do i think it's fair to call Amy a stalker?

In some of the games? Yes, and even in some of the ones she wasn't a stalker per-se, she still showed possessive and obsessive tendencies. So i get where it comes from...

Generally? No. Her character originally wasn't supposed to be a harasser and she sure isn't one in the present. the franchise has been clearly trying to do better for her these past few years.

I think Amy's changing characterization is an interesting topic of discussion, so even though i technically already answered your question i'll take this chance and proceed to talk about my fave for way longer than i need to :).

Note: This is just my take on Amy and the way i understand her ENGLISH PORTRAYAL. I won't be talking about her japanese one which would deserve its own analysis.

Sorry for any writing mistakes in advance (english is hard) and feel free to correct me if i'm factually wrong about something (i wrote this thing mostly from memory so i imagine i must be.)

Amy has changed A LOT troughout the games and has been in the hands of many different writers across Sonic media ,so when talking about her is important to be specific about what game,series or comic we are talking about (and language),and while i know that some of you might not agree and i respect that, i think that -looking at the subtleties- Amy has had at least 6 different portrayals through the course of the games. That being said,i believe the idea that she is a stalker comes especifically from the characterization they started giving her around 2003

Originally,Amy was envisioned as a sweet 12-year-old kid who had a huge unreciprocated crush on her idol and a passion for fortune-reading ,but who wasn't exactly much of a heroine herself. In the classic era,her place in the narrative was just to serve as a damsel in distress and a cute,funny detail. Ofc,in comics and animated shorts for games like Origins, we have gotten more content of classic Amy being fully independent and capable of defending herself (even more with the upcoming playable mode for her in Origins Plus), but i think we can all see how such aspects of her character weren’t included at the time she was created (only exception being Sonic Fighters)

Especifically in the adventure era (AKA the birth of modern Amy) they gave Amy her iconic strong,compassionate,romantic personality and an interest/love for adventure (and her sassy attitude ofc). She's outspoken,stubborn,brave and honest. I also want to point out that in this first portrayal ,her love for Sonic feels more like innocent childish idolization than an obsession and that her character doesn't revolve exclusively around it (she will stand in his way if she doesn't think what he does is right). Tbh i think she's incredibly funny,cool and lovable,

They slowly started planting the seeds for her character to stop being a "damsel in distress" by making her playable and defeat ZERO all on her own at the end of SA1,then also being playable in Sonic advance and helping Sonic get out of prison in SA2 (and tagging along for the rest of the adventure). In all these games,her character revolves around empathy,optimism and kindness. The way she protects the flicky since the moment she finds it,how she defends Gamma from Sonic and the iconic moment in SA2 where she convinces Shadow to help save earth are all great examples.

THEN, in Heroes , they decided to try something new with her taking her confidence and sassy attitude to a whole other level. Giving her the chance to be a fully-fleshed hero who didn't need rescuing anymore. She became independent and the leader of her own team of friends who she wanted to help. I love this Amy cause she feels really strong,determined and empowered without losing her peppiness,silliness,positivity and kindness. Her flaws are also especially endearing to me: How much of a wild kid she is,How even if she means well, she relies way too much in brute force, How she has trouble getting out of her own head, etc. She really feels just as confident and energic as Sonic,but just like him,you can tell she has a huge heart.

HOWEVER, as much as i love how they made her strength and bravery shine in this game, Heroes was the game that gave birth to the idea that Amy is willing to chase and even fight Sonic just to insist that they should marry (in SA2 she did follow him to the prison but it was only to help him and tag along in the adventure).

Ofc this was supposed to be comedic and to be seen as childish,harmless behavior- I say this because the rest of the characters,including Sonic himself,don't seem to take it seriously- but what was supposed to be seen as an endearing flaw at the time, would rapidly mute into what's probably Amy's worst portrayal ,as the writers turned it into harassment for the next mainline games (Ignoring Shadow the hedgehog where she is the same as in heroes and only has a brief appearance.)

Before i go into Battle,i just want to say that the definition of stalker according to google is “a person who harasses or persecutes someone with unwanted and obsessive attention.” A definition that definitely did not apply to her before Heroes,but that i can't deny that does apply to Amy for the next few games:

In Battle, Amy is suddenly written as aggresive and self-centered. All her compassion and empathy from the adventure era is gone, intimidating people (even Cream) and demanding information from them from the get-go. Of course she does a few good things throughout the game too,like take care of Emerl and such,but she still mainly uses him for her benefit (calories counter and emerald radar). Right off the bat,at the start of her storyline she insists on searching for Sonic even when she herself assumes he is hiding from her -which implies she knows what she's doing is worth hiding for- and tries to justify her behavior by saying that Sonic actually loves her and that he is being “ just shy “ or that “ he got cold feet”- while others characters react in a way that implies that's obviously not the case and that her behavior is worrysome..

I think it's important to mention that before Battle, we hadn’t gotten a single line of dialogue that implied that Amy tought that her behavior could be hurtful for Sonic, nor did she ever threaten anyone at all unless it was self defense. She knew he didn’t reciprocate her feelings and was actively trying to make him fall for her anyways,sure, but we gotta remember that while the canon ages might have been scrapped recently, at the time Modern Amy was created they were still very much canon and you can tell they had them in mind when writing these characters. Amy was supposed to be 12 ,so it makes sense that she didn't understand why Sonic wouldn’t accept her affection. She idolized him and misinterpreted the fact that he always was protecting her as possible romantic interest,but never actually imposed anything on him. The worst thing she ever did to him was wanting to hug him without consent,and again, the games implied that she clearly didn't realize such a thing wasn't ok. Sonic also didn't seem to want to hurt her feelings so while he did run away and expressed being annoyed by her he never explicitly told her to stop. I actually think that if he had sat her down and made it clear to her that what she was doing was truly bothering him, The Amy from the adventure era would have stopped, but i doubt he cared enough to do that honestly (after all ,in his recap screens it is implied that what truly bothers him about Amy being near him is not her crush,but that he thinks shes exposed to danger.)

BUT in Battle and for the next three games,Amy doesn’t seem to be written as a 12-year-old who mistakes admiration for love anymore. This is where the writers started to portray her as someone who is clearly still young and definitely childish but not innocent. Her whole character revolves around harassing Sonic and using her strength to intimidate others, and don't get me wrong,I like that Amy gets angry easily!! i like that she isn't afraid of a fight,that she complains a lot, and that she isn't peaceful. After all,those are important parts of who she is. But Battle!Amy is on a whole other level: she gets mad at her friends just because they don't agree with everything she does or says. It's not about having a strong personality anymore,she's just generally aggressive. For the next few games she and Sonic can't have one normal conversation that isn't Amy imposing her own wishes over him and him trying to get away from her, so it's hard to believe she wouldn't realize that what's she's doing is wrong nor accidental as we were supposed to before. This time It just feels like she is deciding to ignore the signs.

This continued in advance 3 ,where she literally threatens him with her hammer just cause he shows signs of not being interested in spending time with her when they meet, Then in rush she becomes possesive and jealous the second he mentions Blaze and also seems to treathen him with the hammer in the credits scene because he is running from her hug.

They changed the direction of her characterization again after Rush. The best way i can describe the Amy that is present in Riders,06,etc is one that has two very polarized sides to her personality. On one side,she is a peppy,sweet,over enthusiastic and romantic girl, on the other she is a pretty intimidating one with an obsession with Sonic and very fiery temper. However,contrary to her last portrayal,she is more polite and actually asks Sonic if she can come with him various times,doesn't harass him and doesn't threaten people simply cause they don't agree with her anymore, but she still doesn't seem to have any sense of boundaries,still follows Sonic without permission sometimes and still clearly has no consideration for his personal space. Another thing about this Amy is how her flirting is really intense, and even if she isn't as aggressive as the Amy from Battle,if someone messes a bit with her she doesn't hesitate to resort to intimidation or take her hammer out.

She still gets violent towards Sonic sometimes,but what's different from her last characterization is that instead of doing so merely because he doesn't show romantic interest in her ,its mostly because he doesn't follow on his promises (end of Black Knight) or shows up to save her “properly” (Referring to 1- that scene in Riders where he blows eggman -who had caught Amy- away with wind and she chases him with her hammer because “how could he not think that would hit her too “ and 2- the one in Zero Gravity where he arrives late to save her and she playfully throws him a few fists saying that “it took him long enough!”). I don't think she's necesarily right to do that but i don't consider it to be problematic either, since by that point the games had strongly implied that there was a non-spoken agreement between the two that he'll always show up to save her and the whole thing feels more playful than anything else. Mostly because Sonic seems to be fine with her being around again, as he never really denies her acussations or runs away when she gets mad,and even tries to explain himself to her.

So yeah,this Amy is one of the more famous -and infamous- ones,as her negative and positive qualities are more balanced than the one from Battle. However,i personally don't like her much as there's almost no focus on the empathetic/compassionate side of her character that was so prominent in the adventure era and ,even if i wouldn’t call this version of her a Stalker , she's still is way too obsessive and possesive for my liking. The writing for her character is still pretty much completely based on being attracted to Sonic, to the point that In 06 she tells Silver that, if she had to, she'd “choose Sonic over the world".

In Sonic Chronicles , Amy gets a lot of dialogue. She gets jealous in a scene but its not as bad as in Rush and she tries to make Sonic jealous by inventing a fake boyfriend (terrible trope) but her levels of aggressiveness are up to the player's treatment of her. I am ,however , mentioning this game because of a scene in specific near the final section in which Amy is scared they might die and aks Sonic if she can have a moment with him. She then tries to have a serious conversation and politely asks if he cares about her or if he likes her at all. if the player chooses to make Sonic say he does care for her she is legitimately surprised and thankful. Idk what happens If he rejects her cause i haven't been able to find any recordings of that and i never owned this game,but i'll assume that her reaction won't be too bad considering she is asking in the first place(?) feel free to tell me if you know…

This portrayal of Amy is still present in Unleashed (2008) ,in which Amy is there to cheer/support Sonic on throughout the game and to serve as an important indicator that Sonic is quite self conscious of his looks when he's a werehog. She is generally very sweet towards him in this game (especially when she shows no rejection towards his werehog form,which is a detail i adore), even if she does get annoyed when he doesn't pay as much attention to her as he does to Chip or reciprocate her feelings.

A good example is how, before the last temple ,she asks him if he'd like to go on a date with her after everything is over. If you choose the positive dialogue option she is ,again, positively surprised and thankful. If you make him say no she complains about how he's being mean, but doesn't insist on it and just accepts it.

In Free Riders (2010) ,Amy just generally acts extremely out out of character (like,she doesn't even fit into Battle's portrayal). It really feels like someone who didn't know anything about the character wrote her, so for the sake of the pink hedgie let's ignore it and go back to talking about portrayal 4.

I already mentioned her brief apparition in Black Night and there's nothing worth mentioning about her in Generations so i'll skip them.

This portrayal ended in Lost World (2013),In which they toned down Amy as a character in general,leaving out all of her flaws and iconic traits out. She feels plain and her strong personality,confidence,sass,energy,etc all seem to be completely gone. She's just sweet and that's it . For some reason there's a scene where she literally tries to confess to Sonic and is cut off before she can finish,which is very funny considering it had never been treated as a secret before??? it really goes to show how hard they were trying to pull some kind of reboot on her. Fortunately,this characterization was only a two-game-thing (She is just as plain in Forces (2015)) so i'll put it in the same bag as the Free riders one and we'll leave it at that.

After Lost world came Boom (2014) ,and then we got the most recent change of Amy's personality,which we all know has had a mixed reception from the fandom. Originally people thought that this Amy would stay just in the Boom universe ,but this personality has been showing up in the mainline games for a while now,like in Team Sonic Racing (2019) and Frontiers (2021).

This Amy feels older than any of the ones that came before her. She kept the sass,the love for romanticism,the positive attitude,the confidence and the strenght but her bad temper and over enthusiasm are gone,as she is generally more calm,less energetic and not childish at all. Most importantly,this Amy is extremely emotionally intelligent,as the rest of characters seem to look for her help and advice constantly ( to the point that she has been given the "therapist friend" title by the fandom and is even referred as "the nice one" by Eggman himself ). Another interesting thing about this Amy is that she doesn't flirt with Sonic anymore,In fact, she barely expresses her liking for him (She does so a bit more in Japanese chz the characterization varies) and Sonic seems completely comfortable with this version of her around.

A lot of people say that this version of her is out of character and I completely understand where that comes from, but i must disagree because this characterization of Amy is the first one since the adventure era that focuses on her compassion/empathy rather than on her crush on Sonic, which combined with her intelligence,makes her not out of character,just the most emotionally mature Amy to date instead. I actually think that if the og modern Amy had grown up,this is the kind of personality she would’ve developed while becoming an adult (although she isn't supposed to be one). A good argument to defend this point would be that one Egg-memo you can buy through the fishing minigame in Frontiers where Eggman talks about how Amy has "come a long way" and how it took her some time "to find herself" and get out of Sonic's shadow.

Only problem i have with this Amy is that i wish she was more flawed and bubbly,mostly cause she can come off as very plain from time to time and way too mature. She is a bit too perfect for my taste. I'd like her to mess up more,to not always be so smart,to be more impulsive,a little bit more clumsy,fiery and wild,just so she could have some more of the charm of the original,y'know?

Before i talk about her more recent Videogame portrayal (TMoSTH) i want talk about IDW Amy:

in IDW, all of Amy's flaws and positive traits from past games are balanced pretty well: she is flawed and relatable and can mess up a bit sometimes because of her impulsivity,but she's emotionally and strategically inteligent, optimistic and incredibly kind. She is a great fighter and leader,but also a wonderful friend who offers emotional support. She has a strong personality, lots of sass and can be very aggressive and intimidating towards her enemies, but not any less of an empathetic and compassionate person because of that. Her strength and confidence are pillars for her character instead of nonsensical anger,but she still shows self doubt and fear from time to time. She is energic, idealistic and still a romantic,but not obsessive nor possesive. peppy but emotionally intelligent. She still loves Sonic, but her feelings for him feel authentic rather than childish idealization,and given that she now respects his space,she's written to be happy just with fighting by his side and jokingly flirt from time to time. (their bond also seems stronger,but that's a topic for another day.)

I believe this portrayal of her is one of the best we've gotten in the sense that she represents a good mix of most things that has made her positively memorable since the beginning and lacks every problematic aspect of her character that was added post her creation. And because of this good mix of characteristics, IDW Amy is constantly praised by the fandom. But something i hear a lot is people saying how they love IDW Amy and despise "Main Amy" -by which i'll assume they refer to videogame Amy just in general- and that way of summarizing all of Amy's game portrayals feels very odd to me, especially because IDW Amy is a culmination of every single good aspect that has been added to this character combined with most of what she was meant to be at the start. In other words,IDW Amy couldn't exist if it wasn't for all the game Amys before her.

It's true that in IDW we haven't seen her character be as impulsive and outspoken as in the Adventure era or Heroes, and i miss that as much as every other Amy fan. But I do think that ,because so much assertiveness wouldn’t coexist very well with things like careful thought, the reason for that change must be that IDW is writing an more mature version of the character and It’s hard for them to keep such aspects of her personality intact without her being seen as childish by the audience now that they are paired up with big responsabilities (ex: the restoration) Especially since that super impulsive nature of hers probably came naturally at the time because she was supposed to be a 12-year old and wether we like it or not, it was implied by the narrative that it was one of the main reasons she got caught by eggman both in SA1 and SA2. Aka,IDW Amy isn't allowed to make as many mistakes as the og.

After all ,Amy used to be written to be mostly seen as a comedic character and as an "extra addition" to the main team rather than as an important,needed member of it. ( even in Heroes,where she had formed her own team,she was still trying to catch up to Sonic and his team because she had been excluded of it.) If she made a mistake and got caught by eggman because of her stubborness,the writers would just make Sonix fix things. In IDW she doesn't just feel older,but she has also gotten to have important roles in the fight against Eggman and people rely on her with their lives,so it doesn't surprise me that the writers try to make her be more conscious and careful when it comes to her actions now that she has more responsibilities and can't allow herself to make as many mistakes as she did back when she was written to be more immature and impulsive because of that extreme assertiveness.

Now,I personally believe that Amy in TMoSTH is the same as in IDW, just that she feels more like her OG self in TMOSTH because ,for the most part ,Bday Girl is on that train literally to just have fun and do as she pleases. She doesn't have any weight on her shoulders nor expectations,she is free of responsabilities all the way until the climax of the game and the game itself is very comedy-centric for the most part, so the writers pobably felt like they could set that impulsive,assertive side of her loose again, and i loved it!

In this game her character doesn't revolve around Sonic and she messes up a lot (The way she was so ashamed of how she broke her hammer when she tried to escape the closet with brute force that she lied, how she didn't realize Sonic was actually hurt because she was too excited about the game, how she was overconfident and impulsively tried to solve the case and completely failed ,how she and vector started beating a wall violently after realizing the train was alive,etc),but her positive qualities shine throughout the game as well ( How she took the time to organize a party that she'd think everyone would have fun at,How she is so thankful that everyone showed up and doesn't mind that Shad and Sonic didn't bring gifts, how she makes sweets remarks about others and cute jokes in distressing situations,how she has faith in Shadow's goodwill, The way she delivers the final blow at the end and says that despite everything,she loved the party because it was an adventure,etc ). Throughout the game,Sonic and the rest treat her in a way that really goes to show what a good friend and a lovely person she is ,and she expresses great appreciation for everyone's presence in her life.

It's honestly an amazing coincidence that this game takes place on her bday considering that it's the one that made this portrayal of her "game canon". As a fan of her, i celebrate it and hope we get more of it in the near future.

So yeah, i didn't talk about Sonic X Amy,Archie Amy nor all the comics,series and games that came out between the big videogame titles. There is much more about how Amy has been written that could be said, but i think i did a pretty decent summary of the most important changes her character has gone through the years mainline game-wise,at least good enough to defend my point that she wasn't a stalker originally and she definitely isn't one now. As i mentioned before,i agree that she was portrayed as possesive and obsessive for a long period of time and as an actual harasser for a shorter one , and that we should definitely recognize it and be critical of such things being portrayed as “quirky” and “funny” aspects when they are in reality, hurtful. BUT summarizing her whole character by calling her a stalker and an obsessive fangirl is defining her based on the worst examples of her characterization and ignoring her good ones completely.

Feel free to disagree with my character analysis,my opinions and the way i categorize her portrayals,but i strongly believe that Amy rose isn't meant to be a harasser,an obsessive fangirl or personal space invader.

My girl deserves better.

#also don't get me wrong i love battle #is just that Amy is really hard to like in that game #props to her for carrying weights for half of it tho we stan a strong pink rat #if you actually read this whole thing props to you #also thanks anon for giving me an excuse to talk about amy #amy rose #sonic spoilers #character analysis

[thats-ill-eagle]

HELLUVA BOSS DEVIATING FROM ITS ORIGINAL PREMISE FUNDAMENTALLY DESTROYED THE SHOW

So, it has already been discussed many times in HB critical community that HB deviated from its premise after S1 and that anyone with an once of media literacy can tell that you can't describe it in any way other than horrible writing.

Now, I'm going to ask you this for a second - imagine that you haven't seen S1, the pilot or read the premise of Helluva Boss anywhere. Imagine that you watch all (available) episodes of S2 and are asked to write a premise about it on some movie review website. How would you briefly describe what happens in S2?

Oh, you can't or are having major trouble doing it? Don't worry, you are not media illiterate, my friend. That is the case because IT'S LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO TELL WHAT HELLUVA BOSS IS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT ANYMORE.

There are many flaws that your writing could possess - inconsistent characterization, too fast/slow pacing and so on. However, they do not automatically derail your work. It is very much possible to recognize those faults, learn from them and do better in the future.

But the premise of your work is its literal BONES. You build up the plot and characters based on it. You just can't expect your show to be good, if you tear out its basis. Of course the pacing, character development and how plot points are wrapped up in HB is horrible - how can anything function without the very thing that holds it all together?

And I MEAN that the premise of HB completely disappears, not shifts or changes. Like, seriously, what the hell is HB supposed to be about now?

Stolitz?

Their interactions indicate zero meaningful development and are tediously spaced out to the point that it's hard to care about their relationship. It is made even worse by the fact that Stolas, just like in S1, still keeps pressuring Blitzo, despite him being clearly uncomfortable.

Blitzo making amends with people he hurt?

Even ignoring S1's nonexistent buildup of this plotline (Blitzo looking at photos on his phone doesn't count, since it's literally the ONLY moment that barely suggests it), there's no buildup in S2 either, when it comes to both Barbie and Fizz. It is certainly not helped by the fact that Barbie just vanishes after Unhappy Campers and Blitzo and Fizz's beef is resolved in a single episode.

Any other plotlines of S2, like Fizz's job, Crimson, Striker, or Stolas and Stella's separation are just too small or insignificant to be considered part of the supposed premise, INCLUDING the assassination business, which arguably takes up the least amount of time of aspects of the show listed.

It's no surprise that Helluva Boss is slowly crumbling. At this point, it's just a paralysed zombie who completely forgot what it once was. And it's damn sad to watch, because the show comforted me during some dark times and, despite Viv being an awful person, I truly hoped for HB to be great.

#vivziepop critical #vivziepop criticism #helluva boss critical #helluva critical #helluva boss criticism #anti helluva boss #helluva critique

[thishazbinamistake]

In my opinion, Loona is a character with some of the most wasted potential in Helluva Boss.

Though we don't have a ton of information about her background, we do know she lived in a shelter for much (or maybe even all) of her childhood. Loona is cold and distant to her adoptive father, and outright rude to many others, particularly Moxxie, who she constantly mocks and belittles. I'm thinking that this behavior is either a result of her upbringing, or perhaps it was even the reason she was put into the shelter to begin with. But until more is revealed about her past, I want to complain about the way she's currently written.

Loona is abusive, plain and simple. The way she treats Blitz, her adoptive father, goes way past simple angsty teenage rebellion and well into the abuse territory. Any semblance of Loona being remotely sympathetic was thrown out the window in Seeing Stars, when she kicks Blitz in the groin, all because he was relieved to see her and wanted to give her a hug. And all of that after she gives Octavia the "cut your dad some slack" speech.

I've seen people try and defend this behavior by pointing out that Loona has childhood trauma, and this is why she has these behavioral issues. It's certainly not unheard of for victims of childhood abuse/neglect to have anger issues and poor emotional regulation, and I would have absolutely no problem with this being the case if it was shown to actually be a problem, but it isn't. Not once does Loona get called out for her behavior or face any sort of consequence for treating others poorly. If anything, this abusive behavior is treated as a joke more often than not.

It's extremely ironic that one of the most despised characters in Helluva Boss, Stella, receives so much hate for being abusive towards Stolas, when we've seen Loona do far worse to Blitz. I honestly cannot think of a logical reason as to why we're supposed to like Loona, while also hating Stella. We see Stella nearly hit Stolas and it's (rightfully) treated as being abusive. But when Loona is constantly beating up her dad for no good reason, we're just supposed to laugh? It seems extremely hypocritical on both the writers' part, as well as many of the fans'. I honestly can't tell if the writers genuinely think this behavior is okay (when it's coming from Loona) or if they just see it as a quirky character trait of hers.

If we're supposed to find Loona likeable, which we clearly are, then the writers seriously need to start making some changes. I'm not saying they should just completely retcon Loona's character and suddenly make her nice, but they do need to start being consistant with how they portray abuse, and they seriously need to stop excusing and coddling her horrible behavior, regardless of if she has childhood trauma. That is not how you grow as a person and overcome your issues. Yes, it's a process that is often long and difficult, but it hasn't been shown that Loona is actually trying to make any change at all, or that anyone is actually encouraging her to change.

If you want an actually halfway decent example of a character overcoming their trauma (at least within the Hellaverse) look no further than Blitz himself. It's clear his father was abusive and explotative towards him, not to mention he accidentally caused the death of his mother and the maiming of his close friend. Both of these things likely contributed to many of Blitz's flaws and issues as an adult. But the thing is, despite all that, Blitz himself isn't abusive to his daughter. He has shown nothing but unconditional love and devotion to his daughter despite his past. I'm not saying Blitz is a perfect character by any means (I won't excuse him literally threatening to rape his employees), but it really goes to show this whole argument of 'Loona acts the way she does because she has childhood trauma and that makes it okay' doesn't hold up to scrutiny as much as her stans seem to think.

I think a good idea would be to start showing more of how Loona's behavior negatively affects those around her, something which would give her the motivation to want to change. Show how hurt Blitz feels whenever Loona lashes out at him. We get a taste of this in Spring Broken when she hurts Blitz's feelings, but it's clear from both her dialogue in the scene as well as her later actions that the writers apparently don't want her to actually learn from her mistakes and grow as a character, which is such a shame.

Loona had the opportunity to be an extremely complex and compelling character if her aggression and violent outbursts were actually addressed as being a problem she needed to overcome, and if she actually tried changing herself for the better. Seeing the effort she puts into treating others better and breaking the cycle of abuse would have made her character feel so much stronger and more likeable. But instead, the show just treats this abusive behavior as a quirky, edgy joke and "lol that's just classic Loona!! What can ya do lol!!!"

She does have her moments where a good character actually shines through, but they're so few and far in between. I want to like Loona so much, but as it currently stands, I just can't, and that makes me sad.

#helluva boss critical #vivziepop critical #loona critical

[aroaceleovaldez]

random question but i came across a post of yours where you talked about how mark oshiro sort of erased an aspect of nico's ADHD by making a joke about how he only liked mythomagic cards because he's gay and there are hot guys on the cards, and then TSATS also seemed to really downplay the themes of neurodivergence in the series. and it made me wonder if you have any thoughts on how the show has portrayed the demigods' ADHD and dyslexia so far? i've seen some people say that the show also downplayed it a lot, and i'm inclined to agree... which feels really weird considering that rick's own son's neurodivergence was specifically a major inspiration for him writing the series. but if i recall correctly a lot of scenes showcasing that in the first book were taken out of the show.

Oh absolutely, a lot of scenes and general discussion about adhd/dyslexia were removed in the show (and some of the disability-coding in general - i appreciate the change they made with making Chiron disabled based on his mythos rather than just using a wheelchair as a disguise, but i wish they had kept Grover's crutches in a similar manner honestly) - I've made a couple of posts discussing it: here, here, and this reblog is relevant to my opinions about the matter. There's probably some other stuff in my pjo tv crit tag.

I think the main sentiment i have regarding it - which i've seen a couple of other people mention as well - is how much the show ignores or outright removes and downplays Percy's personal struggles with his disabilities to instead emphasize Sally's experiences instead, particularly in manners of her taking out her stress on Percy - which alongside being completely antithetical to Sally's role in the books, is pretty ableist and why I continually compare show!Sally to Autism Speaks Parents. Autism Speaks tends to make an emphasis on the struggles of the parents of autistic children rather than treating autistic individuals like a person experiencing their own struggles. One of the major points of Sally's character (and later Paul) in the books is that she's an incredibly accommodating parent and works hard to make sure Percy is supported when he's struggling with his disabilities, because he's not been able to find that accommodation elsewhere. That's part of why Sally is such a great mom in particular, and is intentionally supposed to directly contrast Annabeth's home life struggles with her parents having difficulty navigating how to provide that same level of accommodation to help support her (and how Annabeth finds that accommodation at CHB instead, because that's the metaphor that CHB is supposed to represent - an appropriately accommodating system they can rely on, and then exploring how that's still a flawed system and looking at how disabled kids/demigods fall through the cracks and how to change the system to better support them).

The show also almost completely ignores Percy's ADHD/dyslexia experiences in general after the first episode. I was honestly really happy with, in the first episode, how clearly Percy's poor experiences in the American education system, particularly relating to his neurodivergence, have informed his reaction to situations such as people trying to tell him he's a demigod in coded language. It was essentially the perfect update to something i've discussed in the past here, about how the original "all demigods have adhd/dyslexia because it's secretly SUPERPOWERS" thing was presented as the basis for the series and why that teaching/parenting style fell out of favor. We see Percy in e1 acknowledge how dismissive of his struggles it is to constantly just be told he's "special" - and we even get explicit acknowledgement of how that description is used aggressively and for ostracization (from Nancy), which is extremely true to the experiences of kids who grew up with that teaching/parenting structure. But then we get to episode 2 and... all the acknowledgement of ADHD/dyslexia/etc is gone. We get at most a one-off acknowledgement from Luke that demigods are all neurodivergent and that's it. Pretty much nothing else for the entire rest of the season, save for flashback scenes that only emphasize Sally's experiences, not acknowledge Percy's. No further acknowledgement of Percy's dyslexia, or Annabeth's, or anything about their ADHD, or even Percy's completely removed PTSD (which we know for sure because of both writer commentary [see: that second post i linked about the LA Times article] and Percy's total lack of reaction to Mr. D). Nothing.

It was extremely disheartening to say the least, having such a strong start and it evaporating completely, and I fully agree with you.

#pjo #percy jackson #riordanverse #pjo tv #pjo tv crit #adhd #Anonymous #ask #long post // #ask to tag

[kirain]

your gale takes actually got me to look deeper into forgotten realms lore (esp where it pertains to the afterlife) and long story short i’m at least a little bit fixated on it now and also will go to bat for that wizard basically at any point. also wild magic. i’ve been reading so much about wild magic, it’s so so interesting. esp wild magic sourced from the far realm and the implications that could have for a wild magic mage in esp the bg3 setting

Thank you, I'm so glad to hear that! I'm still learning about the lore myself (there's so much), and we should all be thanking Larian for introducing so many new people to D&D!

Wild magic is insane, and I had a great time using it with my sorcerer. The magic system in general is truly fascinating, as is its history in context of the game. It's just too bad it's linked to a god. I think I've said this before, but an irksome detail about Mystra is that she technically isn't a "bad" god, but she should definitely keep her fingers to herself. Every iteration has done objectively horrible things to mortals, but because she's written by a man who clearly favours her (in my humble opinion) nothing she does is presented as wrong. 😒

These asks actually reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend of mine. He basically said, "Elminster is on Mystra's side and he cares about Gale, so obviously Mystra is right." But here's the thing:

Not only is Eliminster a really annoying self-insert made by Ed Greenwood, the creator of the Forgotten Realms (and I mean that literally, he's admitted he's a self-insert), but Eliminster has also had ... "relations" with his surrogate daughter. He's betrayed his friends for Mystra. He's killed arguably innocent people. So you'll have to forgive me if I don't look to him for moral guidance. He also slept with the previous iterations of Mystra and blindly follows her commands, so he might just be a teensy bit biased. In fact, if you look at various forums, you'll see a lot of players complaining about the character's irritating Gary Stu status, and that Dungeon Masters hate putting him in their campaigns.

Elminster will never question Mystra, because in his mind she's a perfect being who deserves everything, including people's lives; ignoring the fact that pretty much every god in D&D is canonically flawed. He's the type of person who would tell a grieving parent that God took their recently deceased child for "reasons we cannot comprehend".

He says he took no pleasure in burdening Gale with her ultimatum, but let's be real—he wasn't that hurt by it. In fact, the Elminster we meet in game isn't even real. It's a snow clone. He couldn't be bothered to visit Gale, who he apparently respects and cares about, in person. The only time he shows any genuine emotion towards Gale is in the ascended epilogue, when he writes him a disappointed letter. And I wouldn't be surprised if that disappointment is more about him challenging Mystra than actually achieving godhood.

Though it should be said that Elminster is also a victim of Mystra. The iteration before Midnight (current Mystra) groomed and abused him for a millenia, yet for some reason we, the audience, are supposed to pretend there's nothing wrong with that. If anything, we're supposed to view it as "sexy". As if Gale and Elminster are "lucky" to have caught her attention.

Reading up on the lore surrounding these two is truly horrifying. Elminster is old enough now that his actions are informed and unforgivable. He helps Mystra groom boys to exploit and never questions her. He's not merely complacent, he's active in her ploys. Despite his numerous heroic feats, I personally can't overlook it, especially when he could have been Gale's biggest defender.

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #larian studios #gale of waterdeep #gale dekarios #dnd #d&d #dungeons and dragons #bg3 mystra #elminster #lore

[justatalkingface]

Everything Changed When The War Arc Attacked:

Or, why do I hate the War Arc so fucking much?

At this point, eh, why not? Writing every day is supposed to be good for improving as a writer.

ECWTWAA is a simple, quippy line that holds all of my festering loathing for watching MHA gleefully hurl itself off a cliff once the War Arc happened, and, much like someone jumping off a cliff like an utter moron (or the Air Nomads after the Fire Nation attacked), it has never truly recovered.

*sigh*

In retrospect, MHA had been going downhill for a long time before that point, and a lot of it was something I noticed unconsciously, but didn't quite rise to me really paying conscious attention to it, beyond a few notable points (*cough*, Bakugou, *cough* FuCkiNg NIGHTEYE), but as my brain was somewhat in the off position as I read, I was still enjoying the ride, even as it bumped; the enjoyment was as much, if not more, that I used to enjoy it more than the actual content, but there was enjoyment.

If MHA before The War Arc was a somewhat imperfect roller coaster ride, the only way I can describe the War Arc is if the roller coaster ride abruptly ended in the side of a cliff, only somehow dragged out for months of slow paced agony. I watched, in vaguely real time, as Hori systematically trashed the last foundations of his story, the swan song of one of the best, most interesting characters in the series, toss aside the sudden yet exciting development of it's main villain, and escalate to a higher gear than ever before the constant work to protect some of the most vile characters, including said mass murdering villain, from even the slightest criticism by sacrificing everyone around them, as well as the very integrity of the story, to the alter of, 'They're not that bad, honest! Don't hurt their little feelings, you bully!'

And, I watched him finally finish the lobotomy on his main character, permanently ripping away what remained of his original personality and intelligence, leaving an empty puppet, a Deku, with the singular purpose of driving the story faster, and faster, and faster towards that thing that Hori seems to crave above everything else now: The End.

Freedom, freedom from the strangling chains of a merciless Jump schedule, of a plot long grown too complex for him to manage, or for him to even want to try, and from the burden of writing characters and stories he so clearly seems to despise, for some reason. And if they only way he feels he can get it is by burning everything he's done down to the ground, well, Hori's clearly more than willing.

In all honesty it became obvious that, in all of MHA, he only actually liked six things: Endeavour, Bakugou, body horror, dramatic, flashy fight scenes with flashy super powers, attractive women in minimal clothing and vaguely fetish-y torture scenes on attractive women in minimal clothing.

These things, from that point on, are the only things he has spent real, actual time on, developing, giving focus to. Everything else, everything else, is rushed, pushed constantly forward by Deku, the puppet, as he runs from plot point to plot point as fast as he can, never allowed a moment to rest, to reflect, to really think at all, all in the name of progression as empty as he has become.

In all honesty, it was a needed, if unwanted, shock to help me realize the truth, but at what cost? At what cost is this clarity? The joy is gone now; once I dropped my unconscious acceptance of the narrative, everything I had been ignoring came to me a rush of horrified realization, even the most mild of flaws became glaring, and now reading the early chapters that got me into this story in the first place is just... hollow now, like I'm watching my old self enjoy them, rather than enjoying them myself, and I can't help but be both jealous and vaguely contemptuous at the innocent pleasure that person had.

I'll admit, I'm being more dramatic than I'd like to be, but... I've said this before, I'd been reading MHA for years before this point. Years of enjoyment, interest, and focus, and it's all ash to me now. I'm somewhat bitter about it.

#bnha critical #mha critical #everything changed when the war arc attacked #bakugou critical #endeavour critical #nighteye critical #izuku deserves better #izuku is a person #deku is a puppet #me looking at the dimension where hori didn't do any of this shit #reference post

[familyabolisher]

if you wouldn't mind sharing, what did schitt's creek do disappointingly in its story? thank you!

so, like. i mean, i think the show was flawed from the start -- i think a lot of the jokes rely on this image of the, like, small-town 'hick,' that in turn relies on a pretty hefty set of classist assumptions that i don't think dan levy was, you know, interested in interrogating in any serious way. i don't watch sitcoms for their revolutionary politics lol but there were certain moments in eg. roland and jocelyn's characterisation in particular that left an incredibly bad taste in my mouth. (ftr i think season 1 is pretty poor, 2-4 are genuinely good tv, 5 + 6 are a mess.)

but my specific frustration was -- so, at the end of season 4, we see moira despondent that the crows have eyes 2 was shelved; we also see the culmination of a season's worth of work having gone into the community production of cabaret. from here, the plot beats seemed so obvious to me that i was literally like certain i knew how moira's arc would end: clearly, this was an opportunity for her to realise that pursuing the sort of 'fame' she had before was a losing battle that was making her unhappy (and had always made her unhappy!), and that she could find genuine fulfilment through pursuing the kind of 'local,' small-town community opportunities that cabaret was supposed to represent. i mean obviously i have my various communist gripes with this position, but like, by the standards i hold sitcoms from nepo babies to, it's fair enough! it's a compelling enough response to the setup of the show -- the roses have lost everything and have to learn to live without everything. moira relied on a seemily fictitious narrative of public adoration; an insanely easy way to eke some character growth out of her would surely be to have her realise that small, local projects with her friends bring her a joy that public validation never could.

but, like. by the end of the show, moira gets back on the showbusiness ladder, to the point where her old show is rebooted. johnny gets a foot back in the business world. alexis is a businesswoman. david is a businessman! david chooses to stay in schitt's creek whilst the others leave for NY and cali, which is a compelling enough narrative choice on its own, but like -- come on, he opens a v bougie business and Gets Married and whatever the fuck else, it's boring, it's the same old narrative of assimilation into the bourgeois classes. it makes for a nice contrast against the end of season one but i don't believe he's a fundamentally changed person; he's just found a way to make his old tendencies make sense in a new setting.

there's a sense that the lives of the roses essentially reset; that they've been given the opportunity to return to their old lives, taking the 'lessons' they were able to learn from their time in schitt's creek with them. if anything's been "learnt" then it's these v individualist perspectives on, like, bootstraps and hard work; david and alexis have graduated from being nepo children into people with a legitimate intellectual claim to the bourgeois class. johnny has proven himself as a businessman. moira has uhhhh put on a production of cabaret, which justifies her going back to the old life that clearly made her miserable. like -- there's no sense that their old lives were bad, just a sense that they hadn't quite earnt the right to them yet. and in that, everyone in schitt's creek ends up ultimately reduced to a vehicle by which they can earn the right to their bourgeois status. it's a v nasty ethos, and as much as i find individual points of the show pretty funny (like, funnier than your average sitcom), i just -- like, it's so cruel at its centre?

#ask

[mermaidsirennikita]

a huge issue with romance right now (and I mean, tbh? commercial lit in general, it's arguably worse for YA atm) is that people are currently considering books about people who do not act the way the reader morally thinks they should... flawed

like, y'all think a character being intentionally written as a problematic individual is a FLAW, when in fact it was a CHOICE the author made, usually to incite conflict and/or trigger character development

I mean, I'll use Laura Kinsale's Flowers from the Storm (a book a Goodreads user I was mutuals with told me not to read when I simply added it to my TBR) as an example

Jervaulx is a SHITTY PERSON. We are introduced to him while he's in bed with his mistress, a married woman; he realizes she's pregnant and casually tells her to go fuck her husband to trick him into thinking the baby is his, because Jervaulx ain't got time for that baby or that woman. He then meets a fellow math nerd who is blind (which by the way, love that he is also into math, man contains multitudes) and notices that the blind man's daughter is a) hot and b) a Quaker.

Jervaulx asks this man "do you know what your daughter looks like" the man tells him it's been a long time since he saw her, and Jervaulx basically takes this as an opportunity to very seductively describe this woman, even though SHE IS A QUAKER AND IS CLEARLY MADE UNCOMFORTABLE (and turned on, let's be real) BY BEING DESCRIBED IN A SEXY WAY IN FRONT OF HER DAD (who absolutely does not pick up on what Jervaulx is putting down but whatever).

This man... is an asshole. And he's an asshole on purpose, because the entire story is about taking a man who has a lot of power and a lot of casual ability and privilege and bringing him down to an EXTREMELY low point, which results in heavy character development (and which does NOT, I should add, turn him into a perfect person! Because people aren't supposed to be perfect! Because perfection is boring, and while boring may work in real life... maybe... it does not work in a story in which we are supposed to have plot and character and forward motion).

BUT NEVER FEAR. Maddy, the aforementioned Quaker and his heroine, is also KINDA UNLIKABLE. Because she is so devoted to her faith (to the degree that it would be hard for readers to relate to her, even when the book was published decades ago) and she is frankly snobby, and closed off, and judgmental. She has GOOD INTENTIONS much of the time, but she is not initially a very emotionally accommodating woman, and even when Jervaulx is brought low, she does not WANT to like him. Because he is not a Quaker, he is not a Friend, and Maddy is not, in the beginning, open to the idea that you can be a good person or become a good person without conforming to the worldview that she has been convinced is morally correct. And in fact, her worldview may not actually BE wholly correct, even if it does have solid points that disrupt a corrupt class system.

It's almost like many readers could also benefit from learning that their worldviews about what makes a good person and character could in fact be flawed and unrealistic and

Fiction is not meant to be didactic and the fact that the current market is increasingly punishing authors for writing books that are not is incredibly disturbing. It's why we have so many books that are either incredibly boring, or swing towards cheaply written dark romance which is not actually good (to be clear: I think dark romance CAN absolutely be good). There's a desperate market for it, I think, because at least that's something readers who want something not Good and Dull can latch onto

Basically: please God read more books about people who are kinda shitty and plots that are kind gray, I promise they won't bite

#romance novel blogging

[cherryanony]

IN DEFENSE OF ELENA GILBERT: Why Do Yall Hate Emotional Women?

Vampire Diaries - Elena Gilbert pictured doing nothing wrong

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

I started watching The Vampire Diaries back in 2016, right as it was coming to its long overdue close. To say I was obsessed was an understatement.

I would spend hours, days, WEEKS, consuming fan content, rewatching episodes and scenes over and over agin, discussing stupid plot points and writing descions that were made and throughout all of that one question has always dangled over my head...

Why does everybody hate Elena Gilbert?

Despite The Vampires Diaries being a dark supernatural teen drama filled to the brim with freaks & weirdos, murderers, psychopaths, evil forces and THE ACTUAL LITERAL DEVIL... Elena Gilbert reigns as the most hated character on the show by viewers.

But, why?

Elena Gilbert starts off the show as a 17 year old teenage girl who just experienced some of the craziest trauma any person, let alone TEENAGER, could ever go through. She was in the car with her parents when they died off Wickory Bridge and now suffers from a serious case of survivors guilt, a trait and mo motif she struggles with and must come to terms with throughout the show.

She falls for two vampire brothers who bring nothing but more hell into her life, she finds out she's adopted, her birth mother is a vampire and a piece of shit, her birth father is her insane negligent Uncle John, she's lost more loved ones than one can count over and over again, and she's constantly paranoid and never safe because she's a doppleganger with special blood that many dangerous supernatural creatures want.

"But she's whinyyy and a crybabyyy😩..."

As if one of her friends or family aren't on the brink of death every episode. Elena didn't do enough crying if we're being honest.

Elena is by no means a perfect, innocent character. A lot of people are right about her flaws; she can be very selfish with a what-about-me & and look-at-me-this-isn't-you complex and she's constantly getting away with a lot shit since she's the main character. And a lot people say she never faces any consequences but.... she does.... and it's called...

VAMPIRE!ELENA

THAT'S IT! That's where everyone says her character went completely wrong, her character completely falls apart. But I'd argue that Vampire!Elena is a culmination of all her descions coming back to bite her in the ass.

Throughout S1-3, Elena struggles with survivors guilt. She should've gone off the bridge with her parents. She's depressed, she's moody, she's "whiny" all while feeling like the supposed "love of her life" is trying to "fix her" when she's not ready.

In season 4 episode 10, Elena clearly states that Stefan looks at her like she's a broken toy that needs to be fixed. I could go on a whole rant on what I think Stefan's problems are but to sum it all up — Stefan turned into a vampire at 17 years old — a teenager — and spends his entire vampire life struggling with his heightened personality and his Ripper Gene which led him down a path to losing everyone he's ever loved.

(He killed his own abusive father, lost his best friend due to his own brother who he forced to turn with him and now wants him dead after a wedge is driven between them.)

I say all that to say I get Stefan's character. He's scared and insecure, similar to Elena, to be alone and lose everyone he cares about. However, all of his efforts to better himself and relationships only drives people away. People bring up Damon killing Elena's brother, Jeremy, all the time

(again.. HE WAS WEARING THE GILBERT RING! HE'S FINE! YOU DON'T ACTUALLY GIVE A FUCK ABOUT JEREMY, NOBODY DOES!)

But NOBODY talks about Stefan endangering Jeremy and almost getting him killed by forcing him to continue the Hunter's Mark because he thought Elena being human again would make her be in love with him again. (sorry but that's fucking insane😭😭😭!!)

Stefan wasn't only afraid of losing Elena, he was also afraid of losing her to his brother. All these efforts drove Elena away, right into the arms of the person he wanted to keep her away from.

I think Elena felt as if Stefan was just like everyone else who wanted "the old Elena" back. The person that Elena use to be before the accident that the show alludes to in the first season. But that Elena is dead and gone, she'll never be the same person she was before going off that bridge. Apart of her died that night and again when she went off the bridge for the second time and became a vampire.

Elena struggles with being a vampire and basically dying twice and instead of being supportive Stefan immediately wants to fix and change her. Damon is the only one she feels free and alive with. A statement Elena makes herself throughout the show. Despite the stupid discourse over the Sire Bond, Damon was the one she felt the safest with after that plotline was resolved.

But enough about comparing those brothers, this is about ELENA! You know who she gets compared to..?

KATHERINE

KATHERINE IS A LOSER!

Before you raise your pitchforks, I love Katherine. Great character, great villain, but she's a loser!

People LOVE to compare Katherine and Elena!

"Katherine's such a badass and Elena is a whiny crybaby." But I would argue the opposite.

See Katherine's backstory here, despite everything Katherine's been through, the show makes a point that while, yes, Katherine is a survivor, she's also an avoidant runner. She spends 500 years running from the big bad Klaus and once he fianlly lets her go she continues torture, manipulate, and harrass people.

She continues her streak of only whining and complaining about the life she never had because of the things that happened to her, which... fair!

However, despite being given several chances with a romance with Elijah, a life with her daughter as a mother, all the people she's ever wronged helping her and forgiving her on her death bed, taking over Elena's body and essentially starting over in a new life and even being THE QUEEN OF HELL... it was never enough. Nothing was ever enough for Katherine.

She was given many chances to change, to finally LIVE HER LIFE but she chose to continue down her path of destruction. Which, in my opinion, is fine for her character! LET KATHERINE BE THE SAD AND TRAGIC CHARACTER SHE IS! She doesn't have to be some anti-hero badass.

The contrast of Katherine and Elena, two girls who had their lives and innocence stolen from them at a young age thanks to tragic events out of their control and two vampire brothers, is great and executed as well as TVD writing could do (infamously known for shitty writing and plot holes but I digress).

The pieces to the K/E puzzle were so obviously placed, Katherine who was jealous of Elena living the life she never got, chose the path of selfishness and power, and Elena chose the path of love and regrowth and not letting her past define her.

But viewers missed the big picture. Katherine is a survivor but where did that get her? Dead and unloved. Besides freedom from Klaus, she didn't get a single thing she desired. Not a life with Stefan or Elijah or as a mother with her daughter or as Elena Gilbert or Queen of Hell! No! She lost everything and blamed Elena. SHE LOST! SHE'S A LOSER!

She survived, but she didn't live.

In my opinion, Elena is the real survivor. She didn't let her past consume and lead her to a similar fate as Katherine. She chose to be selfless and to love again after being hurt.

She chose to be alive.

SO BACK TO THE PROMPT....

Why do y'all hate emotional women?

"Elena has experienced more grief than anyone I've ever met." - Sherrif Liz Forbes

Every character has went through a lot and have done similar, if not worst, things as Elena as a result yet she's the most hated character?

There's a pattern of fans hating certain female characters who are more sensitive and cry instead of bury their feelings and just punch a man and suddenly get crowned "Most Badass Female Character". Characters, not just female, expressing their emotions is strong and badass and might inspire audiences to do the same and not keep grief in and become self destructive. It's healthy and natural and makes the character not so one note.

It's not fair to compare Elena's trauma and experiences to other characters (espically not Bonnie, that's topic for a whole other post). But why do other characters get a pass despite being ten times more flawed and problematic?

Why are certain characters able to cry, complain, self destruct, fuck someone over, etc but Elena can't?

Genunine question.. let's discuss...

-*- I wasn't able to fully delve into my thoughts on Elena and certain TVD characters, plot points, theme, etc because this post will be 50 pages long. This is the brief version.

***There will be a part 2 to this post where I delve deeper into the trend of hating characters like Elena.

#the vampire diaries #tvd #tvdu #elena gilbert #discussion #fandom #essay #character #for the girls #delena

[depressed-teacup-inc]

Ok what was that play

Ok hi everyone, episode 24 out (yes I’m aware episode 23 isn’t out so we lack a whole bunch of fucking context) but let’s try to analyze this anyways.

So. Let’s try to take this a little bit at a time.

Episode starts, and Adrien is in London (probably happened in episode 23) and clearly had a bad falling out with marinette, courtesy of abuse mcbusive dad. Great.

Listen Adrien this episode was a mixed bag for me, because on one side I’m so happy that he finally got to stand up to his dad and tell him shit as it is (especially considering what happens in the season 5 finale which I will not spoil for those who didn’t see the leaks, but let’s just say he doesn’t get the chance to ever stand up to that man again) but the fact that all of that eventually boils down to “I’m done with you because you won’t let me be with marinette” is kinda upsetting?

And that’s really my biggest disappointment with Adrien’s character this season! Adrien was always a compelling and sweet protagonist that beyond romance, held friendship and support above everything, and craved freedom to live his own life, but all of this is kinda gone? He’s just a reward for marinette to win and save now, and everything he does (rebelling for his freedom) is only because of marinette.

If Gabriel decided to suddenly approve of Marinette or Marinette grew up to become just as bad as Gabriel (which frankly, considering the dynamic ladybug has with Chat Noir, where she constantly screamed at him until he became her yes man is unfortunately likely), Adrien would let it be, because he and marinette can be together! He would let himself be abused because he never actually grew as a person! If anything, he was downgraded by the show to purely Marinette’s love interest and it’s just such a disappointment because I genuinely enjoyed Adrien’s character (for all his flaws and bad writing in the show).

Anyways Adrien tangent aside, marinette goes looking for him during the end of year party (which just sidenote, a trampoline on the Eiffel Tower sounds super dangerous, and Marinette’s dress? Ugly as hell, for the dress that’s supposed to represent how much she’s grown and her talent in capturing people’s hearts with her designs, it is really bad, and I would have just put her in that concept art gown they had for her with the butterflies and warm pink gradient) and ends up in the art room of her school, where Felix and Kagami reveal to her the entire truth about the Agreste family!

…ok so several notes on this entire situation:

1. I’m sorry but for the life of me I couldn’t take this fucking play seriously. The masks and the poor props (the pillow for the baby bump) and Felix and Kagami’s super stiff abstract acting made me lose my shit and laugh, they could have literally just used the camera amok to make something with a bit more of a budget and an interesting art style, and had Felix and Kagami be the narrators instead of this shit

2. The sheer absurdity of this show to reveal all the biggest plot points and the entire catalyst for this story (if Emilie never made the sentibabies she would have lived and peacock miraculous wouldn’t have been broken, hence Gabriel wouldn’t be Hawkmoth) through a fucking play is beyond me and shows how little care the writers put into the plot of this show that doesn’t revolve marinette and true love, we should have figured this out not from two side characters but rather through Gabriel himself (bonus points IF ADRIEN GETS TO KNOW THE FUCKING TRUTH RATHER THEN HAVE MARINETTE KNOW IT AND CONTROL ADRIEN)

3. Felix and Kagami’s motives

Ok so this is a bit of a longer point, so let’s break this down. So I don’t understand Felix and Kagami’s motive change at all? I thought Felix all this time was working towards getting the peacock miraculous and stealing all the rings from the abusive parents because it was a moral thing for him? Like he is a sentimonster and he knows Adrien is a sentimonster, and therefore he keeps fighting to protect and save his cousin?

BUT APPARENTLY THATS NOT THE SITUATION ANYMORE??? So apparently Kagami is a sentimonster too (tho she never before season 5 gave that impression at all? If anything she seems very headstrong and independent, and her mom was never villain levels abusive, BUT I GUESS SHE IS NOW?!) and Adrien is not (this I believe is purely Felix being misinformed and not having the full picture, because there’s no way in hell this show would literally use the same visuals they used on Adrien to describe Felix being controlled by the ring without wanting people to draw a connection, but I thought Felix knew? I mean he was saying how he did all of this in hopes of freeing his dear cousin, so I assumed Felix knew all this time)

And because of that? Felix’s motive? True loveeeee.

…ok listen I don’t hate Felix and Kagami together but holy shit I hate that motive

Cuz it’s not like Felix can have a compelling motive for doing less then ok things because of devotion to family and protecting someone who’s the same as him (tho I will concede Kagami and Felix are apparently in love for being sentikids together and they are a cute dynamic so good for them) NO YOU GUYS WE NEED A HETEROSEXUAL ROMANCE, AND SCREW FELIX TAKING DIRECT ACTION TO SAVE ADRIEN AND TELLING HIM THE TRUTH, LETS JUST TELL MARINETTE EVERYTHING AND SHE’LL SAVE ADRIEN WITHOUT TELLING HIM ANY OF THE TRUTH BECAUSE SHES MARINETTE!

…but yeah I thought that entire debacle was a lot.

Also the way they removed akuma alerts this episode so Marinette can just not go to battle and be justified for chasing Adrien crazily, because otherwise she would have looked like a hypocrite? They literally had to remove something they had from day one of this show (an emergency alert for akumas) just to justify the fact marinette didn’t go to battle and chased Adrien so she wouldn’t seem like an awful person (and the way she’s literally not even feeling bad about missing a whole battle, and Chat Noir was berated for missing battles for not being able to escape his civilian life, BUT YEAH YOU GUYS ITS FINE LETS NOT THINK ABOUT THE DOUBLE STANDARD TOO MUCH)

Also Natalie’s hair going white to show she’s dying was kinda weird (was it supposed to show how she’s so sick she’s not even dyeing her hair red anymore?) and Gabriel’s akuma design was ugly as fuck.

But yeah I’m dreading the finale as I already know what is happening there and im fucking scareddd

(P.S. can everyone calm down saying Kagami and Felix are fucked up for how they got Marinette’s attention? They literally did the one thing they knew she’d care about aka she’s obsessed with Adrien she’d follow if Adrien is involved, this isn’t bringing up her trauma settle down girlies)

#miraculous ladybug #mlb fandom #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #felix graham de vanily #kagami tsurugi #ml season 5 #ml spoilers #ml representation #I am having a funeral for Adrien’s character and Felix’s motives #still find Felix and Kagami cute tho so good for them

[cordeliav7]

IF WE WERE VILLAINS book review

*bf's name* get your ass out of here and finish the book (it's kinda spoiler free tho so if you wanna continue reading...)

Now, to start off I give this book 5/5 stars. It was one of the most amazing reads I've done this year. I don't understand all this controversy surrounding the book. Like it's so freaking amazing. You slowly start to get to know each and every character, their relationship with one other, what they love and their flaws. At the same time the description of the scenery and the Shakespearean plays are *chefs kiss* it felt like I was there.

I started reading the book being like 'oh who's gonna die' and after some point I forgot that this was a thing because it was so fucking enjoyable to read. And then that person died and I was so surprised. I went through every single emotion. But above all I was curious as to who killed him. I suspected every person in the friend group (some people less and some more) but OH MY DEAR GODS.

I felt the characters falling apart, their friend group just dissolving, their mental and physical health going down the drain. I got scared, I laughed, I cried, I yelled, I stopped FUCKING breathing a few times, oh my gods that's amazing.

I don't care how similar or not similar some people say it is with secret history. Like shut up. They are two different books. Stop comparing the books just because they are both dark academia mystery books.

"no one talks like that" then you clearly haven't met Shakespearean theater kids, and honestly, good for you lol "it was boring to follow" then this book was not for you. Move on and stop whining. "It was hard to follow because *old English*" Get a brain you big baby

"I hate that it doesn't say why Richard became an asshole" first of all people just wake up and choose hate, and people act differently when under stress. Also you are nOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW. Oliver doesn't know so you don't know. End of story. Not everything has a tragic backstory. Some people are just arses

"they slut shamed Meredith. Everyone has called her a slut" if you haven't called your bff a slut even once as a joke wtf also CHARACTER STEREOTYPE everyone in this friend group is a stereotype of some sorts.

"Ew Oliver has such low self esteem" just hug the guy. Please. Don't be mean.

"James and Oliver were just platonic friends and the end was so out of the blue" they were LITERALLY roommates. Get your head out of your ass.

"the ending was confusing" it is a MYSTERY it's supposed to be confusing (it's not really tho if you really think about it. Maybe your mind was just too clouded because you were dying crying so I completely understand. Like same)

I'm sure I have more shit to say but I don't remember anything else. I just wanted to say that this book is beautiful and it is so so so worth reading. It's gonna rip your heart out and force you to eat it. Fucking amazing.

I would love to hear your opinion on the book so feel free to comment or DM me^^

#if we were villains #book review #book reading #review #dark academia #murder mystery #book recommendations #book reccs #book tumblr #booktok #honesty

[jenyifer]

I am seeing a lot of posts of how Boston would be happiest in an open relationship, that he doesn't need to be monogamous or doesn't need to be "fixed" because sleeping around is perhaps not a character flaw. The thing I do not understand is the whole point of Boston being a hoe, that OF has been driving from the beginning, the reason for this is: that he doesn't want to form connections, because he knows that is leaving, leaving everything behind in a few months to start afresh again, far, far away. It's not because this lifestyle makes him the happiest (I mean sex does give him momentary happiness, like the drugs and alcohol probably do for Ray), but rather because his sleeping around is a defense mechanism. Because truly, NO HUMAN BEING CAN EXIST WITHOUT MAKING CONNECTIONS. And he avoids these deeper connections and relationships like a plague. Look at how he even sabotaged his own friendships!

How is everyone missing the point that Boston has been 'self-harming' himself too, in a different way but he has been. However now, the question is has Boston ever been loved (without his sexual aspect) since he was a baby? Not looked after, not cared for, but loved, loved even when he made mistakes, when he did things he wasn't supposed to do? The answer is most likely NO. Nobody even bothered, including his parents and also friends to really know Boston. And so in conclusion no one really knows what Boston's personality is other than the fake mask he wears for himself of being a slut with no remorse.

And as for Boston being happy in a poly-relationship, how is everyone missing that Boston is not that self-assured of sharing LOVE if/when he truly finds it. He cannot physically share the person he loves/will love in the future, simply because that's what he is so scared about!!!! A threesome sure, but not a long-lasting polygamous relationship.

He is not jealous of Nick and Dan. He truthfully didn't look jealous, instead, he clearly looked heartbroken that the person he might have feelings about was having a good time in the arms of another man.

To be in a consensual poly-relationship you need to have a lot of love to give and a lot of love to share, and right now Boston has neither. He needs to be assured of love to even process that yes, he is more than capable of loving back and having deep connections with another person even outside of their bed. And Nick can be (is) this person for Boston.

Anon I love you 10,000% and have been struggling to make a post addressing this but you’ve put it beautifully. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Boston’s mask of confident slut is one that EVERYONE except to some extent Nick sees INCLUDING the audience. I think this is why we haven’t gotten Boston’s POV after all these episodes because he is a superficial boy and under the surface he and Nick are the same. Desperate for anyone to love them. While Nick’s desperation is born out of feeling like no one ever looks at him.

Boston is born out of no one ever seeing him or trying to see who he really is.

Because he feels like no one could possibly love who he really is. When Boston talks about himself to those who he loves Ray and Nick he is incredibly aware of how shitty he is how he makes a mess for himself.

He tells Nick he’s bad. He agrees with Nick he is the asshole. Later he tells Ray that if Ray shows Mew the clip Ray will be as “evil” as Boston is. Boston knows what he does is wrong but as Nick says it’s a desperate plea to be loved. He LOVES Ray and Mew so much and their happy times together are coming to a close. He self sabotages those relationships throughly because he believes he’s bad. It’s what he has to do. He’s already on this path why not throw the water of cold reality on your best friend when he’s lying to himself. Why not sleep with Top to get validation that you are still better than Mew? He does this because he is afraid. He doesn’t know what to do with his emotions. He’s never been taught but all he is told is what a piece of shit he is so why not be a self fulfilling prophecy.

Boston dad’s attitude to Boston have such a practiced bravado that we see reflected in Boston. Boston is very similar to Kang from Dangerous Romance but he doesn’t have a grandma to care about him even a little bit. Boston is alone with no expectations because he is just a burden. A reminder of failure. A potential weakness and that has been drilled into him. Boston doesn’t get defensive when confronted because he knows what he’s done is wrong. HES A FREAKING ZOMBIE AT THE PARTY FOR GOD SAKE EVEN KNOWING WHAT RAY WILL DO. This is how Boston self harms he takes whatever criticism he gets. Because he knows it’s true. He DESERVES the pain and the consequences. It’s extremely sad.

The ONLY time we see him fight back on these accusations is when Nick is backed into a corner during their confrontation Boston is pressuring Nick to admit who gave Ray the recording. I think coming from Nick the judgement was too much. He’d let Nick see under the mask and now Nick was rejecting him and Boston had to hit back 10x harder to protect himself.

The mask drop that shows us how scared and insecure Boston really is is right there. He makes that face when he’s genuinely hurt. Boston is a scared boy who wants love.

He couldn’t be in a poly relationship because he isn’t secure in himself and his connections to others. Poly relationships require a lot either mental strength in self assurance. Boston would say yeah it’s fine for Nick to be with others because that is what slutty Boston would do but I don’t think he could take it mentally it would eat him alive. He’d self sabotage to oblivion because internally it would be confirmation Nick never loved him and never believed in their relationship bond. BECAUSE Boston can’t love himself or believe in himself. He doesn’t know how. I think he won’t break up Nick and Dan because of jealousy because it’s what Boston deserves in his head. Nick being happy with someone else means Boston was right all along. No one could ever love him. However if I could predict what I think will happen Nick being hurt by Dan in anyway would be a no go from Boston. Boston let’s his relationships go with Ray and Mew BUT HE STILL LOVES THEM. Boston shows up to the hostel shit and is humiliated for Mew’s pleasure. Boston shows up for Ray’s injury and when Ray was maybe getting arrested by the police to be there for Ray. If something happens to Nick I think Boston will be there in-spite of himself he can’t fully let go.

I think Boston learning to trust Nick and himself is the only way forward. There is so much that needs to be healed. Nick is his safe space though and no matter what Boston does Nick will love him. Boston needs to accept this and Nick needs to accept that Boston truly loves/deserves who Nick the person is too. Boston is in the process of learning to love and what that really is. He needs patience. And one day if he can truly love himself and Nick maybe being poly won’t be an issue. But Id worry that it would just bring up old insecurities in both Nick and Boston. We don’t even have a hint at what drives Nick to be a stalker other than insecurities so… I doubt he could do that either and that’s okay. Everyone needs to experiences love in their own way.

I hope that made sense. Anon you are amazing and I hope I brain souped that well. Thank you again for sending it. I’m suffering but in a good way. I hope that was coherent.

#only friends #only friends meta #ofts meta #ofts #only friends Boston #ofts Boston #bostonnick #boston x nick #ask #Jenny’s rambling #only friends episode 9 #ofts ep9 #only friends nick #ofts nick

[theerurishipper]

This is my obligatory movie review post.

And it was fine! I enjoyed watching it, the visuals were stunning, I liked most of the songs... my time wasn't wasted. But it wasn't... great.

Let's get the good stuff out of the way first.

I like Gabriel's arc in this movie. He's clearly not an abusive asshole like he is in the show, and it's pretty clear he's distant from Adrien because of his grief, not because he's an abusive controlling jackass. It really hammers in that he's deeply regretful about what he's doing once he finds out it's his son, unlike show Gabe who beat his own son up after finding out he was Chat Noir.

Marinette was really great in this movie. I like her character here and how she's finding out who she is and what she wants to do, and is learning to be more confident in herself. It works well without the large plot points in the show.

I like the songs. This seems to be a controversial opinion for some reason. But I like them. Gabe's villain song is the best song fight me.

Again, the visuals? Beautiful. Everything looked amazing and everyone was so pretty.

The villains were entertaining.

The scenes with Marinette being embarrassed by her dad were fun. It didn't really go anywhere as a plot point, and they should have done more with it, but I liked the idea.

I like how the movie gave Tikki some more character. Her excitement about adventure and her desire for danger? Love it. She's an adrenaline junkie and I'm here for it.

Master Fu works so much better as a cryptic, mysterious old man who just pops up out of nowhere to be funny and weird than as the shitty mentor he was in the show who we were supposed to take seriously. I actually enjoy his character here.

It was nice of them to show Luka going to the same school as everyone else lol.

I love movie Nino so much you guys.

LADYNOIR

But seriously, that Ladynoir song? Love it. I'm going to rewatch it over and over. Ladynoir won this movie.

But that being said, there are plenty of flaws too.

It was so rushed. Like, super rushed. Everyone just went from 0 to 180 real quick. It started out at a nice pace, but then it all just felt like they were crossing out bullet points on their notepads without taking the time to flesh things out.

The rules for the Miraculous are so inconsistent and vague. I don't actually mind this that much, but it's still kind of annoying.

Adrien doesn't have much going for him in this movie. It's still better than the show in that he actually got to confront Gabriel and take part in the final battle, but other than that, he didn't have much of an arc. It could have been better if they showed more interactions between him and Ladybug, but he went straight from being annoyed by her to being in love with her, and a montage isn't really enough for development. His arc had a good start and a good end but very little in between, so it didn't work all that well. It's not even clear why he was chosen for the Miraculous. We also didn't actually get that much between him and Gabe, so the ending moment between them kind of fell flat for me. But it was still pretty emotional.

This is also the case for Adrienette. The way Marinette met him wasn't as impactful as in the show, and there was little to no development between them. It would have felt more realistic for Marinette to like him if we had gotten to see them interact more. They could have showed him telling her about his mother in an actual scene rather than shoving it into a montage. As it is, it feels like she just likes him for his pretty face.

They should have let Christina Vee sing the songs. The person who sings for Marinette has a lovely voice and I do think her voice works well in the songs, but it's so jarring to go from Christina's voice to hers. They aren't similar in the slightest. It was better for Adrien.

The final battle was pretty anticlimactic ngl. Part of it is because of the rushed character arcs, and that made the payoff less impactful. But other than, it was still kind of low key. I enjoyed the battle in that Carnival better.

No iconic Miraculous Ladybug! No Lucky Charm.

Plagg. Plagg. PLAGG. PLAGG. They massacred my boy. His only personality is cheese and farting. Like, he's farting constantly. His bond with Adrien was non-existent. This is easily the worst part of the movie. I hate it. I hate it so much.

They ruined Plagg.

They ruined Plagg.

...Watermelon??

They ruined Plagg.

And yeah, that's about it!

All in all, it's a good experience. It's fun and enjoyable, the characters are nice. They are pretty different from their show versions. Especially Adrien, who's more about not getting close to anyone because he lost his mom in the movie, when his show version was about breaking free from his isolation and wanting to connect with others. But obviously, this is a different canon on its own and wants to show a different interpretation of the characters. It's alright.

It definitely has a lot of flaws, but also a lot of good points. Just like the show. I wouldn't say I like the movie more than the show. It's good for what it is, but I still prefer the characters and dynamics as they were in the series. Which is not to say that no one else should like the movie better, it's just not for me. I don't think they are really comparable anyway, because a movie is very different from a series.

For me, the thing is, I really love the show. And that's why Season 5 pissed me off so much. Because I love the show and it disappointed me. I wouldn't waste my energy on it so much if I didn't like it. And I did like the movie, but it didn't really have that spark for me that brought me into the show. Even if I despise many of the writing choices that the show has made over the years, I still like a lot about it. So my preference will always be for the show. But that doesn't mean the movie is bad, and I still did enjoy it.

Also, I like show Gabe (before the Season 5 finale) as an antagonist better than movie Gabe. He's a piece of trash and a waste of oxygen but he was a pretty well written antagonist when he was allowed to do stuff. Movie Gabe suffers from the same problem of his arc being underdeveloped and rushed, even if his personality is an improvement from show Gabe.

Anyway, movie was good. The last scene with Nathalie and Emilie looks like its hinting to a sequel, but that won't be coming out anytime soon, so we'll see.

#MLB #Miraculous Ladybug #Marinette Dupain Cheng #Ladybug #Adrien Agreste #Chat Noir #Gabriel Agreste #Tikki #Plagg #Miraculous Awakening #ML Movie #Adrienette #Ladynoir #Meta #My meta

[oddygaul]

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, and also just Scott Pilgrim

-footage from Rebuild of Scott Pilgrim

I watched Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, then realized it had been nearly 15 years since I actually read the comics, so then I re-read all of those. I wish I had just done it in the right order to begin with, because doing it this way really scrambled my thoughts about both works. In my defense, how was I to know Takes Off is actually a sequel? What am I supposed to do, read things?

I was pleased to find that the original Scott Pilgrim honestly holds up pretty well. Takes Off is clearly such a reflective work that I was expecting to find the original story a lot more problematic than I had in high school, but… for the most part, it really knows what it’s doing. Yeah, a lot of the characters are shitbirds, but they’re meant to be shitbirds. The entire point of the book is showing us flawed people who intermittently make shitty decisions, and giving them a chance to grow, reflect, and treat the people around them better.

So generally, I still really liked Scott Pilgrim. All the goofy-ass character art and the surreal, unexplained quasi-fantasy Canada bits that made it tick back then still work. This time around, I really appreciated the writing and dialogue for not only its bevy of solid jokes, but for how fucking weird it is. In the past decade or so, I think a lot of ‘quirky’ humor has homogenized somewhat into a particular tone. Call it Whedonization or globalization or internet brain or whatever you want, but it can sometimes feel like anything aiming to be comedic hits a lot of the same beats.

The Scott Pilgrim comics, however, are a weird time capsule and their own vibe entirely. These fuckers just talk like aliens sometimes. They say random stuff, but it’s not *holds up spork* random, it’s “shit sorry I was kind of half listening but I think the thing I’m about to say is relevant” random. It’s less big swings to try and land a punchline, and more of two people letting loose a stream of consciousness at each other, lending a sense of constant confusion to the proceedings. It’s absolute nonsense sometimes, and I was way into it.

This ties into a slight shift in my read on Scott as a character, too. I always just saw him as a huge asshole - and that led to my biggest issue with the movie, which was that Cera plays him way too meek and doesn’t suck nearly enough. Reading the comics again, though, while Scott absolutely does suck, he’s just so fucking head empty that I warmed up to him a bit more. He’s still an asshole that doesn’t take responsibility for how his actions affect others, absolutely, but also god damn he’s so dumb that it softens the blow sometimes.

There were some little details about characters I’d forgotten that I really love - like the fact that Scott is actually a really good cook, but does it purely through intuition without knowing what anything’s called.

Art-wise, I liked it a lot more than I remembered, too; it definitely starts out a bit rough, but there’s a lot of charm to the characters and their weird gremlin mouths. I also laughed at some of the manga inspiration I didn’t pick up on before; everyone’s got big anime eyes, sure, but the grey screentone Clip Studio pattern fills? The hiring of assistants to do polished background work as the author gets into the later volumes? Ahh, classic.

Takes Off was a lot of fun, too. I gather that a lot of the internet fandom is upset it wasn’t a straight retelling of the original story with killer animation, but man, you gotta let creators create what speaks to them. Bryan Lee O’Malley started Scott Pilgrim twenty years ago. He’s been both married and divorced since then. Surely he’s gone through as much growth and change as we all would in such a timespan - how could you expect someone to just re-tread the exact same ground on such a personal story?

I find it interesting how prevalent this trend has become in the past decade or so - a creator or creative team returning to an old work - seemingly out of necessity, as the IP has become such a juggernaut that it’ll happen with or without them - and refusing to just tell the story again by the numbers. Anno’s Rebuild of Evangelion is the closest spiritually to this, but even recent ‘remakes’/reboots like Final Fantasy VII and God of War 2018 have followed the same path - creators ruminating on the strengths and weaknesses of older work from a more distant lens to create something new. They all seem to have arrived at this methodology independently, too (O’Malley said he only watched the Rebuilds once Takes Off was written and well underway); it’s not about chasing the trend of an altered remake, it seems to just be a natural desire to reckon with the past this way.

Because of this, one of the reasons I really wish I watched the show after re-reading the comics is to have a better sense of the evolution, and the change in tone and message. Due to watching Takes Off while having only a hazy recollection of the original, I made a lot of assumptions about how the original work must have portrayed things, to explain what Takes Off’s themes were a rejection of: that by giving Ramona more agency, she’s less of a damsel in distress/prize to be won, and isn’t defined by her body count… when in fact, neither of those are really the case to begin with. Ramona has plenty of agency in Scott Pilgrim, she fights as much as Scott does, and really is only defined by her body count as narrative framework, not judged in-universe by the other characters* **.

*I think some of these misconceptions may have come from having rewatched the movie more recently than I read the comics, as the movie (if I remember correctly, which this entire blog has established I likely don’t) does tend to treat Ramona as more of an passive object. Her subservience to Gideon in the real world (rather than in her subspace mind prison) comes to mind.

**Also, you could argue that the framework of the story itself being ‘guy fight’s girl’s evil exes in order to earn the right to date her’ is inherently placing importance on Ramona’s body count and someone’s romantic eligibility/desirability being defined by that but like… man that just is clearly not the vibe imo

If anything, I think the real lack that the show was trying to make up for wasn’t Ramona’s lack of agency, exactly, but a lack of screentime. Takes Off simply spends more time inside Ramona’s head, letting us see things from her perspective, and understanding the reasons for why she is the way she is and why she does the things she does. In some volumes of the book, she’s aloof almost to the point of feeling like a trope; it’s clear (especially later on) that there’s a reason for the way she acts, but the story just doesn’t necessarily communicate it very well. In the show, with Scott sidelined, we get to spend a lot of time with Ramona, understanding her thoughts and feelings, which is certainly a welcome change.

Anyway, intentions of the changes aside, I wouldn’t trade Takes Off for a straight remake in a thousand years; the sense of utter surprise I felt while watching the story take a hard left turn was exhilarating***. Plus, if the reason you love a series is the characters you’ve developed a bond with, what could be better than canonized fan fiction written by the original creator, showing your favorite characters interacting in new and novel ways? How could one not be excited to see Gideon and Lucas bro out and watch anime together? How could one not be thrilled to see Wallace Wells enact further chaos upon the whole province? More than righting storytelling wrongs, Takes Off is making space to tell more stories and round out everyone’s favorite supporting characters in a franchise that, due to the inherent density of its plot and setup, simply hasn’t had the real estate to develop all of them and let them breathe.

***Having just played through NieR recently, I almost felt like the show had scanned me, detected I had gotten Scott Pilgrim Ending A before, and was throwing some NG+ bonus content at me lmao

As far as the production goes, I was impressed overall, but thought it did suffer from some awkward timing and pacing issues. It’s stiff competition when your inevitable point of comparison is an Edgar Wright movie - even other live-action movies can seem stiff and slow compared to his frenetic pacing and constant cuts - but it still felt remarkably low energy at times, especially in the back half. Now, this is a problem you see a lot in anime dubs; English and Japanese are two very different languages, with different cadences and construction. Since a cast is typically required to dub over already existing animation, the translated dialogue often ends up being elongated and unnatural when it should be a quick back and forth, or hurried where it should have a little more breathing room. Given, though, that Takes Off was not only recorded in English before Japanese, but actually recorded before animation then animated to the dialogue (exceedingly uncommon), I was surprised the show still had this issue.

Regardless, the boarding in the first 4 episodes or so manages to be bombastic enough that this isn’t a problem; there’s a lot of wild camera angles and perspective shifts that keep things dynamic even when the dialogue itself isn’t moving too quickly. The animation highlight for me personally was the fight in the video store between Ramona and Roxy; great idea, incredible execution.

While Science Saru is the main production studio, I was intrigued to spy a bunch of other studios listed in the credits - WIT, Shaft, Ufotable, Trigger - but upon some further research it looks like they were just doing inbetween work.

Also the music includes slapped - I was jamming hard to Kidnapped by Neptune and Konya wa Hurricane, and then that United States of Whatever drop? unreal.

#will's media thoughts / virtual brain repository #shows #comics #scott pilgrim takes off #scott pilgrim

[300iqprower]

thanks for the tl;dr. While I don't agree with all your opinions, I get where you're coming from. Highkey, if you don't mind, what do think of Urobuchi as a writer? I frankly can't stand the man's writings, not only in regards to his "DeCoNsTrUcTiOn" of the magical girl genre with Madoka, but also Fate/Zero and his work on Kamen Rider Gaim.

It's......really hard for me to not blame Urobutcher himself for how Madoka basically killed the entire magical girl genre by causing it to be flooded with edgy tryhard tortureporn.

Like from an objective and analytical standpoint, Madoka is an incredible and meticulously crafted story. ...but subjectively, i fucking hate it, and then on top of that also hate it for what it (again, indirectly) did the genre and really just mainstreem anime in general to a certain, albeit obviously much lesser, degree. I feel like that's an entirely different discussion though, and really it just boils down to a case of "it's good" and "I don't like it" are not mutually exclusive. That's my read anyways.

Fate/Zero i love when watched bit by bit but dont like as a coherent story for much the same subjective reasons I'm personally not a fan of Madoka. For all my negativity I don't actually like nihilistic or cruel stories. Fate/Zero is actually what made me realize that, being the first time I had to as aforementioned go "it's good....but I don't like it." I love pretty much everything that doesn't involve Kerry, which is an issue when the whole story revolves around Kerry.

It's by no means without some serious issues though. Urobutcher wrote Artoria as a completely different character and it causes some serious inconsistencies that had harmful long-term repercussions, the banquet scene is a great setup that as I've discussed before falls completely flat in retrospect because nothing talked about was delivered on, and characters like Abs Hassan and Kariya got beyond wasted, just to name some of my issues with Zero.

But unlike with a LOT of Nasu's writing, actually just FGO writing in general frankly, those flaws don't contradict the ethos of the story. They come across less as contradictions that the writer couldnt be asked to rectify, as much as they do human error and an inability to make everything perfectly coherent and loop back around to the an overarching point. None of the things i've mentioned really detract from the message Fate Zero wants to give. They detract from the quality and consistency of the storytelling, absolutely, but not from the intended purpose of that storytelling. That sort of thing is HUGELY different than something like FGO just making up alternate history to suit it's narrative despite said narrative supposedly being about unity through our shared real world history.

I suppose what it really comes down to is that I don't feel malice or narrow mindedness from Urobutcher's works the way I do from Nasu. Kirei is the best example of this - i'd go so far as to argue Kirei's character didn't have ANY of the depth people now attribute to it before Urobutcher got involved. That's not even a dig at Nasu, that's just how much Urobutcher clearly GETS the kind of character Kirei is [now] meant to be. Same goes for Gilles and Kerry, those are characters that were perfect for someone like Urobutcher to execute (in multiple senses).

Again, Urobutcher is not a flawless writer by any stretch, no one is, and his style is by no means for everyone, because no style SHOULD be universally appealing...but I feel like he very much gives a shit. I feel like whether its all the way back with Fate Zero or his relatively more recent return for Lostbelt 3, Urobutcher gave a shit and did everything with as much purpose as he could. On that ground alone, I'm willing to be a lot more sympathetic to the parts of his writing i don't like, since I can at least convince myself those things (be it intentional choices or simple mistakes) were done in good faith.

#never thought i'd get an ask #writing analysis #gen urobuchi #fgo #fate grand order #fate zero #nasu is a hack #dont play gachas kids