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mostlysignssomeportents · 4 months

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How America's oligarchs lull us with the be-your-own-boss fairy tale

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/16/narrative-capitalism/#sell-job

Capitalism is a vibes-based system. Sure, we all know about Keynes's "Animal Spirits" that see "bulls" and "bears" vying to set the market's future, but beyond that, there's just a hell of a lot of narrative.

Writing for The American Prospect, Adam M Lowenstein reviews two books that tell the histories of the stories that are used to sell American capitalism to the American people – the stories that turn workers into "temporarily embarrassed millionaires":

https://prospect.org/culture/books/2024-02-16-stories-corporations-tell-williams-waterhouse-review/

The first of these books is Taming the Octopus: The Long Battle for the Soul of the Corporation, by Kyle Edward Williams, a kind of pre-history of "woke capitalism":

https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393867237

Taming is a history of the low-water marks for Big Business's reputation in America, and how each was overcome through PR campaigns that declared a turning point in which business leaders would pursue the common good, even at the expense of their shareholders' interests.

The story starts in the 1950s, when DuPont and other massive firms had gained a well-deserved reputation as rapacious profit-generation machines that "alienated workers and pushed around small businessmen, investors, and consumers." This prompted DuPont's PR chief, Harold Brayman, to write a memo called "The Attack on Bigness," where he set out a plan to sell America on a new cuddly image for corporate giants.

For Brayman, the problem was that corporate execs were too shy about telling their social inferiors about all the good that businesses did for them: "The businessman is normally reluctant to talk out loud. He frequently shuns the spotlight and is content with plugging his wares, not himself."

This was the starting gun for a charm offensive by American big business that included IBM president Thomas Watson Jr ("I think there is a world market for about five computers") going on a speaking tour organized by McKinsey & Co, where he told audiences that his company's billion dollar annual profits had convinced it to assume "responsibilities for the broader public welfare."

This set the template for a nationwide mania of "business statesmanship" that Fortune celebrated with an editorial announcing "a great transformation, of which the world as a whole is as yet unaware" that put the "profit motive…on its last leg."

Fortune then spent the next seventy years recycling this announcement, every time the tide went out on business's popularity. In 2019, Fortune platformed IBM president Ginni Rometty for an announcement that the company was orienting its priorities to the public good: "It’s a question of whether society trusts you or not. We need society to accept what it is that we do."

The occasion for Rometty's quote was a special package on the Trump tax-cuts, a trillion-dollar gift to American big business, which lobbyists for the Business Roundtable celebrated with an announcement that American capitalism would now serve "stakeholders" (not just shareholders). Fortune celebrated this "change" as "fundamental and profound."

Fast forward five years and corporate leaders are still telling stories, this time about "stakeholder capitalism" and "ESG" – the dread "woke capitalism" that has right-wing swivel-eyed loons running around, hair afire, declaring the end of capitalism.

For Williams and Lowenstein (and me), all this ESG, DEI, and responsible capitalism is just window dressing, a distraction to keep the pitchforks and torches in people's closets, and to keep the guillotines in their packaging. The right-wing is doing a mirror-world version of liberals who freak out when OpenAI claims to have built a machine that will pauperize every worker – assuming that a PR pitch is the gospel truth, and then repeating it in criticism. Criti-hype, in other words:

https://sts-news.medium.com/youre-doing-it-wrong-notes-on-criticism-and-technology-hype-18b08b4307e5

Think of ESG: the right is freaking out that ESG is harming shareholders by leaving hydrocarbons in the ground to appease climate-addled greenies. The reality is that ESG is barely disguised greenwashing, and it's fully compatible with burning every critter that died in the Mesozoic, Cenozoic, and lo, even the Paleozoic:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/15/sanctions-financing/#profiteers

The reason this tactic is so successful is that Americans have also been sold another narrative: that American problems are solved by American individuals as entrepreneurs and businesspeople, not as polities or as members of a union (let alone the working class!).

This is the subject of the second book Lowenstein reviews, One Day I’ll Work for Myself: The Dream and Delusion That Conquered America, by Benjamin Waterhouse:

https://wwnorton.com/books/one-day-ill-work-for-myself/

A keystone of American narrative capitalism is the idea that the USA is a nation of small businesspeople, Jeffersonian yeoman farmsteaders of the US economy. But even a cursory examination shows that the country is ruled – economically and politically – by very large firms.

Uber sells itself as a way to be your own boss ("No shifts. No boss. No limits.") – even though it's a system where the app is your boss, and thanks to that layer of misdirection, Uber gets to be the worst conceivable boss, while its workers have no recourse in labor law:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

In labor fights, Uber represents itself as the champion of innumerable "small businesspeople" who drive its unlicensed taxis. In consumer protection fights, Amazon claims to be fighting for "small businesspeople" who sell on its platform. In privacy fights, Facebook claims to represent "small businesspeople" who buy its surveillance advertising.

But large firms are actively hostile to small firms, seeing them as small-fry to be rooked or destroyed (recall that when Amazon targeted small publishers for bankruptcy-level discounts, they called the program "The Gazelle Project" and Bezos told his executives to tackle these firms "the way a cheetah pursues a sickly gazelle").

Decades of this tale have produced "a profound shift from a shared belief that individuals might come together to solve problems, into a collective faith in individual effort." America's long love-affair with rugged individualism was weaponized in the 1970s by corporations seeking to shed their regulatory obligation to workers, customers, and the environment.

As with Big Tech today, the big business lobby held up mom-and-pop businesses as the true beneficiaries of deregulation, even as they knifed these firms. A telling anecdote comes from someone who worked for the Chamber of Commerce's magazine Nation's Business: when this editor pointed out that many of the magazine's subscribers were small businesspeople and asked if they could start including articles relevant to mom-and-pops, the editor in chief said, "Over my dead body."

The neoliberal era has been an unbroken string of platitudes celebrating the small business and policies that annihilate their chances against large firms. Ronald Reagan's dewy-eyed hymns to American entrepreneurship sounded nice, but what matters is that he attempted to abolish the Small Business Administration and refused to address the 20,000 attendee "White House Conference on Small Business."

In the years since, American has sacrificed its small businesses while pulling out all the stops – bailouts and tax cuts and elite bankruptcy – to keep its largest firms growing. New regulations like Dodd-Frank were neutered in the name of saving mom-and-pop shops, even though the provisions that were cut already exempted small businesses.

Today, millions of Americans are treading water in a fetid stew of LLC-poisoning, rise-and-grind, multi-level-marketing, dropshipping and gig-work, convinced that the only way to get a better life is to pull themselves up by their bootstraps:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/10/declaration-of-interdependence/

Narrative does a lot of work here. The American economy runs on bubbles, another form of narrative capitalism. Take AI, a subject I sincerely wish I could stop hearing about, not least because I'm certain that 99% of that thinking is being wasted on whatever residue remains after the bubble pops:

https://locusmag.com/2023/12/commentary-cory-doctorow-what-kind-of-bubble-is-ai/

AI isn't going to do your job, but its narrative may convince your boss to fire you and replace you with a bot that can't do your job. Like what happened when Air Canada hired a chatbot to answer customer inquiries and it started making shit up about bereavement discounts that the company later claimed it didn't have to honor:

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/air-canada-s-chatbot-gave-a-b-c-man-the-wrong-information-now-the-airline-has-to-pay-for-the-mistake-1.6769454

This story's been all over the news for the past couple of days, but so far as I've seen, no one has pointed out the seemingly obvious inference that this chatbot probably ripped off lots of people. The victim here was extraordinarily persistent, chasing a refund for 10 weeks and then going to the regulator. This guy is a six-sigma self-advocate – which implies a whole bell-curve's worth of comparatively normal people who just ate the shit-sandwich Air Canada fed them.

The reason AI is a winning proposition for Air Canada isn't that it can do a customer service rep's job – it can't. But the AI is a layer of indirection – like the app that is the true boss of Uber drivers – that lets Air Canada demoralize the customers it steals from into walking away from their losses.

Nevertheless, the narrative that AI Will Change Everything Forever is powerful – more powerful than AI itself, that's for sure. Take this Bloomberg headline: "Nearly all wealth gained by world's rich this year comes from AI":

https://www.business-standard.com/world-news/nearly-all-wealth-gained-by-world-s-rich-this-year-comes-from-ai-124021600006_1.html

Dig in and you find even more narrative. The single largest beneficiary of AI stock gains last year was Mark Zuckerberg ($161B!). Zuck is American Narrative Capitalism's greatest practitioner: the guy who made billions peddling a series of lies, from "pivot to video" to "metaverse," leaping from one lie to the next just ahead of the mass stock-selloffs that wiped out lesser predators.

The Narrative Capitalism Cinematic Universe has a lot of side-plots like AI and entrepreneurship and woke capitalism, but its main narrative arc was articulated, ad nauseum, by Margaret Thatcher: "There is no alternative." This is the most important part of the story, the part that says it literally can't be otherwise. The only way to organize society is through markets, and the only way to organize markets is to leave them alone, no matter how much suffering they cause.

This is a baffling story, because it's so easily disproved. Zuck says the only way to have friends is to let him surveil you from asshole to appetite, even though he once ran Facebook as the privacy-forward alternative to MySpace, and promised never to spy on you:

https://lawcat.berkeley.edu/record/1128876

Likewise, the business leaders – and their chorus of dutiful Renfields – who insist that monopoly is the natural and inevitable outcome of any market economy just handwave away the decades during which anti-monopoly enforcement actually kept most businesses from getting too big to fail and too big to jail.

I'm no champion of market efficiency – especially not as the best and final arbiter of social and economic questions – but when I hear my comrades repeating the Thatcherite claims that all forms of capitalism necessarily degrade into monopolistic quagmires, that there is no alternative, it sounds like more criti-hype.

This is a frequent point of departure during discussions of enshittification: some people dismiss the whole idea of enshittification as "just capitalism." But we had decades of digital services that either didn't degrade, or, when they did, were replaced by superior competitors with a minimum of switching costs for users who migrated from the decaying incumbent to greener pastures.

The reality is that while there are problems with all forms of capitalism, there are different kinds of capitalist problems, and some forms of capitalism are less harmful to working people and more capable of enacting and enforcing sound policy than others.

Enshittification is what happens when the constraints on the worst impulses of companies and their investors and managers are removed. When a company doesn't have competitors, when it can capture its regulators to trample our rights with impunity, when it can enlist those regulators to shut down would-be competitors who might free us from its "walled garden," and when it can fire any worker who refuses to enact harm upon the users they serve, then that company will enshittify:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle/#ich-bin-ein-bratapfel

A company can be made to treat you well, even if it is run by a wicked person who sees you as a mark to be fleeced – that mustache twirler just has to be constrained – by competition, regulation, self-help and labor. He may still hate you and wish you harm, but he won't be able to act on it.

As MLK said:

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, religion and education will have to do that, but it can restrain him from lynching me. And I think that's pretty important also. And so that while legislation may not change the hearts of men, it does change the habits of men. And we see this every day.

#pluralistic #narrative capitalism #oligarchy #temporarily embarrassed millionaires #late-stage capitalism #enshittification #disenshittification #vocational awe #fobazi ettarh #ai #bubbles #bubblenomics #rise and grind #Benjamin C. Waterhouse #One Day I’ll Work for Myself #Kyle Edward Williams #Taming the Octopus #woke capitalism #llcs with mfas

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bangsinc · 1 year

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⚪️ More Spot x Reader (prompts) 🖤

Because it’s not my duty with 15 whole followers to write more🙏🙏 ily all. This is pretty long since I did prompts I found and stuff so :3.. ALSOOALSO, I’m new at writing x reader and the love means sm!!! AGG!!

:readmore:

Who confessed first? what was the confession like?

Spot is an enigma, a man beyond his mortal realm. A man who has the power to travel anywhere he pleases…. But he could never tell you how he feels. He’d feel like, in the event of a heartfelt confession, you’d be terrified and run away. After all, it’s not everyday an inter dimensional being wants you to be theirs.

In the event of a confession, he would expect you to do most of the talking. It’s not something he’s proud of, but his emotions, to him, don’t matter anymore because of what he is. The confession, if he would imagine it, would be something incredibly cheesy but something so.. him. He didn’t have flowers because the kind you liked were out, didn’t have any romantic place to go to because he was afraid of being shunned, and the cupcakes he made burnt :(!

If he could, he’d cry upon a confession on your end.

Who gets sick/injured more often? who is the caretaker?

This goes without saying, but spot is.. not human, or at least he isn’t anymore. He can’t catch a cold, or get sick, it’s beyond him now. So, you would have to undoubtedly be the one he winds up taking care of.

He seems like a worrywart. In the event you are sick, or Ill, or whatever it may be, he’s going to act like you’re dying. He won’t leave your side for one minute, constantly trying to cook for you or *cough* steal *cough* medicine (it’s a little difficult with his holes.. please be patient).

How do they feel about PDA?

Oh my god.. please. He craves it. So much. It’s unhealthy. Even if he isn’t.. the most easy to hold or cuddle, he wants nothing more than to feel your warmpth against him. You’re the last, if not only thing he has to affection.

He can’t kiss you, or really.. do anything.. but he has hands! And a body! So he’d love it if you would spoil him with endearment.

In public, things are slightly different. He hardly goes out unless it’s to continue his ‘life of crime’, but if you were to tag along and show him affection, in public.. he wouldn’t know how to react. Like, you’re proud to be with him??? Him?? HIM??

How do they comfort you/cheer you up?

Oh how he just hates to see his love sad :(. You give him so much love and affection.. the least he could do is return it tenfold when you feel upset.

He’ll hold you, tell you sweet things, try and lull you. Your emotions, to him, are as important as breathing (if he.. even needs to do that).

Maybe will even cook for you! He has a thing for spicy food. Can he like, even eat?

Traits they like in a partner?

He wants someone who is like him in the sence that also feel somewhat outcasted from society. Someone who isn’t conveniently attractive, has features that aren’t considerably desirable. He loves those things. Hooked noses, droopy eyes, eyebags, stretch marks, pimples, he loves it all. He’s not a picky man.

Might perfer chubby partners (would appriciate the comfort of holding them, not to mention he thinks curvy women are attractive.. he’s such a dork).

Spot would like a significant other thats artistic or creative. They might seem more open to his ideas, or at least to him that’s how it would seem. One with a sence of humor aswell.

(Maybe a significant other who can defend him if he’s being attacked for robbing some place)

Traits they don’t like in a partner?

I.. really don’t think there’s much he wouldn’t like in a partner. He likes anyone and everyone as long as they love him and they’re nice to him. That said.. he probably couldn’t stand someone who’s rude, or cocky to an extent. Someone who’s on their phone while he’s trying to talk to them. Someone who actively turns down his love. He’s a very clingy man, he wants the affection and if you can’t give it it’ll upset him.

Do they buy you gifts often? What would they buy you?

He loves to (steal) buy things for his darling. Little trinkets, or other things he thinks they would enjoy based on his knowledge of them. He loves how their face brightens, how he knows he just made their day. He can’t do much for you, but he makes it up with anything he can do. He wants you to feel like a goddess.

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ari-gami · 8 months

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Punkflower

So I've been itching to make some Punkflower fanfiction but i'm not too sure about my writing skills, so I'll post the first chapter here before i commit to AO3.

Summary: Hobie doesn't like the way Gwen handled the situation with Miles, especially after getting to know the guy better. It was messed up, and their friendship is on tense terms. Miles is still reeling from the emotional whiplash from Gwen, one minute feeling betrayed to being thankful, but forgiving her will be hard and he doesn't know if their friendship will ever bounce back into what it was. Luckily he has someone who has had his back from day 1.

"I Don't Like Your Girlfriend"

“You really like this guy huh?”

“Oh my god, shut up Hobie!”

“ I will when ya shut up about that spider from 1610.”

Hobie could see the light blush on Gwen’s cheeks as she turned her head with a huff. It was a bit endearing how her face would scrunch up at the thought of her own feelings, but Hobie knew she wouldn’t allow herself to admit them.

“You know it’s not like that.”

“You care a lot about him, Gwendy, you can admit that much.”

“That’s the scary part, Hobie! I can’t see him again and admitting to myself that I could have..feelings for him would just cause me more heartache. Also, Miguel wouldn’t..” she trailed off.

Hobie had a bitter taste in his mouth. He’s aware of the underlying statement. Miguel already thinks Gwen’s a liability if anything involving Miles Morales occurred, and he would not hesitate to throw her back into the very situation he saved her from if she tried to contact Miles. Gwen would be alone again, and this time, permanently.

He sighed and thought of what he would do if he had such a deep connection to someone, if he had what Gwen had. It's not that he doesn't have anyone close to him, he had Gwen and his bandmates after all, but the way Gwen described her bond with Miles made Hobie ache for something similar. To have a connection forged in mutual hardship, where both parties come out as changed people. To meet and have an initial spark so strong that it would set fire to all aspects of his life afterward.

If Hobie had been in Gwen's shoes, he wouldn't have stayed away from Earth 1610. He would've disassembled the watch to reverse engineer one for himself and jump right through the portal back into Miles’s world. (Not that he wasn't working on it now, he hates the idea of multidimensional travel being monopolized.)

But Gwen was in a delicate situation and right now craved approval from adult figure- that's where they differed. Hobie could tell that if she had to choose between Miles and the Society, she would most likely choose the Society. The idea of that made him a bit sick, knowing that Miles would be betrayed and alone if Gwen didn't play her cards right. He would be all alone, just like Gwen had been, and the worse part, he might never know of the betrayal.

He would give her time to make her decision, but Hobie would also be making his own. If Miguel starts shit with Miles for being an anomaly, Hobie would be there to help him. If Miguel decided that shunning Miles wasn’t enough and actively went to attack him, Hobie would do everything he could to stop him. The idea that the Society is trying to squash out an outlier to defend the so-called canon went against everything Hobie stood for.

He just hoped that if it ever came down to Gwen sticking with HQ and Hobie with Miles, their friendship could be salvaged.

From what Gwen shared, Miles was the type of Spiderman who couldn't be held down when he made up his mind. When everyone ganged up on him, he found a way to prove to them that he was capable of lifting the mantle. (Not that Hobie approved of the other spiders' methods. Actually, he hated the thought of them refusing to help him at such a low point in his life. He truly believes that Miles didn't need to prove himself because, in Hobie's mind, he proved himself by instantly jumping to help send the other Spiders back.) Miles went against everything thrown at him saying he wasn't ready and instead defied the expectations and did it his own way.

That's pretty punk of him.

#punkflower #flowerpunk #Miles x Hobie #across the spiderverse #miles morales #hobie brown

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dailyadventureprompts · 1 year

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Monsters Reimagined: Svirfneblin

While not as problematic or desperately in need of an overhaul as some of the other monsters in this series, I thought I'd share my take on the deepgnomes to round out my posts on duergar and drow as well as my overall thoughts on life in the underdark.

To put it simply the Svirfneblin fall prey to the one note lore that d&d even more than their subterranian neighbors, having a backstory that effectively amounts to " they live in caves, like gems, and don't trust outsiders". Picking around some different soruces though I found some interesting tidbits about how the gnomes fled underground leaving behind cities upon which people built new settlements, and talk about how their distrusting natures come from living in such a dangerous place as the underdark. This got me thinking about societies where secrecy was key, and cultural touchstones of fleeing underground to avoid disaster.

TLDR: My take on the deepgnomes has them as a fusion of brits during the blitz, survivalists, and the "preparing for armegeddon" culture of the cold war. Their society is suffused with a deepseated worry that the end is coming soon, whether it be a ruinous diaster, an attack from outside, or simply the end of the world. To brace against this ever-approaching calamity they stockpile, build hidden vault cities, and etch their history onto monuments and time capsuls so that the survivors won't have to rebuild from scratch. They build ramparts and artillery batteries in the tunnels of the underdark to defend against foes they haven't met yet, and dig ever deeper hoping to find a home where nothing can find them.

Imagine the party is traveling through a mistshrouded stretch of the underdark only to stumble across a village of deepgnomes hidden away in a terraced valley of mossfarms and blindfish shoals that you'd absolutely mistake for a naturally bountiful area if you wern't looking for it. The svirfneblin shun the use of fire outside of a sheltered hearth and never talk above a whisper, but after days of interrogation the party are deemed not to be spies of "the enemy" and allowed to move about the village with supervision. It is a quiet and placid existance, cut off from the wider world, and the party bears witness to the season's harvest being brought in. While a portion of it is preserved and placed into the village's larders, a far larger potion is prepared according to a "state standard" and put aside under strict guard. A few days later, a signal sounds and everyone retreats to their hidden dwellings. From the home of their hosts the party watch as caravan of other deepgnomes comes into town and loads up the harvest without a word being exchanged. Later, the villagers reveal that they don't know where the food goes. To a city they suspect, but the name and location of it was not haded down by their forebearers after the village's founding. Their best guess is that the tribute is to support the war effort, though how long the war has lasted, and who it's against is for anyone to say.

I wanted to preserve an element of svirfneblin's simplicity but use it as a front, a mystery for the party to poke at rather than that being all there was to them. The culture of jewlsmiths with a deepset connection to elemental earth is still there, but I want it to smack the audience in the face when they realize that it's not just pretty jewlery that the deepgnomes are adept at building, but arcane/blackpowder artillery.

The element of secrecy and paranoia likewise lets the dm play with what deepgnome society is REALLY like, beyond the rugged survivalist enclaves. Is there some great sage soverign maintaining an archave with knowledge about the coming end of days? A desperate ruin where survivors live off the tribute of other settlements while battling in the shadow of shattered art? A toltalitarian bastion building up their warfooting for a tactical fist strike?

Also, I wanted to pay tribute to the fact that the neblin part of the svirfneblin name has to do with mist, and I just liked the idea that their parts of the underdark were cloaked in constant fog as a means of weaving their gnomish illusions.

#monsters reimagined #dnd #d&d #worldbuilding #underdark #gnome #svirfneblin #dungeons and dragons

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tinyowlthoughts · 1 month

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"I want to be remembered as the Anti-JK-Rowling."

"JK Rowling the billionaire author (which, by the way, billionaires should not exist) who instead of using her wealth and reach to better our world has decided to spend her days on Twitter attacking trans people for having the audacity to exist. Imagine, you are one of the BIGGEST authors the world has ever known, writing books for standing up for what's right, only to turn into the villain you warned about.

"What a slap in the face that is. What an absolute betrayal. People like that - people who think that they are somehow better than others, more human, deserve to be shunned from society, no ifs, ands, or buts, and nothing less than just that. At the end of the day, Rowling has no idea who I am, and that's okay. I'm going to keep on doing what I'm doing, writing for my community who deserves to see themselves in books.

"Our stories matter. Important stories that show all the different facets of our lives. Stories where we get to be the heroes. Stories where we get to be the villains. Stories where our truths are put down on page. Trans and nonbinary authors like Ryka Aoki, Anna Marie Macklemore, Andrew Joseph White. Those authors are telling trans stories in a way that no one has ever done before, putting trans characters front and center where they belong in stories that defy imagination."

TJ Klune Library Journal Day of Dialog 5/9/2024

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anonymous-dentist · 1 year

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qsmp characters as dnd classes: a non-comprehensive list

1. Forever- Oath of Devotion Paladin

He will protect everyone With His Life, and have you SEEN him with the eggs??? Devotion paladins are also like mandated by their gods to be bitchless, so rip to him ig

2. Roier- College of Glamour Bard/Oath of Vengeance Paladin multiclass

He is maybe the single most charismatic motherfucker on that server. The paladin oath came into play after Spreen and Quackity's betrayals, though he's been taking more levels in bard again recently.

3. Etoiles- Way of the Kensei Monk

He is the Dark Warrior, a true weapons master and a literal badass, enough said

4. Quackity- College of Whispers Bard

Literally all Whispers bards do is spread gossip and sulk. They're also shunned by the rest of society even if all they want to do is play a lute in a dark corner. Soooo

5. Jaiden- College of Creation Bard

Not all bards are about music! These guys are more about art, and she and Bobby can bond over painting furniture to life and causing them existential crises by accident

6. Cellbit- Inquisitive Rogue/Clockwork Soul Sorcerer multiclass, former Assassin Rogue

Inquisitive rogues are basically detectives, enough said there. But Clockwork Soul sorcerers are basically beholden to the "order" of the universe, forced to keep the universe marching in a straight line with no deviance. He does not realize he's multiclassed, but he is, thanks Cucurucho...

7. Slimecicle- Celestial & Fiend Warlock, Pact of the Chain (rip Flippa...)/Circle of Spores Druid multiclass

He's a warlock with a pact with both 'Little J' and 'Satan', which switches between Celestial (holy, basically), and Fiend (unholy, basically) depending on which Rubius is around to listen. And Spores druids are all about slimes and molds and mushrooms. His wildshape allows him to turn into Gegg for an additional 1d6 "ooze" damage to every melee attack he makes

#qsmp #long post #please ask about the others but this is what i have off the top of my head #i'd love to play a charlie warlock though that sounds mechanically FASCINATING #hard as hell to juggle but i could manage

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talzane · 2 years

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Highly disappointed that the “Infinite” Realms is always just full of ghosts. Monster AUs have so much potential, especially with all the DC crossovers. Vampires that can subsist off the pure energy of ectoplasm present in the air, so they’re never hungry. They can grow/hide/exist all by themselves. Alternately, the realms could act as a base of indefinite preparation for them if they decide to do anything to an infinite number of worlds. Werewolves that are free to play like wolves, to hunt the game they seeded their own dimension/realm with, to be perfectly free. The Yetis who used their magic to make their own home in the Realms as the Ice Age began to fail them. Duulaman’s Egypt, home of an entire sorcerous people, capable of casting the souls of their people into an eternal realm where they could thrive forever in, essentially, the field of reeds. The Mummies found there reanimated so that their revered ancestors could walk amongst them again, or their bodies rejuvenated (good plot there if Hotep-Ra, a traitor, was left as a mummy by his people when everybody else was brought back to life). Pandora, Guardian of Hope, and her Realm of Elysium, a home for all the monsters of Ancient Greece who were cast out/shunned/destroyed by society. A place of healing for the traumatized Minotaur (he was raised to kill people in a dark maze, that’s gotta be traumatic), cursed Medusa, etc (seriously, a rehab center where you can literally hold Hope in your hands when you have none...hek). Not to mention, since she guards Hope, it could be a literal object, and Vlad stealing Hope but not knowing how to use its power is a *highly* interesting plot to me. Somewhere that Desiree, a djinni, can avoid the people who’d only attempt to abuse her power to grant wishes. (There are so many more things to add...Liches, Witch Covens, Dora and Aragon’s Kingdom of Mattingly [dragons], other creatures) Sure, some beings there--like Skulker--want to fight, but by the very nature of Lairs/Realms, he can’t follow others into their homes and expect to survive, so they are safer than anywhere else. The ghosts and creatures that love to battle are free to do so in the regenerative chaos of the realms. The ghosts who want to be left alone can find their own slice of infinity. It truly is, or at least could be, a paradise for everybody... Which makes Pariah Dark so much eviler. The moment he awoke, he destroyed people’s homes so they couldn’t hide from him, he enslaved entire peoples to make thralls for his army, he devoured ghosts--absorbing their essence--to rebuild his lost strength, he used those armies to attack the realms capable of resisting him for a time, he pulled a resisting city into the Realms as an act of aggression. Everything he did was in stark contrast to the path of existence the nations of the realms had chosen, and his will was absolute; all the beings capable of being compelled were compelled to serve him, every lich lost their phylactery to him and were forced to submit to him, every free group was under threat of slavery or extinction. Even Vortex and Undergrowth, two incredibly dark beings, resisted as well as they could, but had Danny not attacked Pariah Dark’s center of power, even they would have fallen. Essentially, Danny stopping Pariah Dark would have far more of an impact, yet also none at all as it would be mostly behind the scenes. Danny, all of fourteen years old, battled the evilest being to have existed at that time in a fight to the death without any guarantee of survival. Frostbite and the other beings, feeling the weakness of Pariah’s forces, since he was occupied with Danny and the attacking ghost forces, launched their own counterattack and arrived before Danny’s duel was over to see Danny, still so small even in the battle suit, fighting the titanic mass of Pariah Dark, King of all Ghosts. Frostbite, left arm shredded by a summoned beast, watched in fascinated horror as Danny’s strength waned, but he still forced Dark back. Pandora, Guardian of Hope, watched a tiny child stare down a stone-face goliath. Vortex, for all his wrath, couldn’t have stood against Pariah, but that diminutive whelp was a storm unto himself and nothing, not even Pariah Dark, it seemed, could stand against a force of nature. Nocturne, Lord of Sleep, King of Dreams, and once a slave to Pariah Dark, had suffered from nightmares since Pariah’s return; his dream realm had fallen, his sleepwalkers obliterated, his precious, harvested dreams destroyed, and Pariah had once again enslaved Nocturne, yet the power of Pariah’s ritual was waning, and Nocturne felt himself awakening from his nightmare. He watched a tiny child, someone who should be dreaming instead of facing down a nightmare, deliver the dream of the king of dreams; Pariah was being forced into his sarcophagus. For Frostbite, Danny became the Great One; to Pandora, he was a child of Hope, a miracle (it didn’t hurt that he locked a great evil in a box either); to Vortex, he was a little storm, a squall; to Nocturne, Danny was a savior and a dream come true, surely, Nocturne could repay him with good dreams...maybe even for the little one’s entire Lair... All I’m saying is that context is everything, and having Vortex be a literal embodiment of storms and nature rather than just a ghost with storm powers is a lot more enticing to me. Pandora being Danny’s ghost mom is great, but her seeing him as a child of what she embodies rather than just “he is smol, I must help,” seems richer. Then there’s the DC crossover potential once Danny inevitably begins letting the peaceful individuals stay in Amity Park under his protection, or sending those who’d fit in to the Infinite Realms (Mr. Freeze and Nora relocating to the Far Frozen where he can get all the help he needs, not live in his suit, and either turn Nora into a ghost or cure her, Poison Ivy to live with Undergrowth [kinda like that island she had in the Bahamas], Killer Croc most likely to Egypt, Harley would fit in with Kitty and Johnny’s level of crazy, etc.). Imagine Batman investigating all his missing rogues, but when he eventually tracks them down, he finds them living peacefully in an infinite realm of places where they can’t hurt anybody permanently, and the people there are similarly obsessive/crazy. But also, Ghost King Danny, Protector of the Infinite Realms, etc., etc., leading an army of “monsters” to defend Earth from Darkseid, or, since Darkseid is always after the Anti-life Equation (considering all their different abilities, it would make sense for ghosts/ectoplasm to be the essence of the equation), defending the Infinite Realms against Darkseid/the Anti-Monitor. That’s all neglecting the chaos potential of Jack and Maddie believing all things not expressly human are ghosts. I also firmly think that since the Infinite Realms connect all universes, there can only ever be one ghost/ectoplasmic entity of any given individual regardless of the universe(s) of origin, and I have written pseudoscience for it (using some computer science and physics ideas, so it makes sense with less hand-waving). That’s neither here nor there, so I will end this before it gets any longer. Anyways, that’s the thought I just had, figured I’d share it with y’all and see if y’all were interested.

#danny phantom #dp x dc #dp au

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kazimirkharza · 6 months

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What are your thoughts on how many anarcho-primitivist/luddite/anticiv spaces have been taken over by right-wing types? It seems less people are actually engaging in primitivist thought and more so thinking it's "based" and "trad."

I saw how you got downvoted for insulting whatalthist, and this is what led me to ask this question.

I'm assuming you're referring to online spaces. There's a strong effort by the right to co-opt primitivism. There are some forums that are frequented by right-wingers, though they're in the minority; most problematic spaces are the ones about Kaczynski and things directly related to him. There are also many social media accounts that express primitivistic ideas in combination with authoritarian and rightist politics (e.g. individuals who adore both Ted Kaczynski and Pentti Linkola). Most concerning to me are actually the offline examples that get press coverage.

I see this as being both due to deliberate efforts to co-opt primitivism, much in the manner Nazis co-opted socialism, and due to ignorance on the part of many right-wingers. It isn't too hard to misinterpret Kaczynski's remarks about leftism if you read him inattentively, and conclude that he must be some sort of right-winger. Ted's mistake was focusing on attacking the left too much and worrying too little about the right, but at the time he wrote his manifesto this choice made sense.

Ted was a fan of Earth First! and when he wrote Industrial Society and its Future the wounds of an ideological split within it were still fresh. EF! started out as a truly ecocentric movement with extremely narrow goals of protecting the wilderness from the ravages of industrialism and other harm caused by civilized humans. After gaining a lot of momentum, EF! attracted thousands of newcomers, many of whom leaned more to the side of leftist humanism than deep ecology, causing conflict — the newcomers were trying to transform the movement into one about ecology-related social justice issues, while the original Earth First!ers preferred to only focus on wilderness conservation. (For more on this check out Earth First!: Environmental Apocalypse by Martha F. Lee). The right-wing in America at the time was comprised mostly of people who were staunch prometheans, warmongers, etc., and Ted rightly assumed they weren't going to take over his movement. However as the political climate changed they became one.

The US and the rest of the "West" seems to be experiencing a rise in right-wing back-to-nature ideas, similar in many ways to the so-called "right-wing hippies" of the Weimar republic. I'm talking about doomsday preppers, christian nationalist communes, etc. Kaczynski did not anticipate this, and by the time news about who was adopting (some of) his ideas — not just anarchists and former Earth First!ers, but people including the Greek fascist Golden Dawn party, and Andreas Breivik — reached Kaczynski in his supermax prison it was a bit late. He penned a short note titled Ecofascism: An Aberrant Branch of Leftism in 2020, arguing against their ideas and saying he's their enemy. However, more people read and will read ISAIF in the future than this obscure note and the few other scattered critiques of the right that can be found throughout his work.

What we need to do is to aggressively shun these types until we successfully repel them. This applies to real life and online interactions. There will always be some who'll try to co-opt primitivism, but this big wave needs to be halted. There are also some who are genuinely willing to learn and adjust their beliefs, but they're few in between. It's necessary to distinguish between the two, keep the latter and reject the former.

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tatterings · 6 months

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So, the story of most of Rylmyr’s pre-bg3 events in a nutshell under the cut:

PS - TUMBLR THIS IS NOT SEXUAL ART. RYLMYR IS BEING ATTACKED WHILE BASICALLY SELLING HIS SOUL FOR ROCK & ROLL. PLZ DONT NUKE ME.

Rylmyr Torrett was born into a powerful noble Drow house Torett, a bloodline rich with magic. A sorcerer or six were born every generation; anyone who wasn't born with inherent magic easily picked up the skills as a wizard - even the males.

His birth was foretold by the family's priest, who prophesied the house matron's next child will be born as a new beginning, ans will be bestowed with immense magical powers according to the prophecy.

Rylmyr was assigned female at birth, the third daughter to the house matron. (thankfully, not as the third son, else he'd have been killed at birth).

But for Rylmyr, being AFAB was never comfortable; he handled the dysphoria as best as he could. However, in drow society, females were the only people with value. So he laid as low as possible while in Menzoberannzan, playing along as a tomboy-ish young drow

Unfortunately it's difficult to lay low when a prophecy proclaimed you were going to be the most powerful magic-wielder of the generation and yet… that magic never developed. Ryl was no sorcerer, and struggled with learning magic underneath a harsh wizard tutor. Despite decades of study, he could not cast magic beyond sputters of faint green sparks from his fingertips.

Ryl learned musical skills and dance, so that at least he could provide entertainment to the guests of his noble house, and be of some use at least to his family. But as the rivalries between house and others grew more intense, Ryl feared for his life, as his family became less tolerant of his failures in magical study. Being shunned in Menzo society was nearly worse than straight execution. Someone left to fend for themselves would not survive for long.

Despite finding some form of respite in the arts and bardic ways, he was still deeply unhappy and resolved that before his 80th birthday, he would escape the oppressive Underdark. After begging every god in existence, except Lolth for obvious reasons, a cambion ended up feeling curious about young Rylmyr. This particular devil was a sort of patron of chaos, who monitored the Underdark and Menzo society because the bloodthirst and constant turmoil of warring houses was like reality TV to him.

This additional little drow, who has fucked up the fate of his house so bad just by being born presented a new "channel" to watch, so to speak. The cambion met with Ryl because there's only so many centuries of the same old backstabbing to be done in Drow society and he was intensely bored.

The cambion makes a deal with Ryl: he will be Ryl's warlock patron, and give him the magical powers that he were “supposed to have” (the prophecy isn't wrong after all, and Ryl's magic is stupidly powerful when he's able to control it). The devil also agrees to make his body and mind more in harmony but leaves the marks of his claws on Ryl's chest; the devil did not put in the contract's clause that he couldn't be barbaric about it.

For Ryl's part of the bargain, he agrees to having this Cambion keep an eye on him literally by just… being himself. An outcast drow, given magical powers and no training on how to use them, thrown into the surface world? Delicious entertainment again. (Sidenote: The cambion is also petty as fuck, and says something like 'also there's this bitch Mizora who i wanna piss off so i'm stealing her idea and taking your eye and using a sending stone because you're my personal entertainment'.)

Ryl loses an eye and its replaced with an onyx black sending stone so he can be this cambion's Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

Ryl for the most part is like 'there is literally no part of this deal that is bad for me' (spoiler it isn't ALL gucci because he has to do some fucked up shit after getting settled above ground) but it at least lets him escape in one piece.

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 art #bg3 fanart #bg3 ocs #bg3 oc art #bg3 oc #bg3 tav fanart #bg3 tav

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bnhaobservation · 4 months

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What do you think the todofam will be like after the war?

It's something I've been wondering as well.

Let's start with a premise.

This story is aimed mainly to a Japanese audience which sees things according to their culture. Some things that for them are a given aren't for who's not Japanese and vice versa. So, it gets twice as difficult for us to follow the message Horikoshi wants to deliver.

Also... this is going to be long and actually should have been longer. I tried to keep it as short as I could but this might have caused to make it not perfectly clear so I apologize in advance.

Lastly, what follows are just my two cents, feel free to disagree.

Said so let's tackle the matter from a realistic perspective.

If BNHA were not a story but the real world, the Todoroki family is finished. Not because Enji abused his family, but because one of their members (Tōya) is a murderer.

A seinen manga "Theseus no fune" (テセウスの船) digs with what happens to a family of 5 after the father, Sano Bungo, was accused of murder.

The mother, who was at the time pregnant, was denied hospitalization to give birth to her child.

They had to hide their identity because each time it was discovered they were forced to move. People would also refuse to hire them if they were to know of it. The main character, the youngest child of the man, the one that was born AFTER his father was accused of murder, and who should have been named Seigi (justice) is named instead Shin (heart) because "there's no justice for the son of a murderer", has to take his mother's surname (along with the rest of the family), have to wear a mask to hide his face to work, so that he won't be recognized, had to give up on becoming a teacher and, although he managed to marry, his wife's relatives refused to accept the marriage. When the wife dies during childbirth, her parents attend tot he funeral but claim they couldn't tell anyone about it because otherwise people would know she married the son of a criminal. They also demand their grandchild to be handed to them because she can't grow up with the son of a murderer.

Note that said son of a murderer, never had any contact with his father as the man had been arrested before his birth, and therefore Shin clearly couldn't be responsible for his father's crime.

We see something similar happening in BNHA for people who're involved in minor crimes.

Tobita tried to help someone but failed and was accused of preventing a Hero from saving him.

He was expelled from school and his family was implied to be targeted with bullying (see the graffiti with insults on the gate?)

It got so bad even his family chased him away.

Jin goes through something similar. Due to being involved in an incedent he's fired and no one wants to hire him ever again so he ends up homeless.

It's implied the same happened with Himiko, though we don't know if she ended up on the run just after attacking Saito, knowing her parents wouldn't want her back, or after trying to go back home and being rejected.

While Himiko's house might have been further devasted AFTER she joined the league, we can see that the gate was already damaged when her parents still lived there just after she had attacked Saito.

Note that none of the three over mentioned characters had yet committed murder. Tobita wanted to help, and the man who he had been unable to save will recover in 6 months, Jin ended up running over a guy who ran in the street without warning but only broke his arm and, as far as we know, Saito didn't die due to Himiko's attack.

Yet, they're shunned by society and with them their families who turn their back to them.

Now picture how much worse this would be for someone who committed murder.

Tōya/Dabi himself touches upon how bad they should have it now.

'Hitotsu kikitēnda ga Shōto… omae ittai donna tsura shite? Obieru shimin to issho ni U.A. ni komotteiraretanda? ENDEAVOR no musuko Dabi no kyōdai yakusai no nikogori mite~e nate me ~e ga!!'

「一つ聞きてえんだが焦凍…　おまえ一体どんな面して怯える市民と一緒に雄英に籠っていられたんだ？　エンデヴァーの息子荼毘の兄弟　厄災の煮凝りみてぇなてめェが！！」

``I have to ask you one thing, Shōto... What the hell kind of face were you wearing? Were you able to stay holed up in U.A. with the frightened citizens? Endeavor's son, Dabi's brother, it's like a broth of calamity/disaster/misfortune! !”*

*okay, technically he says 'yakusai no nikogori' (厄災の煮凝り) which litterally is a "jellied broth of disaster/calamity", but the fact he chose the nikogori is also due to how the kanji used to write it are 'ni' (煮 "boil, cook") and 'gori' (凝 "freeze").

The people in U.A. should have wanted Shouto in it as much as they wanted Deku when he first showed up there, not even a bit, even though Deku did nothing wrong...

Something many fans often miss of this scene is that when Deku enters in U.A. all his classmates are there, except for Shōto, and that Heroes supporting Deku like Present Mic and Best Jeanist are there, but not Endeavor and Hawks.

Where are they? Just outside.

It will be Ectoplasm who will call them in when all is finished.

Why Shōto isn't with his classmates supporting Deku? Why Endeavor and Hawks remain outside?

It's not because they don't care but because they would make matters worse.

And Shōto, poor kid, is completely innocent, Enji might have responsibilities for what Tōya did but Shōto? Whatever he did wrong?

Yet, same Tamura Shin from "Theseus no fune", he's likely hold accountable for his brother and father's crimes as well as the rest of his family.

The story glosses it over, we see nothing being done against Shōto or the rest of his family, and his classmates act mostly supportive so he doesn't seem to have it bad, but the story likely doesn't show it because, for Japanese people, it's a given Shōto would have it bad, it's unnecessary to esplicitly show it and it would probably be too dark of a subject so Horikoshi skims on it, as in Japan it's public knowledge.

That's why Natsuo said all that awaits them is pure hell.

It was bad enough Tōya had killed people before but now he had attempted to nuke Japan and the Todorokis don't expect they will be 'forgiven' because they actually stopped him almost getting themselves killed in the process.

In a way Tōya has cornered them, their best option was actually to die with him.

So if we go for a realistic ending Enji will have to drop his job and the same goes for Fuyumi and Natsuo, Shōto should leave school, the family should live in hiding, being bullied and ostracized and this regardless of them having saved the day and of Tōya's fate (if he dies or lives, if he gets jailed, sentenced to death or spared due to his body condition being so disastrous he might end up needing permanently hospitalized... assuming they'll be willing to hospitalize him).

They would probably do better change name and country and attempt to start a new live under another identity and away from Japan... if the likely scarring burns they gained will allow them to live in hiding.

Now... this is a realistic fate for them.

BNHA however is a story, and it's a story which is also making a point of criticizing society. It doesn't hold just the Todorokis but also society as accountable for what Tōya did.

It's a story with a moral and if society doesn't get 'punished' or 'redeemed', or, more specifically 'atones', the moral ends up being that society can do any sort of thing to people and it will never be punished and if you retaliate you'll be squashed down. Not exactly an uplifting moral.

The League of Villains is born by society's sins. Generally for me the most meaningful thing is this scene.

Why? Because in my country if you are and adult and find on the streets an unsupervised kid of 5 and turn your eyes away, it's a crime even if he doesn't look in such a poor shape like Tenko.

All those people pretending not to see him would get in troubles. In Japan they aren't so strict but for me the scene looks particularly strong because it's basically a crime.

So I've really no sympathy for those people and, if the story wants to have an uplifting moral, society has to change, hold itself accountable for how it hurt Tenko and the others and atone toward them.

In the same vein society should reform and not mistreat the Todorokis the way it did with Tobita or Himeko's family but support them.

This however narratively presents some huge problems.

Society is a broad concept and BNHA didn't offer us one or more characters that could work as stand in for it.

The characters we get familiar with, often represent the best part of society.

For example we know there were corrupted Heroes, we know the HPSC had Lady Nagant kill corrupted Heroes but... did we ever met them? Nope.

Stain, who wanted to change society and erase corrupter Heroes who ended up attacking?

Some Hero who abused his power to commit crimes? Some Hero who actually was in league with criminals? Some Hero who actually was negligent in his work? Some Hero who, at least, throwed trash on the streets?

Nope. He attacks Īda's brother and Native... who overall seemed two decent guys.

This creates a clash of our perception in the story, the League attacked society but the characters we were presented with were usually great people.

The League undoubtedly perceives society as evil and worth being wiped out because they met the worse of it but... we didn't.

That's why many readers feel like the League should be jailed for terrorism but no one thinks the "Star Wars" rebels in the first trilogy should met the same fate for... the exact same crime.

In "Star Wars" first trilogy the empire is always represented as evil, all its soldiers are represented as evil and we've zero sympathy for them when they get wiped out.

But in BNHA society is not the empire, society is common people who've families and feel... innocent enough not to deserve what the League unleash on them, especially since BNHA had too few 'bad guys' among the good guys and, conveniently or not so conveniently, wiped out the HPSC before it could take the blame for many problems and we are instead way too often presented with 'good guys' characters.

So Horikoshi has to find a way to deliver the message that if said society ended up under attack, it was actually due to its shortcomings.

Tōya told Enji the past never dies and you reap what you sow...

...but this applied to society too.

In response later on Enji will realize he'll have to atone to him and apologize to him.

In theory society should do the same... so that the story could have an uplifting moral of society learning from its errors and never again repeating them so that people will be better and the League of Villain will never be reborn in the future... however... it's much easier for us to apply all this to Todoroki Enji than to the BNHA society.

It's very fairy tale to assume that society will say "hey but if we didn't mistreat those guys first, they wouldn't have done what they did, shouldn't we also make amends?"

I don't really know if Horikoshi will be able to pull this off in a convincing manner, or if he'll be allowed to do it because one of the problems in his story is he can't allow to come to pass the idea that what the League did was an acceptable response.

We see it in the attack at Central Hospital.

In theory the story should end with a similar situation.

Shōji acknowledged that the Heteromorphs were hurt and persecuted but turning to violence wasn't acceptable

...and then somehow the Heteromorphs changed their mind and stop fighting and the people said they heard their voices today and they're sorry for not realizing it sooner and everyone cries and all's well that ends well and many readers hate this arc (for which SO MUCH could be written) and label it poor writing and it's actually a very minor bit so...

I don't know if Horikoshi now has used the people's response to it to perfect his ending in a way that won't have backlash.

So back to your question, what about the Todorokis?

Hopefully since Horikoshi wants to go to a positive and uplifting ending, the Todorokis will be spared from a fate that will be hell.

After all they made a big deal of how things were being recorded on videos. Society might be impressed by how this family came together to save everyone and might feel bad for them as well as partially responsible.

If society will come together instead than ostracizing and mistreating people, the Todorokis might not be end up driven into a corner.

In the same vein the Todorokis will likely come together as a family.

That is because I'm assuming that the idea Horikoshi wants to come to pass is that you've to PREVENT people from going bad, not punish them once the deed is done and by coming together they prevent the situation from worsening.

So, I'm willing to bet the plan is that Natsuo is wrong and no, it won't be hell for them from now on, though it likely won't be easy.

I don't know if Tōya and the rest of the League will survive, because it would be damn convenient for Horikoshi to have them die, so that he won't have to face the whole punishment thing.

If they're dead they can't be punished nor society can be asked to atone to them for what they did to them, and so Horikoshi can focus on society coming together and supporting the people who're less 'cuplable' and reforming itself easily enough in such a way that would fit the kind of fairy tale nature of BNHA.

At the same time killing the league off is such a goddamn easy solution for the problem I really pray he won't go for it... but I recognize with the League he kept the bar really very high.

So I would love for Tōya to survive and heal and be given another chance and this time, with support from his family and society, become a better person, and the same goes for the rest of the League, but I don't know if Horikoshi can, is willing and will be allowed to pull this off.

We can only wait and see.

For now, I think it'll probably be safe enough to assume that at the end the Todoroki family will come together and they won't be in hell but Fuyumi will be allowed to continue to work as a teacher and Natsuo will be allowed to continue to study and will marry his girlfriend. I aslo think Shōto will be allowed to become a Hero. As for Enji he might retire. I know people would want to see him jailed for his family abuse but since no one in his family is willing to file charges against him I'm pretty sure this won't happen. Likely he also won't divorce from Rei.

Tōya's fate through remains a mystery.

I'd like for him to end up hospitalized and for his family to stay and support him, for Enji to atone to him and finally look at him but well, we can only wait and see for this.

As much as I hate the idea we were told Tōya (who shouldn't have managed to survive away from Garaki's support) survived till now due to his grudge to his family, if he were to let it go he might just die... albeith in that case he would probably die in peace because he would finally feel loved by his family. We'll see.

Thank you for your ask!

#boku no hero academia #Todoroki Enji #Todoroki Shouto #Todoroki Touya #bnha spoilers #Todoroki Rei #Todoroki Natsuo #Todoroki Fuyumi #Ask #Shigaraki Tomura #Toga Himiko #Bubaigawara Jin #Shouji Mezou

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oneshotnewbie · 2 months

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hi, I hope you're well! I was wondering if you'd be so kind as to write a Carol Peletier x child or teen!reader where she's super overprotective of reader because reader reminds her so much of Sophia and doesn't want to lose reader who is like a daughter to her like she lost Sophia? ty! -🍄

Authors note: Reader is approximately Sophia's age when she disappeared. So around 11-13 years old, at least that's how I imagined it. Hope you like it, little mushroom ♥

ᕚ---ᕘ

Carol Peletier stood on night watch at the edge of the camp, her eyes piercing the dense treetops as her mind sank into memories of days gone by. The loss of her daughter Sophia a few years ago had scarred her; her heart was broken by the turmoil of the entire apocalypse. But on this day an unexpected encounter would take a positive turn in her life.

A group of new survivors approached the gates of Alexandria slowly and with hunger. Among them was a young person whose appearance immediately caught Carol's attention. With disheveled hair and a torn sweater, your figure appeared fragile and insecure in the group of older people. There was something in your gaze that made the gray-haired woman pause.

When you newcomers entered the society, an atmosphere of uncertainty and mistrust surrounded you. But Carol was already determined to stand by you and give you a new, better life. She recognized in you something of Sophia, her beloved but departed daughter. It wasn't just your looks, but also the innocent and shy way you moved and spoke that made Carol remember.

"What is your name, my child?" Carol asked softly as she approached you. The other survivors looked on suspiciously, but Carol didn't let that stop her. “Y/n,” you replied quietly, your gaze full of fear, the terror reflecting in your eyes.

Carol felt a pang in her heart and she knew immediately that she would do anything to protect you, just as she would have done for her own daughter. She smiled comfortingly and gently placed a hand on your shoulder, immediately feeling the connection between the two of you. "Welcome to Alexandria, Y/n. You're safe here," she assured you, averting the gaze of the other survivors.

In the days and week that followed, Carol watched you carefully. She helped you navigate in the community, gave you advice, and stood by you when you were shunned or teased by other younger survivors. The gray-haired woman recognized in you not only the vulnerability of a child in this harsh world, but also an incredible strength and will to survive behind the shy facade.

You slowly began to crawl out of your shell, fueled by Carol's care and support. You began to settle into the community and even made a few friends like Judith among the other survivors.

But you remained special to Carol. You were a second chance for her, a chance to right the wrongs of the past and replace a lost daughter. Every day she fought to keep you safe, because in your eyes she still saw the innocent face of her beloved Sophia.

And so she watched over you with dogged determination, ready to fight anyone who even tried to harm you.

Over the weeks, the atmosphere in Alexandria became significantly more tense as news of Alpha's threat spread. The residents were alarmed when they heard that the feared leader of the Whisperers was nearby with her community and was personally threatening to attack the community and especially the new addition if she didn't get what she demanded. Carol felt the fear in the air and the worry in her heart, but also the determination to protect her group, which had long been a close family to her.

Her thoughts immediately went to you. You had now become an integral part of Carol's life, like a daughter, and the worry for you burned in her heart like a blazing flame while the very idea made her throat tight. She couldn't imagine losing you like she had once lost her own daughter.

When she heard that Alpha and her followers were approaching, Carol prepared to do everything she could to defend her community, and especially you. She knew she couldn't let anyone hurt you or the other residents. Especially not Alpha, whose hatred towards the gray-haired woman was particularly severe.

The tension reached its peak when the Whisperers finally appeared at the gates of Alexandria. Carol stood ready on the tower, clutching her bow tightly, her eyes blazing with pure hatred and anger. The menacing figure in her leather mask stepped forward and fixed Carol with a cold and unyielding gaze, ignoring the others in the group, before her gaze shifted to you, who was standing behind Carol, trying to hide.

"My child, why are you trying to hide? Come out and show your pretty face," Alpha began, cutting through the silence with a voice as sharp as steel. Carol felt a shiver run down her spine as she realized her only interest was in you. As you stepped forward and grabbed her forearm, you sought her proximity to bind your fear while you showed yourself to Alpha. "You don't get to talk to her, do you understand me? Y/n is part of our community and I won't hand her over to you."

The tension hung over Alexandria like a heavy veil and the residents stood in silence behind the gates as they waited for the inevitable. "She has such a beautiful, young face. And I want it."

Carol's eyes darted down to you for a brief moment before she bit her lip hard, the metallic taste spreading in her mouth. "She will be the first to die if we attack," Alpha spoke and a feeling of terror gripped Carol. She promised herself that nothing would happen to you. Not after everything she'd been through. She knew she had to fight to protect you now. Even if it meant going against Alpha and the rest of the Whisperers.

"You don't dare harm a single hair on her head." replied the gray-haired one in a firm and determined voice, her eyes sparkling in a dark hue. She couldn't allow herself to act without thinking and put you in danger. "I will protect her, no matter what the cost."

You looked at Carol with wide eyes. You were scared, but you trusted her enough to know she was doing the right thing. Meanwhile, Alpha laughed darkly and took a step closer to the gate, her eyes still glued to you. "You think you can protect her? You're just as weak as the others in this community."

Carol felt anger seeping into every fiber of her being, but she forced herself to remain calm. She had to keep a calm mind if she wanted to protect you, and her love drove her to calm her racing heart. She signaled you with a nudge of her head to step back behind her and you did as you were told while she remained steadfast in her position like a lioness.

"You may think I'm weak, but I'll do anything to protect her." Carol declared firmly. Alpha laughed scornfully, but the grey-haired woman could see the uncertainty in her eyes. "You will see how weak you are when the time comes. But until then we will retreat. But remember, the clock is ticking for your little protege."

With these words, Alpha turned and disappeared into the darkness with her company. Carol took a deep breath, her hands shaking with tension as she sank to her knees and pulled you into a tight hug. She knew the fight for survival had only just begun. But she would do anything to make sure you survived. "Are you okay, my love?"

You nodded and she began to smile, although her eyes were still shining with worry. "As long as I'm here, I'll make sure you're safe. You're like a daughter to me, and I won't ever let you down." She knew you were safe, at least for now. But Carol also knew that the fight for survival was far from over. And she would fight until her last breath to protect you.

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reaper2187 · 2 months

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Eirene x bodyguard sinner reader

I huffed as I walked down the deserted streets of the city, clinging to the shadows like a second skin. I was a sinner, a wolf-like creature with powers that made me an outcast in this world. But I didn't mind, as long as I could hide from the cruel and judgmental eyes of society.

But today was different, I had a job to do. I was hired as a bodyguard for a high-profile sinner, Eirene. She was infamous for her ruthless and cunning ways, but I didn't care. As long as the pay was good, I was willing to protect anyone.

As I arrived at her doorstep, I could feel her aura before even laying my eyes on her. She was a powerful sinner, just like me. I knocked on her door and was immediately greeted by a pair of piercing green eyes. Eirene smirked at me, as if she could see right through me.

'Come in, bodyguard,' she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

I followed her inside, taking in the luxurious interior of her mansion. As we walked through the halls, I couldn't help but feel a sense of unease. It seemed like every corner of this place was guarded by her loyal followers, ready to attack anyone who dared to cross her.

Eirene led me to her office and gestured for me to sit down. I did as she said, my eyes never leaving her. She took a seat behind her desk and folded her hands in front of her.

'You're quite the enigma, bodyguard. A sinner with wolf-like powers, how intriguing,' she mused, studying me with interest.

I simply shrugged, not wanting to reveal too much about myself. But Eirene didn't seem like the type of person who was easily swayed.

'I know more about you than you think, darling. You think you can hide from me, but you can't. We sinners have a way of finding out everything we need to know,' she smirked, her gaze cold and calculating.

I realized then that I was dealing with a dangerous person. But I had a job to do, and I couldn't afford to back out now.

'Alright, what do you need me to do?' I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.

Eirene leaned in closer, her eyes locked on mine. 'I have a rival who is planning to attack me tonight. I need you to protect me and eliminate anyone who poses a threat,' she said, her tone daring me to reject her request.

I nodded, accepting the job without hesitation. As she gave me more details about the plan, I couldn't help but admire her boldness. She was a sinner who didn't back down from a challenge, and I respected that.

As the sun began to set, I made my way to the balcony of Eirene's mansion, my senses on high alert. I could feel the tension in the air, knowing that danger was just around the corner. But I was ready for anything, my powers at the ready.

Suddenly, I heard a noise coming from the edge of the property. I quickly made my way there and saw a group of masked figures trying to climb the fence. Without hesitation, I jumped into action, using my wolf-like abilities to swiftly take them down.

As I fought my way through the attackers, I could see Eirene watching from her balcony. She was impressed, I could tell from the way her lips curled into a smirk. But I couldn't let my guard down, not until all the enemies were eliminated.

When the last of them fell to the ground, I made my way back to the mansion, my body covered in bruises and scratches. Eirene approached me with a smirk, her eyes shining with pride.

'Looks like you're not just a bodyguard, but a skilled warrior. You have my respect, sinner,' she said, clapping her hands in applause.

I couldn't help but smile, feeling a sense of accomplishment. I may have been a sinner, an outcast in society, but I had found a place where I belonged.

From that day on, Eirene and I became inseparable. We were both sinners, trying to survive in a world that shunned us. But together, we were unstoppable. We traveled the world, taking on some of the most dangerous jobs, and always emerging victorious.

And as our relationship deepened, I realized that my feelings for Eirene went beyond mere admiration. She had not only become my employer but also my confidante and lover. I never would have thought that someone like her could bring out the softer side of me, but she did.

As we sat on a beach, watching the sun set over the horizon, I could feel her hand entwined with mine. I knew that this was the beginning of something special, a love that had blossomed in the most unexpected of circumstances.

Together, we were unstoppable, two sinners who had found their way to each other in the chaotic path of life. And as we both looked towards a future full of possibilities, I couldn't help but thank the day I became Eirene's bodyguard. It truly was the start of a new journey, one where I found my true purpose in this world.

#lesbian #wlw #path to nowhere #path to nowhere x reader #ptn eirene x reader #ptn x reader #eirene x reader #ptn

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kinq-sleazee · 1 year

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OCTOMER Sero for Mermay :) , i love him real bad. repost.

18+ | MDNI tw! aged up Hanta Sero, hybrid au, monsterfucking, mates, tentacles. use of ‘spunk’, use of 'cirri’ to describe suction cups, cervix fucking, i dunno just some shit i need to discuss in therapy.

♔♕♚♛

Moving to a cottage in the enchanted forest was uncommon for humans—most of them stayed within the confines of the villages lest they be forced to interact with “monsters”.

Hybrids occupied the fertile valleys on the outskirts of towns, living in seclusion from the rest of humanity. Ostracized from society due to their lineage. You never shared these sentiments. Even as a young girl you’d venture off into the forest to play with hybrid children from sunup to sundown. Everyone was always so friendly and welcoming as you bounced around from cottage to cottage hanging out with your good friends. The hybrids treated you like family; made you feel like you belonged—unlike the villagers that often shunned you for being too dark or too plush. There was one boy in particular—an octomer that lived adjacent to a river that poured into a deep bayou that you played in all the time. He was your best friend. There wasn’t a day that the two of you weren’t together. Joined at the hip, and on one particular day by the lips… He placed a bracelet on your wrist, claiming that it would always keep you connected.

Your caretaker was furious when they caught you kissing the hybrid boy near the tree line and vowed to never let you step foot in the forest for as long as they lived. Bags were packed the next day and you were shipped off to some place far, far away. Not able to return until ten years later when you’d inherited some property upon the news of their demise.

Now 25 and free from the restraints of your guardian—you sold off the land in the human village and moved to purchase the cottage with a gorgeous view of the river and the bayou that held so many fond memories. The townspeople welcomed you with open arms. Pulling you into the tight knit community as if no time had passed. It was so nice to see some of your old friends and it was a welcomed surprise to see that there were a few more humans that had integrated into hybrid society. Good to know that there are likeminded people out there. But even with all the revelry and fanfare—you still didn’t see the person that you’d missed the most.

You learned later that he’d actually become a prized warrior in the hybrid army. Fending off vicious attacks from humans that would hope to exterminate his kind. He was a hero amongst his people, but your heart longed for his presence. Luckily, on a cool summer night your prayers were answered.

It was fairly dark out. The only illumination coming from the moon and stars reflecting off the still water. Your feet dangled off the pier, toes barely grazing the surface while playing with the iridescent charm on your bracelet. You’d never been the strongest swimmer, but you often found comfort in bodies of water. This was one of those nights that required solace because you’d awoken from a wonderful dream only to be met with an empty bed, a dull ache in your belly and stickiness between your thighs. You were so tired of being alone.

Was it crazy to be pining after someone that you hadn’t seen in over 10 years? Maybe, but that didn’t stop the butterflies in your belly whenever you thought of him. What would he be like? Would you still have things in common? Would he even remember you?

How could I ever forget?

A masculine voice—deep and scratchy paired with a familiar playfulness crept into your mind. It’s like you could feel the words, rather than hear them. Your eyes widened, scanning the indigo waters until you noticed movement at the mouth of the bayou. A dark void dove into the river and disappeared. You didn’t even breathe. Heart hammering in anticipation of a potential reunion with the love of your life or a psychotic break.

Heh—maybe you’re just crazy in love.

The voice joked, louder and clearer than before. Warmth traveled from the tips of your toes to your cheeks. A tingling sensation nestled in your belly, making you clench your thighs. A low growl of approval echoed against the trees, followed by faint purring. A sudden clamminess engulfs your ankles pulling your legs deeper into the water and slightly apart. The tingling bloomed into an icy chill, swirling violently just as tufts of raven hair broke the surface. The figure rose from the water—glacial breeze rising with him as he towered over your trembling form. Obsidian visionaries bore into you, tapping into the deepest recesses of your soul. It felt like you were being swallowed whole. Devoured by the man that haunted your dreams.

“h-Hanta?” You struggle to speak. The coolness nearly suffocating—threatening to let you slip into the water if not for the cephalopodan appendages gripping your ankles.

He slots himself between your parted legs and smiles.

“Mate”. The word seemingly laced with honey and silk, falls from his lips so sensually that chilling arousal implodes in your core—the evidence of your climax spilling down your thighs.

Sero didn’t even pretend to be surprised. Whispering soothing praises in your ear while he held you against his chest, carding his fingers through your hair and massaging your legs with his tentacles. Of course, his voice alone was enough to make you cum—that’s to be expected from fated pairs. Especially those that have been separated from eachother as long as the two of you have.

It was so hard for Sero. The mating band he’d gifted you was crafted with one of his scales—allowing him to see all the nights you cried yourself to sleep, all the nights you woke up in a cold sweat, all the nights that you stared at the little river near your new house wishing that he’d rescue and bring you back home. You seemed broken. Virtually locked away in a tower to protect you from “monsters” but who was really the monster in this situation? The hybrid boy who loved you—or the people that despised him because he was different?

Sero tried to soothe you. Would send you images of your childhood home. Show you his smiling reflection as he stared in the water. Singing to you in his heavily accented voice because he’d never been accustomed to speaking in the common tongue and sending whispered proclamations of love that haunted your dreams. Your bracelet amplified your connection—allowing him to speak directly to you soul, but humans don’t know much about hybrid lore and soul ties. You never even knew that you were his mate, just assumed that the pain in your chest and the emptiness in your belly was from missing him, and you would do anything to dull that pain.

There is nothing more unsettling than seeing your mate with another. Sero had to watch you entertain countless suitors—bringing them into your bed in hopes to fill the void that he left. It was nauseating to see these imposters stealing his personal treasure. Much worse was the look of discontent in your eyes because you realized that no one could ever amount to the way Sero made you feel when he came to you in your dreams. He wasn’t upset with you—it would be hypocritical because he took lovers as well, but he knew that no one would ever make him feel as complete as you could. He was just waiting for the day that you’d return to him. For the day that he’d consummate your union and formally claim you as his mate.

That day came sooner than he expected when he saw that you’d returned to his village. With the current war he hasn’t been able to watch you as frequently—just a few seconds every week or so. When he saw the familiar surroundings of his childhood home in your background, he wanted to return home immediately, but he couldn’t just abandon his men. He knew you’d understand—be good and wait for him. He expected it. That’s why he sent you the wet dream that left an agonizing ache between your legs that made you venture out into the devil’s water. The perfect prey.

Sero prides himself on being a patient man, but the way your soft body feels against his chest makes him want to slam you against the dock and pound into you. But you deserve more than that. You deserve an explanation. So, he holds you to his chest, lips pressed against your forehead with his tentacles kneading your thighs, as he explains the significance of your connection. His voice is strong and clear—it grounds you from the whiplash brought on by your orgasm and intensified by this new information. Deep purrs rumble from his chest, providing a chilling sense of calm all over your body. Strong hands card through your hair—tangling at the nape to pull you back until your eyes meet. Your breath catches and your lips part in anticipation. Sero growls in approval, slitted eyes dilating lustfully, waiting for permission to proceed.

A small nod followed by a needy whimper is all he needs before crashing his lips onto yours and pulling you into the river. Sero knows that you can’t swim—can literally feel the anxiety wash over you when the crisp water covers your abdomen but what truly astounds him is the fact that you never pull away. Even with the underlying sense of fear you cling to him, deepening the kiss as if he’s your only hope for survival. Trusting him to take care of you in whatever way he sees fit.

Sero lowers his head to your shoulder, nipping at the soft flesh on the base of your neck while a tentacle winds up your body and wraps around your throat before swiping at the seams of your lips.

“Open” he commands, and you comply, eagerly accommodating the elongated organ that’s slithering towards the back of your throat. It feels so good moving inside you. Your eyes flutter shut as you begin to suck, swallowing greedily as creamy liquid secretes from the suction cups.

Sero groans, hips stuttering against your core. His mating slit opens, revealing his fat slimy dick—midnight black and curved perfectly to lock you in place while he breeds you. He ruts against your thigh, desperate for friction but unwilling to breach your core without properly stretching you out. Even though you were extremely aroused, and his tentacle juice relaxed you further—he didn’t want to risk hurting you.

“Mate” he drawls, lips ghosting over the bruised flesh of your neck, “Gonna prep you now. Get you ready for my cock, hmm?” You try to answer, sputtering and gagging around the tentacle lodge in your mouth. Sero groans, slowly withdrawing the sensitive muscle from your raw throat to get your response.

Your eyes are wide and brimming with tears as you nod your head in agreeance.

“Please, Han~ Need you-”,

Before you can finish your panties are ripped off and you can feel his ribbed tentacle prodding at your entrance. Breath hitching as the first cluster of cirri push through your cunt—protrusions getting caught on your walls in a tantalizing fashion. It isn’t long before you’re clawing at his back and begging for more. He obliges, adding three more and fucking into your drooling cunt so violently that literal waves crash against your bodies.

Sero is practically feral at this point. The feeling of your cunny clamping down on him while you orgasmed nearly sending him over the edge, but he’d never forgive himself if he wasted even an ounce of his glitz in this river. No—Sero needed to be in you now. Mate. Breed. Fuck. Running on repeat in his head.

“Take a deep breath for me, my love” He whispers, lips grazing your own just as the tapered head of his slimy cock slithers inside your pussy alongside his tentacles. It felt like the wind had been knocked from you. Never imagining that this level of pleasure was obtainable. You were near tears when he bottomed out, a fat cirri sprouting from his tip and latching onto the walls of your cervix. He crushed his body into yours—enveloping you in his woodsy scent, while he fucked you slow and deep.

Sero ravished your body. Marking your skin with welts from his tentacles, bruises from his hands, bitemarks from his teeth. He had claimed you. Covered in his scent and his marks. There was nothing that could ever come between you. He’d burn the world if that meant he could keep you by his side. He told you as much, but you were too fucked out to hear his confessions.

A glacial sphere of arousal nestled in your belly. You were close—he could feel it in the way you clenched around him.

“Cum for me, mate. Give it to me. Give me everything”.

You weren’t sure if it was his voice or the way his engorged cock was winding in your core while his tentacles pulsed against your walls, but you came with a screech—panting and scratching so deep that crimson lines of blood trickled down his back.

Sero toppled over with you, pumping fat eggs into your cervix, and spraying them with spunk until your tummy bulged cutely. He purred contently, running his hands over the protrusion, and praising you for taking him so well.

“I love you, (Y/N)” he whispered, but was met with soft snores. He chuckled, phasing into his human form to carry you into the cottage. He spent the night in awe gazing at your sleeping figure and thanking the gods that the two of you were finally together.

#sero hanta #hanta sero #hanta sero x you #mha smut #mha sero #mermay #mha x reader #mha x black reader #sero x black!reader

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tokyogruel · 4 months

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the more i reflect on myself and how i use the internet, the more i realize how much i dislike DNI lists, and see just how useless they are..

people who do not like you or respect your boundaries will use these lists as an arsenal to attack you, or to target topics that you feel sensitive about. it also feels very.. crass. to point out who you are Not comfortable interacting with... especially with terms so vague like "dni if youre a weirdo" like... what do you mean by that? because there is a stark, stark difference between "weirdo" (pedophile, racist, bigot, etc.) and "weirdo" (furry, transsexual, kink-positive, etc.) ....

i dont know. i dont like it. it should be obvious yes that you do not stand for bigotry and violence,,

but id much rather learn your stance on who you DO want around you, like on my about page:

i want people who visit my page to understand that i care about the plights of others, i want them to feel safe and invited- especially those who are otherwise shunned by society. i want you to know that i am here to offer you kindness, that even if i do not share your experiences i am here to listen to them and try and understand a differing viewpoint on the world. i want to learn about your language, your culture, your piece of the world. i dont want the first thing you see on my page to be a piece of who i am angry at in the world... i want to show you who i care about

#creature speaks

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sapphic-agent · 8 months

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There's one thing I wanna ask Hori about the narrative that I'm surprised isn't talked about more.

Why weren't any of the characters allowed to question their society and heroes function as a whole?

Because when kids start off with hating heroes (Kota and those brats from the second movie), they're treated to be in the wrong and has to see how great heroes can be.

Which given the context that this is a society that turns a blind eye to it's corruption and how the minority suffers, it just comes across as putting rose tinted glasses on them to keep them away from the truly bad stuff.

Like, I get it with Kota, because his hatred of heroes stems from watching his parents die and believing they chose work over him, and that this hatred could grow into a problem later to where he might end up as a villain.

But at the same time, how come this didn't let Izuku to think about the society that shunned and berated him for being born different from everyone? How come no one else stop and think that this society is on the path to collapsing on itself if nothing is done?

In a story like this, characters should be allowed to question things around them and wonder if there's anything they can do make it more bearable for others, to seek out the change they wanna see so others wouldn't have to suffer like they did.

Kota is a great example, but I raise you Stain and the LOV.

Stain made sense. He went about it in entirely the wrong way, but he was right about false heroes and how much of a problem they were. But he's a murderous psychopath so we're supposed to take his words as out of touch rambling because he attacked Ingenium who was one of the good heroes.

(We're also given no proof. He says heroes are corrupt but we aren't shown why he thinks that and we don't see it beyond Endeavor. Even more reason not to take what he's saying seriously)

Hori could have really sold this by making Tensei perhaps not so virtuous. Maybe he had or started with good intentions but ended up contributing to toxic hero society in some way and Iida was blind to it because he was the big brother he admired. That would have made Tenya's character development hit harder in my opinion. Having Tensei confess this to Tenya would have made the Stain arc even better.

Which brings us to the LOV.

I feel like Hori forgot that Dabi and Toga also joined the LOV because of Stain, not just Spinner. They, on some level, absorbed his words and wanted what he did even if they were also fueled by other motives.

That's why a lot of Dabi's later character doesn't make a whole lot of sense. For those who knew he was Touya, it was implied that he was abused similarly to Shoto and was angry at Endeavor's treatment of his children. And then was inspired by Stain to call out his father as a false hero and take down the system that (indirectly) destroyed his family.

But no, he wants to kill Shoto, doesn't give a shit about Rei or Fuyumi, and almost got Natsu (the brother he was close to and presumably cared about) killed. And all to get back at Endeavor and make him suffer. Dabi's motives were a major let down and it reduces him to a one-dimensional villain, one who only wants to hurt people for the sake of hurting them. There's no hint of the influence Stain apparently had on him.

Toga is the same. She, presumably, admired Stain because of the similarities in their quirks. It's implied she joined the LOV to be with people like her (which is why she- as Camie- asks Izuku what kind of hero he wants to be, she's trying to see if he's one of those people). Who were outcasts and wanted to be able to do what they wanted with no persecution from others. She wanted to be free, even if she had a warped perception about what that meant. But over time, Horikoshi made her a creepy, predatory yandere type (seriously, what the fuck was the point of having her grope Uraraka??) with no depth to her actions.

Both Dabi and Toga never mention Stain or his ideals again. They're just psychopaths who need to be stopped. It dehumanizes them and uses mental illness for further antagonize them.

Spinner is the only one who still attempts to embody Stain's ideals. But of course, he never gets any focus. He's a "coward" who never stands up the the LOV (except when he stopped Magne from killing Izuku) even though he feels guilty about what they do. So most of the time, he isn't portrayed in a way that makes us stop and think. It's all too easy for the audience to dismiss or forget about him.

Anyone who (rightfully) questions or criticizes or openly despises the corrupt society in this universe is portrayed in a negative light. Even if what they're saying is technically right, we throw it away because they're doing something bad.

Really, there's only one character who's the exception. I'm, of course, talking about Lady Nagant.

Listen, me and Hori got beef all day everyday. BUT Nagant is one of the most exceptional characters I've ever seen in anime.

What I love about her is that she's someone who genuinely started out with good intentions and wanted to do the right thing but was torn down by society. It destroyed her from the inside out. The actions she took aren't even that extreme, they make sense considering everything she went through. Her problems with society aren't inane or hypocritical ramblings, she's 100% correct in her assessments because she was an unwilling participant in the corruption.

The problem with Nagant, however, is that she's with us for such a short amount of time that we don't get to take a deep dive here. We don't get to dissect why, exactly, society is so corrupt or find a solution to it.

It sucks because Hori was SO CLOSE to hitting the mark with Nagant. I think introducing her- or someone similar to her (missed opportunity with Hawks)- a lot sooner would have really improved the story

#mha critical #bnha critical #ask #league of villains #toga himiko #mha dabi #spinner #stain mha #lady nagant

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