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sovpologist · 3 years

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hi, genuine question! I want to like Mara, but d2 lore shows her, in my eyes, as selfish and cruel, set on her own goal with no consideration for others. At least that's what I got from marasenna lorebook.

Why is she liked by so many in community? I feel like I'm overlooking something over things I mentioned above, but I would appreciate a perspective from someone who likes her character! If it's okay to ask!

its totally okay to ask!! this is going to be a long post so im going to put it under a readmore :)

i just want to stress first that mara is like.... widely disliked by many in the community. it used to be very unpopular to like her and if you even said anything remotely positive about her, people would reply to your posts and send you anons about how you were a terrible person for liking such a manipulative and toxic character. it was only recently that community opinion kind of started to shift, and people started to actually appreciate her character as nuanced and interesting. i definitely dont think this is because of me or anything crazy like that, but ive tried to correct misconceptions about her and cultivate a space on my blog at least where people can just openly like mara and not feel like they have to qualify it by constantly assuring people that they know mara's done bad things too (because literally every character in d2 has done bad things, and somehow people understand that liking the uldren doesnt mean you support him killing cayde but cant apply that same concept to mara for some reason). ok, im getting off my soapbox now and im going to just talk about why i like her.

mara is genuinely just such a fascinating character to me. reading the marasenna im really struck by how alone she is, even as a 19 year old human. her mom has essentially abandoned her and says that she's mara's friend but not her mother, and mara's father is never mentioned, so mara literally has no parental guidance or supervision or love. this puts a lot more of her pre-awoken actions into context, such as her not knowing how to interact with people and preferring to keep herself away from the rest of the crew. everyone mara loves leaves her. her mom stays in the distributary, uldren is distant in his efforts to impress and surprise her and then dies, and sjur dies too.

i also love mara's character arc, although it kind of makes me sad. mara is so painfully human in the earlier parts of the marasenna. she's awkward, she's lonely, she thinks her and uldren's secret language is "cool," she gets embarassed at her mom's embarrassing petnames, she hero-worships alis li and listens to her advice. watching her lose all of this and crystalize into a queen is so interesting. remember, mara didn't go out into the fight between the darkness and the traveler bc she knew she would gain power and create the awoken, its stated that she went out there to die. so a 19 year old just trying to die peacefully ends up witnessing firsthand the power of the dark and light and being tasked with essentially creating a new species, knowing that one day she wants to go back and fight the darkness. she becomes such a politician and has to scheme and plot and really loses her humanity while following ALIS' advice- alis was the one who told her that people need a mascot, not a friend. this also makes for a really interesting scene where alis grants mara one favor, and instead of asking for political power, even though mara is such an intensely political and scheming person, she tells alis the truth about the awoken and asks for forgiveness. alis, who mara looked up to, doesnt forgive her, and mara really internalizes this and starts to permantantly close herself off. mara made herself into a queen and lost her humanity in the process. there's a couple people who see the real her, like sjur, but even sjur doesnt really understand her. but her relationship with sjur is also so well written and interesting, sjur being the one person she lets herself drop her mask around and just act human. i made a post about this once, but even mara's speech patterns change around sjur, becoming much more casual and "normal." however, at the same time, mara's mask/persona is a part of her character, and one that i love. people hate her for being "mean," but i like characters like that. mara doesnt take any shit, even from the protagonist, and has her own plans and goals that she doesn't feel obligated to share or change for other people. she's ambitious, sticks to her guns, and doesn't allow other people to influence her.

you say she's selfish, and i think it is easy to brush her off as selfish and doing everything for her own gain, but there's a lot of subtext and outright text in the marasenna and other lore that shows mara genuinely believes that the only way to fight the darkness is to become a being on the same level as the darkness and the traveler. she doesn't let the awoken become immortal gods, which some people regard as a bad thing, but she did that for a reason. mara understands that a people who are eternal and ageless will never grow as people, and she knew that the darkness wanted them to just be complacently sitting aside in their little realm while it does whatever it wants. mara wasn't going to let that happen, and knew she had to find a way to encourage people to leave paradise. you can dislike the way she went about this, essentially encouraging conflict and war among her people, but she did not just do it for her own gain or amusement. mara has also been hated on for starting the reef war/firing a missile at the house of wolves, people act like she did that just for fun too, but the eliksni fleet was heading to conquer earth. instead of just hiding and building up her own resources, which wouldve been the logical thing to do in this situation, mara put her own fleet and power on the line to draw the eliksni's attention away and help earth. she doesn't do things solely bc they benefit her, but because she genuinely loves and wants to help earth. her uncaring persona is a mask, the thing that she feels she needs to be for people to have faith in her.

i have more to say but this is already so long and ive said a lot, so i'll end it here :) at the end of the day, some people are just not going to like mara and thats totally fine. she's not everyone's type, bc she IS ambitious and manipulative and sometimes cruel. i just wish she didnt get a disproportionate amount of hate for being like that when i know for a fact that if she was a male character she would not get this much hate, and i wish that people could just dislike her normally without lying about her or misinterpreting her character and motivations. but if you dont like her, you dont like her! sometimes we just dislike characters, sometimes for well thought out reasons snad sometimes just for no reason! thats completely fine, as long as you're respectful!!

#long post #ask #i did not read this over again before i hit post so if anything is grammatically weird just ignore it #and if its hard to understand just send another message and ill try to explain #tldr; misunderstood gay asshole with a heart of gold? SIGN ME UP

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pyropiglin · 3 years

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rant: twitter and eret’s apology

this doesn't really affect mcytblr that much but i am quite frustrated with twitter at the moment. rant under the cut.

disclaimer: I am poc and have adhd so I feel I can comment on the situation also I am so sorry if I come off rude, I really don’t intend to. also most of what I say is a twitter issue and not something i have seen mcyt tumblr

real quick background:

tonight I joined eret's stream as I usually do homework during his streams and I come to find out they are dealing with a controversy over the diversity in the smp. apparently in last night’s stream a donation asked them about the lack of diversity in the smp and they responded by talking about ponk as ponk had shared his culture experience with eret. tonight eret spent the first couple minutes of their stream apologizing for implying that ponk was all the representation needed and/or that quackity and skeppy weren't poc. in summary, it was a misunderstanding of eret’s intentions.

my issue with this:

first, I am mexican, also I do have a twitter and did browse through the eret tag to see what others were saying, but my twitter is not associated with mcyt, I am not on mcyt stan twitter and do not wish to be. now I understand that a lot of the people in the mcyt fandom are young (I am 18 and in college), however the current trend of feeling the need to "cancel" (although this may not have been the intention) people is not progressive. first of all, eret in my opinion, was not in the wrong, in fact just as they said, they didnt want to say any false information about the other members of the smp, so he only mentioned ponk who he had spoken to. while I understand how their words could have been misunderstood, the drama it seems to have caused was not necessary. as I said before, a lot of people in this fandom are young, so they are generally more quick to jump on bandwagons but I think there are a few things everyone should remember before deciding to claim that someone has done something out of pocket.

1. make sure you have all the information: for one eret likely has little to no control over who is whitelisted on the smp, as a result they likely have no ability to directly change the diversity on the server

2. ask someone educated: I mean this more than just asking a person of color, ask someone who has more knowledge about the situation what they think. for example, ponk who outright stated that the statements towards eret were falsely motivated. this could also include older fans (I say this lightly, but in my experience, the adult members of fandoms seem to approach these situations with more nuance)

3. think about how spreading this type of information will affect others: as seen tonight eret publicly addressed 16k viewers on this controversy, and obviously seemed anxious about it, enough so that many donations referenced their anxiety. now I say this next part as a person with adhd, eret has stated multiple times that they are neurodivergent (adhd + dyslexia) and have anxiety, and with this type of repeated hate they have received recently I completely understand why their mental health is not great at the moment (this has been stated in erets tweets). by not approaching situations that could be misunderstandings (such as this one) with a sense of complexity, others can be negatively affected.

(quick side rant: as someone with adhd this sort of rejection from such a large amount of people hurts so bad, I cannot imagine dealing with it. for context- people with adhd typically have rejection sensitivity)

tl:dr: please think critically before spreading information about ccs or anyone who might have said or done something controversial, although this is mainly a twitter problem.

#eret #the eret #mcyt #mcyt twt #mcytblr #i felt quite frustrated about this and ranted a lot #i do want to see if anyone else feels the same or if it is just late at night for me #regardless thank you to anyone who reads the whole thing #i sort of wanted to validate my frustration

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charlottefree · 3 years

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anon from this evening who asked about a statment i made in 2013, here is my final statement on the subject. please read the whole thing because im too up front to have anything taken out of context.

im not publishing your ask but i have apologized for that, several times, including immediately following the incident. but those screenshots didnt get around. this is how i saw it then: out of all the creeps in the industry he was the only person to not only get consent but get written consent. i saw him as a scapegoat for an entire corrupt system. i felt like agents should be held accountable for urging models to do things they are uncomfortable with. the photographer in question was always respectful of me, even when i was a practically a nobody. i clearly communicated to him my standards and my boundaries which he respected more than i can say for a lot of people in the industry, if not most. while all my friends were taking off their tops in front of him, he would be knocking on the bathroom door telling his assistants to pinch it so i could use the restroom to change. i felt like people were using his name to get famous and throwing him under the bus. i felt like the whole concept of getting consent goes out the window if an adult can give written consent to something, sober and then blame anyone but themself. i too have done things i regret and wish i could blame someone else but as adults we are responsible for our own decisions. I had many chances as a model when i was beginning to do things that crossed my boundaries, and it would have got me places, but that was not worth it to me. I felt like there was no way anyone could go to his studio not knowing the type of material he shoots. i’ve never witnessed him be pushy in ways SO MANY PEOPLE in the industry are, so i figured anything done with him was done by people who were, not only were aware before doing it that they might do stuff like that, but also signed release forms, sober. The article i had read stated the girls didn’t want to say no to him because it would be like saying no to all of their cool new friends or something like that... SO from my ~mind u this was in 2013, not present~ perspective, he was being used as a scapegoat. I had only ever experienced a kind version of him who respected me and treated me like an artist and adult. He was someone who valued my opinions on things and made me feel seen and valid in an industry i was just starting in. He was one of the only people in that world who treated me like they “got” me in a time when i was so, so isolated. But now, i see the situation differently. I’ve apologized about it several times. During that time of my life, i wasnt sleeping much at all, i was traveling constantly, and was being berated 24/7, called faggot bitch lesbian slut whore everything under the book constantly by my partner and was also a total idiot from PTSD. i was literally fucked up all the time and people at work thought i was on drugs because i was just so out of it, (for the record i’ve come a long way since then). Working in the industry, I have had so many people ask me to push my boundaries, or try to force me to, and i've heard of so many awful stories of rape and molestation by bigwigs such as alex wang (he pulled out my t girl friends genitals at a party and laughted- and thats just one story of many) that i thought the negative attention terry was getting was unfair because in my eyes, he had never done anything with anyone that was non-consensual or with anyone who wasn't able to give their consent. as im older i can see the nuances of the situation much more clearly and i really need to distance myself from that statement. I’m not someone who doesn't stick up for women, and although i’ve been terrible with my words i have done plenty to physically protect models, and women irl, the kinds of things i could never share or you would never hear about on the internet. i’ve kicked ass for women. i’ve beat photographers over the head w their own camera and exposed film, broke cameras of anyone i’ve seen take pictures of girls changing backstage. i’ve refused lots of money to work with rapists and abusers, and i’ve lost a lot of great opportunities for this. I’ve called out creepy famous photographers in front of large groups of people to embarrass them. I could tell you so many stories, as could my lady friends, that would show you how much i do care about protecting women. that’s the problem with the internet is that no one knows you in real life, or speaks to you on a daily basis. I’m not a misogynist, i am just a contrarian, and a devils advocate. I will stick up for someone who doesn’t have anyone in their corner, that’s just the way I am. I thought he was totally misrepresented. I got it wrong once because i connected with someone who i thought was just misunderstood, as i have often been. I’m loyal, he gave me my first paid job when i had NO money, he believed in me when i needed people in my corner. I feel really bad now for all the women who had bad experiences with him now that they are all uncovered and listed on the internet. if i had been aware of all of those experiences then, i would have never worked with him. i feel bad for endorsing someone who could have given so many women negative experiences and i wish i could take it back, but thats in the past. i can’t change the past. it’s an icky feeling, but eventually i have to move on and forgive myself. i’ve been tormented over one stupid statement enough.

I do think it should be said that women in this industry need more support in learning how to say “no” and being empowered to make their own decisions. Agents, stylists, photographers can be bullies to often MUCH younger-than-them models and intimidate them to appease their will. I would love to see more strides made in this direction in the fashion industry, and to see more dark subjects such as pimping and rape (none of which my agency has ever been accused of) come to light. There are actually many people out there that think the risk of being sexually abused is part of being in entertainment industry and that is not ok.

I’m sorry if i let anyone down, it was a really stupid thing to say and i didnt even totally mean it at the time i was just having a manic tumblr moment (while working nonstop) and was being a stupid edgelord/contrarian or w/e. when someone like azealea banks posts a rant people are very offended by, imagine the type of headspace she was in when she posted it, and how she got there. I was going through some shit from 2009-2014, and it took me years to heal. I don’t hold the same opinions as i did in 2013, i’m a VERY different person now, and I don’t deserve to be held accountable for this 8 years later. thanks for understanding. People deserve to be able to grow, i hope we can extend that chance to others as well.

#statement

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tillman · 4 years

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Pls infodump about lancelot from what i observe almost everyone hates him? (Ok its understandable bec of his affair with queen) im curious why do you like lancelot? And i remember a few days ago you post that there so many things you want to talk about him? And i want to see you rant/gush about his character, relationships, mental illness, his flaws etc ans also what is the difference between fate lancelot and lancelot in the legends? I want to know more about him he is complicated

OK its not that everyone hates him its that people hate what he stands for. the french side of arthurian lit is VERY focused on making lancelot seem like the greatest knight in the entire world because…. wow… hes french. and french people suck. stop normalizing the french. i like lancelot because of what he COULD stand for. theres a lot of things that could be delved into more (his mental illnesses, his communication issues, his inability to comprehend love, the struggle with being unholy or wrong, ect) but no one ever does. so i stole him hes mine now fuck the french they did him dirty.

uhm ok this is under a cut for talks of kinda heavy topics (lots of mental health talk, lots of abuse talk) and also cus its long. sorry i have a lot to say about him)

i like lancelot a lot cus i see myself a lot in him. mostly in his mental health and how he ends up dealing with situations. his struggle with violent mood swings and his huge burden of being labeled as a sinner or whatever for a relationship he admits to feeling trapped in is…. relateable… comforting to see in a fictional character i guess. as flawed as he is hes still heralded as a good person. hes still loved by his friends and his family. and thats nice.. i like it.

uhm for his mental health the main thing that comes out is his struggles with trauma, awful depression, and also just the fact he dissociates a lot. in knight of the cart he is so out of it he doesnt realize a knight is attacking him until hes thrown into the water in which he reacts violently and freaks the fuck out, trying to rip the guy off his horse. he like. physically can not handle extreme emotions and will either fall asleep so he doesnt have to face it (le morte says this is a known quality of him, he does this enough dinadan expects it as soon as he gets mad) or he swings so hard he has an extreme bout of depression (in the vulgate when trying to comprehend his relationship with guenevere and galehaut he just shuts down and spends all his time sleeping or staring at the river) or awful mania (see: the many times guenevere freaks out at him and he gets so upset he jumps out a window and lives in the woods). Lancelot has a lot of unworked out trauma from being r*** twice by the same woman who continues to use him and freak him out so much he cant find camelot safe (triggering another huge spike where he runs off into the woods) or the literal entire end of the legends where he has to deal with the trauma of while having one of his dissociative episodes in combat he accidentally kills gareth, someone he loves and adores like a brother or son and gets so upset he just accepts everything happening and hides in joyous gard, where his cousins have to BEG him to go and defend his honor from gawain whos basically knocking on his door pleading with lancelot to kill him.

lancelots inability to understand a lot of social nuances is also really interesting but like, ultimately leads to a lot of strife for him most namely galehauts death and gueneveres constant abuse. The thing is Lancelot basically idolizes guenevere and this is where a lot of the abuse and weird shit comes from in their relationship. lancelot was a very young knight who honestly didnt understand anything about BEING a knight when he came to court. the queen knighted him and him, being young and not understanding, took this as “i am her knight! i will do anything for her!” and guenevere just kinda ran with this? i dont rlly wanna go too into it ill do that later when i get farther in the vulgate and can talk more on it but it leads to lancelot being trapped in a relationship he admit hurts him, but the small sliver of love guenevere gives him when she needs him is enough to keep him in because his mindset is still “im her knight! this is what a knight should do for his lady!” Galehaut is a different situation where his blindness to social cues and other shit leads to a lot of drama and hellish shit and when he finally snaps and realizes “oh. oh no this is what love should be” its too late and galehaut is dead and lancelot isnt much better. his own mother has to come and convince him not to literally kill himself over this and sends him into a spiral of depression where he doesnt leave the joyous gard for months. when he does and when he comes back to court, no one really … cares? that galehaut is dead. and this is lancelots first experience with actual love and his first experience with the death of someone close to him. which is an awful double whammy to have to experience. he does have good friends like gawain and dinadan and tristan and his relationship with galahad is good but they all end up dead or turned against him by something thats he did and its just. god its so sad to watch. the only people lancelot is left with in the end are his cousins, and even at the end of all of that hes left alone with the corpses of people he thought he loved.

like hes a very flawed man. lancelot is a problem causer and not a problem solver. he doesnt try to he really doesnt, he strives to be the perfect knight mostly for some sliver of appreciation from someone he idolizes he never really ends up getting. he doesnt know how to cope, and ends up making things worse when he inevitably ends up screwing shit up because of this. hes called a sinner and unholy by god, and while he is very proud of his son for what he ends up achieving, has to deal with the trauma of the grail quest alone. he ends up killing someone he loves, and who genuinely respected and cared for him like a brother in a fit of him not being able to deal with heavy emotions. like he truly is in the wrong in most situations but like. in such a pitiable way. hes a good person, but lets his flaws overtake him a lot and pushes away the people who want the best for him. its like…. sad.

(about to talk about fate u can drop off now if u just wanted to read my arthurian lit opinions :-) )

i could go off about fate lancelot and all the problems i have with him for hours but i think the main thing i wanna talk about rn is how they handle his internalization of his life and then just did nothing with it. his wish for the grail is just to be told he was wrong. thats so fucking GOOD!! in life he was heralded as the best knight like of course his one regret was that no one ever stopped him and went “you are wrong. this is wrong. you are doing the wrong thing.” and that being all he wants out of the thing that can grant any wishes is soooooo soo cool and neat. and then they just reduced his personality to “oh boo hoo im so sad im going to fuck a married woman now” like. the fucking dissonance. like lancelot isnt the type for random flings. tristan sure i understand that a bit hes unhinged and hard to characterize and .. honestly does just go around fucking married woman. weirdo. but lancelots entire struggle is over his relationship with guenevere being both wrong morally and literally abusive! i jsut dont get it i dont understand how they built up something so interesting with zero and threw it all out the window it makes me so mad. i dont even wanna talk about fate lancelot anymore rn its giving me a headache cus im so mad.

#hes a really interesting and complex character with a lot of nuance but hes just so dumb #lancleot is the epitome of today i will cause problems on accident #hes just a mess of a man and trying to deal with taht fact but the problem is he has more power #than a man like that should have and it puts himself and others in dangerous situations #Anonymous

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raikoren · 4 years

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some onions bout the bnha manga since im reading it in jp nao

the more i read of bnha the more i realise. i kind of fucking hate this series. it’s got all the ingredients of the classic old big 3. brilliant art, a cool character here or there (sometimes), bursts of muddled clunky progression but a cool fight to soothe the pacing and the mostly frustrating boring uninteresting pussy story choices! the sloppy sort of toothless writing only shounen jump editors can give me. it really truly reminds me of how i felt reading bleach .. but it hasnt got the same charm to make me forgive it. the artist is really really talented though absolutely adore some layouts especially when handguy is included and we get some cool reaching illustrations. he and his team are commendable for making such polished work week in week out and its genuinely so fun to read from an art perspective and i really like the fact he leans very heavily into a much looser style that makes everything stretch in a satisfying way as if its designed for animation despite being so complex in its illustration.

its one of those series that is painfully mediocre shounen and you can immediately tell that by the fact that even in this hammy nonserious plot, somehow, the female characters still get completely fucking shafted as excpected. they literally do almost fuck all and the big three characters that get the most development and are considered in-universe ‘main characters’ all happen to be male despite the entire main cast supposedly being the absolute best of the best at the best of this top superhero school.

yaomomo is probably one of the most egregious examples. a character whos top of the class, who got in on recommendations (just like the other deuteragonist) with only three other students making the cut and her big character conflict was that she for some reason, felt inferior to todoroki shouto, whose initial character arc revolves around the fact that ‘he’s not trying his best’. it’s notable that todoroki is never considered to be some freak of nature genius in the same way other characters, he’s impressive but there are stronger. but for some reason, his superiority over yaomomo is pivotal to her character. she doubts her own decision making skills compared to his due to losing so badly at the sports festival against fumikage.

now lets see here: this fucking emotionally constipated idiot who is noted in writing to not using his full potential since he has no motivation to actually win, handicapping his own abilities for most of the time due to crippling personal issues, who ALSO completely jobbed at the festival and gave up at the last match against bakugou and suffered a humiliating defeat because he lacks shame and conviction and who ALSO got in on recommendations? todoroki is an interesting character in his own right, hes strong but his flaws are glaringly evident and interesting. but for some reason he gets elevated to this position of being yaomomo’s ‘wall’.

hes not a team player, yes hes notably perceptive but to position the realtionship between momo and him like this it feels like such a pointless angle to work in cause its so antithetical to yaomomos whole characterisation and contradicts her entire background for .. what? shes got such a strong natural-leader type personality or she is attempting to have one despite the author somehow forgetting. yes she’s nervous and panics sometimes, but i think her entire character arc is intended for her to overcome this as the main crux. there is no doubt that yaomomo is strong. she is excellent as a leader, works extremely well in a team, has a level head and every single time we see her the author always brings it back round to the fact she is an excellent strategist and everyone looks to her to make a tactical decision. almost like her entire character revolves around leadership and self-confidence.

but compared to how shes portrayed against a ‘tactician’ like midoriya for example you would literally never guess that about her unless they didnt spoonfeed it to you that yes, this character is supposed to be smart sorry we keep making her look inept despite her entire character skill and ability being completely and utterly centred around this main concept teehee.

even compared to yoarashi (who i love), who also got in on recommendations, she doesnt get the same level of merit in the fiction. shes never truly made out to be a big deal in the same way the others are which not only fucking blows but makes the story more and more of a grating power up treadmill like a classic shounen jump manga without any of the charm or love. interesting characters like yaomomo who have clear visions are easily pushed aside and their traits sidelined to put more emphasis on other characters.

plus when she does get to make a big decision the narrrative acts like ‘oh was it even the right choice?! did we even make it worse!???’ which would be an interesting introspection for the headstrong characters who jump straight into shit, a reprieve from the individual bullshittery they can pull off without consequence but even though we set this character up specifically to make the right tactical decision in a pinch were not even gonna give her that satisfaction of being a HERO in this situation in this hammy feel-good plot cause thats reserved for the cool main character. its truly fucking unbearable. in the next few panels the main big trio of strong characters are making thoughtless decisions left right and centre with no hesitation or comment from the narrative with no internal struggle but here we are .. at what should be the culmination of a character arc that just .. falls fucking flat. for one of the bigger characters in the supporting cast of the series.... man the writing is just so poor.

you could say that trying to set up some linear character development where ‘girl is strong > gets confidence shaken > confidence comes back’ struggle contrasting against her ojou-sama calm and secretly playful demeanour is meant to be interesting and give her depth but honestly its just played straight in the most truly boring way but its ok! todoroki said keep your chin up queen and shes fine now. hes gonna go save aizawa-sensei with no input, no plan and be a hero because being hero is just about being the main character! everyone else can fuck off. she really needed that validation since she most likely will not have her own achievements, being recognised by this moron is her progression as a character despite her own character arc being infinitely more interesting and nuanced.

i do not expect a lot from a shounen manga sir, i came in with middling expectations and to look at some cool art whilst i awkwardly practice my japanese and yet. here we fucking are. i keep reading this hoping we get some comeuppance or some result but man. i feel like bnha is actually one of the series i wont bother keeping up with at all. the practice was really good! dont get me wrong its a great light read but im honestly surprised at how skewed the actual story is compared to fanworks. i just wanted some easy jp practice but i became weirdly invested in this probably cause i have a huge bias with cool character designs and the anime production was so ambitious.

o yea and one other thing. with tsu, ochako and nejire being introduced as going on the hassaikai raid but then completely sidelined at the first boss, essentially being relegated to being the mob charas that fits the thematic needs of that one random villain character it was sooo fucking lame. it really felt like the midboss had more thematic weight than these three girls first big fight. they were truly only there to fit the ‘lust’ theme they couldve been replaced by anyone else with tits.

in that arc too, midoriya definitely stepped on my toes the most since he took up moments that i thought would be more meaningful and appropriate with the other dot-eye dude that fell compleltey flat with him, got to use possibly the coolest fucking villain as a beatstick meter to show idk he had even more of a god mode i guess sometimes thanks to taking eri into battle instead of ykno relying on the other UA students and also giving them time to shine rather than interspersing flashbacks and shit before every meaningful fight to show ‘hey look how much this character has grown’ in the most cop out sort of storytelling. jirou i think at least gets some life written into her with meeting her parents and the ua school festival arc showing her talents and passion but shes barely utilised too and hagakure is a literal noncharacter her gag is barely even included half the time. mina gets some characterisation but even then its in the form of through another male character, kirishima, and in both instances its like the two are fighting for the spotlight of relavance which is a shame cause theyre both cooooooooooooool aaaaaaaa. every single girl character just feels like an ‘add-on’ or an afterthought, even moreso than the already forgotten secondary cast of which the most interesting dynamics and characters libe (denki and fumikage are cool!).

plus one gripe is that literally 5 separate girl characters have the same “oho they have to take their clothes off for their quirk to work ohooohgoho! so nautghty guess it cant be helped” and that just makes me like. you fucking suck at this bro just be horny with your whole chest making them have a flimsy embarassed half-excuse to be horny is lame. if you wanna make horny characters just fucking do it! enough of this stupid preamble you have to shoehorn in to every character every fucking time. just make it slutty and move on. there’s no need to be so annoyingly coy about it. also UA is the best most prestigious hero course and the girls who are going to become the top pro heroes go to their internship and its a fkn beauty commercial and its like. if they were at least building towards some commentary that female pro heroes are treated less seriously than their male counterparts like with mt.ladys flirting and her immediate paparazzi who takes pics of her ass, or to show that to become popular it means some level of corporate gameplaying and fanservice, it could be something but theres literally zero effort to comment or build on it at all its literally just presented as is and played straight. this is what it means to be a girl hero. that’s all. no comment.

i feel like miruko was a half-hearted attempt to remedy the lack of girl heroes that are actually strong and not bg props but its like it just feels like its been written as they go along with no overarching theme, nothing being built on or anything to say and it just feels so unsatisfying to read. characters that are introduced regularly get used at beatsticks to show how strong they are and get obliterated soon after to serve to show how cool and totally serious this new villain is ykno??? its so fucking tired a really classically shit kind of pointless circling narrative, like nothing truly has any weight to it and everything is meaningless before one for alls almighty relevance and power and whatever the plot needs has suddenly always existed lol dont worry bout it bro it was totally always there heres a star wars reference!

imo outside of the mangas art, the best thing about bnha is the anime adaptation with the exception of season4. the concept of having a long running shounen but giving it ample time, and a higher ambition in terms of production value and having a just absolutely fucking solid staff really make the first three seasons of bnha anime. naturally the voice acting and sound is anime standard gold but the production cant be understated it pulls so much of the slack. the direction and pacing of the first three seasons is honestly really well done, it feels like stuff builds up with ample time and we get much more focus on the background characters even in simple ways like introducing new group shots etc that give them much needed characterisation. one of my fave episodes is s3e3 which gives us a feeling of actual life and interaction as the kids train hard and get to spend an evening together having a bbq and its honestly full of just like group shots, framing in a way that really truly makes it a believable group of good kids trying their best at summer camp and gives almost everyone some much needed screentime.

one thing i noted as well is that the anime really likes to drive home important emotional points for certain characters through some great character acting - like yaoyorozus pivotal fight with fumikage is barely a passing glance in the manga whereas the anime really captures her desperation and panic as she tries her absolute best to react to the situation, not giving up even as shes overpowered only to realise in horror shes already lost. theres so much more weight and time given to this match and tbh its annoying that something that is meant to be so pivotal is barely glossed over in the manga since its so important to her future character motivations. it feels like when these moments and the strength of the supporting characters is lacking, the main story beats become more and more blatantly repetitive. some of the best parts of the arc are the bakugo rescue plan but were always served a fresh bland helping of izuku midoriya being the main character over utilising the strengths of other characters in this pivotal situation. it’s not like theres any fear of giving other characters ‘origin’ chapters and handing over the reigns away from midoriya it just for some reason, the author chooses not to really bother fleshing out characters who dont have immediate plot relavance or not the main three which makes the whole cast weaker.

imo even the anime is suffering from the source materials holes and its own slightly shoddy choices in direction with season 4 for some reason deciding to faithfully adapt the awful pacing of the overhaul arc and faithfully make it as dry as possible and devoting a solid 6 episodes to the frankly lame school festival arc despite it clearly suffering for time in the first half. it also includes my new least favourite trope of cutting the sound design completely to a slow vocal track along with the most eye wateringly boring fight pacing it was literally like. sir i want to skip this. you are going to make me watch this stupid fight with the dude whos character motivations got explained to me three seconds ago? with a new power up for green boy? with no sound design so theres even less weight to this whole fucking fight? and youre not even going to let me listen to you say run? how fucking dare you do this to me. the anime adaptation cannot stand on its own two legs with the source material alone. it needs strong direction to patch up the holes or stellar animation to distract me since without either its truly a weak weak show.

i know i already talked about it but really wish overhaul and his whole arc was handled better since i felt like it had promise. the wild shift in tone as i was reading was actually pretty surprising and the whole premise reminds me of how fucking nutty and exciting the yorknew city arc in hxh was for that series. the possibility of building how the actual underworld functions, which is tantalisingly never truly talked about in a world of cartoony heroes and villains was interesting and i was ready to see what organised crime with fucking superpowers could bring to the table plus all the new characters really looked damn cool. but overhaul himself, despite his fucking amazing intro and his title of no.2 in the underworld after all for one was in like 12 chapters and the arc literally served to introduce a plot device then fuck off with all its characters immediately having no impact at all and not even utilising the introduced concepts of the yakuza, organised crime and drugs in the age of quirks in any fuckin way. the majority of development came from fucking flashbacks literally seconds before a fight and they were scarce with anything interesting. like SIR WHAT A WASTE I HAD FINALLY FOUND MY GRIMMJOW AGAINST THESE UNSEXY LoV LOSERS WITH NO CHARISMA AND YET everyone keeps telling me that it was just a weak arc and the others are better. but having read them i think its just emblematic of the sort of writing style which prioritises having cool ‘moments’ for its beloved main character over a a cool interesting solid story that produces amazing moments and has the insane shounen payoff that you expect.

my closing thoughts are that its at least a solid manga to read whilst eating breakfast a solid 3/10 and probably higher if you like little broccoli boy and for some reason want him to win. which i dont. he has a terminal case of unlikable bland shounen mc syndrome and the worst thing is that he didnt used to be like that, he grew into it. his whole character is such a waste to me, turning him into the chosen special one with the greatest quirk is the most boring path possible for someone who had such a strong desire and conviction to be a hero. that we see building themselves up out of their own merit for most of the series and then suddenly giving him the power of more quirks fucking sucks. having such a ridiculous power and such a devastating payoff kept his fights interesting and i think the fight where eri allowed him to use it at full power with no drawbacks was such a fucking let down. there were better ways for him to grow other than idk more quirks cause hes special. and truly outside of attaining more power to become no.1 he has very little conflict in his character after someone else goes out of the way to instill confidence in him its also very annoying that repeatedly were shown how hard everyone works to get into ua, to become the heroes they want to be but its always dwarfed in comparison to izuku and the whole fucking scene with allmight at the end of the kamino incident being specifically for izuku, instead of a rallying cry that you are next, every one of you must struggle to become the hero that you want to be - to bear the weight of the symbol of peace is not for one persons shoulders alone like its a shame cause the series spends so much time hammering home how these kids are the best of the best, the ones who really truly want it but theyre not really treated with the same regard at all and their struggles and improvement are nowhere near on the monumental level of midoriya.

i feel like the narrative has all the makings of something interesting, but somehow fucking hilariously misses its own point. truly ripping apart the idea of becoming the greatest hero, the ‘symbol of peace’, that becoming a pillar isnt any way for a human to live and glorifying one persons sacrifice for all our sakes isnt right and that the true insiduous evil of hero society is that it makes us truly believe that people are painted in black and white rather than many shades of grey and forces people to take on things they shouldnt, allows certain powerful individuals to enforce their own wills on the world and robs everyday people, the powerless and weak of any agency of how their society works. it acts like heroism is an inherent trait only afforded by the strong and that being anything less than the ultimate hero is a failure even if it means doing awful tings, like throwing away your children giving them mental scars, leaving behind whole families in the name of heroism falling in the line of duty being seen as some great honour, leaving kids to wander the streets since doing necessary but painful things are for better equipped people, right? wash your hands of it and let a hero deal with it. honestly i just want to see a weak supporting characters heroism. that was the charm of early bnha. ive had enough of this blind thoughtless heroism thats presented as the correct one, for the chosen few. i want to see the struggle for it, insatiable longing that you cant help pushing you on, but most of all i want to see the hero you can be in ways that are meaningful but yours alone and taking back the world inch by inch from the common villainy of our society with one person at a time, reaching out to your hand no matter how scarred. to look your dreams in the face and turn your back on them. tearing down the sun, shattering it into a million pieces, but the small shards shine brighter and can be held in mortal hands. but nah izuku is going to be all might super cop 2 dont worry bout it guys. dw he’ll also choose some poor fucking kid to bear this burden after he becomes useless in battle and we can discard him as a person and simply keep him as an icon since the narrative keeps allowing the villains to have valid criticisms against society but always dismiss them since theyre villains you know and youre not meant to actually think about changing society despite your position of power, just enjoy being no.1 whilst your alive and rinse and repeat pog.

i think thats why i can easily see why bakugo and todoroki are so popular through the series as they do take a long time to get through their extremely shitty issues and they are genuinely shitty little teen psychopaths who are horrible fucking bastards. but they grow up and in really tangible gratifying ways. they seem to have as many setbacks as they do wins, constantly fucked over by their own hubris but still finding a way to power through despite it all trying to awkwardly form connections and become better people as well as better heroes and they can not do so on their own. their struggles are treated with gravity and they always acquire some kind of new strength in return but at a pace that doesnt put them miles ahead of their other classmates but definitely feels weighted and substantial to their development. todoroki gritting his teeth but slowly realising that he has a fucking ridiculous opportunity in his hands with endeavours agency and even inviting his friends is monumental in its own way, endeavour texting his son and his son texting back is like. it really does feel like something. its also interesting that as broccoli boy gets stronger he gets subsequently less and less likeable imo like ... sir you are NO shirou emiya. you do not have the range or the sheer trauma to be so dogged and blind in your ideals despite the world you occupy and everyone else around you. i was sold shirou emiya superhero manga with sexy juwabe sunichi teacher and only one of those thigns is true!!!

#damn you ren #yea i just finished now and my head is busting open with thoughts #probably an awful word vomit of opinions but like. i just finished reading it and im like sir why do i do this #i have this awful illness its called being a shounen manga fan

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themoneybuff-blog · 6 years

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The Connoisseur Problem

A few days ago, I shared a meal with someone who truly loves wine. She brought a bottle to the meal with her, one that she described as mid-priced but excellent, and shared a small glass with everyone at the table. I tasted it. It was good and accompanied the food well. I could recognize that it was better wine than the sub-$10 stuff I usually drink at the dinner table, but it didnt really click with me as any sort of exceptional experience. I mean, I would probably choose it in a blind taste test against our usual white table wine, but I wouldnt be running out to pay more than $10 for it. Yet, as we sat there, she compared the wine to a bunch of different wines, expensive and otherwise, and pointed out a bunch of different details. Being a polite conversationalist, I asked a few follow-up questions, as I usually do when I see someones enthusiasm. I actually love hearing people talk about something theyre enthusiastic about and they usually take me along for an interesting ride. By the end of it, she was practically wishing she had several different bottles of wine so I could try them and notice these huge differences between them. As I noted above, my wine palate is an unsophisticated one. Sarah and I have a small number of sub-$10 wines that we like and were often willing to try others in that price range, but we rarely spend more than that for a bottle. I have a glass of wine with dinner perhaps once or twice a week, and thats the sum total of my wine consumption. Thus, my personal wine palate is basically on the spectrum of sub-$10 wines. My idea of a perfectly good wine is going to be far different than my guests idea of a perfectly good wine simply because I am a limited wine connoisseur. I simply dont have the broad experience of drinking wine that my guest has. What does that mean, though? For one, it means that there are some subtle differences between wines that Im basically unaware of. I dont have the capacity to really appreciate the quality difference between a $20 wine and a $75 wine; I can taste some differences, but the differences are subtle enough that theyre not deeply meaningful to me. I call this the connoisseur problem or the 90% problem. For someone who is a wine connoisseur, the difference between a middle of the pack wine and a top tier wine is a huge one. Theyre seeking out subtle quality experiences when they drink wine. For me, the thing that matters is, does it taste good and pair well with my meal? If the answer is yes, Im perfectly content. I dont feel the need to chase the subtle differences between good wines. A wine that I identify as good is good enough for my purposes, which is a glass to be consumed as a nice pairing with a meal. The thing is, I am fully aware that I am missing out on appreciating some of the nuance and subtleties of fine wine. I am making a conscious choice to appreciate wine as a simple meal pairing rather than look deeper for subtle differences in quality. Theres nothing inherently wrong with being a wine connoisseur. Its just that attempting to be a connoisseur of anything that comes with a price tag is a very expensive proposition, and that expensive proposition better be returning a lot of value to me personally. For me, the difference between the best under-$10 wines out there and the best wines of that type regardless of price is definitely there, but its small enough that it doesnt make a world-breaking difference to me, certainly not a $20 or a $50 difference per bottle to me. A sub-$10 wine thats 80% as good as a $50 wine is perfectly fine at my table. There are a few catches here. First of all, if you approach things with this perspective, it is really hard to appreciate someone who shares something of the highest quality with you. If I went to a very fancy dinner party and someone poured a wine of a truly excellent vintage, I would honestly have no idea how it really compared to other wines. Id enjoy it and probably recognize that it is an expensive wine, but I would miss out on the amazing subtleties of it. So, what do I do in that situation? I ask the person who is a connoisseur to tell me about it! The person to whom the difference is important will likely have quite a bit of knowledge about wines, and people who are passionate about a subject are almost always excited to share that knowledge and joyful that someone expresses an interest as well, and as a listener and friend (or at least acquaintance), I love seeing and hearing the passion of others. At home, however, Im going to stick with my sub-$10 wines on the table. But what about the fear of missing out? There is definitely a sense that Im probably missing out on a higher quality wine experience and an extensive body of knowledge that others hold, but the question becomes how much is that higher quality wine experience really worth to me? How much am I gaining beyond the enjoyment I get of a glass of inexpensive wine shared with my wife and paired with a simple meal? And whatever that gain might be, is it worth an expensive price per bottle of wine consumed just to get there? For me, for most things in life, its just not worth that cost. Ill save my connoisseurship for a small handful of things that are really meaningful to me, and for the other things, Ill just go along for the ride with passionate friends and acquaintances. Ill listen and let them tell me about the things theyre most passionate about and save my own passion (and expense) for the things I care about most. The thing to remember here is that wine can be pretty much anything in this story. It could be cars or cheeses or board games or clothing. It could be anything that someone is deeply passionate about and invests a lot of time and money becoming a connoisseur. In the end, its not worth investing that time or money unless it is something you deeply care about on your own. Doing it just to impress others or just because thats what classy people do isnt a good reason to buy the expensive wine or the expensive car or anything else. For most things, enjoy the simplest pleasures or even do without them entirely. Save your connoisseurship for the one or two things that really matter to you and that you think about when youre alone, and avoid the desire to be a connoisseur of something that you merely enjoy with friends every once in a while and scarcely think about when youre alone. Besides, if you try to be a connoisseur of everything, not only will it be an expensive journey, youll never really be able to dig deep and really appreciate any one thing. Strive to be a connoisseur of everything, and you wind up being a connoisseur of nothing. Strive to be selective in your connoisseurship. Dig deep into just a thing or two youre passionate about, and be okay with not being a connoisseur of anything else. Instead, just appreciate the connoisseurship of your friends and acquaintances and let their passion take the lead when that subject comes up. Ask questions and be appreciative and learn a little, but keep your wallet firmly in your pocket. Your friends will appreciate it, and youll save your time and money and thought for the things you most care about. Good luck! https://www.thesimpledollar.com/the-connoisseur-problem/

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