#what it does have is extremely divided and a lot of the fans can be completely ignorant of how poorly they handle Claude

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

Poked my head into some of @mysticdragon3md3′s thoughts regarding popularity with DimiClaude fanon and am happy to say I’m here to Talk (tee em).

I also saw the post from the user saying why they were falling out of love for the ship, and... yeah. The people they’re talking about, the generalized group of people who do certain things, definitely bother me as well.

I love that you pointed out Claude is not flirty and is just playful. It’s not the DimiClaude fandom alone unfortunately with that though - it’s the entire fanbase that views him as a flirt. And, according to Twitter, a slut. Yeah. Yeah. I know what they... “mean”... but it is still not him.

Them being annoyed with each other is also fanon and a very strange one. Never in Houses did Dimitri come across as being annoyed or bothered by him. In fact, they have friendly banter! Dimitri doesn’t get specifically exasperated at Claude, but that’s just more so how he is as a person and he sometimes doesn’t understand playfulness. That said, he does not berate Claude the way he berates others. There’s one instance I can think of where he berated Claude and that was in the DLC when they were talking to Aelfric for the first time.

In Hopes, same deal in AG. In fact, he’s quite fond of Claude in AG. GW itself was a well discussed mess in a lot of ways, and even then as a ship they didn’t have a lot of negativity. If nothing else it was an odd opposite, because even as enemies when Claude admitted he couldn’t defeat Dimitri alone, Dimitri just basically laughed, smirked and walked away. That’s like... the worst of their relationship in GW and it’s extremely mellow.

I think part of the problem some dmcl fans are facing are the fanon version of the ship rather than what they’re like in canon. It is definitely true that part of the dmcl fandom has absolutely warped the ship into being something it really isn’t and never was in canon. There’s also this whole thing about Dimitri being the dominant, feisty one with Claude being the uwu blushy one and it’s just... not them. Not as a pair canonically, and not individually. When Dimitri gets “dominant”, he’s, uh, not in a good mental state. It’s a mental illness that makes him like that and personally I’ve never appreciated seeing people use it for a kink for a ship. Normally I’d say people can like what they want, but I get the feeling a lot of dmcl fans have absolutely pushed their views onto others and driven fans away.

I will also say have absolutely, 150% come across those kinds of fans. The ones who refuse to listen to anyone else, but if your headcanons don't vibe with them then you’re just completely “wrong”. Not only do they portray the canon characterization poorly if portraying it at all, but they tend to also bring it down a racist route, which is... beyond ironic considering they should be the last ship that deals with that based on their characters and stories.

Engage kinda went wonky with a good few things regarding the previous lords, so I don’t see Dimitri being like that as some kind of definite canon. Actually, even in Heroes their interactions are friendly and calm. The “worst” banter they had was their swim alts, while on the opposite end we have the brave alts who apparently hang out together outside of the castlegrounds, and for so long that they can’t be of any help in a search for someone (which like lol how long you gotta be gone to have no idea and can’t help at all lmao).

I think people see outside-Houses canon scenes like those and just... decide it’s their actual canon. Dimitri is not, in any way, actually mean to Claude in canon. That is unfortunately a very popular fanon. In Houses especially, when Dimitri doesn’t know Claude well in the mock battle he’s more like ummm hey Claude your defenses are open what are you even doing, more than being like ugh Claude you’re so annoying. In the real version of that mock battle though, a good few months had passed and their battle quotes are significantly more approachable and they clearly have respect for each other. Dimitri knows Claude likes to fuck around and be goofy sometimes, and he picked up on that and played along with it in the JP version (in the English version he simply picks up on it, but there’s no anger whatsoever and it’s just more oh okay I get it).

As far as Engage goes, ultimately I just see it more as an extremely condensed version of their mannerisms, and yes, they for some reason, especially in the localized versions, try to keep up the whole rival shtick when Dimitri never even felt that way about Claude, and he never gets truly annoyed at Claude. Ffs, in canon Dimitri literally drops everything after retaking his home from the Empire/TWS, and runs to go save Claude. Literally. The next day. While Claude is a little tsun about it (!), Dimitri is just “come on let’s go hurry hurry no slowing down pick up the pace we are saving Claude”, and that’s basically him the entire chapter except with the Arundel specific stuff. When he talks to Claude one on one, there is literally not a single shred whatsoever in any plausible way or in any damn universe any tension from Dimitri to Claude. He just wants to know he’s okay and relaxes once he knows Claude isn’t hurt. I mean literally, no, like... that’s them, in canon, in their Natural Habitat together and I have no fucking clue how the portrayal of them in fanon got so insanely warped beyond recognition.

Also, Engage kinda dropped the ball with a lot of stuff with the other lords. Hell, they’ve been unable to keep Ike’s character consistent throughout all of his non-canon appearances (Awakening didn’t seem too bad, but Fates was pretty awful for example. They can’t seem to really understand the character they’re writing anymore, and idk if it’s just because the writers have changed and such/aren’t the same as Tellius’ games had, or they just don’t care to keep him consistent).

They also try to make Sigurd sound wise and super helpful in every single solitary iteration of him outside of FE4 which is honestly just obnoxious as fuck lmao. Sigurd was naive, foolish, overly trusting, and far too kind and gentle for his own good. It ultimately was what led to him following orders blindly, having blind faith that his king was righteous and would give him the right orders (without realizing the court was very much in disarray during his absence and with several other prominent court figures away because of the war). Sigurd was too quick to believe in the good in humanity and that things would work out, and it led to him not realizing how wrong he was until it was way too late and he had to take shelter in a foreign country to avoid having to fight the same people’s armies who had the court’s ear.

Basically Sigurd is nothing like they write him to be in every. single. solitary. iteration. outside of FE4. 

(SPOILER here just in case you care lol. Or anyone who is reading this. Or if you’re someone who somehow does not know about the biggest known spoiler in the whole game) He has one little section of potential dialogue (i.e. it’s triggered by a very specific condition) that shows somehow ghosty Sigurd has grown more wise and understanding ??? while being dead ??? and somehow learned while being dead that the world do be full of grief and Stuff. (END SPOILER)

So they pretty much took like, two lines of dialogue from FE4 and made it Sigurd’s entire fucking character forever in every single game he’s been in since. If nothing else, let that be your insight on never to trust content you see outside of a character’s original game. At that point it’s simply fanservice because they don’t even know their own characters. If they wanted to write even a semblance of Actual In Game Sigurd’s Personality And Not Two Lines Of Dialogue That Are Completely Optional And Quite Honestly HIDDEN, it would be very easy and reasonable to do so. They choose not to, and then we get what they did with Houses’ lords.

Another portrayal I see too often is that Dimitri and Claude... argue??? I won’t lie, their Heroes summer alts was the very first time they even seemed to “argue”, and it was mostly just goofy nonsense that means nothing because they’re literally alts in swimsuits, and it wasn’t really them being vicious at each other. Meanwhile in canon, they’re always very calm and able to talk through their problems - even in fucking Hopes in the GW route. Even in the worst possible circumstances for them to be in, that is, as enemies, they were still able to talk it through. Barring Claude’s written in idiocy so he could be a mouthpiece for Edelgard and do her bidding by invading the Kingdom (which was literally nothing but plot convenience because Actual Claude would’ve reasoned his way out of doing that), even in the worst possible situation, they still called a truce and still worked things out verbally, calmly and peacefully.

Point being, this whole cat fight dmcl portrayal isn’t even remotely close to their canon selves, and normally I’d say, you know, like what you want and enjoy your ships how you want... but it’s pretty much almost entirely the people who view the ship that way that uh, attack people who don’t agree with them or insult them/laugh at them for seeing the ship differently. These are the people who make you feel bad, for enjoying a fictional ship of two pixelated characters kissing, because you don’t like the concepts in their head more than the way you’ve interpreted the canonical characters.

To be totally frank, I have a visceral hatred for the fanon portrayal of dmcl because it makes Dimitri out to be terrible and makes Claude some kind of punching bag for Dimitri in various forms. There comes a point where it’s like, you ship something and then there’s the point where you ship two characters you made up in your head, who aren’t the same characters you first started to ship, because you’ve warped them so extensively that they became nothing but a person’s OCs with their faces and some similar backstory elements at best.

#DCB Comments #not sure what else to put this as but yeah... the dmcl fandom is not that large tbh and #what it does have is extremely divided and a lot of the fans can be completely ignorant of how poorly they handle Claude #especially in a franchise that already poorly handled him re: Hopes #but also I know exactly the kind of people you're talking about... and they're also hypocrites so. #they're the ones who shit on others for having different views of the same ship and decide you are inarguably ''wrong'' for your takes #also mind you if you call 'em out for that they get uwu mad and it spirals from there bc then they gotta vent to their #uwu friends who do the exact same things they do. can you tell I'm literally speaking from actual experience?! :D #like yeah I get it... a lot of the dmcl fandom in particular is gross about Claude #I personally prefer Dimitri as a character for a lot of reasons but when I began shipping them I didn't love Claude /as/ much as now #shipping them got me to look more into Claude as a person and I started loving him more as well #thanks to loving this ship I got to know him more and understand him more /and/ that made me love the ship more #also like it's one thing to have AUs and modern AUs in fics and stuff... bur just don't do... you know... things worth side eying #also if you have to change the dynamic of the ship to make it how you like it then you... probably don't actually like the ship itself #it's the same as with people warping characters to create a personality put onto a face #it's what a lot of Edel stans even do. they make up who they want her to be instead of seeing her for who she is #and they like the made up version of her more than the actual version so in that sense they don't really like who she is in the canon #not all of them are like that and some DO like her for who she is (which could be... arguably WORSE in her case lol) #but it's the same thing with ships. they alter the dynamic and just want to use the pretty faces #which by itself would be fine ig. confusing af to me but fine. not fine anymore though when it starts becoming an actual fandom problem #ppl take ''fandom drama' too lightly most often imo. I don't think ppl realize this kind of bullying over the internet #has a lasting impact and that seeing words on a screen doesn't make them any better or worse than how they'd be irl #in a sense it makes it more cowardly if anything bc ppl fear no repercussions for what they say :/

[shaniacsboogara]

i think a lot of things i agree with are already being said about watcher tv, so instead of focusing on those, i'm going to try to highlight things i think need to be reiterated or haven't been discussed enough.

first of all, i've been a fan of watcher's content for a long time. i followed shane and ryan over to the network after unsolved ended, and since then have made a TON of incredible friends and memories because of their shows. to anyone at watcher reading this, i really hope you're doing alright. thank you for everything you've done to foster this incredible community. and to anyone here in tumblr who's followed me for my watcher content or to any of my mutuals, i hope you're doing as well as you can. drink some water, get outside, and make sure you're getting enough sleep. this has been a rough time for a lot of us, and understandably so.

obviously, watcher tv is a massive change, and everyone who feels upset or disappointed is extremely valid in feeling that way. however, the calibre of hate being sent to the watcher crew is kind of horrific. yes, this could turn out to be a bad business decision for them, but that does make them evil morally bankrupt capitalists who never actually cared about their fanbase in the first place??? honestly, i think this type of commentary is doing a disservice to everyone who's trying to discuss this situation from a genuine analytical standpoint. not only that, but these are real people??? sure, they're on the internet and have probably had people send hate comments their way before, but as a community there are so many more productive things we could be doing instead of tearing down the folks over at watcher.

it is disheartening for content you've enjoyed to suddenly be locked behind a paywall, especially if it's not something you'll be able to afford. i've seen a lot of people emphasizing that artists should be compensated for their art, and i think that definitely applies here, but that doesn't mean people don't have a right to be upset. the fandom community we've built here on tumblr is incredible, it's brought so many people together and overall been so positive, fun, and welcoming to be a part of, so it's understandable that a change threatening the stability of that fanspace would make people upset. i'm not happy about the possibility of the watcher fandom dissipating after this announcement, but i think it's highly likely. watcher TV has created a divide in the fandom, and no matter what it looks like after this is over, it won't be the same. what's going to happen when most people can't access watcher content anymore??? no matter what happens, being in this fandom was absolutely incredible while it lasted.

what's my overall take on the situation??? i don't know how this will turn out for them, i'm not sure the announcement was carried out in the best way (it was hyped up in a way i don't think it should've been, a slower lead up to this could've made it more digestible), i'm sad that a lot of people won't be able to enjoy content that used to mean so much to them, but if this is a business move they think they need to make, then think i understand that. i'm no business expert, i have no idea how this will work out, but i'm absolutely not manifesting their downfall. i think it's very important to discuss this in a civil manner, to critique and analyze the effects of this situation on both the community and the company, but letting that turn into blatant hate and threats to watcher employees is WAY TOO FAR.

these are just some of my thoughts. if you want me to clarify anything or know my thoughts on specific aspects of this situation, please don't be afraid to ask!!! my only request is that this post doesn't turn into a vessel for hating on anyone, whether that be watcher or anyone posting about the situation.

#there's also something to be said about the effects of parasocial relationships on this whole situation #watcher

[sterakraffulz78]

The non-existent gray scale

A work needs characters who move the plot, both protagonists and Antagonists, they can be heroes or villains, but who must have a certain gray scale, so as not to see them as the protagonist is the protagonist is good and the Antagonist is antagonist why he is bad, both have a valuable role in the plot which is based on their actions in the world around them that can hurt for better or worse, what must be taken into account is that there must be a gray morality between both

why do I tell you this?

Well, in Helluva Boss there is no such thing as a gray scale, everything is based on black and white.

Let me explain, the protagonist is Blitz and Stolas, and the Antagonists are Stella and Striker, right?

In the first season of the series we are seen as characters with gray qualities, Striker and Stella were right because of the porboemas they have, while Blitz and Stolas, who are the protagonists, have flaws... By the second season that ceases to exist to put us next to these two idiots just because they suffered and are the good guys (when in reality they continue to act shitty) while Striker and Stella are the bad guys because they treat our soft uwu badly guys 🥺

This cannot be like that, why are you promoting hatred towards the two characters who were right just because they harm our soft protagonists 🥺, and that falls on the fans of these two, a story exists so that you like their characters, its plot, its themes that it covers, a work that does not exist to please fans, divide the characters into good and bad (which ones you may like and which ones you may not), and promote extremely toxic things

Vivziepop turned Stolas and Blitzo into what they are now just because they thought they were cute together and more so for the fans, and put against those characters with a brutally wasted potential because they only treat our boys badly, soft shit and uwuwuwuw. That's why Helluva Boss is increasingly going downhill due to the decisions of an overexploiting rich cis-heterosexual white girl, who just wants to see how her two demons made of her on devianart fuck as if she were a fanfic from the 2000s

And now that I'm publishing this, I can publish a work that some may know and it is the greatest exponent that you can like and take the side of any character regardless of whether they are white or black why this archetype does not exist and it's like no, Hunter xHunter

This is an anime that not only handles gray scales very well without the villains or protagonists getting into black and white, why doesn't it exist? The protagonists change two of them in a bad way, while the Antagonists are more humanized as if they were not chosen to be very bad bad guys, they have their lives, their beliefs, their relationships with the Phantom Brigade, an antagonistic team, who see themselves as murderers and beyond that they are characters who treat each other like family

Other Antagonists that are good, there is King Meruem and his royal guards, with Meruem he starts off as a ruthless monster but when a girl comes into his life he begins to see life differently, a redemption. with his royal guards they still start out being evil but slowly the situations at the end of the arc change them a lot around protecting their king

Ironically, Hunter x Hunter is a Shonen (Shonen is the meaning of youth or adolescent, that is, for all ages.) anime which touches on overly serious themes such as human nature, revenge, life and death.

while other works that boast of being """adult""" only show how the characters say peepeepopo penis haha ​​sexual jokes, while everything is filled with unnecessary gore and blood (Cof Cof helluva boss cough Cof Hazbin Hotel cough Cof)

Conclusion

If you want to see something good, something that makes you feel good in the community without fear of being harassed just for your tastes, then watch Hunter x Hunter, a work that does not seek to victimize or villainize its characters for the convenience of the script or for mere creator's whim

#vivziepop critical #helluva boss critical #helluva critical #helluva boss fandom critical #anti vivziepop #vivziepop criticism

[gffa]

The absolute worst thing about Batman comics is that trying to just lay the groundwork instead of having a single good starting point, is kind of a nightmare.  Like, I have to explain the mindset going into them! I have to explain that stuff doesn't always "count" as a canon!  I have to explain the different continuities and constant retcons! The thing about DC comics is that you can't approach it the way you would another source material, there is no one "true" source, there is no one "true" author of the characters, there is no one "true" canon. There is a central timeline, but it's constantly being rewritten both in-universe and out-of-universe. You have to jump into it accepting that there's no good starting point in terms of reading the story unfolding in sequence. And you have to accept that, even googling "best Batman comics to start with" has a list of comics that kind of made me moan in horror, like noooooooo those comics will not hook you and so many of them are comics that are stand-alones because they're plays on the tropes and established status quo, like The Dark Knight Returns or A Serious House on Serious Earth won't really work unless you're already familiar with Batman stories and also they're absolutely not what fandom will be posting about. I mean, I'm not your mom, you can start there if you want, but I personally think they're pretty difficult places to start. Instead, if you want to get into what the fandom is into (which may be very different than what think pieces write about), instead I think it helps to find someone who knows comics reasonably well, ask them some questions you have about the lay of the land (ie, "So how do these Robins all work? Why are there so many of them?" is a question I answered for a friend recently because I love to talk about this stuff, most comic fans do!) and then get yourself some recs once you have a general idea of who's who and why they're going around as the costume they're in. (You can always ask me, too!  I'm happy to nerd out about helping gain traction with a lot of these things! I may not be able to answer finely detailed questions yet, but I can give you a bird's eye view that'll get you on your feet, too.) You'll also want to get an idea of what era you want to read in, because there's this thing called the "New 52" (or Nu52) and it's kind of a line in the sand, a "before" and "after" that's helpful to keep in mind whether or not something "happened" to the character. So, in 2011, after many many decades of convoluted comics history, DC decided that they wanted to completely reboot their entire universe so that new readers could jump on and not have to read a thousand backissues from the 70s and 80s or earlier.  All existing books were cancelled and an all new lineup of 52 different comic series were announced--hence, Nu52. In theory, an idea with potential! The problem was that they gave too much free reign to the creators and not nearly enough collaboration, so nobody knew what was still part of a character’s backstory and nobody knew what anyone else was writing. And it cut out a lot of elements of the stories that people were really invested in, so despite the initial splash it made, sales slowly dropped and dropped because people just didn’t care. So, what does DC do?  Basically, since then they’ve had company-wide events that have been slowly chipping away at the divide between the “before” the Nu52 and the current storyline, that they’ve had multiverse-level events that have absorbed some of people’s favorite stuff back into the storyline, so some stuff now has happened again. And that makes it extremely confusing to just pick up an issue of a comic and know whether something “counts” or not, so you kind of just have to roll with things and understand that there is no one “true” canon set of events, it’s constantly shifting, and you just gotta read for the things you enjoyed reading. That’s kind of a high bar for entry and I hope this isn’t scaring you off, it’s genuinely an attempt to explain the lay of the land so you know what to expect when you pick something up and can enjoy it for what it is!  Once you get a feel for the set-up, I think it’s really easy to just pick up any comic at any time and start reading! I’m assuming there’s a fair amount of basic cultural osmosis for Batman, but if anyone needs a 101 course, let me know!  In the meantime, this list of recommendations will assume that you’re familiar with things like, “Dick Grayson is the first Robin after his parents are murdered, but eventually Bruce fires him because Dick got shot by the Joker, then eventually he became Nightwing and now he and Bruce have a complicated but generally good relationship, nobody holds the family together like Dick Grayson does.” or “Jason Todd was the second Robin and he died, but then Superboy Prime punched reality so hard that Jason was jolted back to life (or at least that’s the version I go with, I don’t care for the one where Talia dug up his lifeless body) and he was real mad about it for awhile but he’s getting better” or “Tim Drake was the cutest super genius stalker who ever was and he’s got his issues but also I love him DC LET HIM KISS CONNER YOU COWARDS” or “Damian was raised by his mother in the League of Assassins and that fucked baby bird up pretty good until Dick took Damian under his wing to be the Robin to his Batman for awhile and showed him that Damian didn’t have to prove himself to be worthy of being loved, he was loved just because he was Damian, not because he was a Wayne or an al Ghul, and the others are coming around, but those two will always be the most special to each other”. Some good places to start imo: (Note:  Pay attention to year numbers and authors, because many of these titles have earlier runs that are not the ones I’m recommending as good starting points!) - Robin & Batman (2021) by Jeff Lemire, a three-issue mini series set during the early days of Dick’s training, when he and Bruce are still getting the hang of understanding each other, featuring some truly gut-wrenching emotional moments and absolutely stunning art. - World’s Finest 2022-current by Mark Waid, an on-going series of Batman and Superman working together and being friends, the current volume is set during the young-ish days of Dick being Robin and it’s utter joy so far, so many good moments of Dick and Clark bonding by being the most annoying people Bruce has ever had to work with. - Robins: Being Robin by Tim Seeley, a mini-series where the various Robins (Dick, Jason, Tim, Stephanie, and Damian) are all working together on a case that’s tied up in the story of the role of Robin, featuring some top-tier sibling dynamics that had me howling with how much I love these idiots and a story I genuinely liked. - Nightwing vol 4 2016-current, started by Tim Seely, currently by Tom Taylor, which skips over a lot of the timeline, but I think it’s a better starting place.  Dick’s solo title is usually pretty entertaining for me (and I do like the previous volume, from 2011-2014, but I think the 2016 one is a better starting place) and is has some absolutely gorgeous art and a good amount of Dick working with other superheroes that are friends and/or family.  The writing is fun, charismatic, and just a good ride.  (The wiki has a list of trade paperback collections with their titles to read them in story chunks instead of flinging yourself at individual issues.)  You can also start with “Leaping into the Light” if you want to read something more current and skip over some of the middle issues that are a bit of a slog.  (The 50s to the 70s are not the greatest time on this run.) - “Court of Owls” and “City of Owls” by Scott Snyder are from across various Bat-related titles (like Batman and Nightwing and Batgirl and such) and you can find the two collections/tpbs under the quoted titles.  I’m currently reading this one so I can’t comment on the whole thing, but I’m enjoying the interaction between all the various Bat-family members immensely and it has a really strong story at the center of it, and it’s just a solid place to start for stories in this universe, rather than just characters. - “Batman and the Night of the Monster Men” by various authors is another tpb with a self-contained story that’s kind of wild (comic book logic is basically “Wheeeeee!”) but had some excellent Batfamily interactions and some fun fights against giant monsters, and was an all-around self-contained good time. - “Batman: Cold Days” by Tom King (from the Batman series) is probably a bit of a controversial rec, I know so many people who dislike King’s writing, but I had an amazing time with this book, because it’s the lead-up to Dick getting shot in the head, so there’s extra emphasis on his interactions with Bruce, to really rub salt in the wound of how necessary this kid is to Bruce’s life.  Only background context you really need is: Bruce and his long-time love interest Selina were about to finally get married, but she stood him up at the altar for various reasons, and he’s in a dark place because of this.  Dick comes along to annoy Bruce into a better mood, but one of Batman’s villains is trying to destabilize him so that he can take over Gotham and Nightwing is fucking up his plans by making Batman too stable, so he has KGBeast shoot Nightwing in the head (which will lead to Dick’s amnesia arc, which is not the greatest time for us readers), and the emotional stuff of it was great.  Includes flashbacks to Dick’s early days in Wayne Manor that were really good for me.  (I also enjoyed “Batman: The Rules of Engagement” by the same author, set just before Bruce and Selina’s marriage, it’s the run up to it, and it had a lot of great family interaction stuff, including Selina’s take on how she loves Bruce in a way that really sold it for me.) And a final semi-rec:  While the characterizations might differ a little and the dynamics aren’t a 1:1 match for the comics, the Young Justice animated series from 2010 was a lot of fun, included some great characters, had some genuinely good stories, and you can actually watch it in order!

#lumi.txt #dc #batfam #comics recs

[lilacthebooklover]

Why People Don't Like Ozzy (and why they do like other characters)

Every fandom has its favourites, and that of KG2 isn't exempt– just look at all the content of Penny, Ted, Nugget and Felix lol. But if there's one character that Kindergarten fans don't often think or care about, it's Ozzy.

At first glance, it seems obvious why. He's pretty whiny and a big downer, instantly dislikes the protag, and doesn't really have any shown positive qualities. He talks constantly about his allergies and asthma, obsesses over his routine, is willing to strangle Protag without a second thought, and the player is actively encouraged to kill him in Ted's mission.

But really, Ozzy's just, well. A five-year-old. Out of the KG cast, he's the one who acts most his age: he's rude at times, very focused on himself, and sulks about his favourite toy being broken– and those are all traits you'd expect from a kindergartener. He's surrounded by more emotionally compelling and mature characters, making him seem babyish in comparison.

His fears about his asthma and allergies are honestly valid, considering that the world in which he lives contains people constantly trying to off each other. He knows he's not well-liked, that his science teacher would (and does) use his corpse as a cadaver, that he could literally die from either of these things being set off.

Leading on from that, is his apathy regarding killing the protag really that surprising? He, like all the other students, knows what happens when people are sent to the principal's office or Danner gets out his laser gun. It wouldn't be surprising if he's just accepted death as part of his routine by then, unbothered by and desensitised to it just like the other kids.

He has problems with change, as little kids often do, and it's entirely reasonable that he's so upset about his friends getting "transferred". He just lost everyone he cared about seemingly because of the new kids, so his immediate response is to dislike them. He has a right to be worried and angry about Madison & co disappearing, most likely having seen plenty of people die in his school, but there's nothing he can do but take it out on Protag. Heck, if the player gives him the battery, he's even willing to give him a chance at friendship, saying that maybe the new kids aren't all bad and asking if Kid wants to play with him.

So why do people not like Ozzy, but find favourites in other characters? Take Felix, for example (on whom this fandom is typically divided into 2 extremes: loving and despising). He kills his brother remorselessly, is willing to further disable a paralysed child, cares only for himself and constantly belittles everyone around him.

But Felix is also a really fun character. His motives are great to explore, his relationship with Ted equally so, his manner of speaking is wonderful and he has some really good lines (e.g. "the real treasure is the friends we buried alive along the way"). He's so pompous that it's funny, he's always a blast to watch, and there's a lot of potential for angst for him.

Ozzy only murders one person, but that's the player. He's an obstacle, not meant to be liked. Felix murders his twin, but there's a whole lot to read into with that. He's a likeable character with an enjoyable story, and he typically comes with ball-of-sunshine Ted.

Ted is easy to like. People are sympathetic towards him because of Cain's Not Able and his seemingly horrible father. He's nice to Felix and feels had about killing Ozzy. His only motives are pleasing his brother, showing his loyalty and desperation to prove himself and be loved.

But he does kill Ozzy, or at least get Protag to do so for him, and plans the whole thing out independantly despite Felix saying that he would take care of it. He's not as dumb as Felix makes him out to be, can be cold-blooded and strategic when necessary, sticks to his plan no matter who it hurts (e.g. Carla with the gum, Ozzy himself) all in the name of showing he's capable. Ted isn't as innocent as people like to pretend, but he is more considerate than plenty the other characters.

Characters like Cindy and Buggs make Penny & Ted look like angels, and the big personalities everyone else possesses make Ozzy seem pretty boring. He's not particularly compelling, we're not supposed to like him, his only major plot point is that Ted wants the player to kill him, and he only ever shows concern for himself and characters whose only personalities are being experiments.

Even then, he refuses to hug Madison after she comes out of the lab, telling her to take a bath and calling her gross. We know what Madison has been through as the Protag so we feel bad for her, but looking at the situation through Ozzy's eyes is entirely different.

She's covered in something that looks disgusting and he's trying to get on him, and Ozzy hates getting dirty. All he's been told is that it's from the principal's secret lab, which only makes it seem more unhygienic. He's fully aware of the rules in science and labs at school, reminding Danner multiple times, and his mom has clearly enforced these before.

Again, he's five, so his lack of a filter isn't entirely his fault. He doesn't possess the emotional maturity to see that might upset her, he's just glad that she's back and scared of her touching him with her goo. He doesn't know she was kidnapped, he doesn't know what the goo is, he doesn't know why she didn't reach out if she was at school the whole time. He suggests something he sees as perfectly reasonable, and moves on with his life.

One of Ozzy's main characteristics is that he's a germophobe. Getting mad at him for that would be like getting mad at Ted for his arachnaphobia–even if Ozzy's ruder and more blunt about his fear.

Overall, people don't like Ozzy mostly because they don't find him interesting. He's not endearing or sweet, isn't shown as a nice character, and doesn't really have any spotlight moments like Felix or Penny. Nugget, too, is liked because of how new and unpredictable he is as a character, as well as some of his more emotional moments– all of which Ozzy lacks.

This has been on my mind for a little while, and it's been fun to put it into words! Thanks for getting this far into my little ramble, and I'd love it if you shared your thoughts!! Discussing things like this with people is always nice :D

#kindergarten ozzy #character study #character analysis #kindergarten 2 #kindergarten game #kindergarten madison #kindergarten felix #kindergarten ted #kindergarten penny #kindergarten nugget #kindergarten protagonist #kindergarten kidd #tw mentioned kidnapping #fandom #rambles

[psychedex]

Today's OCtober prompt is relationships! I don't have the energy to draw today, so an infodump will have to suffice instead. I'll be talking about Kyo (he/him) and Kit (they/it)!

Kyo and Kit are old ocs you've probably seen a lot if you followed me prior to 2022. They're some of my og ocs! They're two twins who are very close to each other but their relationship isn't exactly the healthiest... They're very codependent for trauma reasons. But it's ok, they cope with it later and get better :)

Tw for cult trauma

The basic gist of their story is that they grew up in a cult thanks to their mom falling in love with the cult leader. Kyo always wanted to escape but Kit was too scared to and didn't want to admit that their mother was abusive. The first time they tried to escape Kit ended up drowning, so Melanie, their mom, killed Luca, a demigod of death Kit considered an older sibling, to bring Kit back to life. Kit is very much burdened with this, at only the age of 14 :(

This is Luca btw everyone say hi

Anyway the second time they tried to escape was successful but they've never really lived in the real world so it was hard for the two of them to adjust. Because of the trauma they endured within the cult, they both have an extreme ride or die attitude with each other and would probably kill if anyone got in their way.

However there starts to be a divide as they get older, Kyo has a goal of killing their mom and Lola (the cult leader), and starts becoming obsessed with it. Kit is not a big fan of this because they're holding onto the non existent hope that their mother is redeemable but alas. It causes issues.

Kyo is generally the "happy go lucky" one of the two, he's funny and charismatic, and tends to attract a lot of attention. On the other hand, Kit is way more reserved and grumpier than Kyo, and more stoic and attracts a lot of negative attention. It does seem like they're very different, but they're actually pretty much the same at their core- they're both skeptic, paranoid people who are willing to betray others if it means they stay safe. They both also are pretty selfish and apathetic towards other people (though surprisingly Kit has a bit more sympathy than Kyo), and have a bad temper.

While fragments of life isn't a story where mental health is a central theme, Kyo and Kit have a theme of surviving abuse and the ways to cope with it- Kyo is bitter and wants revenge to the point of it being all he cares about, but Kit wants to believe that it wasn't as bad as it seems. They both end up meeting a middle ground of accepting that it was as bad as it is, but they can't dwell on it forever and need to heal so they can move on. Also Kit finally accepts it is morally correct to kill your abuser ♥️

They're both insane but I love them. They helped me a lot in my teen years with coping with my own familial abuse. I finally got the closure that I needed (which was an apology and effort to work on themselves) but I know for everyone that isn't always what the outcome will be. But my goal for them is to show that it's okay to have trauma and it's okay to want to do something about it, but it's really unhealthy to engulf yourself in it and not let people help you.

Anyway yeah those are my scrunklies I could write a whole dissertation on them but I wanted to keep this fairly short haha, hope you enjoyed if you read it all!

#oc #original character #artists on tumblr #bweirdoctober #laineverse #kyo #kit

[kinopioa]

Anyone else feel like the separation of artist and writer interacting with each other has harmed both terribly in the industry? With hacky executives furthering the divide?

Writers devoid of arts and interaction with the world, so they get stuck on a recycling of tropes and lack of emotion, or being too wordy and blunt of what a char says/does. It feels unnatural and forced, too planned and predetermined regardless how awful the pacing is. The lack of consideration for visuals impacts development for artists

And then Artists being so divorced from story telling, that the characters they design and make end up too ungrounded and quirky. They too fall prey to expression crutches and tropes, and lose identity among themselves entirely cuz "aesthetic". Nor realize when something is overexaggerated or just straight up noise. A writer's message may be clouded completely due to it

For ref of extremes, we have for writers a few decently written adult animated shows...look like shit. And the lack of decent animation actually limited stories on what characters can do. Mass appeal is lost. A Troll in Central Park meanwhile, beautifully animated and good art design...is a pretty shit and boring movie. You'll be roped into the aesthetic, but then grow bored extremely fast due to vapid interactions and events

I feel like both can get corrupted due to fame/ego, especially if they're commissioned for an existing franchise. Neither want to do deep research, and just do immediate bias or aesthetic appeal. Even fans of said franchises of either category can disastrously have the ego/bias

The lack of collaboration and attempt of minimal understanding of either field has led to a lot of crappy and even pretentious media lately

For good examples that show deeper understanding of char writing and design, look at this from Rugrats S1

It is an established guide both writers and artists have to follow. In the movie, the very first instance of malice Tommy has is seen, and treated as a huge deal. He's treated as a well defined character for developers, not a random ragdoll to then be smashed and dressed up in any silly way for a quick laugh

I feel like response to overly strict execs and nostalgia fatigue has led to both artist and writer to forge a path out away from each other in retaliation. Leading both to ironically, disrespect the character as mere pawns for whatever. Meme culture and general fatigue at society also has in a way worn down taking anything seriously, leading to both to do random shit. Which to be fair, is fine for stress relief (Rugrats infamously had storyboard stress pics leaked, and writers can be crass in personal memos). But in the work meant to be presented, this is very touchy

I feel both artists and writers see guidelines as a bad thing, when they themselves should know their own limits. I feel they both see each other's field as extraneous, instead of something vital in teamwork to the development of the work. Same with blaming only the exec when it's personal fault as well (though execs now are 100% divorced from reality in Hollywood)

I'm just tired. I feel all this did was lead to only liking something cuz of vibes, not anything legitimately grounded. And a bunch of copycats running wild with it, or getting overly engrossed in nostalgia.

That said, in terms of who it harms more, I feel art can be used as a way to mask poor writing...for a brief period. Good writing with bad art is harder to sell, even if it ages slightly better later.

For aspiring artists and writers, please. Learn of the processes of the other and the world, and learn to collaborate within constraints as opposed to working in defiance of constraints. And learn to accept criticism, even if it's impossible to please everyone

#writing #art process #rant post

[meara-eldestofthemall]

Hello Bat-gran 👋.

What were the decisions, good and bad, made about writing Tim and Damian (and by extension others) that led us to having 2 Robins?

Is this a problem textually, or a problem with DC as a company?

Thank you for the great ask. What an excellent way to start 2024!

The blame for the two Robins can be laid firmly at the gnarly, ugly feet of DC. The Editorial Staff has a long, disturbing history of making staggeringly bad character decisions. Worse yet they seem to hire writers who make even worse storyline decisions. The Robins dilemma is a perfect example. Let me explain.

When Damian was first introduced he was supposed to end up as a villain. That’s why he was so darn unlikable at first. The writers wanted us to hate him and boy did they make it easy. Then DC did an abrupt about-face and decided to make Damian Robin. They shoved Tim Drake out of the cape into the Red Robin suit to make room for the new kid in a manner fans still dislike today. It did neither Tim or Damian any favors but only seemed to cement the divide among Robin fans.

Half of the fans loved Damian. He was like a miniature Wolverine; violent, raw and disrespectful in a way Robin had never been before. It was a completely new take on the character. The other half of fandom loathed him as Robin and really, really wanted Tim Drake to remain in the role. Tim was the everyman, the Peter Parker of the DC universe. He’d taken the role to new heights and people wanted him to stay. 

So DC did what they do best - the wrong thing. 

After the not-nearly-fast-enough death of the New-52, the Rebirth universe featured Damian as Robin and Tim as Red Robin but in his old Robin suit with an RR shuriken stuck on it. See! Tim isn’t Robin, he’s Red Robin!

DC changed Tim back to just Robin (and made him 16 again) right around the time Damian quit the role. The original storyline was to have Damian become an anti-hero if not a full blown villain. That ground work was laid during Damian’s Teen Titan run where he had the illicit prison. Tim was given a sharp update of the Robin suit (we will not talk about the whole “Drake” debacle) and was working with Bruce again. 

Then DC Bloodbath of 2020 happened and Dan Didio plus a lot of other employees were fired. The massive shake up Dido wanted to introduce (5G which would have seen most of the legacy characters sidelined) was gone as well.

DC had changed direction. Again.

Damian was back in as Robin but with a new costume. Tim was still Robin and came out as Bi. Unfortunately this only compounded all the old problems. 

While an excellent character, Damian simply does not work well as Robin with anyone but Dick Grayson as Batman. He and Bruce are forever at each other’s throats and, quite frankly, his character development is hobbled by being Robin. 

Tim not only works extremely well as Robin to Bruce’s Batman but darn well all by himself. He’s far too independent to be considered the traditional sidekick. But since he came out as Bi DC can’t move him out of the Robin mantle without facing potential backlash due to the message that move would send (Robin is too important to be “sullied” by having a queer person wearing the cape). 

DC’s unwillingness to plan for the long term, and stick to those plans, is how and why there are currently two Robins. DC’s inability to learn from past mistakes is why we’re going to have two Robins for the foreseeable future. Could I be wrong? Gosh, I hope so but after more than 50 years of following Batman and crew, I highly doubt it. 

[awholelottayeehaw]

Everyone's Feelings are Valid Regarding Mando Season 3

As a neurodivergent teacher whose students are on spring break, I finally have the time to weigh in on the Mando Season 3 debate after seeing how divided the fandom is. This mini essay is meant to be a logical and safe middle ground for everyone, to remind everyone that your feelings are valid regardless of what they are, and that even if your opinions/feelings are valid that doesn't meant they're fact or justifiable to police how others think and feel.

This contains spoilers for Mando S3, Rebels, and Clone Wars and is written while I'm high on benadryl so approach at your own risk! I may go back and edit this and edit out/rewrite points to make them more succinct or add points others may have that should be included and don't want anyone to feel gaslit if they see any changes they don't recall seeing before.

1. More Than Two Ways to Feel

From what I gather, the two main opinions on this season are either it's a great season and anyone who disagrees is what's wrong with Star Wars, or that this season is a disappointing let down after waiting so long for Din to return. Both are valid, but since Star Wars fans tend to see outcomes in extremes, I want to point out that those aren't the only two options available, you can also:

be disappointed with this season while continuing to be a huge fan of the show

and

enjoy this season while recognizing the writing and quality isn't up to the standards the show had set in previous seasons or even the promises it made with this one.

The Mandalorian was the first piece of live action media since the Clone Wars that sparked the interest of even non Star Wars fans because it offered something new and exciting to a world and lore we're all familiar with that doesn't demand you to know 50 years of Star Wars history nor does it jeopardize characters and storylines long time fans are protective of.

Because of this, it's easy to forget that Star Wars fans are now sharing The Mandalorian with casual Star Wars fans or even exclusive fans to the show without having any interest in exploring the SW universe further through other forms of media.

I'd argue the first instance of this being taken away from casual fans was in The Book of Boba Fett by requiring them to view it to stay i in the know for Season 3 along with the return of Cad Bane who, for fans of the cartoons, flipped out seeing his live action form. But for those who only watched BOBF as fans of Mando, a lot of viewers were like:

Bo Katan, Ahsoka, Luke, and Boba Fett's resurrection in Mando were written in smoothly that excited long time SW fans familiar with them while allowing casual fans to enjoy the story because said characters stood on their own as supporting roles without taking away from their their origins. But throwing in characters like Cad Bane and even other Rebels/Clone Wars characters into Season 3 of Mando, it doesn't give casual fans a reason to stay or feel satisfied if they're not in the know with these beloved niche of characters.

And because of this, it's easy to unintentionally police said fans with how strongly you may feel as someone with deep rooted knowledge of the franchise.

Casual fans of the show shouldn't have to be spoiled or talked down to for not sharing the same enthusiasm as other fans because they don't know who a character is/their importance to the SW universe or for having differing opinions and feelings over a show that wasn't originally built on any previous Star Wars lore. And older fans who love all SW lore who are disappointed are allowed to feel let down after 3 years for this season to not be how it was advertised just as fans who are loving this season shouldn't be mocked for enjoying the ride regardless of where it goes. We're all valid here.

2. Mando Has Always Had Side Quests, but Not Without Plot

If I had a dollar for every

"Mando has always been about side quests! Why are people complaining about this format NOW?"

comment I read, I'd have enough to maybe... have a nice meal somewhere.

Has the Mandalorian been told through side quests? Yes and no. It's been 3 years since the last season aired and I think a lot of people will look back at the previous 2 seasons with vague memories of Din and Grogu traversing through time and space as father and son while helping wayward future friends and getting their asses handed to them by alien animal species when it wasn't quite like that.

The first season starts with Din being hired after a particularly easy job to hunt down a difficult quarry. Din requires the help of a moister farmer to get to the kid since he can't land the ship close enough to the mark without setting off security, and discovers said quarry is a child. He spends the rest of the season getting the kid back to the Imps, saving him from the Imps, blacklisting himself from his job, unintentionally setting up his covert for a massacre, trying to lay low and find a safe place for the kid to grow up so he can go back to his old life only to realize he can't as long as the kid is wanted, and proceeds to take on a few jobs to feed them and avoid the Empire until he's called back to deal with Karga's ambush and getting sucked into a trap intended for Grogu and the season ends with Grogu now being Din's foundling and his new mission is to bring Grogu home.

The second season focuses on Din trying to hunt down fellow Mandalorians to help him reunite Grogu to the Jedi, the first episode while on a job reveals that his quarry had seen a Mandalorian on Mos Pelgo which led him to meet Cobb Vanth. The only reason Din stayed is to take back the armor and agreed to earning it back by killing the Krayt Dragon for them and the Raiders. The second episode has Din playing Taxi in return for information about Mandalorians seen on Trask (where Frog Lady was heading). Din agrees to help Bo and her clan to raid an Imperial ship and her information leads him to Ahsoka two episodes later. Because the Mon Calamari's repairs were inadequate, Din goes to help Karga destroy an old Imperial base in return for repairs. He finally finds Ahsoka and helps her confront Elsbeth in exchange of training Grogu (again, I'll circle back to this as a Season 3 plot point that fell through). She decides she won't train him due to Grogu's attachment and anger in his heart for what he went through and points Din to a temple where Grogu can contact other Jedi for training and from there, he's capture, Din loses his ship, he finds Grogu's location with the help of his newfound friends, and saves Grogu only to give him over to Luke while now being the proud owner of a weapon and defunct planet.

So is Mando ALL random side quests with no point? No. Each episode interwove into the next effortlessly while being a self contained episode that never failed to remind you the importance of each mission, side quest, and character that Din interacted with. And it's hard to miss the overall theme of honor, identity, and religious guilt that Din faces and questions each episode up until the end when he chooses to show Grogu his face as an ultimate act of love.

But with Season 3, I can't tell you how any of the episodes connect or what they hint at to the overall season plot and we're six (seven, if you're reading this after the episode drops) episodes into an 8 episode season. Even if by the final episode things all tie together, it didn't have the same smooth transitions as the previous seasons had nor did they remind you of what we might've forgotten information wise in these three years and that's why a lot of these episodes feel pointless compared to the urgency that Din and Grogu faced leading up to his departure with Luke. Which brings me to...

3. Season 3's Plot Failed in Season 2 and BOBF

Yet two other comments I've seen that could buy me a second fancy meal somewhere or just a fancy ass desert for a family of 4 by myself is:

Season 3 has no plot! It's pointless! It's boring!

and

Season 3 has a plot! Just because it's not about Din anymore doesn't mean there lacks plot!

And to this, yet again, I say... yes and no to both. Season 3, as I mentioned in my previous point, hasn't woven in an overarching plot like its previous two seasons and so the urgency is not only not there, but it doesn't remind you of why you need to care or stick around for Din's redemption arc (whichever that may be) or whatever is going on with Bo and the Armorer and the Empire. But I don't fault Season 3 for having bad writing necessarily, but rather throwing out their best plot point for Book of Boba Fett and (as I mentioned before) not recapping what was mentioned in Season 2.

No one can convince me that The Book of Boba Fett wasn't a ploy for Disney+ to keep Mando fans happy and excited while they figured out Season 3. I will die on this hill. It's been 3 years and I already heard fans losing hope and grumbling about it before I even joined Tumblr. No matter how loyal a fanbase is, you still lose them to other media when what they crave isn't available in a certain amount of time and BOBF was the balm to that ache for many of us despite us also simultaneously being disappointed in how they handled BOBF. Boba and BIPOC characters deserve better. But that's for another essay.

Season 3 failed the moment Din and Grogu were reunited in BOBF along with Din's new ship. This broke what made Mando so unique and special as stated in my first point where fans could casually get into Mando without needing decades of SW lore to enjoy it, and now those fans are left behind because they didn't realize they had to invest in The Book of Boba Fett to be included in the Members Only Season of The Mandalorian and that's being reflected in its ratings.

I genuinely believe if they had opened Mando Season 3 with his entrance in BOBF and led the first two episodes with Din tracking down his tribe after delivering his bounty for said information, was made an apostate, and rejected to see Grogu all in one episode... that would have given the season far more possibilities for plot than what this season has offered us in the last 6 episodes. And especially so if they recapped the important plot details that Season 2 set up but expected fans to remember after 3 years and tied those plot points in in a way that upped the urgency Season 3 has lacked so far.

In Chapter 11: The Heiress when Din is saved by Bo and her clan, he only agrees to help them with their raid in exchange for where he can find a Jedi teacher for Grogu. But what did they need that raid for? To steal weapons in order to take down the Imperial remnants that still plunder Mandalore that will help them retake their planet. Aside from Bo's castle getting blown up by TIE fighters, we're not reminded of this fact at all during this season. Din and Bo were able to get to Mandalore with ease and stroll around like it was nothing. There were no ships hovering around the planet, no secret bases, no symbols, not even recently defunct battle droids. Mandalore was painted as a planet that was free real-estate that they could've moved in to that day the moment they realized the planet had breathable air and just some old robots and troll species to worry about. There was no reminder of this being a potentially dangerous planet as an Imperial wasteland.

But Bo's castle got blown up by TIE fighters! Where do you think they came from? The threat was obvious!

...Except it wasn't. Bo was moping around that castle in broad day light, not attempting to hide. Why didn't they blow her castle up sooner if she was a threat? And even if it came out later that Bo was part of the siege to free Gideon, they should have made it less obvious because yeah where DID they come from? Sure as shit not Mandalore, and why when she's united with Din the second time in this episode? And if this threat is linked to Thrawn, as we see his return in the trailer for Ahsoka, they should have recapped Chapter 13: The Jedi where Ahsoka shook down Elsbeth for information regarding where Thrawn's location is (which leads to Ahsoka's spin off series).

So yes the plot IS there, just not written in a way that reminds fans of what was at stake leading up to Season 3 and expanded upon those threats even within just opening scenes. The Mandalorian had brilliantly made whatever the opening scene was as foreshadowing the rest of the episode's plot. Season 3 could have used those recaps, flashbacks, or even a bonus scene to something we already saw in the previous season as that reminder audiences need after 3 years to remember what the stakes are and why it still impacts Din and Grogu regardless if Bo is now going on either a redemption journey herself or is secretly the season's antagonist.

And even if Bo is meant to be a central character, Mando has glossed over the fact that she was responsible for Mandalor's downfall TWICE and was considered a traitor, a terrorist, and the reason why her sister was murdered. It's possible they didn't reveal that for specific reasons, but it feels lazy not to hint at it in some ways that let the audience wonder if Bo is meant to be an antagonist or hero this time around, especially as an established selfish, morally gray character. And it's unfair that her redemption is this easy when her laundry list of sins she committed never properly held her accountable, and even with genuine remorse and empathy, Bo still is willing to make choices that benefit her in the long wrong over the benefit of others.

Which leads me to...

4. The Mandalorian Has Always Been About Din and Grogu

"The show is called The Mandalorian, not The Din Djarin and Grogu Show. Anyone can be The Mandalorian, and besides, it's plural!"

First off, The Mandalorian isn't plural. I just want to make that clear. The Mandalorian is a singular person and, although yes it can be anyone, it's explicitly about Din he is THE Mandalorian who walked the surface to bring back money, food, and goods to his tribe while everyone else stayed underground, hiding. Din made a name for himself as the best Bounty Hunter in the Parsec in a world where everyone believed Mandalore was a dead, unlivable planet and that

The Mandalorians, much like the Jedi, were extinct. This was reiterated in dialogue throughout the show by multiple characters, and is why Din was so special. Because when they heard about a Mandalorian it's always Din. Even gaining that land for his people, everyone will still turn to Din because he's THE Mandalorian to them. He's the one who has united people, saved towns, been the diplomat, and the reason why many characters and even Nevaro exist. He's the Mando people will recognize and hold esteem for, not anyone else even if Bo does try to take the mantle and that's because she's The Heiress, even to the likes of the Armorer, and The Armorer is the Armorer. Din will never shake that title even if he wanted to, because he's the one who's left a mark on the galaxy he lives in along with his green son, and Bo nor anyone else will be able to take that from him because they'll have their own titles in that universe to live up to whether they like it or not.

"But Din doesn't even want to be the main character in his own show! His story is over, let him and Grogu be at peace!"

That's the other problem, their stories are far from over. We already know that Thrawn is alive, Dr. Pershing doesn't understand how his science is genocidal, and Gideon is walking around with potentially his own Mandalorian bodyguards or is setting Din up. As long as these men exist and the Empire is a problem, they will hunt down Grogu for their cruel science projects and kill Din in order to achieve that. But this season hasn't reminded us of that at all and has given people a false idea that Din and Grogu's stories are over when they absolutely are not. And even if Bo is intended to take the torch from Din, that doesn't wrap up his story or Grogu's it just makes it second fiddle for Bo to either redeem herself or make everything worse again. Time will tell I guess, but do not for a moment think that Din and Grogu are safe. They absolutely are not. Lastly,

5. Strong Stories Have Reluctant Protagonists

"Who wants to watch a show about someone who's a reluctant leader? Mandalor the Reluctant? I don't think so!"

Um... you do. That's literally the hero's journey. Bilbo Baggins never wanted an adventure. He wasn't confident in his abilities and he wasn't interested in helping the dwarves succeed. He was tricked by Gandalf by a false sense of duty. Luke Skywalker was content with his life on Tatooine until his childhood home an aunt and uncle perished and he physically couldn't go back even if he wanted to. Joel was a reluctant father figure to Ellie after his own losses despite his journey starting on greed. There's so many beloved characters that don't even want to star in their own stories but that's what makes them strong characters. They're forced to go on journeys they don't want to help them come to terms with their own inner termoil or even achieve the greatest version of themselves that they wouldn't have risen to if not for their inability to go back to their normal lives before the call of the journey. So even if we're all okay with more Din and Grogu adventure stories or even okay with Bo taking over, it feels unsatisfactory for Din to just hand the darksaber over to Bo after years of trying to get ride of it and handing his son, whom he spent at least a year apart from, to whoever is available to go on unrelated missions with Bo. There's a reason why people feel unsatisfied and disappointed with this season, and it's valid regardless of what you're okay with. Mando was built on strong writing and they've forgone simple solutions to cut corners in order to spit out a mediocre season when it had the potential to be not just fun but an incredible return of Din, Grogu, and introduction of Bo if she's meant to take the mantle down the line.

One more thing!

6. Bo Isn't a Worthy Leader (added 4/12/2023)

I know this may ruffle some peoples' feathers, but hear me out. I want to remind everyone once again I genuinely like Bo and have nothing against her, and my beef is with how the writers treated her this season and have mislead non Clone Wars and Rebels fans.

Bo deserves the title! The darksaber chose her! She wields it so well, and after all that she's gone through she deserves her redemption!!

A lot of fans of the show who haven't watched Rebels don't realize that Bo at one point couldn't wield the saber, either. It was Satine who taught her how. As far as I'm aware, the darksaber requires the wielder's thoughts and actions to flow into the Darksaber to fuel its energy, which then affects the weight and has nothing to do with being the chosen one like Excalibur. Anyone can learn to wield it if Bo was willing to teach them, hell even Gideon seemed to have a good grasp on it. Din even said in episode 7 that the saber doesn't dictate who is a worthy leader, it's based on principles and honor (which Bo conveniently chose not to inform Din on how she doesn't fit that bill).

Bo, this whole season, has shown time and time again she's not a worthy leader. At least, not yet. Bo has MANY sins to make up for. As I said earlier: Bo was a terrorist, she led to Mandalore's downfall... twice (now potentially thrice), led an incursion that got her sister killed, was openly racist towards Boba Fett and others, sexually assaulted Ahsoka, and burned down villages just because she could. None of these were ever brought up in Mando and it not only made Bo an innocent woman who lost everything and just needs her people and planet back, but also erases her history without ever fully holding her accountable.

Bo has fantastic military leadership (as shown this season alone), but when it comes to diplomatic, she falls short. All of her choices have led her to losing the darksaber, losing Mandalore, getting many people killed, and her prejudices have gotten in the way of true diplomacy where Din had to step in when she was ready to give up or use force to get what she wanted. She didn't even bother to try to win her people back or make a plan to take back Mandalore, she was content staying at home and crying on her throne until Din and Grogu forced her to finally do something productive.

All of this circles back to my point on why Din being a reluctant character is important to the overall story. For someone who doesn't want to lead, he's shown the most leadership skills all season by putting others before him and communicating on everyone else's level instead of expecting them to rise to his which is a stark contrast to Bo's actions this season. He's multi-lingual, finds ways to speak to other species to make them feel seen and heard, and consistently gives up his own food and resources to those in need even if it's with a grumble at first (Frog Lady comes to mind). Everything Bo lacks or doesn't attempt, Din jumps head first in. Which is why I think there's such a divide on Bo's character this season and it's easier to say she stole the show from Din when, in reality, her desire to lead but having no leadership skills is what has drawn out the frustrating aspects of Season 3's storyline that's hard to put your finger on but might've given you anxiety regardless. Her role as Mandalore doesn't feel earned and her character feels cheated, again regardless of how you personally feel about her as a character and if you want what's best for her.

I think I had more to say but I'm running a blank now. I'm tagging @yourcoolauntie cause I know I promised to talk to you about all of this and I still plan on messaging you but figured this confined space would get everything out in one go rather than getting lost in the sauce in a tiny little chat box on here. Everyone is welcome to DM me over this, comment, challenge me, whatever you need to feel better regardless of what your stance is over the show. This isn't meant to dismiss anyone or make anyone feel invalidated as I said, just a safe space with facts that you can do what you please with to either validate how you feel or recognize where that discomfort or frustration is coming from regardless if you're enjoying this season or not. You're seen, you're heard, and I'll see you on the other side after this upcoming episode tonight.

#The Mandalorian #The Mandalorian Season 3 #Season 3 #Spoilers #Mandalorian Spoilers #Din Djarin #Bo Katan #bo katan kryze #analysis #essay #Star Wars

[beehindblueeyes]

Fandomization: Revisited

I have a post I made a while ago that was really more of a warning if anything. It was a pattern I was noticing begin to grow within the fandom and how issues are really just a flat circle. It effects all over time and it’s  especially prevalent in horror fandoms? I don’t quite understand past the reductionist “horror is where the horny is kept”. It’s more than that but it’s a thing here as well. However I don’t want to completely repeat the same thing I had in my prior post, I’m going to include a update on that part and address some further things etc etc etc. Strap in.

* Disclaimer: I am going to be talking about things I have personally  obsessed and am not a fan of. This however does not mean you personally cannot enjoy it or should stop making it. Don’t let me tell you what to do but also don’t ride me off as a “hater” or attacker. Hear me out, if you don’t like my gripes that’s perfectly fine just don’t take it out on me.

Donna, Bev and victims of one ship rules all-

I talked about this in the last post but all fandoms start out sort of equal. A barrage of fics, fanart and discussions for everything and everyone but over time they sort of dilute into just shipping and one ship. You have to go digging in the mines if you want to find another ship god forbid anything else! This isn’t to say “ship popular so ship bad” but more—- if that’s all there is it loses what it had. Usually it’s a gay ship and 9/10 the female character of the movie suffers for it.

Donna in particular has gotten so much shit from Rinney shippers and just fans in general. A lot of the bargain bin “she’s getting in the way” “why does she exist” etc. However it’s gone beyond this into hate pages and vile comments against her actress online and it’s sick? People harassing a child over a movie character and ships— have you no decorm? Less extreme is that content about her or ships involving her or anyone else go virtually ignored. I know for a fact if this post had used Robin instead of Donna there’d be at least 100 likes. I’m not saying this because I think my post “deserves” a bunch of likes but because I know if I Used Robin half of you would eat it up. It’s that “if it’s not gay it’s icky” metality in young fans that can lead to some weird places as you grow.

Bev has a similar treatment. Where she’s just straight up ignored or used as a straw,man because she gets in the way of this and that or she’s reduced to “richies best friend who he smokes with sometimes” instead of her own character. I don’t know if her actress recieved the same level of hate campaign but I hope she didn’t. I really do.

One ship rules all hurts the ship itself-

If you haven’t caught on by now my arugement is for variety. It’s that more than one ship gets all the praise and love and admiration etc— hell it’s that we can get something that’s not a ship as well. This movie is about some pretty young kids and… idk. That’s not the point of this segment. I’ve talked before about fandomization and how characters get reduced to tropes, stereotypes and personal interest and might as well be ocs because they scarcely resemble the character past maybe their face. Its true and it’s coming. Using the “one rules all” or Reddie and Rinney today.

Preface this with a bit of a bias on my end. I actually enjoy Reddie as a concept. Childhood crushes, meet again as adults with a ‘oh’ moment well after it’s to late? I eat that shit up. Rinney on the other hand? I can understand where it comes from but I just see more of “he’s my cool friend💕” because we really don’t let friendships between boys be intimate in the same way we do girls. (I Hope that makes sense)

Basically as the only content to come out from a fandom becomes a single ship the more divided and weird it gets, there’s the usual break off points and accepted headcannons. There gets to a point where the Fanon has Fanon and then people believe it to be cannon and get extremely upset when it’s pointed out to not be. A great example is again Eddie and Richie:

Meme from Pinterest . The “Bad boy X soft uwu boy” is the same thing that is happening to Robin and Finney and it’s a bit concerning. It’s very reductionist and is becoming a gay stereotype within itself? Which- idk when a lot of kids first experience to this sort of stuff is through fandom and this is the expectation? Idk — I’m going to stop talking about real life impact in this regard because I’m not qualified and it wasn’t originally my point, my point is a much more personal disappointment. As Fanon-Fanon characterization being all there is , is a little sad when they get so far removed from the characters we all love in the first place.

They are children I’m literally begging you-

So I’m a bit old™️, and when I was younger x reader wasn’t really a thing or it was all on wattpad which I didn’t touch(and still don’t) with a ten foot poll. But- I feel like there was more variety. It’s not my cup of tea and I’m not saying it’s not a ligitamte form of fanfiction but if that’s all their is… etc etc.

My concern lies in the fact that none of the main characters are over the age of 14 and there’s a x reader or god forbid smut , obsession with this movie. Griffin is 11 and Billy is 12 at the time of their deaths based on the missing posters and shipping them or with yourself—- it just doesn’t sit right with me. I’m not saying there’s not teenager , survived AUs but I mean with characters as they are , or implied to be the same (even then aging up in this context implies you did it implicitly for romance purposes which is still,,,)

They’re literal children and I guess that’s why the boundless shipping really surprises me, that and they’re always acting way way older than they are. Like where’s my friends fics or stupid ass crushes and weird behavior? Idk.

Also the actors are also children! They’re reaching their teens now but that’s no fucking excuse for how creepy people are towards them. Getting fam and swarmed by fans starting at a young age cannot be good for mental health. I’ve already expressed this before but people are so fucking creepy about Miguel in particular finding family photos , private moments and texts and reposting them AND TAGGING HIM?? Etc. I think part of it is the adultification of Latino kids.

The kids from IT and stranger things experienced similar stalkerish behavior and really borderline sexual remarks since they were 12-13 and idk how they’re handling now but there has to be a fear that undermines every fan interaction. Esp because modern fans feel entitled to  celebrities time and social life if Miguel is any test to that. Like there is a reason a lot of kid actors end up super fucked up in adult hood and it’s more than workplace abuse or parental control. With the new age and fan obsession… I’m worried things will get even worse and I hope they all make it through alright.

Apologist behavior-

Talked about this briefly again and again, I’ve kept quite and simple because I don’t want to be attacked but I’m going to say it all again here. I also want to establish I in no way encourage or condone people harassing and attacking them in the same way (Grabber x reader people) or worse. I keep hearing claims of death threats but none shown publicly- regardless don’t do that.

Anyways. “We changed him so he’s fine”. Why not any other Ethan Hawke character? I fully agree he is a fine ass man but of all of his characters the Pedo serial killer????? It’s been stated by at least two authors that “we like the grabber. Not his other characters but this is a different version” but if you like this character spesfically what is it that you like about him? His entire character is being a Killer who locks little boys in his basement to kill and …worse. What is it that you like? Ethan’s eyes? That’s all Ethan.

You can’t just pout and cross your arms and go “he likes grown women fuck you.” And expect people to just walk away? I’m sorry, no that’s not how it works. I’m genuinely curious because I just— it baffles me. And for the love of god stop using the slasher excuse he’s not a slasher he is a spree killer. He’s rooted in real life and real life serial killers not a big scary monster man. (I say this as someone who likes slashers and understands that sort of thing but there’s just a line when it comes to kids. It’s like dogs in movies).

I just- I want to know the psychology around this I guess? I don’t- I don’t know.

#the black phone #black phone #the black phone 2022 #ethan hawke #the grabber #albert shaw #grabber x reader #x reader #shadow kids #ghost boys #finney blake #griffin stagg #billy showalter #paperboy the black phone #vance hopper #bruce yamada #robin arellano #gwen blake #donna the black phone #rinney #Reddie #eddie kaspbrak #richie tozier #bev marsh #it 2017 #shipping problems #fandom issue #fandomization #meta #fandom analysis

[tripleaxeldiaz]

(apologies for how long this ask is! i just think you're very thoughtful and i love your posts and got carried away!)

i think a lot of the tension between people who really enjoyed 911 season 6 and people who were disappointed in it comes does to like. a literary difference. like the difference between doing a queer reading of a textual relationship and reading a textual relationship to be explicitly queer. i mean. i sort of feel like the emotional reaction that fills the 911 tag after a quote unquote “disappointing” episode is the reaction of someone expecting an explicitly queer text based on the queer readings that other people are doing, rather than based on the show itself.

that all sounds weirdly academic but like in episode one of season 6, a lot of people were very excited about the whole “couch theory.” but some people would see posts delving into this fairly clear extended metaphor and then, based on those posts, take the “couch theory” as a definite variable in some equation that “solves” the story and informs the audience what to expect. at the same time, others took the “couch theory” as an approach into the potential of queerness, with all the richness of interpretation that implies (from “this means they’re in love” to “this means buck is missing something basic, but this is still vague”), which leaves the story open instead of solved. it seems like this divide in the fans on this here website gets framed like “people who def think buddie is happening and are sick of people only watching the show for buddie” and “people who don’t think buddie is happening and are sick of people telling them to just watch the show” but the divide i feel like is more about how people are used to reading a text to begin with?

like i personally don’t think “buddie” is going to happen, for a few reasons, or that the writing is super solid (though i would never call it bad), but i also love the show and love all the theories and readings and approaches that take all the writing choices seriously because there is such a rich world of interpretation in any piece of storytelling, especially one with as many authors as a tv show (writers, showrunners, actors, set design, costume design, music, etc). and queering the text is both fun and easy to do given the other themes of this show (the flexibility required in “responding” to an emergency or anything at all, the barriers put up between you and others by the nature of mortality “we don’t go beyond the glass door,” self-actualization through the other, building and serving a community, self-actualization through like-minded people, and the nature of a vocation)(i mean all of those can be queer themes, while being a lot of other things, and don’t necessarily have to lend to a certain narrative, but they exist in the show and are more often than not grounded in character-driven stories instead of the wildly fantastic emergency-of-the-week plots that is the main draw of the show. so it's easy to pick up on them and easy to incorporate them into an interpretation. and thus easy, for some, to think something in a story is definitely or definitely not going to happen.) the long-form episode structure of the story also makes it easy to step inside smaller moments and ideas. maybe a motif will be picked up again, maybe it will mean something only inside that episode, maybe (like in a lot of tv shows) the story is just different to what it was 2 seasons ago, but either way: that's how a serialized format works. and expanding on those small ideas, brought back later or not, has always been a part of engaging with a story anyway.

to be fair to all 911 fans, fan engagement is normally a bit different than any other sort of engagement, and feelings tend to take over. there’s an extremely personal nature to how people “ship,” i’ve noticed, and i don’t think a lot fans get how invested they are until they’re already in there. which isn’t a problem normally if they don’t think there’s any hope at all of their ship going canon, but that’s just not the case with this ship because of how compelling things like "couch theory" become, when you're on tumblr reading about it all the time.

anyway, i've always enjoyed your posts and writing and i hope no one comes after you because of their feelings about your reading of the show once the season starts. it shouldn't be your problem and, like you, i also found myself thinking after watching last season "that was lovely" so i hope to see more of your thoughts for season 7 <3

firstly you are very sweet friend 🥹🥹🥰🥰

secondly i totally agree with you — the nature of fandom is a space where any and all interpretations of a story are welcome and can be as real as you want them to be, whether they’re canon or not. and i do think any divisions are down to individual readings, because there are people who read the theories and “signs” and take them as definitive proof of something and get mad when that turns out to not be the case, and there are people who use those theories as exactly that — something that makes sense and COULD be true, but we won’t know for sure until we get more info. and neither of those are bad ways to interact with spec!! what’s bad is when the “proof” not being real is assumed that the writers and showrunner and actors are bad at their jobs and not doing it RIGHT, regardless of the fact that we don’t know what right is!!! we’re not writing the show!!!

i’ve been in fandom spaces since i was 13 — i have seen plenty of writers and showrunners run their own shows into the ground, so i understand the reluctance to have some faith. but at the end of the day, no amount of interpretations are gonna make sense until AFTER. whether it’s buddie or someone having a breakdown or whatever, we cannot connect the dots before we have the full picture. and i just think a lot of people would be happier if they remember that

#answered #anon #‘thoughtful’ is maybe one of the nicest things anyone has called me i appreciate that so much 🥰🥰🥰

[elisethetraveller]

𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐒 // 🫶 what does after care look like for them?

From; Sinday Headcanons

So I will divide this up in a receiving and giving.

Receiving

When receiving aftercare Elise very much longs for physical touch. She wants to snuggle and will become distressed if her partner is gone for too long. Of course, not everyone is a big fan of physical contact, especially after something potentially intense, so she can also settle for having a soft blanket or pillow to snuggle, but she will want to cuddle something.

Secondly, and this is something she might easily forget herself, an important part of aftercare for her is communication. How is the other person doing? What was fun? Or maybe even talking about something entirely disconnected from what just took place. Just talking and being aware of the other person helps her settle a lot.

Lastly, and this mostly has to do with some of her more extreme kinks: food and water. It’s important to replenish after any straining activity, but doubly so if it involves potentially damaging activities. This is also where one would normal put ‘bandaging wounds’ considering Elise quite enjoys blood play, but her healing takes care of that.

Giving

When providing after Elise can enter a bit of a work mode when it comes to care taking. She will check up on the person verbally, and check if there’s any injuries if they are feeling unusually sore somewhere. After that it’s a bit of food and drinks, she thinks fruit is a wonderful way to go here. Lastly, if needed, clean up, be it a shower, bath or simply wiping someone down with a warm, wet cloth.

It sounds a bit mechanical, but it’s simply because she falls into her own habits when having to care for someone. She will gladly cuddle and break up her routine, and even if she doesn’t she will be murmuring little praises and chatting with her partner all the way through.

#ooc #headcanon #ask answered #oculusxcaro #thanks for the ask dear! #sinday

[cozykali]

Who should play Miles Morales in the MCU?

Shameik Moore has dropped hints about wanting to play a live-action version of Miles. Recently, he posted his plans to lose weight on Instagram so fans can 'see Miles more clearly'. This caused a divide amount fans about whether or not he's a good fit for the role. Shameik has done an amazing job bringing once a lesser-known spidey from the comics to the big screen by voicing Miles in the Spider-Verse trilogy. He made this character his own and I understand why he feels he should play him in live-action. However, Moore is currently 28 years old, with the third animated spider-verse movie still in production, it would be some time before we might see a live-action Miles movie. In the comic books, Miles was a middle schooler when he took up the mantle of Spider-man, much younger than his mentor, Peter Parker. In the most recent film, Across the Spider-Verse, Miles is 15. It makes sense for Miles to be younger than Tom Holland and/or Peter Parker in the MCU when he is introduced. Tom is 26 and Peter is currently 18 years old, the age of a college freshman, at the end of No Way Home. If and when a live-action Miles comes to fruition, Shameik More could be 30+.

The other issue with Shameik Moore, and a lot of other fan-casts I have seen online, is that he is not Afro-Latino. A considerable part of Miles' identity is that Miles is mixed-race with his mother being Porterican. Having an actor who is mixed or from a Latinx background play Miles is extremely important for Afro-Latino representation. My number one pick for live-action Miles is the actor Miles Brown. Not only does he happens to share the same first name as our web-slinging hero, but that's not all they have in common. Brown is also Afro-Latino; his father is Black-American and his mother is of Filipino and Mexican descent. He is currently 18 years old, the same age Tom Holland was when he first started playing Peter Parker. Brown and Holland are both the same height, and Brown has expressed interest in the role of miles, as well. Brown is a triple threat, being a trained dancer, starring in music videos from a young age, as well as having released a rap album in 2020. Brown is best known for his role as Jack Jonhson in the comedy tv series, Blackish, earning him several nominations, and a Young Artist Award win.

In my opinion, Miles Brown is the perfect Miles Morales, as much as we all love Shameik Moore's depiction of Miles in the animated films. But, Shameik might still work playing an older version of Miles in the multi-verse, or even (spoilers) Prowler Miles, as seen at the end of Across the Spider-verse, although the role of Prowler seems to be already cast as Donald Glover based on his cameo. What are your thoughts? Who do you think should play Miles if/when he enters the Main MCU timeline in live-action?

#miles morales #across the spiderverse #into the spider verse #spider verse #shameik moore #miles brown #tom holland #spider man #MCU #sony entertainment

[one-strugling-bean]

Random Thoughts on HTTYD RttE S2 (Ep1-7)

(This one is a lot bigger so gonna divide it by episodes)

Ep1 - why do the twins get so many pets

Snotlout's sadness over not being able to train his dad, that was funny

"What did he do?" "He's Snotlout's dad" "Enough said" - there is more than one way to interpret this and i think im gonna take the protective! Astrid one

Ep2&3- Okay, im gonna make a wild guess and start assuming this show is gonna be hurting Astrid a lot

How strong is Toothless?? He's just able to carry a Mostrous Nightmare like that

Hm, gotta say I'm disappointed Heather betrayed them already - like, with Dagur being her brother and all, one immediately expects a betrayal to happen eventually, but this was really fast and too sudden I'd say

Im gonna make another guess before i move on with the episode, and that is Heather is either double-crossing Dagur or she'll regret going on to his side and goes back to helping the Riders

Also, not sure how to feel about Ryker yet - he seems too competent and too much of a real threat for this show. Then again the show does seem to building itself up to a more serious plot

Ruffnut pickpocketed the guard omg yessssssssss

Ep4 - aww, it's nice to see the twins caring about eachother

Aaaand Ruffnut got really pissed at Snotlout for his stunt, wow

Fishlegs is such a cute nerd ahhh

Omg Snotlout's been bitten so much, Ruff has 0 chill

I swear this scene on the cliff with the twins is just, so weird. Its supposed to be kinda emotional but its so so silly and bizarre i can't pay total attention to the actual emotional part - guess that's just the twins for you

Snolout should've died like, 3 hours ago pretty sure

He caught a wolf in that state???

This episode was so so weird but so so enjoyable

Ep5 - Heyy it's Spitelout time - cant wait

First few lines of the two 'louts interacting and they're already giving me Draco&Lucius vibes

"Hope you're at least smart enough to figure that one out" - eh excuse me, le what. He just called his son stupid in front of all his friends and threatened him at the same time. Okay yeah, im starting to understand why no one likes this guy

God that axe is so getting destroyed

Fishlegs and Ruffnut got married, poor Fishlegs

Meatlug!! Ruff, don't throw the lady out!

Astrid is once again so so done with Snotlout - can't blame her honestly, the guy has butter fingers

Okay, that beach scene went a whole lot better than what many made me expect, but then again, it seems Hiccup, Astrid and Snotlout were expecting worse too

The scene was scary until Spitelout talked - the music, the dark of the night, the clear fear of Snotlout confronting his dad and the apprehension in both Hiccup and Astrid's faces

Not as afraid of the man anymore, but still not a fan - also he's voiced by David Tennant so he's gotta get a pass

"We're the model of a modern viking family" this made me laugh a lot, my humor might be broken i know

Ep6 - Hookster? That's a new one. Another extremely original nickname to add to the list of Hookfang's nicknames given by Snotlout, right next to Hooky and Fangster

"He's really become a tyrant, huh?" "Power'll do that to ya" Twins, don't ever change

Aw Barf&Belch are gratefuuuul, that's cute, i rarely see anything about them anywhere, this is nice to watch

"Ah, no Toothless, don't laugh! You're better than that!" Ha poor Hiccup

Nooo don't ditch the double-headed baby, he's gonna get caught by hunters!!

Hiccup is just giving me tired dad vibes this ep and I'm loving it

Ahhh Barf&Belch are sho cute, how come I've never noticed this??

"I guess we're gonna have to put you in some real danger" yeahhhhh don't ever ask that of the Thorston twins

The look of pure happiness and giddy excitement on Tuff's face as they saw the tree trunks roll down towards Hiccup is everything

What is "Bjorn Boars"

"I can only think of one man that souless" Of course it's fucking Snotlout, how did i knowww

"WHAT. IS. WRONG WITH YOU??"

Okay, what did the twins do to make Snotlout go along with this, i gotta know

"Unfortunately, we weren't expecting Thor's mighty hammer to meet Snotlout's paper jaw" I swear this kid delivers the best one liners

I love how the ending is just mass destruction of the ship

"Will someone tell this lunatic it's over?!" Hiccup deserves so many breaks

Ep7 - "Heather won't be a problem, okay?" Hmmmm i had wondered how Astrid had been able to escape so easily from Heather on ep3 without us seeing their fight - im guessing Heather revealed to Astrid that she's playing double spy

Aw cute Thorston sandwich, but damn does Snotlout look annoyed. Good for him

Yeahhhh i saw that alliance coming

"You can't just run off on your own. I rely on you, Astrid" Oof, that hurt

"Dagur was right, you don't look like much" Astrid was right, you look like a psycho" "Not exactly the compliment I would've led with" These lines are fun

Ha, sassy, taunting Hiccup is fun Hiccup

"I saw it! You did that on purpose!" Uhm, excuse me sir, how did you see that? Your back was turned!

So, Ryker is indeed smart. Like, he's intelligent and an actual threat. Me likey the high-ing of stakes

"Maybe if you didn't move and kept your mouth shut!" Fishlegs sassying the others brings me endless joy

"Feels like they're going left. No, right. Left. Which one's which??" Mood. That's me everytime someone asks where's left and right

"Heather's not evil? There goes that dream" What does that mean? Im confused

Aw, Fishlegs, you're nice

Yeah, i hope she knows what she's doing too Hiccup

This is getting too long, so gonna stop this here

Im really excited to see where this is going now, and apparently people like to read my dumb commentary so the 2nd part of season 2 should be coming soon

#httyd #race to the edge #opinions and commentary #hiccup horrendous haddock iii #astrid hofferson #fishlegs ingerman #snotlout jorgenson #tuffnut thorston #ruffnut thorston #Toothless #hookfang #Stormfly #barf and belch #httyd rtte commentary #Gonna start using this tag to mark these posts

[threewaywithdelusion]

Queer Stranger Things Characters

I think it's very odd and interesting how the Stranger Things fandom interprets its characters' sexualities. Like there's this really big push to make all the characters queer, and while I'm a big fan of stories about queer friend groups, I don't think Stranger Things is that story. Especially in canon.

I divide the characters into four groups, based on how likely I think it is that they're actually queer (referring mostly to canon, and a little bit to common Fanon).

Characters That The Narrative Confirms Are Queer: Will. Robin. Vickie. Billy. Eddie. Barb.

Characters That Are Easily Read As Queer: Steve. Tommy. Argyle. Nancy.

Characters Who Can Be Made Queer For Stories: Max. Mike. Jonathan. Chrissy.

Characters Whose Straightness You Can Pry From My Cold Dead Hands: Dustin. Lucas. Eleven. Nancy part 2. Joyce. Hopper.

There are characters who make no list, such as Erica, Murray, Jason, Carol, and more minor characters. This is because we don't know enough about them to fit them into any one category.

First the characters who are confirmed queer:

Will has an entire plot around being in love with Mike.

Robin is openly a lesbian.

There's no way Vickie isn't bisexual, even if Robin has doubts, because narratively her character makes no sense if she isn't a love interest for Robin.

Billy has to be into men in some capacity because otherwise the way he just to bully Steve is just really fucking bizarre. Like cornering this dude in the showers is just really strange behavior and Billy's really intense masculinity is obviously compensating for something (probably partially to meet his father's standards, but it would make a lot of sense if he's gay and trying to hide it).

In my reading of canon, Eddie has to be bisexual. There's no way he wasn't flirting with Chrissy, so I think he's into girls. He also doesn't understand personal space when it comes to Steve, which could be a sign of neurodivergence, but if you add how he treats to Steve to the fact that he's literally flagging then he has to be queer in some way.

Barb is interesting because I don't think the show does anything to indicate she's a lesbian, but the book Rebel Robin sure does and I'm choosing to count it.

Next the characters who are easy to read as queer, but whose queerness isn't necessarily confirmed in the text:

Steve is interesting because I think a large part of the reason people are eager to read him as queer is that he's the male lead. (Kind of. Arguably that's Will or Mike, but when it comes to the older and thus more shippable characters, it's definitely Steve). Also, this man attracts queer people like a flame attracts moths. Both in the sense of them literally being attracted to him (Billy, Eddie, Tommy) and in the sense that he surrounds himself with queer people without seeming to realize it (Robin and Tommy as his two long-term best friends). Seems kind of gay. So his interactions with all of these people make it very easy to read him as bi/pan/queer.

Tommy's actor explicitly said he played him as having a crush on Steve, which has largely influenced the Fanon interpretation of Tommy. Also it explains a lot about his extreme jealousy towards Nancy Wheeler.

Argyle's motto is "try before you deny" and he grew up in California. This dude has at the very least experimented with guys before and in my mind he's pan/generally queer.

Nancy. Nancy is interesting because she makes this list twice. She's commonly portrayed as bisexual (at least in the parts of the fandom I see) but I think she's either a lesbian or a straight girl with no in-between. There's this one post talking about how Nancy comes across as a lesbian suffering from comp-het because the Duffer brothers are two guys who don't know how to write attraction to men from a women's perspective, and I agree. So in that sense, Nancy is either ace or a lesbian. However, if you're reading this on the level of what the writers intended, then Nancy is straight, so she makes this list twice.

Characters who are often/can easily be made queer for stories:

I don't know why Max feels right here, but she does. Maybe I just like bisexual Max head-canons. She obviously loves Lucas, but I think her tomboyishness, her feminism, and her being from California (and thus exposed to more open-minded people growing up) make her easy to make bisexual.

Someone is going to kill me for putting Mike here, but I think it's true. I don't think Byler will ever be canon, not in the least because the Duffer brothers didn't set out to write a queer show. They're going to think that they already have two/three openly gay characters getting screen time next season (depending on if Vickie becomes a real character) and that they've done their duty to the gay community or whatever. I do think Mike is repressed in a lot of ways, but in an "I was raised by Ted Wheeler" way and not an "I'm secretly pining for my best friend way." And I think he and Eleven will be endgame. (I also prefer Mileven over Byler, though I think either way Mike should do a bit of self-improvement first). But I think people like writing stories where Mike is queer for obvious reasons: to put him with Will and because this boy is absolutely lying to himself about SOMETHING and that something being his sexuality makes sense. You could definitely make an argument for moving him up a category. But for me, he is in this one.

Canon Jonathan can't be into boys, because if he were he would have said something to Will by now. That being said, I think Canon Jonathan could be on the ace/aro spectrum and just not realize that's also a type of queerness. Fanon Jonathan is often bisexual and into Nancy/Steve/Argyle.

Chrissy barely appears on screen, so I guess she could go anywhere/nowhere. But because she's a fan-favorite and is commonly shipped with Eddie or Robin, I'm putting her here. We just don't have enough information about her, though I like to think she was flirting with Eddie. (I also like Buckingham quite a lot, but they never spoke in canon and are a purely Fanon invention).

Lastly, characters whose straightness you can pry from my cold dead hands:

Dustin just does not give off queer energy in my opinion. I think he would absolutely sleep with a guy in college as an experiment, but ultimately conclude he likes women. (though you could make an argument for ace-spec Dustin. I just think he's too young for it to be solid yet).

I love a good bisexual Lucas fanfic/headcanon as much as the next girl, but I think Lucas is pretty straight. His interactions with other boys in canon just don't indicate any sort of queerness and I think this man is going to be devoted to Max until he dies (or she dies, if that comes first).

Lesbian Eleven is something that drives me crazy. Obviously to each their own and do what you want, but I hate it. I think what Mike and Eleven had in at least seasons 1 and 2 in undeniable. Whatever happens with them in the future, they did genuinely love each other at one point. And I understand that a lot of people ship her with Max, but I feel like that misses the point of season 3. What El really needed was a friend. Not a boyfriend, not a romantic partner, a friend. And Max was that for her. (Could Eleven realize she's into women later in life? Sure, I guess. But I don't see any grounding for it in canon now).

If Nancy is not a lesbian with comp-het, she has to be straight. Like I said above, to me, those are the only two options.

Hopper is a white small-town cop in the Midwest and he chose to be there doing that job. He's straight.

Joyce has to be straight because of how she acts towards Will's queerness. The way she doesn't understand him in S3 when he says he'll never fall in love. The way she whispers the words Lonnie used about Will like they're bad (and they are Bad, but because they're mean, not because of what they mean, and the way Joyce whispers makes me think she doesn't know the difference).

Like I said, these are all my readings of canon. It's fine if you disagree. Some people have very specific readings of particular characters, but I think these are broadly what the text supports or what fanon agrees on (with the exception of Mike and Eleven maybe, where I think I differ from the general fanon consensus).

I have Thoughts about how the Stranger Things fandom interprets its characters' sexualities, but I don't know what they are or how to articulate them. It's just different from other fandoms I'm in. I'm also new to the Stranger Things fandom (as in, after S4Vol2 had aired) so I don't have a good sense of what has changed over time. But its fascinating!

#stranger things #stranger things fanon #fanon #unpopular opinion #queer characters #gay stranger things

[croc-odette]

joanna newsom entry guide: it took me a long time to enjoy joanna newsom and then all of a sudden i was like i need more of this!! i don't know about music so this is all just me rambling. it took me years before the dam broke so this list isn't necessarily 'listen to this and a day later you'll like Ys' but 'over time i eventually felt extremely differently about these songs than when i first heard them'

'81 (marika hackman cover): we are starting super gently with covers because that is how i first got into newsom. a short sweet song about forgiveness that feels like it turns its back on overthinking. i have no idea what '81 references. newsom was born in 1982. a running theme will be 'i'm not 100% sure what's going on here'. hackman's voice is incredibly clear and at ease.

peach plum pear (owen pallet cover): a plucky and sharp little song about desire. i love a lot of the lyrics, including 'and all sneezing darkly in the dimming divide'. i would listen with headphones especially to hear the little bumps and strings. owen keeps to the eeriness of the song while making it his own style.

easy: ok here we are. a brisk and breezy six minutes! the first song on have one on me. a haunting song that swings between fairytale imagery and hypnotically convincing a lover that the relationship will be both easy and at the expense of the (allegedly) self-sacrificing singer.

good intentions paving company: i have said multiple times that i love to sing along to this song in the car. that are lots of little yodeling notes and the rhythm does at times feel like bouncing up and down on a bumpy road. 'for the duUuUuUration' 'feeeEEEEEEeeling it drag' 'like i'm in a fFFISt fight with the fog' there are certain words that when you sing them you realize how fun it is to lean in to the squeak or the screech or the warbling of it. some sounds you don't appreciate till they come out of your own mouth. a lot of really lovely lines.

clam crab cockle cowrie: SAD! i will be honest i will sometimes listen to the first half of this song and then skip over the end because i love the first half so much. but in the right mood it knocks the breath out of me. some of the my favorite lyrics.

does not suffice: SAD 2! the last song on have one on me which has been pointed out as the ending result to the relationship in easy; 'everything that could remind you/of how easy/i was not.' a breakup song that is more resigned and forlorn than bitter or resentful.

sawdust and diamonds (ben sollee cover): hello i'm a fake fan and here's another cover. i heard this cover before the original song so i'm still biased towards it. we are now in the 10 minute zone. an existential song about the fear and dread of loving someone knowing that everyone dies eventually.

baby birch (optional): this song is optional because sometimes it makes me so sad that it can be hard to listen to. every part of it is achingly beautiful. subject matter is thinking about a baby that never existed, either through a miscarriage or abortion.

have one on me: 11 minutes, baby! a song that is from the point of view of the king of bavaria's mistress, the countess of lansfield, as she fled to california during 1848-1849 german revolutions. i could not get into this song until recently and now i'm like oh yeah duh. mr daddy longs they are at it again can i see ya. normal music. and i will drink to your excellent health and your cruelty!

monkey and bear: a very fun fable of the creation of ursa major. this is a point where if you really like joanna's voice and instrument choices, you're into it. if you're not, then you're not. very clever and tricky wording, especially the multiple uses of bear/bare

in california: a good song but something about the way she sings 'but there is another... who is a little older' is so sweet and distinct that it stands out to me the most among all her vocals.

emily: sometimes you need to listen to a 12 minute song about joanna newsom's sister and imagery that made me convinced this song was about noah's ark but i realized i couldn't actually connect the dots. Ys, the album this song is from, is titled after a mythical city off the coast of Brittany that was swallowed by the sea.

i do not think i'm an expert on her: there's plenty of other songs by her that i haven't warmed up to or haven't really listened to. i think she has some of the most strange and wonderful lyrics around, which is why i originally got into covers of her music. and then i started to really appreciate the range of her music in general. bye!

#i was talking to a friend about making this so here it is