"My friends, you bow to no one"

Something I absolutely adore about The Lord of the Rings is the healthy depiction of masculinity, and how it's not seen through just the Hobbits - who are known for valuing friendship, love, and a quiet, simple life. It's Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Gandalf, Boromir, Faramir, Eomer, and Theoden. All of the men love, they laugh, they cry, they express themselves, they grieve, and they're never weaker for it. In fact, it's this emotional vulnerability - their capacity for love - that helps them succeed in saving Middle Earth. It's such a refreshing and beautiful thing to see.

Just props to JRR Tolkien for writing the characters the way he did and to Peter Jackson and the cast for bringing it to life so beautifully.

People come up with a lot of stupid reasons to criticize atla but saying that Kataang ended up together because thats what Aang wanted and that its not reciprocated is definitely,,,, interesting.

Did you watch the show???? have you watched kataras arch???? it literally revolves around feminism,

The same Katara that traveled across the world to learn water bending and challenged their best teacher to a fight because he wouldn't teach her because she was a girl???

The same Katara who blew up a factory? Who successfully led a prison break???

Katara is literally the one who kick started the entire series by sticking up for herself.

Thats the Katara you think folded and built a whole life with Aang because he wore her down?? You think Katara married and had children with Aang because only Aang wanted to?? You think Katara would let anyone, even Aang, pressure her into a relationship she didn't want?

Like it showed her setting that boundary. She defends herself just fine. I can assure you Aang did not harass Katara into their relationship.

Half the plot wouldn't have happened without Damon, but I mean that in a negative way because he was constantly fucking everything up and creating problems by being a complete and utter buffoon 100% of the time

the thousandth TVD rant (probably?)

I'm currently writing for the TVD universe and am cruising for answers on certain things, like... how did Rose and Trevor know Elena existed? Did I miss that part of the vague exposition episode? Because I was under the impression that no vampire who entered Mystic Falls left it, either because they decided to stay and become part of the Scooby Gang all of a sudden, or because they died. So I'm not sure how it would've gotten out to vampires older than 500 that a new doppelganger existed there. Who knows?

During all this, I reached a forum or something about the unanswered questions/confusions over TVD and someone raised the shared point that Damon fangirls claim Damon as someone who deserves happiness and as someone who went through so much and how Elena is a bitch for rejecting him so many times, when in reality... he doesn't deserve anything good. They finished their thoughts by saying he would have to do something incredible to deserve Elena and that dying heroically would be the best idea for him if they were going to go down that path. Then someone replied with "dear God, no. Without Damon, there is no show."

I mean, yeah, there would certainly be different outcomes to situations. Less character deaths, less mess in general, less single-man-tear-in-front-of-the-fire moments, less cringe sex scenes...

Other than that, it'd be same-old, same-old. Cause, when it boils down to it, Damon brings absolutely nothing of substance to TVD. He's that one guy who is reckless and will tear someone's heart out if need be, or whatever, so I guess he's useful in that way. He has that whole romance thing with Elena and Katherine, and... oh, that's it.

It's like when people say Lucien is a lot like Damon and that they should've met. First of all--

Do they share the whole unrequited love thing? Yes... except, even in that, they're vastly different. Damon became obsessed with a woman who basically raped his younger brother and would sneak around with him, mainly because of her beauty and the promise of vampirism with her, for a seemingly very short time. Lucien fell in love with a childhood friend, as humans, who grew out-of-reach when their class difference became more and more prominent as they aged and he began to work for her father as a servant, but still, he was in love with her from afar. Not really the same, but sure, I see where people might be coming from.

Everything else? Not at all alike. Lucien was a sophisticated, sexy-without-really-trying-too-hard vampire who was basically the same age as the Original family and with one provocative sentence, pushed Klaus to snap and rip apart someone in an alley to prove he was still a beast. He was a businessman who lived in a lavish penthouse. He had good reasons to hate certain people, and had genuine reasons for trauma over how he became a vampire and what happened in his past. His focus and drive to create Kingmaker Land Development as an undercover werewolf-draining ring, creating a werewolf bite cure and a whole new strain of creature, to put together a revenge plan, was nothing short of amazing. His ability to manipulate and scare, while being actually charming and funny (in my eyes, anyway) was great. He makes a pretty damn good bad guy.

Damon, on the other hand, was a fratboy serial killer of a vampire who waltzed into the series and went out of his way to frighten and hurt every teenage character in sight, just for kicks. He tries to hard to be a sexy bad boy character (no offence to the actor) by doing weird shit with his face, showing up shirtless, or just randomly claiming all by himself that the female population can't resist him and sex with him is so amazing. He starts out as this "anyone, anytime, anyplace" bad guy who is at least somewhat fun to watch, but then that gets muddied and he then struggles to assimilate into the teen friendship group, dating teen girls and being best buds with their History teacher and parents/guardians. His only motivation, despite being one of the main characters, was getting Elena, like some prize, so he could say "fuck you" to Stefan and Katherine.

I was gonna keep typing, but then... nothing came to mind again.

Controversial LOK opinion, but Mako >>>>> Bolin

Mako gets so much hate for a love triangle he didn't even start (and all the blame, even though Korra and Asami were the ones actively pursuing him) while Bolin was out here repeatedly kissing a woman who kept telling him no.

I'm sick to the back of my teeth with you Kataang fans. Do you know how many times your people have been under the Zutara tag? And it's not accidental either, because they've admitted to doing it on purpose MULTIPLE TIMES.

Unless you're up their asses about it, stop bitching at us.

(You also did the same thing with your stupid post so-)

Where in my post did I say it was just Zutara stans?? I just said people coming into fandom spaces pretending to be neutral and then having a clear bias. That applies to everyone. I literally say in the tags not to go into tags if you don't like the ship. That goes both ways. The stuff I put in the tags was because I am a Kataang shipper, and I only want to interact with Kataang shippers because im only trying to be in MY tag. Did I tag zutara? No. Did I even tag atla? No. So how am I bitching at you if I didnt even tag you? Please make it make sense. I'm not trying to pretend I'm a neutral party so I can just shit on one half of the ship war in that ships tags. So, nice try, but you missed

If you're going to come into a tag under the pretense of being a "neutral" party, but then start spreading clear bias for one side, don't bother making the post. I'm not coming to the tag to see people ripping apart my ship in the name of "neutrality". It's weird virtue policing and it's annoying as hell. It's clear you HAVE a bias, and that you prefer one ship over the other. Keep that to the proper tags.

Also, if you are going to start spreading your bias and vitriol, use the anti tag; it exists for a reason.

RANPO EDOGAWA 🧡

文豪ストレイドッグス S5 Ep. 02. Toward the Complete Answer

Just leave it to me, what a gown this will be!

To say I'm obsessed with her dress is an understatement. Will never be able to get over how absolutely stunning and breathtakingly beautiful she is in it (and out of it, let's be real).

*gifs are not mine, obvi

CINDERELLA (2015) dir. Kenneth Branagh

Kit & Ella in Cinderella (2015)

cinderella shots that look like paintings (11/?)

TVD fans get more upset at Caroline for hating Damon for abusing her than they do at Damon for abusing her

Pro-Damon arguments have always been pretty stupid imo, but an argument I've been seeing a lot more of recently is people saying that they prefer Damon to Stefan- both as a character and as a love interest for Elena- because "Damon was aware that he was a monster whereas Stefan pretended that he wasn't", and I have got to say, this is such a brain dead take.

Let's start by addressing the first part of the claim, that Damon's self-awareness inherently makes him better. No. Believe it or not, being self-aware does not make you a good person, it's what you do with that awareness that does. What does Damon do with his self-awareness? Absolutely nothing. He whines and cries about how much of a monster he is and how he can't change whenever anyone tries to hold him accountable for anything, or he just puts the blame on Katherine or his mother because "they didn't wuv him 🥺👉🏻👈🏻". So, he recognizes that he's a bad person, but then he proceeds to continue to be a bad person anyway...I'm not seeing how this is a good- or even a respectable- thing. Damon also doesn't care! He enjoys murdering and r*ping people. How does someone knowing they're a bad person, and then doing nothing to be better, make them a better person? It doesn't. The logic of that argument is non-existent. And to then go on and say that this is why Elena should choose him?? Why? How does Elena begging Damon to just stop being horrible, and then him responding with "I'm a monster, I'll never change" scream "I'm someone you should be with"?? There's a reason she told him he was the worst choice she would ever make.

Now, for the second part of the claim, which states that Stefan pretends that he is a good person when really, he's a monster. Once again: no. Tell me you don't have general comprehension skills without telling me because Stefan's desperation to hold onto his humanity and morality are very central parts of his character. He recognizes that he's done horrible things and takes full accountability for them. Whenever Elena asks him a question about his past, he's honest with her. He doesn't hide things from her, downplay them, or push the blame onto someone else (and if someone tries to bring up him not initially telling her he was a vampire, I will scream. Because duh! Why would he just be like, "Hey, I'm Stefan, I'm a vampire, nice to meet you!"? Please be serious) He's said the words "I am/was a monster" multiple times on screen - same as Damon - the difference between the two of them is that Stefan does something about it. Stefan trying to be a better person is not him pretending he's never done bad things. It's him trying to atone for all of the bad things that he has done. So, when he says that he's not Damon, It's true! Because he does everything Damon doesn't do when it comes to facing the consequences of his actions. Which also winds up forcing him to face the consequences of Damon's actions as well!

Only in the TVD fandom will you see people say that the guy who actively does the wrong thing in every scenario and who revels in being the bad guy is better than the guy who hates the part of himself that does horrible things and puts all of his effort into being a better person simply because guy #1 is "self-aware".

I hate it here.

Coming back to add, that if you tell me I can't dislike it because "it's better than the movie" im immediately not listening. Duh, it's better than the movie. What do you want? A cookie? That bar is so far into hell that beating it isn't really a feat. Thats like saying a quarter is worth more than a penny.

I'm so tired of people telling those of us who are upset about the LA atla remake that we are "being too dramatic" or are just "finding things to be upset about". We are allowed to be upset that something that we love so dearly has been butchered, AGAIN. If you liked it, then that's your personal opinion, but don't sit here and tell those of us who didn't that we're the problem.

I personally think the CGI, costumes, and sets all look terrible. None of it is immersive. Sure, it LOOKS like atla, but it doesn't FEEL like atla. The heart of the og is gone, and people are allowed to be upset about this. They've altered characters to the point that they aren't the character anymore (looking at you Aang and Katara), which is a huge upset for me personally because Katara is one of my favorite characters ever. So watching her be turned into someone meek and docile is more than a slap to the face. Not to mention them removing her as the narrator as if Bryke themselves didn't state that Katara is the person the story is being told through. And before you start telling me that Aang is the same. No, he isn't. Major parts of his development through season 1 (him coming to terms with the fact that he's the avatar and embracing that role, and him also accepting the fact that he RAN AWAY and how he is never going to do that again, which is also pivotal to his character later on) are completely removed. And don't even get me started on what they did to Kataang. Regardless of whether you ship them or not, those 2 are deeply connected to one another from the start, and their relationship is a big part of the show, so to see that butchered is heartbreaking for me.

This isn't just about them "making some changes" or it not being a 1:1 adaptation. I'm fine with adaptations that aren't 1:1. What I'm upset about is that the changes they are making are VITAL changes to characters and dynamics between characters. They're rushing through the plot and condensing the story (and I will scream if I hear one more person say that it's because they couldn't fit it all in with their runtime. The runtime is an HOUR LONGER than the og, so yes, they did have the time). The changes they are making make it evident that they do not understand the og show, and if you don't feel like that, fine, once again, that's YOUR opinion, just as this is MY opinion. So stop telling us we have no right to be upset and that we just want to hate everything. That's not true. What is true is that we are expressing valid complaints about another bad adaptation of something dear to us.

Edit: If you also come at people who are upset bc they were expecting a faithful adaptation and didn't get it bc "its not supposed to be the cartoon," you're missing the whole point. An adaptation is ADAPTING SOMETHING from one medium to the other, not rewriting it. "Yall expected it to be just like the cartoon." No, I expected a FAITHFUL ADAPTATION and was met with poorly written fanfiction.