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#I do not want to be represented by a bitch who has no respect for her fellow humans and can't even get a simple derivative of the quadratic
lumi-procrastinate · 1 year
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I have no problem with characters being race swapped since it promotes inclusivity and other races' representation in popular media.
But.
If those other races are written purely out of stereotypes and is not written by people of those races, then hun, that's a problem and I'm absolutely disgusted with how the creators treat it as their magnum opus
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aspoonofsugar · 4 months
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Hi! Do you think Alastor and Lucifer are foils?
Hi!
Yes, of course they are!
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Alastor and Lucifer's foiling starts in Dad Beats Dad (obviously), where they fight over Charlie's affection. They might seem as opposites throughout the episode, but they are actually the same, as they both try to impress Charlie with their powers:
[ALASTOR:] They say, when you're looking for assistance It's smart to pick the path of least resistance [LUCIFER:] Others say, that in your needy hour There's no substitute for pure angelic power!
Still, Charlie doesn't care and all she wants is for her parental figures to support her:
Charlie: How come he can have faith in me, but my own father can't?
In short, Alastor and Lucifer find pride in their abilities, but need to let go of it, in order to show their love for Charlie. By the end of the episode, they both accomplish this. However, they succeed in slightly different ways, that fit their shared motif of shadow and light. In particular:
Alastor is linked to shadows, as his abilities let him manipulate shadows
Lucifer is linked to light, as his name means morningstar and his powers manifest in light-beams
As a result:
Alastor's development happens in the shadows, whereas Lucifer's in the light - This is true also on a meta-level, as Alastor's arc is the secondary plot-line of the episode, whereas Lucifer's is the main one
Alastor acts as Lucifer's jungian shadow and becomes a catalyst for him to change. Similarly, Alastor himself is challenged to grow by his own jungian shadow, aka Husk
What is the jungian shadow? It is the repressed part of a person. In stories, a character might meet another one, who embodies this hidden part of the self. By integrating with the shadow, the character evolves. In other words, Alastor represents a repressed part of Lucifer and Husk a repressed part of Alastor. Let's see how it all plays out.
ALASTOR, HUSK AND MIMZY
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Alastor and Mimzy's bond is unhealthy, as they both enable negative sides of the other. On the one hand Alastor keeps covering for Mimzy, no matter what she does. On the other hand Mimzy feeds Alastor's ego by praising his power and abilities.
So, Mimzy never faces the consequences of her actions:
Mimzy: Thanks for helpin' lil' old me out of a though spot. You're always such a pal.
And Alastor feels respected and appreciated:
Alastor: It's nothing I can't handle. Don't worry Husker. Who in their right mind would cross me?
However, the reality is that Mimzy is using Alastor and Husk points this out:
Husk: You and I both know Mimzy only shows up, when she needs something. That bitch is trouble and who knows what kinda demon she fucked with to come running to you this time?
Not only that, but he openly calls Alastor out on his pride:
Husk: Big talk for someone, who's also on a leash.
Which results in Alastor reacting in anger:
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That said, Husk is proven right. It turns out Mimzy has willingly brought chaos to the hotel, so that Alastor could solve things for her. Because of this, Alastor finally cuts ties with her:
Alastor: You deliberately brought danger to this place just to have me clean up your mess. I can't have that here.
This choice is important and it shows how the people around him are slowly impacting Alastor. On the one hand the Radio Demon listens to one of his subjects' advice. On the other hand he acts to protect the hotel. As a matter of fact the moment Alastor steps up as the Host of the Hotel isn't when he sings to Charlie in Hell's Greatest Dad nor when he transforms into a giant and fights. It is when he sends Mimzy away and sacrifices a little bit of his pride to do so. interestingly, this happens as nobody is looking at him, so he isn't really trying to impress nor to trick the others. He acts selflessly in the shadows.
LUCIFER, ALASTOR AND CHARLIE
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Lucifer and Charlie's bond is strained:
Charlie: We just have never been close. After he and mom split, he never really wanted to see me. He calls... sometimes, but only if he's bored or like, needs me to do something.
At the root of this conflict there is Lucifer's inability to show his daughter how much he cares. He struggles to express his feelings and hides them behind a prideful persona:
Charlie: I told you when you called me five months ago. Or did you not listen? Lucifer: No, no, no, no. Just, you know, I just forgot. I've just been really busy, ya know with um... important things.
Instead of openly admitting his depression and sadness he prefers to look cold and uninterested. Even dismissive and condescending, like when he arrives at the Hazbin Hotel:
Lucifer: Wow, this place sure looks, uh... Uh-uh. Yeah. Uh-uh. It's got a lot of character!
Lucifer is initially too focused on what he cares about - meeting his daughter - rather than on what Charlie wants - for him to help her with the hotel. He happily hugs Charlie and then immediately moves on to pet Keekee, Razzle and Dazzle, who are his own creations. Only later he considers the welcome Charlie and the others have prepared for him. Even then, he still misses the point and tries to buy Charlie's love by showing off his magical powers:
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Haha, looks like you could use some help From the big boss of Hell himself
Except that what Charlie wants from him aren't champaigne fountains or caviar mountains, but an appointment with Heaven, which he negates her. Not only that, but instead of being honest about his fears, he deflects everything on Charlie herself, by dismissing her plan:
Lucifer: Alright, listen, I love that you want to see the best in people, but these sinners... You know, they're just the worst. I, I don't know how much you can realistically expect from them in Heaven.
Luckily, the Radio Demon is closeby, as he forces Lucifer to show his true self.
On the one hand Alastor brings out Lucifer's insecurity and fears:
I'm truly honored that we've built such a bond You're like the child that I wish that I had I care for you, just like a daughter I spawned It's a little funny, you could almost call me dad
He juxtaposes moments of everyday life and affirmations of affection to Lucifer's materialistic and fancy promises. In this way Alastor highlights the faults of Lucifer, as a father. He points out that Lucifer is never there for Charlie.
On the other hand Alastor embodies the kind of sinner Lucifer despises:
Lucifer: Ya see? What I tell ya? Charlie, sinners are violent psychopaths, hell bent on causing as much pain and destruction as they can. There's really no point in trying.
And yet, such a violent psychopath is more willing to help Charlie than Lucifer himself:
Charlie: Dad, stop! He's defending this hotel. It may be a bit more sadistic than I'd hoped. But he's doing it for me!
This realization leads to a confrontation between father and daughter and to an admission on Lucifer's part:
Lucifer: I just don't want you to be crushed by them like... like I was.
The problem isn't Charlie, but Lucifer himself. It is not that Charlie's dream is silly, but that Lucifer's one has been destroyed. This revelation is important because Lucifer's mask comes off and he shows Charlie his weakest and most broken self. He swallows his pride and has Charlie see who her father really his. In all his mistakes and his hurt. And to his surprise Charlie accepts him. Not only that, but she admires him:
So in the end, it's the view I had of you That showed me dreams can be worth fighting for
Symbolically the song More than Anything starts with Lucifer and Charlie in the shadows:
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They are repressing a lot and have no idea who the other is. Still, as the song goes on, they get to understand each other:
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All that I'm hopin', now that my eyes are open Is that we can start again, not be pulled apart again 'Cause in the end, you are part of who I am
And they end the song surrounded by light:
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What is initially in the shadow comes to light in three different ways:
Lucifer shows Charlie his true self
Lucifer sees Charlie for who she is
Lucifer exhibits his weakness in front of the whole Hazbin Hotel. He lets the sinners he dislikes so much witness the mess that he is.
His fragility is in full display. It is in the light for everyone to see.
PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWERS! ITTY BITTY LIVING SPACE!
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Another similarity Alastor and Lucifer share is that they are two powerful beings that give much importance to free will:
Alastor: You should know better than anyone what a soul can accomplish when they take charge of their own fate.
Charlie: Together, they wished to share the magic of free will with humanity.
And yet, they are both trapped:
Alastor: I'm hungry for freedom like never before The constraints of my deal surely have a backdoor Once I figure out how to unclip my wings Guess who will be pulling all the strings?
Charlie: As punishment for their reckless act, Heaven cast Lucifer and his love into the dark pit he had created, never allowing him to see the good that came from humanity, only the cruel and the wicked.
On the one hand Alastor controls many souls, but his own is owned by someone else. On the other hand Lucifer is the strongest being in all of Hell, but he is regarded as a disgrace by other angels.
Moreover, they both project their unhappiness on others. Specifically, Lucifer blames sinners like Alastor:
Lucifer: Our "people", Charlie, are awful! They got gifted free will and look what they did with it! Everything's terrible!
While Alastor lashes out on his prisoners, like Husk:
Alastor: If you ever say that again, I will tear your soul apart and broadcast your screams for every other disrespectful wretch who dares to question me.
Still, the point is that Lucifer is exactly like Alastor. He is a gifted creature, who messed up royally and cursed humanity. Alastor instead is exactly like Husk, a powerful overlord, who still finds himself chained. Lucifer is the most hated being in all of creation and Alastor is on a leash. They are both lonely and desperate, but too proud to admit it. In other words, they are both losers:
Husk: There was a time I thought no one could relate To the gruesome ways in which I'm damaged But lettin' walls down, it can sometimes set you straight! We're all livin' in the same shit-sandwich
Just like everyone in Hell. And yet, this is not bad per se. Even if you hit rock bottom, you can still climb back up, as long as you let go of self-importance and start to earnestly empathize with others. As a matter of fact it is only through community and bonds that a person can be redeemed and heal:
Out for love Love Think of who you care about Protect them and be out For love Love You're gonna fight without gloves Long as you're out for love
This is what Alastor and Lucifer are learning through Charlie.
TWO DADS, ONE DAUGHTER
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Season 1 sets up Alastor and Lucifer as two mentor figures to Charlie. They share this role in a way, which makes them almost perfect mirrors. Some examples:
Lucifer gives Charlie the hotel building and Alastor calls it Hazbin Hotel
Alastor helps repair the Hotel in the beginning, while Lucifer assists Charlie in building it anew by the end
Lucifer guides Charlie to Heaven, as he sets up her meeting with Sera and Emily. Alastor instead guides Charlie in Hell as he introduces her to Rosie and helps her inspire the cannibals
Both Alastor and Lucifer believe in Charlie, when she is at her lowest. Alastor does so before the final battle, whereas Lucifer after the fight
Alastor and Lucifer fight Adam (another foil of theirs) in the final episode. Moreover, both belittle his abilities and highlight how he is strong, but unskilled:
Alastor: You lack discipline, control and worst, you are sloppy!
Lucifer: So, this is what you've been up to since Eden? Gotta say, you really let yourself go buddy.
In particular, Alastor is the one supposed to take Adam down, but fails and Lucifer steps in by the end. This is just like in the beginning Lucifer is supposed to support and help Charlie with her project. Still, he is absent and Alastor fills the spot.
In other words, Alastor and Lucifer are unwillingly complementary and so far one has appeared when the other has been incapacitated. We'll see if this pattern continues. As for now, they are clearly framed as key to Charlie's development, so it is possible they will come to embody different sides of her:
Alastor represents the sinners Charlie wants to reach and all their pain and complexity. He is also linked to fear and the unknown. He is the ally she finds by herself. He is the found family Charlie chooses.
Lucifer represents the angels Charlie wants to communicate with. He is also linked to dreams and ideals. He is the legacy she inherits. He is the biological family Charlie wants to re-connect with.
In short, they are both parts of who Charlie is and she needs them to grow into herself. Just like they need her to mature and find redemption and happiness.
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marsprincess889 · 8 months
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JYESHTA
The battle, the loneliness and the cost of victory
Mercury ruled, Mars's sign.
A very lonely nakshatra indeed. Jyeshta means "the eldest" and it's also known as "the best". But what does that all mean?
To understand Jyeshta, we have to remember that it's fully in the sign of Scorpio. The previous nakshatra- Anuradha, also fully in Scorpio, is its yoni consort. Scorpio is the natural ruler of the 8th house of death, transformation and the occult. It's shrouded in secrecy, yet Jyeshta nakshatra still manages to be one of the most notorious lunar mansions.
Jyeshta's symbol is a round protective talisman or an umbrella. It's ruling deity is Indra- the lightning god and the king of the gods, who is covered in eyes and thus sees everything. The goddess associated with Jyeshta is Dhumavati- an old hag who's always hungry. Jyeshta natives are known for their success in the material realm, but little do most know that there's a lot more to it than that.
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We begin the story of Jyeshta with a somewhat outcasted underdog. They're not that understood, they are independent by nature, and most importantly, they do not trust a soul. Why so defensive, some might ask, but that's the eyes from which Jyeshtas see the world. Despite humble begginings, they're usually not pitied or treated as a victim. Since they do not like asking for help, they rarely get it, and honestly, that's the way they like it.
The underdog enters the world stage, immideately attracting attention because they do not follow anyone else's rules, but rather- their own. They have their uniqueness that protects them. Combat by combat, they defeat each and every one of their opponents and soon are seen as a new threat. With that comes jealousy, with jealousy comes resentment and/or respect. With all that comes fear. Jyeshta's power is "to rise, conquer and gain courage in battle". The battle is life, but what does it mean to rise and conquer? How does one outsmart their opponents? The answer is you simply do not fight them.
When you view someone as an opponent you automatically set yourself up for losing. The opponents are equals but since you're an individual and since you know that you can't trust anyone but yourself, why would you play by their rules? Why would you equate yourself to them? Jyeshtas honor their own uniquness by protecting their energy (mercury rulership, very similar to Ashlesha) and learning their lesson from the previous mercury-ruled nakshatra- Ashlesha, they only engage in a fight with worthy opponents. Jyeshtas know they're only one worthy opponent for them and that's themselves. So, they just work on being better and better, not getting distracted by petty and unimportant squabbles, literally rising above the unnessecary conflict and thus conquering everything they rose above.
But is success all there is to life? Jyeshta is the survivor, always thinking about the next step and enjoying the independence despite being so widely disliked because of their difference, because of their uniqueness and success. Sure, they're content being themselves, but as natural loners they struggle with emotional intelligence, hence their reputation as insensitive jerks for masculine people or rude bitches for feminine people.
A Jyeshta story- The Queen's Gambit
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I want to analyze a fictional Jyeshta story that has been brought to life on screen- The Queen's Gambit. The writer of the novel - Walter Tevis had Ketu in Jyeshta nakshatra. Ketu represents your stored primal creative energy, past lives, the past in general, the father's lineage and a person's daemon. A daemon is basically the opposite sex version of you who is the personification of your creative and sexual energy. Walter Tevis wrote about the archetype of a Jyeshta woman, making her the protagonist of his story. Considering that I haven't read the book, I'll analyze the Netflix series that it inspired.
Chess overall is a very Jyeshta game. It's a competitive sport but it requires concentration, intelligence, discipline, talent and skill. If you make one miscalculation, then you're lost.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Our protagonist, Beth Harmon, begins as an 8 year old girl who lost her mother and was taken to an orphanage. There she never looked at elders the same way that others did, having a critical mind and an independence and uniqueness to her that set her apart from others from an early age. She was exceptionally good at maths and unusually so, considering her age. One day, she goes into the basement and finds the custodian_ Mr. Shaibel playing chess with himself. She's immideately drawn to the game and doesn't leave him alone until he explains the rules. Since then, she's hooked.
She eventually leaves the orphanage, getting adopted by a childless couple at 15. She already thinks like an adult and treats her new mother's authority like it's nothing and she's not really challenged in that. Jyeshta is the stage where you're the authority, you're the only one who's responsible for yourself, you're the eldest, the wisest and that energy makes others want to depend on you in one way or another. It's where you find the strength in yourself to make everyone else submit. So, Beth started to earn money by playing chess. It's important to note that her new mother had a drinking problem and despite that, Beth didn't drink herself before she thought she deserved it. Only after achieving some success does she slowly start getting addicted to substances, her addiction increasing as her success grew bigger.
Being the best in the game was not exactly easy for Beth, as she struggled with her love life. Jyeshtas are often not concerned with the emotional aspect of life, despite having a certain sensuality to themselves. They're naturally closed off and because of that many people find them mysterious. They won't hesitate to to attack anyone though, but their every move is calculated and planned.
Beth was bullied at school and that's a common Jyeshta theme (see my The Princess Diaries post) but she never paid any attention to it and later we see the mean girl she was at school with living a completely different life than her- the one that she would not want. The scene perfectly captures the difference between the Jyeshta archetype and the masses. Jyeshta is focused on winning, defeating themselves and by that defeating their opponents so they have little time for anything else. In contrast, her high school classmate was married and with a child, living a typical suburban American life.
In another scene, we see her success and loneliness turn to arrogance and rudeness as she encounters and old opponent, friend and ex-lover who was living a simple life and showed his contentment with that. That shows a more negative and quite a sad side of the Jyeshta archetype.
She hits rock bottom, starts to lose her focus and at the last minute, when she has no money to fly to Moscow for the tournament, a helping hand comes in. We'll get into why she accepts that help.
Her helper was her childhood friend from the orphanage_ Jolene, who was snarky and honest to her from the start. It's very telling that she was Beth's first friend. Jyeshta is a full-circle moment, it's the growing into your own power after you've defeated your past self, after you've managed to move on from past pains. When Beth had had closure with Jolene and after attending Mr. Shaibel's funeral, she goes into the orphanage and enters the basement. She sees how he had all the newspaper pages about Beth taped to the wall. Beth breaks down and cries. After confronting the core part of herself, she accepts help from Jolene because she's already healed that part of herself, so she'll have no unwelcome ties with Jolene, only the one she chose. She's conquered herself from that time and now is free to rule it. The only thing that was left to do was to go out there and be herself, because after you defeat yourself, there's truly no one else to defeat.
She defeats the Soviet champion and and makes peace with all parts of herself. When she's about to leave Moscow Beth gets out of the car and takes a walk, truly enjoying life. With the war with herself behind, she remembered why she's so good at chess, because she truly loves it so much. She enjoyed the competition and the tension, she loved the battle. There was no reason not to, not when she was unafraid of being who she was. After all these combats, she realized that there was only one real enemy-herself, and defeating that enemy requires bravery, the strength to bear the hardship and skill, a lot of skill to survive and all of that based on cunning.
When you realize that, the world is your oyster. It's all a game, and it's your game, you're alone.
She sees a big group of old men playing chess with each other in a park. Beth stops by, and the men, recognizing her, invite her to play. Beth sits down, smiling, knowing they'll both enjoy the game she takes her gloves off and says...
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If you liked this PLEASE like, comment or reblog, or even message me. If you have jyeshta or if you know them or if you like The Queen's Gambit, definitely let me know what you think. This was a bit stressful, considering my ketu is in jyeshta and it was not easy to dig into the deepest parts of myself. This series came out while i was going through a ketu antardasha that shook me to the core and it spoke to me so much. Anyways, thanks for reading, love you and take care 🤍.
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nayatarot777 · 1 year
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{who’s secretly trying to compete with you?} • pac
spirit told me to do this reading so there must be some shady bitches around my collective. let’s expose them 🙃
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• pile one •
cards:
{tarot}
5 of wands
3 of coins
the high priestess
{oracle}
sadness - “allow yourself the space to feel miserable. mourn what has been lost or what cannot be. if you don’t take the time now, your sadness will catch up with you later when you’re least expecting it.”
faith - “loving and then letting go is not only one of the most challenging things we can do, it’s also the bravest. take big deep breaths and know this is right.”
the dragonfly - “be light-hearted, finding out, things coming to light, adapt, change, heal”
heart with a key - “welcoming love, meeting the one, open your heart, getting together, perfect”
since the five of wands came out, this person is definitely competing with you and the high priestess indicates major secrecy on this person’s part. you could’ve gotten into conflict with this person in the past. they do not want you to know what they’re truly thinking and feeling. i’m hearing that they’re afraid of you finding out. this could be someone who you work with - a coworker or someone who does the same type of work or hobby that you do - however, you do this 10x better. they see you as major competition to the point where your progress and your success with whatever this is could be making them so angry and so upset. they’re actually sad that they can’t compete with you because the high priestess is a card about unattainability. they cannot attain your throne. they cannot attain being on the same level as you and they’re mad. big mad. i’m seeing a sickle and this is representative of this person wanting to cut you down. whatever they create or develop, it’s nowhere near as good of a quality as your creations, and I feel like this person could actually be planning or trying to sabotage you. if this is a work situation then i’m hearing that you are highly favoured above them. thanks to your quality of work. i’m also hearing that they’re angry and confused about how you’re even doing what you’re doing. they feel like you know some type of secret knowledge or something that they just don’t know. for some of you, this person could have requested to collaborate with you but you rejected the request for whatever reason. maybe you’re focusing on your own thing or maybe you just didn’t wanna work with this person. it’s almost like you rejecting the request to collaborate or to teach this person some type of valuable skills that they wanted to learn from you has turned you into competition and an enemy - in this person’s mind. if you guys work as tarot readers, astrologers, mystics, witches, or practitioners of any sort, this is another practitioner or another tarot reader, or another mystic. this person - especially if they’re a witch or a mystic - is so upset about some type of negative energy or blockages that they tried to send your way not affecting you. it’s like it doesn’t even affect you at all. they feel weak compared to you.
the “heart with a key” oracle card is just confirming that this person is so sad and upset that they could not collaborate with you because the key phrase “getting together” is sticking out to me. they couldn’t work with you or learn from you and this has them so triggered. the dragonfly card is confirming that this person will be exposed. this will come to light. this could be someone who you feel like you actually get along with, someone who you have basic respect for, or someone who you just feel like you could be cool with. this person is very unhealed and envious. this person could be very easily upset and triggered. they could handle rejection so badly. they don’t know how to handle any sense of rejection or perceived rejection. maybe you guys didn’t even outright reject this person because i’m seeing that for a lot of you, this is someone that you feel like you’re cool with. so if you did reject this person directly, it must’ve been for a good reason. perhaps for a reason completely unrelated to them, but they’re salty. they have some type of weird entitlement to your time and your skill and your energy and what you can teach them - it’s really weird. if this person is a mystic or a psychic in any way, they’re upset that your faith in spirit is clearly stronger than their’s. they could be upset about your manifestations. they’re also upset that you clearly have faith in yourself to even create whatever you’re creating because i’m hearing that the lack of quality in their work is because they don’t even have confidence in what they’re doing. this could be someone who’s trying to copy something that you’re doing but failing miserably. they could be a fake tarot reader, a fake mystic, etc. and because of that, their shit ain’t popping. and you’re at fault for that? crazy🙃😂
advice from spirit is just to take this as light-hearted as you possibly can. when you do find out who this is, do not stress. don’t worry. have faith that you will meet people who will replace this person who are actually rooting for you instead of secretly competing with you. with this “faith” card, i’m hearing that this person is not meant to be around you clearly since they don’t operate by faith. they operate with envy and insecurity so…fuck them 🤷🏾‍♀️
• pile two •
tw: very brief mention of abuse
cards:
{tarot}
7 of swords
10 of cups
temperance
{oracle}
worthwhile - “life is not about being taught a lesson for getting something wrong - it’s about having an experience that adds richness to your life”
sadness - “allow yourself the space to feel miserable. mourn what has been lost or what cannot be. if you don’t take the time now, your sadness will catch up with you later when you’re least expecting it.”
^^*this card also came out in pile one
karmic relationship - fleeting, triggers, turmoil, resentment, lessons, letting go and loving you
ascending - transcending obstacles, learning, expansion, new phase, preparing for union
pile two, this is someone who is salty that you’ve finished learning whatever lessons you needed to with them. they’re salty that you’re moving past challenges (that you’ve probably faced because of them) and now they’re resenting you because you decided to move forward with your life. with the karmic relationship card, I feel like for many of you, this is an ex or an ex dating partner. this definitely could be a friendship too though, because karmic relationships aren’t just romantic. you can have a karmic relationship with anyone in your life tbh, but this is someone who triggered you a lot. there was a lot of pain - maybe even trauma - I heard “abuse” so this could be somebody who abused you. so now that you’ve learned the lessons that you needed to with them, and it seems like you’ve ascended onto the next stage of your life, you’ve gained a lot of peace with this temperance card. and with the seven of swords, this person wants to come and disturb your peace or whatever dream life that you are living. because a lot of you are living a very emotionally fulfilled life. this person cannot let go of you although they hold a lot of resentment towards you. they haven’t learned the lessons that they needed to learn which is why they’re stuck in the same place that you left them in - especially mentally. I also just heard that this person is fake as fuck. they will try to portray themselves as being peaceful with you - supposedly wanting nothing but good things for you, despite the fact that you’re no longer friends or in a relationship or in contact with them as a family member, or whoever this is - when secretly I feel like they’re wanting to bait you with something. or trick you with something. this person pretends to be more mature than they actually are, and that could be the reason why they’re trying to portray themselves as unbothered when they are the complete opposite. they are completely bothered about the fact that they feel like you’ve reached new levels in your life, while they’re stuck in the same place.
i’m also hearing that this person in general just does not learn lessons. this person could be a perpetual victim when things go wrong. they don’t try to think to themselves “okay, how can i improve this situation and what can I learn from it?”. instead they keep themselves in a victim complex. this person could always be sad. they could always be crying. but not actually helping themselves. this is someone who tried to keep you stuck in between a rock and a hard place with them. they could have coerced you or tried to “subtly push” you into something with them. and I’m also hearing that they wanted to steal your dreams. maybe this is an ex-friend or an ex, or someone else in your life from the past who felt like if they stuck around you, they could benefit from your peace. from your emotional abundance. from all of the abundance that you’ve acquired for yourself because you actually listen to spirit. you actually listen to your intuition and you actually learn the lessons that you need to learn. this person doesn’t. you could have seen this person go through a bunch of karmic relationships themselves, and the reason why they’re stuck in karmic cycles is - again - they don’t learn their lessons. this person just gives me very victim complex, lack-of-common-sense energy with this 10 of cups being here. this person could be delusional in many ways, this person could also lie about the way that they feel - going back to the message of them trying to appear more mature than they actually are. so they’re trying to act like they’re not bothered when that’s not the truth.
this could’ve been someone who kept you in a lots of sadness or they were energetically vampiric. they drained your energy and you may feel like you’ve wasted your time with this person. however, spirit would like to tell you that nothing can be a waste of time. you learn from any experience that you can so you guys also need to let yourself feel upset about whatever this person put you through. you may not want to dwell on the past, especially since your life is changing for the better, but you need to let yourself feel. I’m also feeling a lot of anger, so maybe you guys aren’t even feeling sadness at this point. I mean, anger is always a secondary emotion to a primary one. let yourself feel the anger first so that you can reach the sadness and eventually process that too, but just know that you’re on a higher level - a much higher level - than this person. you don’t really need to do anything to protect yourself. I feel like you’re so above them that they can’t even reach you. and i’m feeling like a lot of you don’t even speak to this person anymore, but they’re still bothered by you. still trying to compete with you because they see how you’re making moves in your life while they’re not doing shit with their own. know that you are worthwhile. remember to not spend your energy on someone like this again. this person with the seven of swords could also be a liar and you know that, even if they didn’t admit to their lies. even if you don’t have proof of them lying. you’re intuitive enough to know. the best advice that you’re guides are giving you is just to keep on doing what you’re doing and make sure that you process emotions. do not let them build up. especially negative ones because they will eventually come out in one big explosion if you do. I hope that this helped, pile two.
• pile three •
cards:
{tarot}
8 of wands
the sun
the world
{oracle}
richness - “search further. the deeper you explore this issue, the more truth you will find. it will be well worth the effort.”
discretion - “friendships are fantastic when there is equality in the relationship. maybe it’s time to undertake a quick audit of your friendships to ensure they’re reciprocal.”
the grim reaper - “the relationship is over, no second chances, grow and transform your life”
the butterfly - “relationship evolving to the next phase, healing the inner child, growth”
just to give some personality traits of this person: this person could be someone who is very impulsive. i’m also hearing that they’re very destructive for no logical reason. they could be very egotistical. this person might want to be put up on a pedestal and be revered as an idol of some sort or this person is just constantly wanting to be in the spotlight, in some way. this person could be very self focused, and with the world card, I feel like you’ve completed a cycle with this person. they could be very extroverted (seemingly) and I’m hearing that they have a very strong ego. they’re prideful. this could also be someone who is closing out a cycle in their own personal life. perhaps when it comes to money or career. for a lot of you, this was a friend that did not give you the same energy that you gave them and that definitely supports the selfish energy that i’m picking up from this person. The Grim Reaper is here as well. yeah, this person knows that your connection with them is completely over. they know that there’s no second chances with you. they know that you’re all about growth and changing the things in your life that you don’t like, especially when it comes to friendships, relationships, people that you keep yourself around, so this person knows that you’re not gonna give them a second chance. but with the butterfly card, I’m hearing that they want this connection to evolve. they want to spark it back up but obviously you’re not letting them - whether they’ve asked to come back or not. they know that you would not wanna give them a second chance. i’m also hearing that you shattered their illusion of themself. perhaps they’re just lacking so much self-awareness that they didn’t realise just how selfish they were. and I feel like you were the one to just directly communicate with this person what they were doing and how unfair their behaviour or expectations were. the eight of wands is about very fast, direct communication and considering it’s before the Sun card, I feel like this was communication about their ego. something to do with them being egotistical and only focusing on themselves. i’m hearing that you stood up for yourself for the first time to this person.
this person is very wishy-washy because I’m seeing that they could’ve been the one to end this friendship or this connection because of the fact that you stood up for yourself and put in boundaries and demanded more freedom from this person, but they’re secretly wanting to come back. that could be another reason why this person hasn’t reached out for a lot of you. because they’re the ones who ended this connection or this friendship because their ego was bruised, but clearly you’re the one who was healing this person in some way. and helping them grow. now that you’re gone, they’re stagnant. you could have really questioned this person as well, and they did not like that. you were digging too deep for their liking. you were seeing who they truly were for the first time, and letting it be known. you used your discernment. the reason why they’re competing with you is because if they’ve cut you off from a group of people or certain communities or places, they wanna appear to be better than you to these people/places. and I feel like this is because you’ve seen the mask slip and you see who they actually are as a person. it’s something to do with who they truly are being exposed to people and I feel like, again, if you had mutual friends or mutual connections, it’s like they’re trying to compete with you because they wanna convince people that you’re the problem and not them. and that they’re better than you. because I feel like there are mutual people who still hold you in high regard, so they’re trying to “take your place” when you’re not even around. even though you’re not around them, the mutuals that you have are still favouring you. that bothers them to the fullest extent. this person is also trying to compete with your confidence. you guys are naturally confident people (or at least you’re perceived that way). you guys are naturally direct, blunt people. and this person could be trying to compete with that type of personality trait that you have. but it’s coming across as being big-headed and rude and bitchy. because this is not truly them. clearly they’re someone who doesn’t show people who they truly are so as soon as someone sees beneath the mask they have to put on a front. this person plays a character and they’re trying to gain the love, the recognition, the support, and the admiration that you have from other people because they feel like if they do, they’ll be abundant in someway - just like the way that they perceive you. they’ll be abundant in attention. I’m hearing a lot of people talk about you behind your back, but any mutuals that you have with this person who talk about you behind your back talk about nothing but positive (or most of them do at least) and they don’t like that. I’m hearing that they feel like you’re untouchable in a way and that they want to take your spot. they want to be favoured in the same way that you are. this person might not like you getting any type of attention, recognition or shine. for a lot of you, they’re competing with you by changing their physical appearance, but that just shows me how stupid this person is. because the people favour you because of your personality which they’ve tried to copy (but failed to successfully do) so now they’re thinking “if I just look better than this person, people will like me better”. that shows me everything that I need to know about this person. this person is superficial, they could focus on the most super superficial things. they could be obsessed with their physical appearance while paying no attention to themselves internally which is why they’re so messed up. they’re trying to be “perfect” to outdo you, but it’s never gonna happen.
this person could have tried to blind you to a truth of a situation. but your spirit guides are saying that the more that you think back to the situation, the more you read into the actions of the things that they’ve said, their demeanour when they were confronted by you - just everything - the more truth you will find. this person was never a true friend or a true supporter. they just wanted to take from you. this person could’ve even copied you throughout this friendship or relationship. they don’t understand that the reason why people like you so much is for you, your personality, your mind - not because you pretend to be a fictional character like this person does. I hope that this resonated, pile three. thank you for reading :)
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mikachacha · 8 months
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𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝙸𝚜 𝙼𝚎 (𝙱𝚊𝚍𝚊 𝙻𝚎𝚎 𝚡 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛)
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Synopsis: You're Monika's little sister and you share the love for dancing like your older sister does so you decided to join team Bebe, wanting to prove to everyone and to yourself that you're not just Monika's shadow.
Warnings: a bit of angst because why not? but there's gonna be fluff 🫶🫶
(A/N: this request came from anon and it's hard not to do it because i can picture this in my head 😭 it's so good and im really hoping that i do this idea any justice)
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🌸💮🌸💮🌸💮🌸💮🌸💮🌸💮🌸💮🌸💮🌸💮🌸
You sighed heavily as you looked at Bada and your team. You're extremely nervous since you were invited as a team to join Street Woman Fighter 2, the same competition your older sister joined as well. You were supposed to join with your sister at the first season but the both of you ultimately decided against it. As Monika said, people would only see you as her copycat which is completely understandable to you got her permission to join another dance crew so you can further improve and make a name for yourself, not just because you are Shin Y/N, Monika's little sister.
"You good babe?" Bada snapped you out of your trance and you nodded, smiling at her. You and Bada had been friends for the longest time and when you officially joined Bebe, the both of you got even closer then started dating. Monika has been amazing and supported your relationship with Bada. She's just glad that her baby sister is being loved and treated well.
"Yeah.. Just nervous about what the other people are gonna say." you told her and she gave your hand a squeeze to ease your nerves. You hugged each team member, your own way of saying good luck and to ease your anxiety. When it was go time, you put on your resting bitch face and walked out with your team to the fight zone to meet the other competitors.
The things other groups has said about your team is infuriating. You know some comments were made just for the sake of the competition but damn, they hit all the wrong nerves and it pissed you off. You expected the comments like "Monika's shadow" directed to you and you didn't really care but when they were disregarding your other team member's efforts by calling Bebe nothing if it wasn't for you and Bada, you really wanted to start a fight. That's just downright mean.
When everyone has already settled down, you could feel some stares directed at you. You couldn't really blame them since it's like you're a carbon copy of Monika though you'd like to believe that you're the goofier sister but then the both of you are goof balls when together so it's hard to tell.
"She really is Monika's shadow.. Look at her joining Street Woman Fighter as well.." you heard hushed comments like that which made your brows furrow. You're now itching to prove them wrong, that you're your own person and not just your sister's shadow.
Bada also heard the comments and just subtly held your hand, assuring you that everything's gonna be okay and you'll definitely crush everyone who thinks that you're a shadow of your sister, that you're just a cheaper version of Monika.
When it was time to reveal who got the most 'no respect' in each team, you got the most but instead of getting angry, you grinned. It's time to show them what you're really made off. Everyone changed to more dance appropriate outfits and went back to the fight zone. Bada went in first against Redy which secured the first win for your team. When it was finally your turn, you looked at Bada and then your sister, who gave you an encouraging nod. Even being Monika's sister won't save you from her harsh words. She's fair when it comes to judging and isn't scared to hurt you with the truth as long as it means you're going to improve yourself.
You had a battle with at least one representative from other competing teams and there were times that you lost but it didn't put out the burning determination you felt to show them who Shin Y/N really is. You danced like your life depended on it and when it was finally over, you rushed back to your team and Bada immediately wrapped you in a hug along with your team members who's very much proud of you. The other teams were stunned to say the least. They didn't expect you to be that good. You're versatile as a dancer and has that unwavering determination in your eyes and it was then silently agreed on by everyone who doubted you that you are indeed your own person, not just Monika's sister. You are a force to be reckoned with.
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lonelyleliel · 9 months
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Venus and/or Mars in the 8th House Astro Observation
Mars in the 8th House
I recently learned that I have three people in my life who have their Mars in the 8th house and they all have a habit of asking others to use their resources (money, time, energy, possessions, etc.) to get what they want. Whether you want to call it manipulative or resourceful is up to you, but there is a persistence with this placement that is just...kind of insane. Depending on how developed the person is with this placement, they either won't take the hint that no means no or will start creating a power point presentation as to why you should give in to what they want from you. I'm not implying that these people always have malicious intents, but I am definitely saying that these people need to learn to respect boundaries. They'll plant an idea as to why you should do what they want you to do with your resources and will figure out what it takes to convince you even if it takes years.
Mars in the 8th house people have great leadership potential (or con man potential--I respect both lmao) if they remember to be real about what they want and why. The 8th house isn't just about material things and bonds with others, but also major transformations that reflect your inner truth. People with placements who become familiar with your sway over other people (likely those who have hard aspects with Mars, Mercury, and/or Saturn) are going to call you out on your shit and might give you an existential crisis. If you're using everyone else to get what you want, what exactly do you have to claim as your own? What can you claim as something you earned overtime? Do you care about your own achievements? Why or why not? Look in your 2nd house for a hint about that.
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Venus in the 8th house
Venus in the 8th house people like myself and a few other people I know seem to just get stuff. Where Mars in the 8th takes action to get what they want, Venus in the 8th people seem to be offered what they want and it can sometimes be from people they rarely even talk to. Is it manifestation? Is it charm? Hell if I know. I do know that Venusian energy has a strong aesthetic sway over whatever house it's in, so if you do express what you like and don't like to others, they may want to show (or tease/ridicule) your aesthetics by giving you things that remind them of you. Since the 8th house reflects your bonds/contracts/inheritance with others, someone who cares about you may give you things that represent how they see their relationship with you or what they trust you to take care of.
The trap I think we Venus in 8th house people fall into is expecting people to keep on giving or we may overthink how we need to act so we get more stuff. We won't directly ask for it or imply that we want it like Mars in 8th people, but we can get bratty and bitter if we receive something we didn't want and we may not even be honest about disliking that thing because we don't want to jeopardize the next opportunity of getting more stuff from that person in the future. If this is how people are communicating to us about how they see and value us, which can be either a beautiful or a hurtful gesture, our lesson here is to remember that our desires/aesthetics/identity need to be protected with firm boundaries and expressed with honesty. We must be honest with ourselves. Don't accept everything given to you and don't let what's given to you define you. Is the thrill of watching people try to figure you out more important than you understanding yourself? How do these exchanges reflect your character? Your 2nd house will prompt you to consider your personal values and how your view on materialism reflects your inner truth.
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Thanks for reading.
This astro observation was brought to you by someone who has a Mars (Cancer, 11th house, in Rx) square with Venus (Aries, 8th house) and is OVER this shit omfg lmao.
I'm on to you bitches!! I'm on to me too!!
I don't do many astro obs really, but I've been studying astrology for years (I don't read charts professionally. I study for divination and academic purposes) and the realization that I have quite a few people in my life with Mars in the 8th house who have been driving me crazy asking me for shit or taking my shit or shitting on my shit has blown my mind. Like, they won't take the fucking hint lol. Also had to call out my own sugar baby vibes. Flattery doesn't sway me anymore, but I like shit...and some of the Mars in the 8th house people KNOW I like shit. Shit is weird.
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welcometothejianghu · 5 months
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Welcome to another round of W2 Tells You What You Should See, where W2 (me) tries to sell you (you) on something you should be watching. Today's choice: 莲花楼/Mysterious Lotus Casebook
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Mysterious Lotus Casebook is a 2023 drama about a beautiful twunk who just wants to die of his chronic illness in peace, except that neither the dumbass purebred dog of a man who has decided they're best friends now nor the jock begging him for a rematch are going to let him go without a fight (in the latter's case, literally).
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Also they ride around in a magical bamboopunk RV.
I have referred to it elsewhere as "the CW presents: Nirvana in Fire," and I stand by that assessment. (I orginally called it Tiger Beat Nirvana in Fire, before realizing that Kids These Days will not get that reference. Shout out to the other elder millennials in the audience!)
There's been a lot of English-speaking fandom buzz about this show, to the point where if you're in these circles, I'm sure you've heard about it before. I know I had by the time I started watching -- which left me largely unprepared for the actual viewing experience, because the parts of the show that fans talk about are not a representative sample of the show itself.
This drama can be a good time. It's fun to watch. It has some hilarious beats and also some emotional moments. It spent its not-huge budget very smartly, and as such is generally quite lovely to look at. As my League of Nobleman rec will attest, I appreciate raw materials, and this is a show that has some fascinating raw materials.
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(Or some materials that need to get rawed, take your pick.) (Also, it's not my fault they didn't do a dramatically lit Fang Duobing shot so I could round out the trio here.)
You'll find some people out there who've gone real hard for this show, doing some deep analyses and getting really emotional over it. I don't want my gentle ribbing to give the impression that those silly fans are delusionally talking like the show's a five-star restaurant when it's really just a fast food joint. Not so! There's a reason it's captivated a whole lot of people! And in case you might be one of those, allow me to give you five reasons you should consider watching it.
1. This bitch
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The main character, Li Lianhua/Li Xiangyi is probably 50% of the show's appeal all by himself. He's fascinating. He's gender. He's fashion. He's been afflicted with a substance we called "bitch poison" the whole time we were watching. He has many emotions. He cries a lot. He coughs up blood every other episode. Cheng Yi is putting his whole lianhuassy into this performance, and it shows.
I made the Nirvana in Fire comparison earlier, and I stand by it for a lot of reasons, but the truth is that he's actually much more Opposite Day Mei Changsu: Li Lianhua wants all this stuff to fuck off and leave him alone forever. He is not seeking vengeance, nor does he particularly want to Do Schemes, but Circumstances keep dragging him back into the thick of all this nonsense he thought he left behind when he (mostly) died ten years ago.
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The thing is, he used to be a real dick back when he was a kid. And I mean a real dick. He was a dick to his chronically insecure adoptive older brother. He was a dick to his girlfriend with the personality of wet tissue paper. He was a dick to the handsome loser who liked his girlfriend. He was a dick to his followers. He was basically just a cocky little shithead who thought he was the best at everything -- and he actually was the best at everything, which just made it worse.
Li Xiangyi used to think everything (especially himself) was sooooo important, and now that life has massively kicked his ass, Li Lianhua had come around to the position that nothing is actually that important, so let's just all chill and grow vegetables. He doesn't want a rematch. He doesn't want to retake his rightful place as the head of anything. He just wants to pay his respects to the dead before he joins them.
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Now will everybody please just stop moving into his house.
2. goof-ass jianghu nonsense (affectionate)
As I mentioned earlier, everything I'd seen about the show on Tumblr had still left me absolutely unprepared for what a silly ride it is. Because it's silly. Hoo boy, is it silly. My wife dubbed it "lace front Phoenix Wright," just to give you a metric for how silly we're talking. Ace Detective Fang Duobing never cross-examined a parrot, but I feel he came close.
This show has some serious goof-ass jianghu nonsense -- you know, the sort of stuff that's impossible and ridiculous, except everybody’s going to treat it like it's just a normal part of existence. Here's a short and certainly inexhaustive list:
mind-controlling bugs
other bugs that control the mind-controlling bugs
ex-conjoined twins
a grown-ass man who can compress himself into bitchy third-grader
grave-robbing societies with secret brag language
so much nonconsensual qi-blocking performed by poking people in the boobs, that can't be safe, everybody wear thicker shirts
magical crossdressing powers
a bad guy who looks like this
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a princess who can get abducted and sex-trafficked and, like, nobody really notices? huh.
healing childhood paralysis by the power of believing in yourself
a ... hallucination pit? what was that, anyway?
so. many. mechanisms.
the equivalent of the "he's only mostly dead" business from the Princess Bride
a gradually lethal bookshelf
the strange amnesia everyone suffers from where a dude can cover maybe 30% of his face and render himself immediately unrecognizable to long-time friends and associates
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The thing is: I think this goof-ass jianghu nonsense is a legitimate selling point. I found it so fun. I turned off my need for show elements to obey little things like the laws of physics, and I had a good time. It can be a very funny drama, in part because it knows how silly a lot of its shit is, and it chooses to go full speed ahead with a sincere heart. If you are down for some shounen absurdity, you are in for a treat.
However:
2.2. goof-ass jianghu nonsense (derogatory)
I'm granting myself a sub-point here, because this is an important qualifier for the previous point.
I'm going to assume, based on what I've seen from fan responses, that many of the people who really like this show actually don't like the goof-ass jianghu nonsense. They are here for the BL vibes (after all, there are three cute boys who alll have some intense emotions about one another), and therefore downplay all the parts that aren't that. I want to make it clear that this is not a bad thing to do. There are many, many properties where I myself fixate on a single element and toss the rest into the sea. No judgment here.
However, since this is a post written to convine you to watch something, I want to make it clear what you're going to get if you dive in. If you're one of those people who skips scenes and/or entire episodes when your ship of choice isn't onscreen, you're probably going to be doing that a lot here. (I mean, I can't imagine doing this, but Tumblr has taught me that fandom is a rich tapestry.) The bones are good, but the connective tissue can be questionable.
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The main thing I wish I'd known before starting is that the mysteries are not the selling point. They are the celery that gets the cute boy peanut butter to your mouth. You, the viewer, absolutely cannot solve them; you're never given enough context or information to keep up with the detective lads, much less get ahead of them. Everyone does everything in the most convoluted way possible, to the point of comic absurdity. Finding out whodunnit is rarely that satisfying, because too often the culprit is Jianghu Steve, You Know, That Guy Over There With The Superpower The Characters All Know About But You'd Never Heard Of Before Thirty Seconds Ago.
The goof-ass jianghu nonsense feels like the place where the show I see fans talking about least lines up with the show that actually exists. And I think that's a shame, because I think the show that actually exists is actually a good time! It's just, you know ... silly.
3. Whenever Di Feisheng's not onscreen, all the other characters should be asking, 'Where's Di Feisheng?
This drama gets sold like it's the adventures of three guys together. (Hell, I kind of did it myself in the intro.) This is not the case. This is the tale of two guys who do most of the plot stuff near one another, and their occasional third, Di Feisheng.
This is a 40-episode series and I swear this guy's onscreen for maybe 15% of the time -- and for half of that, he's just off doing his own thing anyway. He disappears entirely for huge chunks of the series, which is a crime, because he is my absolute favorite.
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He is the rare grumpy himbo. He doesn't just have resting bitchface, he has bitchface for all occasions. He somehow has bitchface even during the rare moments he actually smiles. He's got a whole traumatic backstory, but the traumatic backstory is not the reason for the bitchface. He's Just Like That.
(Important to note that the actor himself only slightly has a resting bitchface. Xiao Shunyao can look normal and indeed quite pleasant. He has simply leaned into it real hard for this grouch.)
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The one -- one -- reason I can accept his being gone for so ding-dang much of the show is how often he re-emerges with perfect, hilarious timing. Thank goodness the show realizes how much comedic potential his character has, because his unexpected entrances are some of the best laugh-out-loud moments of the series. If the show had taken Di Feisheng as seriously as Di Feisheng takes himself, he would have been unbearable. As it is, he's an unmitigated delight.
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While you losers were being heterosexual, he studied the blade.
He makes the perfect foil for both Fang Duobing, who's the human equivalent of a puppy trying to gnaw an elephant to death, and Li Lianhua, who just wants to be excused from this narrative. Di Feisheng and Fang Duobing are basically two dogs fighting over their favorite toy, and their favorite toy is Li Lianhua, who really wishes he weren't. Some of the most compelling and fun moments of the series are when these three losers are all together.
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And these three losers are barely all together.
This show is Not Danmei. It's so Not Danmei that I had a tremendously difficult time while making this post finding either official images or screencaps with even two of them in frame at the same time, much less all three. It is, however, a Danmei Starter Kit. I mean, the tag on AO3 has, at present, 742 works in it (283 in English). That's just since July! There are years-old c-drama shows that have a fraction of that fan output! And I'm willing to bet a big reason why is how little the very intense boys with ridiculously compelling interpersonal dynamics actually interact onscreen.
But, I hear you asking, why would less of what the fans want equal more fan goo? Well, friends, that's exactly what the fan goo is for: filling in the blanks. And this here show has a lot of blanks. Look, I've made a very scientific diagram (that many people seem to agree with) about how this all works:
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The Hump of Compelling Mediocrity is the place where the amount of stuff worth thinking about far outpaces what the show actually contains of said stuff textually. It is the ideal location for imagination adventures.
Di Feisheng and Li Lianhua's relationship in particular lives right in the middle of that hump, what with the huge gaps in their backstory and all. They are a pair made entirely of unanswered questions. What the hell is going on there? What's their whole history, beyond the big fight? Why are they like this about one another? The show refuses to say. Whatever you imagine, you're correct. Now go tell AO3 about it.
interlude: God's perfect dipshit
I feel like I'm engaging in Fang Duobing erasure in the rest of this post, since he's not at the tip of any of the points I'm making, so I'm going to add a picture of him here, because I love him and want to pinch his perfect little cheeks.
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You know what I am shocked by? How the MLC/DMBJ reincarnation fics apparently have not taken hold yet. I give it another two months.
4. IT HAS A DOG
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FOX SPIRIT, MY SWEET BABY
'You mean the dog gets a whole selling point to himself' yes the dog gets a whole selling point to himself, because he is a very good dog and a very good boy (and his actor is a very good girl)
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Apparently he has a whole backstory in the novel that never gets included in the drama, including an explanation of why he's named "Fox Spirit," if you feel like going and reading up on that.
Sadly, Fox Spirit is in the show even less than Di Feisheng is, and that is a crime, because he could have solved all these silly human mysteries in thirty minutes flat, Wishbone-style.
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Dogs are so good.
5. One bad, bad girl
Do you like an unhinged villainess? Someone who's been sucking down Crazy Juice since beat one? Because oh boy, this show's got one of those for you.
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Jiao Liqiao wants two things: to rule the world, and to make Di Feisheng her pretty little housewife. And whomst among us does not understand these two impulses?
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She's not even the Big Bad! She's mostly just Di Feisheng's personal nightmare. She is the type of woman for whom the phrase "he's just not that into you" was coined. You've got everyone around her telling her, honey, I don't even think I've ever seen him look at a pair of breasts, while she's already planned their whole wedding menu and reserved the venue.
She has spent the last ten years of Di Feisheng's extended vacation making sure she's the one who's actually in charge, functioning as the point person for all the other evil schemes going on. Instead of handing over the reins upon her himbo boss' return, she's just going to keep doing what she's good at. As long as he keeps doing exactly what she wants him to do, she's gonna let him do it. If he gets out of line, well, there's always Plan B (the B stands for Breaking all of his tendons and making the world's surliest RealDoll).
I love the fact that she's so obviously evil, and he can't see it. To a certain point, it's not his fault -- everyone who serves under him is pretty obviously evil, so that doesn't make her special. But she's real evil even above and beyond that, and his dumb ass can't stop thinking about Li Lianhua long enough to notice any of the hundred or so knives she's aimed right at his back. He's so uninterested in her constant advances that he doesn't register how wanting to fuck someone and wanting to overthrow someone are not mutually exclusive desires.
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(Was I bothered throughout most of the series by how her lipstick should be a little more crimson and a little less coral? Yes, but I'm not going to hold it against her. She's busy doing evil stuff. She'll get over to the nearest Jianghu Sephora and restock one of these days.)
While the show occasionally sidelines or straight-up forgets about a lot of its supporting characters for several episodes at a time, it never forgets to check in on what Jiao Liqiao's up to. Claws out, hair done, she is at all times a constant glorious, scenery-chewing menace with excellent taste in terrible men. Absolute legend.
Bonus: These two sluts
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They don't get to be a full point because they're not nearly in the show enough, but just look at them. This is peak male character design. Slutty undone hair and slutty bare forearms, be still my bisexual heart.
Going to give it a try?
iQiyi's got you exclusively, baby.
Have I sounded a little defensive in this rec? Yeah, probably. It's just that I know there's a big and pretty intense fandom out there for this already, and I feel like a jerk coming in and being like "sure, it's fun!" when people are posting about how it made them cry for weeks. I want to be clear that that's not a bad reaction to have, while at the same time also being clear that that's not the reaction I had.
I might not even have written this rec, had I not been nudged to -- not because I don't think it's worth watching (I clearly do!), but because I don't know how much help it needs from the likes of me. There are plenty of other evangelists out there that'll give much more enthusiastic recommendations (like this one).
But the truth is that not every show has to be a heartbreaking work of staggering genius to everyone. I watched the show, and I liked it, and I had a normal time.
I also think there's something to the way I watched it, which was: one episode per day, schedule permitting, such that it took nearly two months for me to finish it. (And before you think I singled MLC out for this, this is actually how I watch most c-dramas.) I bet binging it is a way different experience, one where what rises more readily to the top is the tragic throughline of Li Lianhua's whole deal. If you're inclined to skip things not immediately germane to your points of interest, this is definitely the show to take at a solid run.
I actually paused in the middle of making this rec and made the one for the Blood of Youth, because the two invite comparisons: jianghu tales with chronically ill protagonists, some imperial bullshit going on, pretty boys with swords being weird about one another. Mysterious Lotus Casebook did not grab me as hard as the Blood of Youth, because MLC went for a more understated take on all its nonsense, instead of shooting completely over the top, which is how I prefer my nonsense (as the record will show). If you take your silliness with a subtler flavor, this could be the perfect thing for you.
Maybe you'll wind up being one of those people who gets their whole insides totally ripped out by this drama! But even if you don't, you're probably going to have a good time watching it anyway. And really, what more can you ask for from a show than that?
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Peace, nerds.
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beskarandblasters · 6 months
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Hi everyone!! Erin and I compiled all the fics that were submitted into one big list and split the reading! So if you don’t see your fic here check out @perotovar’s post that will be coming soon! Also, for any multi chapter fics that were submitted we only read the first chapters for them! Thank you to everyone who submitted fics for this and made this celebration such a hit! If you’d like to see more events like this please let either Erin or myself know!
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@trulybetty Strings
What a strong start!! The part where he was dealing with his nightmare in his sleep was so heartbreaking. And the reader contemplating comforting him or respecting the boundaries of their relationship and minding her business was a struggle you really felt.
@pascalispretty Leading Blindly
Oh man love me some shy, submissive Din 🥵 And Canto Bight is the perfect place to put a brothel in Star Wars!!!
@chronically-ghosted Recovery Road
Wow, what a beautiful depiction of struggling with addiction and anxiety. As someone who suffers from anxiety myself (as I’m sure a lot of you guys do too!), I found myself really emphasizing with Dieter. Precious lil guy 🥺
@theywhowriteandknowthings Catch Me If You Can
This fic is such a good capture capture of the chase 🤌 The last chapter was posted as a part of Kinktober but if you want to find out just how Din and the Reader got there, read this!!! It’s going to take place on several Star Wars planets and as a Star Wars nerd that makes my heart happy
@ramblers-lets-get-ramblin The Clink
💳💳PRISON GUARD JAVI💳💳 What more do I need to say?!?!? No but fr this is not only extremely hot but also very very well done. Prison Guard Javi wasn’t something I knew I needed until Ang put it out 💅
@jenna-ortega Vertigo
The premise of this is so scandalous 🤭 I’m a sucker for infidelity fics for some reason so you know this just has a hold on me!!! And I love the warning “unpleasant!Joel” 🥵💀😭
@milla-frenchy Smack My Bitch Up
I’m a slut for rough sex and even though I’m not personally into anal I still really enjoyed this! A great take on Raider!Joel and Raider!Tommy 👀
@katiexpunk Reporting For Duty
THE PREMISE I’M SCREAMING and the smut was soooooo fucking hot. I love Air Marshal Peña!!! Something about joining the Mile High Club is just 🥵🥵
@dark-scape The Vagabond Gladiator
This is by far the most interesting and unique Joel AU I’ve ever seen. The world building in this is just great!!!
@novemberrain-writes Daggers to Dust
A MANDALORIAN WESTERN AU ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! I enjoyed this so much omfg!!!
@decembermidnight Ner Mircet'ad
First of all, two words: GLOVE KINK!! Love the Mando’a title, love dom!Din. Seriously what is there not to love about this!!
@soft-persephone Scattered Promises
“My name is Din, he whispered lowly in her face, and if I made a promise to never leave your side, I intend to keep it.” Oh my god!!! I love Din and the MC’s dynamic so much!!!
@nothoughtsjustmeds Tip Your Server
NOT THEM LOSING THE OSCAR 😭😭 I love wife!reader fics and this was seriously so sweet and hot at the same time!!
@scarerjh Love Machine
Dieter is so sweet and devoted in this!!! So fluffy and sweet it makes my heart explode!!!
@grogusmum Conversations with Dead People
This was so sad and impactful!! I just wanted them to get back together so bad!!!!
@marisferasiop Paklalat
This was such a treat, literally the group sex/polyamorous relationship of my DREAMS 😍😍
@idolatrybarbie The World Tipped On Its Side
(Chapter 1) I really love the characterization of the reader in this. Frankie as a stunt pilot is a really cool idea for him. And the reader is disabled, which is really refreshing to see that being represented here in this community🤍
@romana-after-dark Blessed Be The Fruit
If you like the Handmaid’s Tale and TLOU then boy do I have the fic for you!! The first chapter was so interesting and the world building was insane!! I’ve never watched or read Handmaid’s Tale and I was easily able to fall into this universe!
@ladamedusoif Visiting
One of the most well thought out Mr. Ben fics I’ve ever seen!! I love the ofc and I love that her age is relatively close to Ben’s!!
@chaithetics A Cinematic Lover
Dieter having a crush is so fucking cute!!! And I love chronic illness/pain representation here 🥺🤍
@aurorawritestoescape The Helping Hand
I love somnophilia!! This was so hot and I love the idea that Joel’s loud snoring keeps you from falling asleep at night 😭💀
@pimosworld Tango
Love the premise, loooove the TF boys being protective and of course, I love dom!Frankie + the aftercare 🥹
@beecastle Chocolate Cake
This was so cute!!! I love first meeting fics and there’s something so sweet and so normal about it happening at a grocery store! And of course I love dad!Frankie!!
@frenchiereading The Parents That Are Left
I don’t really have much to say about this besides the fact that the writing is beautiful. And that this is such an interesting premise!!!
@ohforficsake You Brought Me Poison Flowers
Fourth of July in Jackson?!?!?! Sign me UP!!! I love the title of the series. I love the first chapter title. I love the OFC! There’s so much to love about this!!
@healmydesires I Wanna Hear You Say My Name
I loved this so much!! I don’t typically read period sec fics but wow!! I started my period the day before I read this and now I have a whole new appreciation for fics like this!! The smut was so hot and I loved the dynamic between Joel and the reader!
@604to647 Lingerie
I have never read a modern AU for Din before and I have to say, this was so interesting and hot at the same time!!
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bellaaldamas · 15 days
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I just wanted to say, thank you and the other fans from this part of the GoW fandom.
In a place full of trolls and gamerbros who turn characters that they deem annoying into irredeemable, useless bitches (Freya, Angrboða) and characters they do like are reduced to either prize for someone (Thrúd, Sif and somehow, Freya again) or into their masculinity idol (Kratos, whom they only accept as the testosterone caricature godkiller and his development seen as creators turning him soft. This claim is at it's peak with Ragnarok, but it was there back in 2018 such as wanting Kratos to beat or even kill Atreus for "acting like a brat". What a horrible mindset!) - It's nice to have a side with people who are welcoming, creative and genuinely fun to interact with.
Your analyses - both fandom and in-game inputs - are a delight to read. They're beautifuly written, intelligent and well formulared, I always feel smarter after reading them.
Apologies if you prefer to discuss this in DMs, I wanted others to read this too.
I wish you a wonderful rest of your day/night 💛
Thank you so much for this message, this kind of feedback truly makes existing in this - and, admittedly, other fandoms - worth it. Your summary of my ramblings genuinely took me by surprise as I haven't been "conventionally" active in the fandom intentionally due to negative past experiences with other fandoms. Those occasional inputs I do come up with are mainly hastily written bursts in broken English.
I don't make a secret out of the fact that in my experience all fandoms, definitely not just Gow(R), are toxic to varying degrees due to trolls employing the very same tactic everywhere they go. For one, it's creating the illusion of dominance of their opinion in terms of quantity (as they have no arguments to back up their stance other than canon twisting nonsense they clearly realize that "quality" is not their strong suit). To attain that, they resort to a number of other tactics typically used by abusers both online and in real life.
As such, whenever trolls see intelligent and thoughtful people refuting their "points" they know they cannot come up with a single canon compliant rebuttal. Therefore they dog-pile in droves as to wear down the opponent who inevitably has to stop responding to them at some point. Because a logical person who dedicates time and thought to formulate an argument, fact checks and brings up evidence and quotes from the source material simply cannot withstand a wave of unhinged trolling coming at them left, right and center. They certainly cannot respond to each ridiculous one line statement of the trolls (such as the types of statements you bring up, in the vein of "Freya is a b1tch, she should've DyEd instead of He**d*all!!11!!") by typing out a thorough and researched response each time. As it would require not just spending hours on it but repeating themselves numerous times over.
The above behavior from trolls is what caused me personally a burnout from the fandom culture overall and led to my taking a distance. When I engage with people in online communities I tend to avoid blanket statements and try to always back up my points with examples from canon. Trolls don't need any of that and always dismiss those points or, at best, make it look like they acknowledge them (by quoting back). But instead of replying with canon facts they resort to Strawman Arguments or Ad Hominem.
In Gow(R) and other gaming fandoms there's also the matter of the trolls looking for "backup" in the form of big bloggers/reviewers who express, in some respects, a view of the plot and characters similar to them. Which trolls use as another "proof" their opinion is supposedly held by the majority. But the uncomfortable - for them and those reviewers - truth is that YouTube community (a cesspool of trolling as of now) represents hardly even 1 percentage of the general audience (one that pays actual money for the games). Which at most passively watches some of those videos, mainly when they have a click baiting title.
A prime example is that "viral" video with millions of views about Atreus supposedly "having a crush on Thrud". Looking at the comment section it becomes obvious that the people leaving humorous and lighthearted remarks don't take the video or the title statement seriously. Whereas the actual trolls who consider Atreus a "selfish little runt" (c) but somehow good enough to be a prize/reward for Thrud (whom they either sexualize or treat as their girlboss self insert); and who deny that Atreus and Angrboda is the only canon budding romance arc in the series are the same four or five people/nicknames. Who can be observed under other Atreus/Angrboda videos with their nonsense.
Furthermore, trolls actively participated in making the "Atreus and Thrud" piece viral in the comment section for at least one Atreus/Angrboda tribute video by mentioning the AT video and the amount of views it has. And openly insisting it somehow "proves that the fans want" Atreus and Thrud as a romantic arc for Atreus - the very same character they consider unworthy of being a secondary protagonist let alone becoming the main lead of the series or having his own spin off. But, as noted, they believe him to be acceptable enough to become a trophy man for their preferred girlboss.
That in turn brings us to another issue of male characters absolutely also being susceptible to objectification and being reduced to love interests and plot devices for female characters whom fandom minority treats as a part of their personal power fantasy. Atreus hating trolls originally didn't even deny they hated Angrboda "by association" with Atreus - thus even they initially admitted she was intended as his potential romantic partner by the narrative - because women to them are just men's extensions/accessories. But when they realized this argument makes it very easy to dismiss them for the bitter misogynists that they are they changed the tactic (also classic troll pattern) and started to distort canon in order to invent "arguments" to justify not just their Atreus hating but also their Angrboda hating stance.
To "warm up" they originally started calling Angrboda a "woke points character" which I cannot stress enough is utterly laughable when coming from Atreus/Thrud shippers. Because if there is a woke points or fan-service character in GowR it would be Thrud and Heimdall, respectively. They're the only ones who could be either removed entirely (Thrud) or replaced/have their screentime reduced to one or two scenes and the story would've been exactly the same. Thrud's Valkyrie aspirations have no influence on the plot whatsoever and are a complete filler. I'm saying this not because I dislike either of them but because it's an objective fact that smashes troll arguments flat.
Then there is the matter of the trolls being unable to stand the fact that interactions with Angrboda is Atreus's healthiest and most positive relationship in the story. It especially challenged them that Angrboda always valued Atreus's personal choices and didn't once question him (even when she disagreed with his train of action), his moral character or his right to take his own independent decisions (on the contrary, Thrud questioned his every move and deemed him untrustworthy the moment he made one, genuine mistake with Garm - and the trolls deemed it admirable because "finally someone put that little runt in place"; they don't actually ship Atreus and Thrud, they ship their own aggression and disdain towards Atreus projected onto Thrud).
Angrboda let Atreus exercise his agency (another troll nightmare as they cannot stand the very idea of Atreus having any) even when his actions went directly against her mother's words about the giant marbles or against the prophesy itself. That is, despite Angrboda considering the prophesy which killed both of her parents her lifeline. And believing that delivering said prophesy and the giant souls to Loki was her one and only mission in the existence full of loneliness (years of not speaking to another person, per Angrboda's own admission). As well as full of hard labor she had to engage in daily at a strikingly young age (purely out of love and sense of responsibility for every living thing in Ironwood) because there was no one around to help her (Atreus understandably expressed astonishment and admiration at that which Angrboda appreciated but - which is no less important - pointed out they're the same age; implying that she knows and acknowledges Atreus/Loki has gone through a lot himself and fared well). Even Angrboda's grandmother broke due to challenges that only made Angrboda more caring and compassionate.
Which is another point worth addressing about fandom culture because it tends to put down gentle and vulnerable girls and women as "unfeminist". Modern "feminism" has little to do with woman empowerment or rights and is a repackaged patriarchy that praises women/female characters as strong and independent only when they take the aggressor and conqueror mantle from a man.
Kratos fell a victim of a similar thinking on part of both the gamebro AND the "progressive" segment of the fandom. I realize Tumblr is not ready yet for that conversation, but masculinity is not inherently toxic and neither is femininity. What both gamebros and woke types cannot handle is that Kratos's development and Angrboda's character represent the type of masculinity and femininity, respectively, that isn't imposed on them by the sexist society but that is based completely on their free will and life experience. Moreover, Thrud is the one who was heavily influenced by the toxic environment she grew up in. Therefore considering her a "feminist icon" is both factually wrong and unwise (even if we discount her "treacherous ex wife" comment in regards to Freya because that was ALSO a part of Odin's toxic influence that she can now, hopefully, work through and move on from).
But the most delightful part is that none of those troll views and arguments have proven to matter at all. GowR developers went on to do literally every single thing trolls dreaded. Freya was not made into a "big bad b!tch who deserved to be killed by Kratos for being a less than perfect mother" (even though not only was Kratos the furthest thing from the father of the year in Gow18 but as you note, the very same people wouldn't object to physical violence against Atreus at his hands). Kratos continued to work towards healthier existence and carving a better path. Angrboda remained an emotionally mature, loving, caring and independent person with a potential of her relationship with Atreus going further in the following installments. Atreus is clearly set up to have his own spin off or remain a secondary protagonist or even become the main protagonist next game. That in and of itself is a prime example of how irrelevant trolls and their entitled demands are in the grand scheme of things.
That being said, as I always point out, we should keep in mind we cannot control media we consume, only our experience with it. A healthy emotional distance from it is the only way to avoid stress if/when the writers come up with decisions we might not like or find offensive. Mental well being should be our priority and media created by others should never define us.
Thank you again for this positive and inspiring message. Have a great and fulfilling time yourself <3
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13thdoctorposts · 2 months
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The fandom when Eccl*stone doesn't know shit about the show or watch it, is openly disdianful of it, has multiple accounts of being point-blank rude to fans at conventions, and downplays a possible accusation of sexual assault during filming by pre emptively claiming the woman is a bitch he wouldn't touch anyway: omg King <3333
The fandom when Jodie is open about not growing up a Whovian but having seen episodes here and there, clearly loves the show and it's themes and fans, takes representing the show seriously, talks about watching the show since filming, makes references to events she's watched and excitedly understands things like a reference to the cloister bell: fake fan, can't believe she'd disrespect real fans and the show like this, she isn't professional, [rape threats], [ignore her actively engaging with canon], [multiple people claim to 'subtly' interrogate her about canon at cons]
The fandom when G*twa refers to Doctors as being slutty and generally treats it unseriously: omg King <333
There is very clearly a bias against Jodie, and I cant see for any other reason than she's a woman. I'm not even talking about 13, or the writing, just the way people decided to treat her in comparison to the male actors.
With Jodie she's also of the age that, her core watching years for TV and movies as a kid are actually the wilderness years of Doctor Who when it wasn't on TV. She then started her career in 2006... at that age and point in her career she wasn't the core demographic that DW and RTD were going for, it's really not surprising she didn't have a lot of Doctor Who knowledge previous to getting the role.
However in the podcast with David Tennant in 2019 she says she started watching after she got the role but was feeling a little overwhelmed and was worried that she might accidentally imitate previous doctors so she asked Chibs if there was another way for her to get the information about the history and he put together a whole binder for her. And when Chibs told her about the timeless child revel she asked will this work with the canon of Doctor Who, so she clearly knew what the canon was and Chibs response was that it was his job to make it work with the canon... which it does, whether fans like it or not, he incredibly created a whole new backstory for the Doctor without changing anything we had seen on screen.
Jodie's love and care for the role and DW in general is so clear that people who want to have a go at her are clearly choosing to ignore the majority of the what she has said and instead chosen a couple things to spin and take out of context to use against her, and thats a shit thing to do.
What's even more shit is you would expect that from the right, but I've also seen people on the left who hate the show. These people happily talk a lot of smack about Jodie but since they like to yell at 13 era as not being progressive enough you would think they would at least treat Jodie with respect, but no. I guess they only care about the shows level of progressivism as a tool in condemn the show and not about their actual morals or how they actually treat people.
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lightwise · 1 month
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TBB S3 E12 Reaction
Alright, this was the last episode that was truly represented in the trailer. I can’t wait to see Hunter kick some Juggernaut butt (why does that sound so bad lol)
- Hemlock wipe that damn smirk off your face
- Again with the shoulder shoves dude
- No why is CX-2 just walking away? We need to follow him and find out who he is!! *low-key screaming in frustration* lol
- I love how Hemlock is so arrogantly confident and uncaring that he comes across as almost respectful in how he takes the time to explain things to other people
- Come on Emerie, you’ve come so far! Don’t keep playing into Hemlock’s hand! You know Omega isn’t safe here and neither are you
- Lol he’s too busy to even wait for the test results. Bitch
- I do wish they had given us Crosshair telling Hunter and Wrecker about Omega. BUT I was very much correct that Hunter would not waste time being angry
- Every time Crosshair says something more about Tantiss it just keeps getting worse and worse 🥺🥺 don’t make that man go back there! Dee’s vocal inflections and the way he talks about Nala Se and Tipoca City is so regretful
- The trust and vulnerability he’s willing to show though with his hand shaking and admitting he doesn’t want to go back he’s so traumatized 😭💔
- No WAY they are bringing back Admiral Rampart! Kudos to those who called that one
- PHEEEE and AZZZZ
- Cross goes from pointing his rifle in Phee’s face to straight up telling her they’re taking her ship 🤣
- Okay, it finally happened. I finally teared up. Phee and Crosshair immediately sass each other, then she drops the fact that she and Tech were close and talked a lot and he TOLD HER ABOUT CROSSHAIR (and in a good light) and we got a BROWN EYES 👁️ 👄 👁️. I was in a puddle on the floor 🥹🥹🥹
- The way she treats all of them like family and helps them and puts her life on the line for them. It is just so satisfying to see her relationship with the Batch continue to develop like this. Truly family to all of them.
- More Andor vibes with this labor camp
- Of course Rampart is still a dramatic bitchy asshole. Prison hasn’t changed him AT ALL (except for the beard. Sorry guys but I’m just not seeing it 😆)
- Aw Wrecker giving Mel a little pat. He’s so sweet
- “Oh relax. I expect you to know a stealth approach when you see one” 🤩🤩 TECH you need to come back and marry this woman RIGHT FREAKING NOW
- Gosh they were so made for each other 😭
- That entire maneuver was insane and incredible
- Hunter’s helmet float 😄 at least one of them was having fun
- As others have pointed out I also really appreciate that they animated Phee with so much aging and tiredness and lines and wrinkles showing on her face. She’s a real woman who’s seen and done a lot of things and she’s incredibly gorgeous and badass and caring and intelligent and she doesn’t need perfect skin or a youthful glow to be completely amazing
- When are we getting the “day in the life of a storm trooper” workplace comedy? I need it Star Wars!
- It’s so good to see the boys working together like this
- The textures and lighting in this episode are just so real looking
- Wow Wrecker really just sucker punched that guy
- And he actually remembers plan 55 😁 so proud of him
- The music when they saunter in 😂 and we got a “how touching” too?!
- Rampart’s face is in the dictionary next to the word offended
- “Hunter, they’re sealing off the bridge!” Hunter: drives faster
- And he was giving Phee a hard time for her flying?? Boy is approaching Evel Knievel levels!!
- I need to see Hunter in a dirt bike rally now 😧
- Pretty sure Hunter is firmly in his Joel Miller Era. He does not care what he has to do or who he has to kill at this point
- “Not exactly a stealth exit boys” such a great line
- “We’re all in this together” sure Rampart sure let’s see how chipper you are about that next episode
- Emerie and Omega’s glances at each other 🥺
- “This is your new home” yeahhh I don’t think so
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28dayslater · 1 year
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good evening to you all and welcome to cockmojo where tonight we will be counting down my personal top ten terror cocks
those unaffiliated with footyblr may be unfamiliar with the term cock as it’s being used here: all will become clear in time
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special mention before we start to the netsilik hunter (sexy man, deserved a name and some screentime) james clark ross but only in the first episode when he’s all rugged and his beard’s grown out, and mr blanky, who, much like knife dad, fuccs like a broken train but he runs on time if you know what i mean
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in a very respectable tenth place finish, billy gibson. i didn’t see the vision until 1. it was pointed out to me that he looks a lot like pau torres, who is himself very cockable, and 2. i rewatched the scene where he breaks up with hickey. known shagger, massive hater, a very pointy nose, he’s scraped a place on this list.
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a surprise entry at ninth is john irving. inarguably cute in a sort of late 2000s british indie band bassist way, and while i’m not sure i could fix him (he probably needs a man for that) i do think i would have fun trying. ultimately he’s not higher because he’s kind of annoying and his eyebrows piss me off.
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representing the dilves at eighth is doctor macdonald. he’s entrancing to me he has this vibe of like gentle paternal indulgence... like even if you were annoying he’d be very fond of you. and i need that. when he said “i’d like to run that man through” and rubbed his eyes and looked so tired, i really felt something. the crow’s feet, the widow’s peak, the hair, yes!!
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doing it for the feminists, in seventh we have harry goodsir. the loveliest guy on the expedition until he goes nastymode, and i’m fully on board with both versions. this picture was chosen for a reason and it’s bc his long curly hair full beard miserable expression era was simply unbeatable. unfortunately, and this is maybe the most insane thing i’ve ever said about a man, or at least top ten, when his half eaten corpse was laid out face down, and it had noticeable back hair, i got the ick. just to add insult to injury :/
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i’m as surprised as you are that he’s not higher, number six, james fitzjames! he is my pretty pretty princess. nails, hair, hips, heels. high femme queen in his cunty little outfits ordering the men around. i want to brush his hair, one hundred strokes minimum. i think this is less sexual than some others on this list, it’s more appreciation. but my god do i appreciate him.
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stay alive, number five, it’s thomas jopson. most beautiful haunted doll in the arctic, but that pretty face is covering up a seriously compelling #WeirdGuy underneath. all the shiny hair in the world can’t hide an obsession with his boss that in the modern era would be getting him a very serious meeting with HR. what a character, servicetopson you rock my world. but at the end of the day he loses points because i hate the beard. garrigan looks great with a beard in other stuff, i really don’t know why the scurvybeard was so foul. terror hair and makeup department GET IT TOGETHER. 
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number phwoar, henry collins is here! he’s big he’s sweet he’s deeply mentally unstable he needs a cuddle and we’ve all seen that gif of him in aliens. would love to make him a really nice cup of tea (seems like a two sugars man), pet his hair as he rests his head in my lap, then fuck up my hip flexors. 
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and now... we enter our top three. who’s made it to the prestigious cock podium?
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first up, the winner of our bronze cock medal, which presumably he’ll be flogging for an unreasonable price to someone he’s assured it’s solid gold, “cornelius hickey”! people will bitch and moan about how he’s a violent lunatic who’s killed people like i’m not a cuti romero stan 🙄 i can see beyond that, my third eye is firmly open. the potential for a fun toxic relationship is absolutely off the charts bc that’s the only kind he has. and he’s very pretty when he cries. i can forgive a lot of crimes for a man whose nose entrances me.
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in second place, such a close runner up, i have to award this honour to edward little. a pedestrian choice, you might think, if you don’t know the lore. i couldn’t fully explain my feelings towards this secondary character who’s not especially exciting on first watch when i started the show until i googled his actor... although i lacked the words to express this at the time i was cocking this man when i was 13 and he first appeared in misfits with a stupid neck tattoo and a horrible suit, and i cock him again now. this is a cock that’s followed me all my life, even though i forgot he existed for about a decade in between. who else can truly say they’ve EARNED a spot on my list like he has? he’s sad, he’s sopping wet, i could make him cry extremely easily. mwah
and finally...
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number one. it had to be him, it was always going to be him. solomon tozer, take a bow and i’ll take ten cranberry pills. sol is thee top cock for so many reasons and chief among them is versatility. whatever you need he can be it. handsome soldier boy in a fancy red uniform that shows off his trim little waist? COCK! hostile violent mutineer throwing his life away in a rebellion? COCK! broken man inducted into a cult who cries about it? COCK!!! sexiest man in the damn arctic i know he was beating the boys off with a stick. there is a certain level of sexiness a man can reach where nothing he does is an ick, and i knew he’d reached that for me once i saw him in that insanely stupid hat at sir john’s funeral and didn’t give a fuck. call him tom jones the way he can leave his hat on. keep thotting it up in heaven/hell king i miss you every day. i know it was huge. my heart hurts.
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mziroe · 10 months
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pudding character analysis!
I'm not gonna lie right now, Charlotte Pudding is one of my favourite characters. I know, I know, she’s an antagonist. Sorta? Personally I think she falls under this dere type, mayadere. Basically it’s a character that used to be an antagonist, but switched sides after falling in love.
I don’t know, I just love when teenage girls behave like teenage girls. One of the reasons why I enjoyed her character was honestly because of our closeness in ages. I was the same age as her while i was watching whole cake island, which is 16 if you didn’t know. It honestly just felt like she represented all of teenage girlhood or at least my experiences with it.
I will be honest first though, I went into WCI knowing that Pudding was lying throughout the whole time she was nice (it is difficult to keep away from spoilers i suppose). I was prepared to hate her, truly I was. I was surprised though, when slowly I started to identify with her more and more. Honestly, I couldn't help but fall in love at first sight, despite knowing of her lies and deception. A child of an Emperor, how could she be so sweet to the strawhats?
Of course then her true nature was revealed when she shot Reiju, and started telling her about how evil she truly is.of course this is the part i begin to dislike her, the way she spoke about Sanji broke my heart, especially with him standing outside. (i also loved the scene of him under the rain, tears in his eyes as he tries to light his cigarette again. Trying to revive the flames of the love he thought she had for him, only to realise it was futile as she didn’t love him in the first place, y’know, cause the fire can’t be lit under the rain.)
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But after this line in chapter 902, ‘No one will ever fall in love with me. I’m a hideous, monstrous freak.’ It was heartbreaking to me because it was a realisation that everything she said about Sanji was a reflection of how she felt about herself. It’s common for a girl like Pudding, who’s been told time and time again that she was hideous and horrifyingly ugly because of her third eye to have a coping mechanism, especially one of projecting. 
See, Pudding is an extremely confused girl. I cannot blame her for it, look who she has as a mother, Big Mom. She calls herself Big Mom’s favourite (if i can find the screenshot i’ll put it here) yet ever since young she was ridiculed and put down by her because of her third eye, even asking her to grow out her bangs to cover it up. This is detrimental for a girl’s self-esteem, especially coming from a mother figure, someone you are supposed to look up to and respect. See how she is being both put down (Big Mom says no one will love her because of her looks) and complimented (yet she is her favourite child) at the same time? Any little girl will become like Pudding when put through this psychological turmoil.
It is no wonder all she does is want to impress her mother, seeking her validation and love in every corner. Pudding has it drilled in her mind that she is unlovable, what else can she do but chase after that sliver of what seemed like love from her mother by lying by becoming rude and basically being a bitch? She will never get it from her mother though, with Big Mom merely seeing her as an important tool as with her awakened ability, she is able to read poneglyphs. (this is just a personal thought but i think her learning how to act and lie flawlessly is to be favoured by her mother as she has yet to awaken her ability. If she does not have any ability at all, why should her mother ‘love’ her?) It's a complicated emotion, to both love someone yet dislike them for how they’ve treated you, especially if they are of your own blood.
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Thus these two main reasons cause her to spiral out of control. Pudding had lost herself, in all the intricate lies and personas that she plays, to the point she doesn’t know who she is anymore. This is honestly really common, especially in teenage girls, or maybe I've seen it with myself. Painting yourself in a different light because you hate who you are due to your flaws, in hopes that it will make you feel better. In doing so, you lose yourself entirely, forgetting who you even are.
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Even when she switches over to the strawhat’s side she is seen to have this extreme shift in character, from being mean to Sanji then to being absolutely lovestruck by him. This is the most glaring evidence of how messed up she had become from her mother’s brainwashing. She questions herself, why does she even say mean things to someone she feels so dearly towards? It has integrated so well to her personality that she is unable to switch back to whatever she considers her true persona– the ‘mean’, the ‘sweet’ and the ‘vulnerable’ all mixed up in one person. Anyways, Pudding was honestly a refreshing yet realistic character I was able to relate to. The small faucets of her personality, the motivations behind her character was very eye opening to read. In learning about her, I felt I was learning more about myself, so to speak.
Pudding is a character riddled with self-esteem and self-image problems that stem from an unhealthy relationship with her mother and bullying. To combat that, she becomes rude and ‘evil’ to earn her mother’s praise as well as protect her heart in some sense. It is a story that most girls can relate to, the real life ups and downs of complex teenage feelings all rolled into one character. That is exactly why I love her, because she represents the honest troubles of growing up.
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fipindustries · 1 year
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(sorry if this is barely coherent, im coming down from being high on weed) now that im catching up with full metal alchemist: the good one, i get a really cool chance to compare and contrast the homunculus with the demiurges from ksbd and it truly is fascinating.
envy/gog agog: lets begin with my favourite demiurge, both have actually quite similar powers and both are technically worms which is really cool. character wise they are very different though, where one is this androgious sadistic sassy bitch the other is a completly deranged clown girl. i would say gog inhabits the sin she represents a bit better than envy does since she is the one who is constantly immitating everyone else and she is the one who desperatly wants to be admired and paid attention to.
sloth/jadis: these two on the other hand took their respective sin and went into completly opposite directions with it. while they do have in common the fact that both of them stayed pretty much at the sidelines during the entire proceedings, only to show up at the ending climax, one was sloth in the sense of the nihilistic academic who knows so much that is paralized by predetermination and the sheer wheight of her knowledge, whereas the other takes it in the more ironic direction by being this unstoppable hulking force who none the less is burdened by the hardest tasks by their own sheer density, the one who has the power to work the hardest and the fases being the one who is constantly tired which gives it a delicious ironic turn.
gluttony/mottom: gluttony went the more direct, obvious route of the fat guy who eats everything, he is kind of a dullard and kind of a joke and also kind of pityful (albeit one of the more disturbing by how dehumanizing is the way he treats everyone). whereas mottom took it in the direction of an ever exapnding ever conquering queen who bleeds words dry and who has to constantly eat to preserve her youth, trapped in a life she no longer wants, and yet continuing to eat no matter how full of it she feels.
wrath/jagganoth: both are actually pretty similar pretty direct warlords with a genuine poetic soul underneath (or at the very least hidden depths) but bradley is more the simmering, barely restrained rage of a profesional dictator who knows when to realease at the maximum tactical moment, whereas jagganoth is more the prepetually boiling caustic furiousness that burns everything in his wake, who hates everything, who just wants to destroy everything.
greed/mammon: i would dare say these two are the most different conceptually out of all the other sins, since one represents more the begging of greed, the bluster of a young man who has the world open to him and he wants it all for himself, whereas the dragon is more the place where all greed ends, alone, pathetic, depressed, having lost and sacrificed everything that truly matters in the world. the do share the fact that they seem to be the ones who are the least antagonistic/malicious to the heroes
lust/incubus: other two who are fairly similar, except one is a sexy woman and the other, in a slight detour from where this trope is taken, is a sexy man. another difference is that lust is at the end of the day not that deep of a character whereas incubus life is the one we have probably examined the most. the gimmick underneath him is that even though he shows himself as the most glamorous, attractive and seductive of the demiurges, deep down he is a disgusting leech like gremlin that lives in a pit of blood and mud, who came from shit and hasnt gone much further than it during his life. beyond that i would say incubus backstory is not all that tied up to his sin thematically speaking beyond the concept of the lust for power and the seduction of control. but that is certainly more that lust who, besides being a sexy lady, seems to be even less thematically realted to her sin.
pride/solomon: another two who are fairly different in execution. lust, much like sloth, takes it on an ironic spin by showing him as an arrogant prepotent child, which is essentially what everyone who has ever fallen to the sin of pride looks like, an immature kid. which i personally find really clever. solomon takes it on a more conventional direction by being a genuenly powerful selfrighteous formidable emeperor. although both of them are pretty tied on the "insufferably smug smile" department.
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utilitycaster · 10 months
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#this is SO real#wbn#there's a strange determination to sort everyone into either witches OR wizards and not just. townsfolk. people.#and to a degree that is where the story has led us (ame has been leaning much heavier on the spirit side of her communication role)#but the mortal world is just as complex and deserving of attention and sympathy as the spirits#and it's almost bizarre to treat everything suvi says as empire fodder rather than legitimate frustration and confusion at a world that#has been closed off to her#'you get what you get' has been taken so far out of the context in which she said it for example#yes I believe she has the incorrect viewpoint imo but there is so much nuance in how suvi doesn't want people to be hurt and wants to-#be able to control that. and how the spirits represent an absolute lack of control with the ability to do whatever they want#(for the most part)#and her fear and even occasional disdain of that is from a further place than empire propaganda#it's from her desire to have control and knowledge of her surroundings. to be able to Know everything#and the spirits laugh in the face of that very idea#and it's not entirely invalid of her to be frightened of that!!!#it's the wizard the witch AND the wild one!!#suvi would not be there if her viewpoint was not valuable if very very flawed#her end goal should not be to become ame because like she said. she's a wizard and she Knows magic!#there is virtue is her strategy and determination and logic#but people seem to favor ignoring that to smooth over the nuance and hope for her to realize her wrongs soon#sorry this was a giant ramble lol
@thespoonisvictory (not putting this on the post bc it's already a long one) Yes to all of this! Like, I think first and foremost people are ignoring that she is a 20 year old whose parents died for the citadel when she was a very young child and that this has been her only home since then and if she did a sudden about face "oh I was wrong about everything" it would be just as fragile and biased as her current worldview; while epiphanies and turning points are real, true and lasting change is ultimately a process and I don't trust an ideology that is adopted as a rapid about-face rather than an ongoing exploration.
The firesides make it clear that she and Ame are in fact very similar people; both will often ultimately do what they want despite personal danger or dangers to others in the party, both genuinely do care a lot about common people but both are at times deeply ignorant of the privileged positions they have held from a very young age (even though Suvi will throw her weight around, the realization that Galani would not have been given the same second chances has absolutely rocked her); and both are extremely out of their element in this story! I think it's also worth keeping in mind that we're in the "so wizards have really fucked up badly here" arc. There's plenty of time to explore the idea that, for example, one corrupt witch could do some pretty significant damage. The main thing that divides Suvi and Ame is what they were taught, and yeah, Suvi is frightened and unsettled by the world of spirits that Ame has been taught to respect and understand and that she never has. I think it's also really worth keeping in mind that Suvi knows that Eursulon's life here is in part because she broke rules she had no possible way of knowing, and I can't imagine she - a person who is all about knowledge and rules - has truly found a way to live with that yet.
For what it's worth I find it fascinating that the meta about Suvi is by and large fairly harsh criticism, and the meta about Imogen is "how dare you speak ill of my 28 year old baby daughter", and also that meta about the imperial wizards in WBN is largely "fuck them bitches, they trapped a god and everything they do is wrong and bad" but there's plenty of meta about the imperial wizard in Critical Role that goes "well he sucks as an individual but his plan is pretty cool actually" because I see a lot of parallels and I know there's overlap in fandoms. It does genuinely feel like people just see the word "god" or "empire" and react without actually listening to the other thousands of words surrounding it.
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noveratus · 4 months
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I will be honest, I only have one hope for Hazbin Hotel, one thing I am begging them for and if they do, I will be the happiest person alive even if the whole thing ends up being shit, and that is to make Vaggie a genuinely complex and interesting character.
It is nothing new that A23 tends to have a certain reputation when it comes to female characters, that being that they are either shallow, vilified or get shafted for the sake of other characters, and while I see where people are coming from, I also think that it makes sense that Helluva Boss doesn't focus on its female characters. Helluva Boss is a show about Blitzø first and foremost and Moxie and Millie are mostly just there to act as Blitzø's want. He wants to have a relationship like what they have, even if the rest of Hell finds it to be appalling, but he isn't willing to work for it in the same way that Moxie is, for example. Moxie is a flawed character, there is no denying that, but he always comes around, realizes his mistakes and apologizes for it, while Millie is probably the only stable person in all of hell. She needs to be that pillar that holds not just Moxie and their relationship together. With that in mind, while I do wish Millie would have more development and we at least got to hear from her what she feels like being the one responsible for holding this ship together, I understand why she has not been the main focus. Loona and Octavia are both on the same ship where they are the 'child' characters. They represent the respective best part of their fathers, and while they have their little character arcs, they are mostly there to humamize Stolas and Blitzø. Then there is Stella who is just a bitch, and honestly, good for her. Sometimes it is fun to have characters who are just petty villains, and if there is one place where that works, that is hell.
My main point is, Helluva Boss is, at its core, a show about a relationship between two male characters, so it makes sense why they would get the most screen time, which unfortunately means other characters get shafted.
And then we have Hazbin Hotel, a show where the main character is supposed to be a female lead, Charlie and so far we are four episodes in and the show has been about literally everyone in the hotel other than her. In fact, I would argue that Charlie has been the main antagonist of the show so far since in almost every episode it is her going cartoonishly 'nice' to try and help other characters that leads to the main conflicts/problems, which it sucks since this feels like such a departure from the original pilot where Charlie was an awkward, but well meaning person trying to make the best out of a terrible situation. Now, she just feels like new sponge bob essentially, where she is just annoying everyone with her kindness. When all that the audience is getting from your main character is annoyance, you have a bit of a problem.
And then we have Vaggie and out of all of the characters, Vaggie is a very interesting one. In the original pilot, Vaggie is treated as a punching bag for the majority of it or as a minor source of conflict for Charlie, however, in the show, she has been treated with a lot more nuance so far. Sure, she is still bickering with Angel Dust and she despise Alastor, but you can feel that there is a sense of respect between them, particularly between Alastor and Vaggie. Not only that, but the fact that she seems to be coming from a militaristic background and seems to be the actual voice of reason, albeit a skeptical one makes her the most interesting character to me. I know that Vivzy and A23 can write good, compelling male queer characters, I have seen them do it in Helluva Boss and I will be frank, I still think all the characters and concept in that show are so much better than anything Hazbin has produced, so I don't need another show focusing on male struggles. All that I want to see is one well written queer female character. That is the one thing Helluva Boss has not done that Hazbin Hotel can do better. Make Vaggie an exterminator angel who decided to stay in hell, or a fallen angel or literally anything as long as you make it interesting. Please, make her more than just Charlie's girlfriend, make her an actual character. That is all that I am asking.
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