#and think they're sympathetic villains
Text
People who say the League Of Villains are right cause me physical pain. This is the same exact situation where people came out of Black Panther saying Kill Monger was right and completely ignored Nakia's existence
#mha#bnha#my hero academia#do you realize#how many completely innocent people theyve murdered#they released everyone from prison#including all the abusers yall hate#including the guy screaming i need women bring me more women#like PLEASE#you can say their message is right#and think they're sympathetic villains#without saying they are in the right#they are not#the majority of them are mentally ill victims that need to be in therapy#not making policy
40 notes
·
View notes
Text
my favorite thing about mha has got to be how you can't tell if the writers are aware or not that the setting is in fact a corrupt police state
#like. it almost says something sometimes and then they back out of ittttt😭😭😭😭#I'm not keeping up with mha canon presently so I'm just thinking back on things#like. they have plenty of villain characters where it's like oh they're sympathetic and were clearly pushed into this life#by the narrow views of what is acceptable in society and the corrupt police state#AND THEY HAVE CORRUPT HEROES AND A CORRUPT ORGANIZATION SO LIKE. YOU KNOW IT'S A CORRUPT POLICE STATE THE WRITERS MUST KNOW#but then mha pulls fun shit with like. redeeming endeavor!! A CORRUPT HERO WHO GETS AWAY WITH THE SHIT HE DOES BECAUSE OF A BROKEN SYSTEM#while the ENTIRE rest of the todoroki family is like#“well obviously dabi sucks and is a monster and needs to be put away and can never be rehabilitated ever” 😐#AND LIKE. FINE. FUCKING REDEEM HIS ASS IF YOU WANT (BOOO HATE THAT BITCHHHHH) but don't then act like dabi is unsalvageable!!#both or neither babe!! nerf or nothing!!#like. do you guys get me. sometimes it feels like wow look at how much this corrupt society sucks#and sometimes it feels like yes we are going to not examine this at all#it's just. mha is so bad. it's so bad guys and it could've been good but it's bad#it could be so good if it was good but it's not it's just bad#it sucks its a stupid anime stupid manga fuck off
78 notes
·
View notes
Note
favourite twdg villain?
I'm a fond enjoyer of the St. John's as villains. I don't know if they're my favorite just because they're only in one episode, but I love the concept of this family almost immediately jumping into cannibalism toward the start of the outbreak, dealing in human flesh to bandits, and casually feeding this group their friend's legs.
Like... what the hell was this family like before the outbreak that all three of them were like, "Hey now listen... nothing should go to waste, the dead are eating people so why shouldn't we? We gotta survive and in our defense, we only target those who were gonna die anyway... like y'all."
Dude, Mark was shot in this shoulder with an arrow. He wasn't going to die from that injury. It's so fucked that these seemingly friendly people took the group into their home and then fed them Mark's legs.
If we take the idea that everyone is infected and have the capacity within themselves to become walkers, to become monsters, then the St. John's were infected long before the outbreak, y'know? Not literally, but something was wrong with them and the outbreak just further spread that infection and changed them.
But again, are they my favorite? I dunno if I can say that since I have a lot more appreciation for Lily now. Yeah, some of her writing gets a little wonky in ep3 of TFS when she goes on her monologues and shit, but y'know what? I'm into it.
You have to remember who we're talking about and the fact that she's the antagonist; Lily isn't some anti-hero in TFS who secretly has a heart of gold that's brought to light because she reunited with Clementine... she's a fucked up woman who did fucked up things in the name of survival. She's full of rot now. She sees kidnapping children and turning them into soldiers to protect her home as a means to an end, but she doesn't actually give a shit about the people she's taking. They aren't people to her, they're as the episode title suggests, toys in her game. The only one she sees as a person is Clementine, and while that makes her hesitate at first, she sees Clementine's a prize to bring back.
She remembers what happened in S1; her father had a heart attack and as she tried to save him, Kenny smashed his face in with a saltlick and then expected Lily to just stand up and help him get back to his family because "he did what he had to, he made the hard choice." Yes, Larry was a piece of shit. No one liked him, and you can even question Lily on him and she'll tell you that he has a lot of pain. Yes, it makes him an asshole, but he's still her dad and he's all she has. I mean... the simplification is daddy issues, but in all seriousness, I don't doubt for a second that many of Lily's issues stem from Larry being a shitty father to her.
Then everyone thought she was losing it when she insisted there was a traitor in the group, which she was right about, but she was unstable. She was unwell, but how do you help someone like that when you don't have training to go about it? Then Lily ends up killing either Carley or Doug and the group turns on her, and either she's left behind or she steals the van and runs away.
Then we don't know what the hell happened to her until we see her again in TFS, but like... a lone woman with decay festering inside of her joining the delta? Exposing her to their methods? I mean, what else did she have to lose? She had nothing, she lost everything, and she has a lot of issues. Survival is easy when you're numb, when you don't care about the individual; they're all just cogs churning to make the system run, and if a piece doesn't cooperate, you get rid of it and find a new one.
Plus I think there's something to say about Lily not wanting to be perceived as weak again. That whole display she put on in the cells? Telling the story of what happened to Minerva and Sophie? I get the criticism that it feels like Lily did a 180 between episodes but like... yeah dude, because it's a performance. It's not just her and Clementine anymore. It's a display of power and authority. She's playing the part and thriving in it as she ensures everyone else is terrified of her.
But then when Clementine and AJ get the upper hand? Again, she's not afraid to play up the pleading to earn enough sympathy to spare her- hell, just to let their guard down enough to strike and get the upper hand again. I mean, she's got nothing else to lose, right? If she doesn't go for it, she'll be killed and sure, you can kill her anyway but at least she tried.
Honestly, I look at Lily in TFS and still see that scared little girl playing the tough bitch, just like Carley said in S1. It's just now escalated from "tough bitch" to a downright vile person. She's so... lost? I suppose? Lost within herself and the monstrous means she's taken to survive.
I get the criticisms of how she was used in TFS, but for me, it's like when people complain about Minerva not getting the redemption arc she supposedly should've gotten, y'know? There's no saving her. Lily was never on our side, and there was no getting her on our side. She wasn't ever going to redeem herself. Even if you spare her and she drifts away on her raft, can someone like her actually find redemption? Or will she just find another group that'll feed into her rot?
Truly, I say let her be horrid. Let her be the piece of shit villain with a few fleeting moments of humanity. Let her drown in the blood she's spilled.
#asks#twdg lily#twdg andy st john#twdg danny st john#twdg brenda st john#twdg clementine#twdg minerva#twdg mark#twdg larry#twdg kenny#i know i used to complain about lily in tfs a lot years ago but past cj complained about everything tbh sksksks#now i'm just like babe lily's interesting as shit like not every villain needs a redemption arc just because you think they're hot#and don't wanna feel bad or because you want her to be like she was in s1 when she was sympathetic like... it's been years#that's like being mad that clementine isn't the same person as she was in s1... the difference is we got to see clementine grow#but what happened to lily is a mystery... but that doesn't mean she didn't change especially for the worst#i dunno sometimes i look at lady antagonists in media and then look at people's reactions and i'm like.......... hmmmm#c'mon now- if kenny came back in tfs the same exact way then y'all would be foaming at the mouth insisting he's complex#and morally grey and he's just really sad about his family dying and really he's a sad widdle meow meow but also the best villain#who should be spared because he always cared about clementine and aj and he's just traumatized and sad and amazing unlike OTHERS#like.................... okay sure mmhmmmm#side note but the worst thing about kenny is the fact that he IS a brilliantly written character but his stans tend to just be the worst#anyway i like lily she's a great tfs antagonist like i recognize there are some weak spots and i wish she has more of a presence in ep4#if she lived but y'know... gotta make room for minerva being the final bridge boss so... yeah
39 notes
·
View notes
Text
my total drama oc is a reversal of the show's pre-established "villain" archetype.
right off the bat, they're just the worst person; outright antagonistic towards everyone and constantly causing conflict amidst the cast, openly orchestrating people's eliminations, blatantly cheating but in such a way that technically they're not breaking any rules- without disguising themself behind a mask of geniality (like alejandro, heather and julia did).
and they're kept around well into the competition because their villainy? it's ratings gold. people love a good antagonist, especially one that's so productive. the audience loves to hate them, or hates that they love them, and everyone is gunning for their downfall- which only becomes more and more tempting with every elimination.
plus, chris is more than happy to enable them so long as they keep things interesting.
interestingly enough, they never seem to use the confessional. or at least, none of their confessions are aired. well, that's not exactly true. one confession is aired, and it's them boasting to the audience that they wouldn't understand the inner machinations of their mind, and that they don't deserve to hear their thoughts.
consequently, the audience has no idea what they're thinking at any given time, only seeing glimpses of their schemes throughout the episode until everything comes to fruition- like a puzzle finally being completed. it's a smart move for the network, because it means the audience gets to watch their plans play out in 'real time' without their insight/foreknowledge, making it just as impactful to the viewers as it is to the competitors. it helps with immersion, which is a boon for the ratings!
until their elimination, wherein their confessions are played out on the big screen, and it's heartbreaking.
they explain, in their first confession, that they were accosted by chris at the beginning of the competition to act as the main antagonistic force for the show, and that he's turn a blind eye to their antics so long as they kept the viewers watching, even paying them a decent salary if their act was good enough. because they're smart- smart enough to play the rest of the cast like a fiddle if they wanted to, and chris wants them to.
what a great deal, right? being given blanket permission to be as conniving as possible, and a pay check to boot- who wouldn't take the opportunity?
and they round it out by "getting into character" on camera, sneering haughtily at the lens and- you guessed it- boasting to the audience that they wouldn't understand the inner machinations of their mind, before giggling dorkily at the silliness of their statement, commenting that it'd we way too obvious they were faking if they acted that snooty. they're a theatre kid at heart, so the idea of "playing the villain" is exciting! it's going to be so fun!
but their second confession is sombre. they're visibly tired, wiping away at the concealer under their eyes to reveal some heavy bags, and they're curled up into a pitiful ball in front of the camera. they divulge that the pressure to constantly live up to the shows expectations of antagonism is crushing, and their status as a social pariah is more draining than they'd care to admit, and that- despite the apparent glee they've been committing these acts of villainy with- being so outwardly morally corrupt has left them with a constant churning of guilt in their gut. they only agreed to be the "bad guy" for the money, which would help their family's financial situation tremendously, but they're growing increasingly uncertain if the reward justifies the risks.
by the third confession, they're actively sickened by their actions, eventually devolving from airing their frustrations, lamenting their choice to method act as such an awful person, to throwing up into the confessional's toilet as they hold back guilt-leaden tears and repeat a mantra of "i'm sorry, i'm sorry,". they're drowning in the murky waters of their persona, and backing out now would only lead to more scrutiny and suspicion from the people who were supposed to be their friends, and they know they'd deserve the mistrust. plus, backtracking from their deal with chris would jeopardise everything- from the dirty money they've earned from their antagonism to their place in the competition itself; they'd be voted out in a heartbeat without the network's safety blanket of plot armour!
they don't know what to do. they barely even know who they are anymore.
and then the camera's focus cuts to the real-time them, who's sat ashen-faced and deathly still as their weakest moments are broadcast, not only to the people who rightfully hate them, but to the whole world.
#we've seen “charming persona villainous person” now get ready for “villainous persona poor little meow meow person”#it's like alejandro and julia's 'character arcs' but backwards. kind of.#instead of going from fake-nice to real-mean. they go from fake-mean to real-depressed. oops.#i think it's unrealistic to expect a ~16 year old to be some mastermind villain without it having some mental health consequences#plus being outright encouraged to be an awful person would be so so bad for anyone's sense of morality. not to mention the self-loathing--#that's stems from both KNOWING you're a bad person and being ostracised by your peers because of such.#yet having no idea how to change for the better without putting everything you've worked for (everything you've suffered for) at risk#what i'm trying to say is. my total drama oc needs therapy and maybe a hug#it's giving kokichi ouma but with less self-sacrifice and more angst/self hatred#it'd be totally in character for chris to pay off the series' antagonist in a bid for more drama btw. don't even act like i'm wrong.#(it's happened in canon before with owen's mole arc in action!)#though ig this type of character wouldn't appear in a cartoon aimed at kids/tweens.#unless they're trying to teach their target audiences morality/the consequences of being a bad person? 🤔#anyway-#total drama oc#ophe rambling#character analysis#sort of? more like character outline#love me some sympathetic villains!!#long post#feel free to ignore#is this too angsty for a total drama oc? idk 🥶
17 notes
·
View notes
Text
today i spent SEVERAL minutes contemplating the difference between "sympathetic villain" and "charismatic villain" and whether fandom as a whole confuses these categories sometimes
#like A Good/Fun/Popular Baddy always seems to get called sympathetic? but they're not always actually?#sympathetic to me is like magneto or killmonger - you disagree with their means but their reasoning and goal are to some degree sound#but like Missy has rubbish reasons for killing people and taking over planets - she's just fucking cool while doing it u kno?#no tragic backstory no noble goals no grand vision none of that at all really#i have said before my Class Issues def make me less sympathetic to Thor-Movies!Loki - but he *is* charismatic and cool#but has fandom largely invented that Tragic Backstory to shove him into the Sympathetic category because that seems like The Good Thing?#(like i'd agree Thor wasn't ready to rule but it's hard to overlook how convenient this opinion is for the second-in-line to have u kno?)#which is maybe a writing/filmmaking issue if the Baddy might not be (allegedly) but it's hard to tell because Obvious Conflict Of Interest#ironicall(?) enough Sylvie actually does have the backstory and goals of a Sympathetic Villain being as they are VERY different#(*obligatory mention of The Class Issues there*)#but we learn those things only when we realise she isn't really the baddy anyway#Magneto thinks the normies want to kill the mutants and to be fair to him that's the plot of pretty much every X-Men film isn't it?#so he's not wrong. and we all know that he's not wrong in that regard. it's just his methods that are the issue.#and with that backstory we can absolutely see why he'd think it was kill-or-be-killed so there too there is reason for sympathy#so sometimes i feel like i could side with the villain in the right situation and sometimes it's like just like “Sacha Dhawan is rly hot”#which is also valid etc etc etc#remember kids if you write the wank in tags that makes it 95% less wanky :D somehow
8 notes
·
View notes
Text
I was thinking about making some (low-level) Content™ for Mental Health Awareness Month because it starts in a few days, and I realized just how few explicitly canon mentally ill characters-that aren’t treated with absolutely appalling disrespect-I actually know. :(
#like. can I even include sofía at this point after what they did to her?#and even with the ones I /DO/ have they either fall into the category of a) no one knows this thing exists except me and/or b) they would#get decried as Bad Representation™ because they're aren't Saintly Peopl™/are an anti-hero or sympathetic antagonist with narrative focus#and there was a movie I really like that didn't do this but it was created by a horrible person I don't wanna think about so that's out too#maybe I'd have to include 'characters I think could be read as having mental illness'#anyway as always drop your recs#someone mentioned mr robot to me so I'll be checking that one out at some point#I'm also probably gonna watch knk after I finish the...oh God three shows. I'm currently in the middle of. (curse my fatigued brain...)#(though one of those three seems to be attempting to do a good job on the mental illness thing. so far. not holding my breath though.)#also if anyone can give me a SINGULAR major character in something who has canon schizophrenia and is not turned into The Villain#I will straight-up make fan content about something you like for free#literally. I will. I am not kidding
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
I am thinking about this one time when I saw a person refer to Funny Valentine as a "worse Enrico Pucci". I hadn't finished Steel Ball Run at the time, but now that I've finished it, I have to say that I... don't get it. You could draw some similarities between the two of them, but overall they're pretty different characters.
#rambles#short posts#besides the fact that they're just blatantly different in personality goals story structure plan powers. et cetera.#pucci is more morally complicated than valentine#you could say valentine is sympathetic to an extent... but that's mostly skin-deep and he has some vile beliefs.#there's really nothing good to his plan and he's still evil even if he believes that he's doing it 'for the good of america'#pucci was manipulated by an evil piece of shit as a kid but still wanted what's best for the world#the WHOLE world. no exceptions like fv#the problem was that 1. he murdered and manipulated his way to get his goal and 2. his plan for the world was a terrible idea#not because of bigoted reasons like valentine but because of pucci's beliefs that stemmed from his past trauma#fate ruined his life. obviously he would think that ''heaven'' would be a world in which everyone knew their fate before it happened#idk where im going with this#i dont get like... the attitude ppl have on tumblr where fv is somehow a terribly written villain#he's really not. there's actually some really solid writing there if im being honest#just bc a character is hateable doesn't mean they're poorly written#yeah i fucking hate funny valentine but he's also super interesting (if you coudlnt tell by all the paragraphs ive been writing abt him)#i still like pucci more though
9 notes
·
View notes
Text
AND ALSO like yes infidelity is bad, do not do it, especially if you're a minister for fuck's sake but ahchddjej everyone made it sound like joseph and robert were fucking on the reg to the point where they were basically secretly together when it was. one night lmao.
#dream daddyblogging#like come ON .#i guess you could say that its possible joseph's full of shit when he says it was one night but given that its not referenced again that's#doubtful from a storytelling perspective. you can't embed lies in your story without providing some way for the reader to know they're lies#and judging from the fact that if dadsona fucks robert one (1) time you can't romance him; im inclined to believe j about it anyway#im sorry for being so annoying about this i just shdjdakdkdhdj its so hard to find content that doesnt villainize joseph when#i think it's actually more interesting to assume the most generous interpretation here.#but i am also a big sucker for characters who are convinced it's all circumstance when really they're making a mess of everything#and i also feel like so many people see infidelity and automatically assume that means the person doing it must not be#sympathetic or likeable AT ALL when reality is a lot more grey than that but that's not a discussion im willing to open#the christiansen mess
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
actually re: fromsoftware politics. i do think it's very interesting that the anti-colonialist RLF, ostensibly considered the 'good guys' of the game, were initially explicitly called the communist faction. armored core always has been a series critical of oligarchies and hyper-capitalism, but it's... very interesting to see just how blatant that is in ac6 specifically
you'd think that fromsoftware would eventually drop the ball on the "the ruling class will kill you and cannibalise itself in order to stay alive" considering that they're considered elite AAA devs rn, but thinking about elden ring and ac6's narratives, they've really only gotten more obvious about it - the horrors of colonialism and genocide and the sympathy given to the rage of its victims is something that's actually insane to see, to me, from such a big studio - fromsoft doesn't even attempt to be centrist about it.
for example, the frenzy flame ending. the only thing melina can tell you to dissuade you from pursuing it, ie literally destroying the world forever, is that there's still beauty in the world, apart from the suffering the golden order had caused. at no point however is the sheer despair of the people that the flame represents villanized. if anything, it's portrayed as a self-fulfilling prophecy, it is a tragedy. the only villain is the order who slaughtered all of these people, the flame of despair is something that emerged in them as they were buried alive. and the flame isn't even intended as a revenge upon the world, it's simply a means to end the pain they feel for being subjected to this.
their grief isn't something for the player to judge, it isn't something they're forced to overcome, it's simply a physical manifestation of the reality that was forced upon them. and these people, the merchants, are still kind to us, even knowing the order that we pursue. (in fact, the true, considered best ending of elden ring, is literally just sacrificing yourself in order to achieve complete anarchism. and getting a cool wife to endure the loneliness of space along the way)
in ac6 then, ayre is so terribly forgiving towards us, knowing what we are, knowing what made us, knowing what we participate in. some of this undoubtedly is because of her narrative role, she has to be a sympathetic character. but we do get to see her rage at the end, her grief for her species being seen as nothing more than a resource to be exploited or burned fully vocalized. but the RLF is sympathetic too as resistance fighters who want their home back. the only criticism the game ever leverages towards the RLF is that they're actually not radical enough in their pursuit of freedom, and that criticism is made by a villain.
it's so... i almost want to say optimistic? other games would have tried to pull a "ooh but what if the good guys did bad things (poor attempt at moral grayness)" but no, the RLF is justified at every step of the way. idk it makes me feel things. i dont particularly want to portray fromsoftware as these bastions of political correctness or sth - they're not perfect and i don't expect that ever lmao, but it's so fucking weird that their games are this progressive and have been for a long ass time.
2K notes
·
View notes
Text
gonna start a new tag 'half baked goods' for some of my story ideas that like. idk if i will ever execute but SOUND DAMN COOL in my head and im worried i'll forget about
anyway may i present: story idea about a crime story club/interest group that gathers to discuss like detective novels and the occasional true crime case from their region (and maybe through these discussions the audience gets a feel of how they think, e.g. one of them's the perfect logician type, one really love criminal psychology and analysing suspects motives, one is a really good communicator and is more into the storytelling part of crime stories/reporting, etc.) until one of them gets like, Actually Murdered and the rest of the group is called to assist in the investigation by police as the victims closest friends (as in, provide statements and eyewitness reports or whatever), and of course as crime nerds all of them start their own little investigations into Who Killed Their Friend, each going off in their own wildly different directions based on their own personal strengths (investigating the crime scene for physical evidence, interviewing the victims family/coworkers for a possible motive, bribing/manipulating the police investigators into revealing leads from the official investigation, etc) and as the story and their little investigations go on it gets revealed that the killer is very very likely another member of the club, so their investigations also become this mind game where they have to exchange information with each other to proceed but they're also not sure who to trust because they dont want to reveal to the killer that they're on their tracks
and to the audience it slowly becomes clear that each of them are in this little club because of/to escape from something from the rest of their lives (like, one of them is definitely neurodivergent and this is their special interest/hyperfixation) (but also for some of them its absolutely just shit life syndrome) and this investigation is slowly forcing them to confront that as the people around them realise how it's consuming their lives (and in the end the killer's motive is also tied to this Thing that they're avoiding/escaping from, like running away has become so important to them that they're willing to do anything including commit actual murder)
and maybe the final part of the story can be this knives out-esque perspective shift (spoilers for knives out btw) where like, at least one member of the club has actually figured out who the killer is and we're following the killer's pov as they try to cover their tracks and clear their own suspicion and even like, converting other members of the club to their side and helping to vouch for them and stuff (also if you go back and look at this character's 'investigation' from the earlier part of the story its actually reframed as them trying to conceal evidence/gaslight witnesses/throw the other members off the right track)
(also the police suck in this because of course they suck. like the police investigators are super slow and inefficient and susceptible to bribery. like partly to make the members' investigations more interesting but also just partly because that feels like it would make sense for the tone of this story KJDSHFKDSJHFKJSD)
#half baked goods#anyway what's the notes app? never heard of her#this is of course very very much inspired by the truth/whos the murderer#both of which i HIGHLY recommend if you like chinese variety shows like in general they're both so good#but also another inspiration is just a really good fanfic for the truth im reading rn on lofter#like especially this idea of 'if your friend committed a murder will you be able to Tell'#like not even a question of whether you'll consciously look the other way if you know your friend committed a crime#more like.. the immovable object of unconditional trust vs the unstoppable force of indisputable evidence#like yknow. ep 4 of the truth but For Realsies#one thing im starting to realise recently is that i REALLY like thinking about those kinda#stories about kinda screwed up people manipulating/playing mind games on each other#like ever since watching heroes ive become obsessed with like... a. sympathetic villains b. characters who arent quite right in the head#this concept will likely have both#the one problem with executing this is just that im really really stupid#every time i consume a crime story i literally just turn my brain off and wait for the denouement#the whole idea of each character thinking about crimes in different ways comes from those comments/metas about the truth/whos the murderer#on the strengths of the different cast members like guo qilin's logic vs zhou keyu's spacial reasoning vs liu yuning's divergent thinking#im just. highly doubtful of my own ability as a writer to like. adequately demonstrate something like that to an audience JKSDFHKJH
0 notes
Note
If you had to pick a handfull of "must-have" traits for a great villain, what would be your top picks?
Interesting question! I don't really think there's any single way to define a great villain, since so many different villainous archetypes can be great, but I have personal favorites that make me very gleeful whenever a villain shows up with them:
Clever! Villains who scheme, villains who plot, villains who know the heroes well enough to anticipate their moves. A villain who, when talking to their minions about what the heroes are up to, displays a degree of almost fond familiarity by predicting exactly what in-character action they'll take next, or is the first one to realize the hero's been replaced by an imposter. Not my favorite when taken to its extreme of Unstoppably Omniscient, but I like it when they pay attention!
Smug! Smugness is one of the best traits for a villain because it signals that smugness is going to be shattered. Earnest villains or Heroes On The Wrong Side don't get this. Smug villains know they're bad and ask "what are you gonna do about it?" They exist to let the audience see the answer to that question. Their character arc is Fuck Around -> Find Out.
Just Plain Mean! Sometimes it's fun when villains are sympathetic but to be honest I'm a big fan of the bad guys who always take the opportunity to be just that little bit extra cruel. If you've already got 'em stabbed, why WOULDN'T you twist the knife?
612 notes
·
View notes
Text
I think something that people might be struggling with re: Dungeon Meshi is like, there aren't really that many genuinely bad people in the story. There is a villain, and I won't spoil that, but people do seem to be acting like Kabru and Toshiro are antagonists or just bad people, and granted the story doesn't exactly paint them sympathetically at first, but they really aren't. No one in this story is a bad person, they all have nuanced backstories and worldviews and personalities that make them the way they are, and the conflict is a result of them clashing because they can't always understand each other.
Like almost every character aside from Laios' party and Senshi are introduced in a way that makes you unsure of them, makes you think they're jerks or dangerous, but as the story progresses and everyone starts to understand one another then they can part if not as friends, then at least as neutral acquaintances/allies. The story is about people with massive differences coming to understand one another and how that makes them all stronger. It's about how people who seem strange or weird or dangerous often are just different and aren't inherently worthy of scorn just for prioritizing different things and having cultural standards that seem odd or personality traits that are off-putting.
If you genuinely think Toshiro or Kabru are the bad guys or are meant to be seen as unsympathetic assholes then like, sorry, you've missed the point? Almost no one is truly evil in Dungeon Meshi, they're just different, and sometimes those differences lead to conflict, and sometimes that conflict is bad enough that two people just can't get along, but if everyone makes an effort to understand or at least accept one another, then we can make a better world.
#remember kabru pointed out that toshiro would have done anything to save falin even black magic#and that helped diffuse things#because it's true#what Laios and Marcille did was dangerous and forbidden#but most of us would do anything to save the people we love#and had Toshiro been there he probably would have agreed to use black magic to save Falin#dungeon meshi#delicious in dungeon#dunmeshi
984 notes
·
View notes
Text
Megatron's Opposite Day
"I free slaves"
This is Soundwave binding Ratbat but seeing as Megatron did the same thing to Pentius by putting his spark into Trypticon and reformatted Rumble and Frenzy into cassettes against their will I think he approves a lot of this practice
Megatron on Optimus and humans, after his defeat in All Hail Megatron ⬇️
he really salty
"I implant ideology" aka brainwashing
Decepticon cause = Megatron. nuff said.
"I liberate cities" says the person who let Nyon burn to make a point
Cities are too small, think bigger
Holding New York hostage.
"Like Autobots, they believe in the sanctity of life" which he doesn't. Kudos for being honest.
Allowing troops to do free-rein massacre is a reward for conquest. Nothing like some easy murder for de-stressing.
The Simanzi massacre which halved the Cybertronian population is off-screen so it doesn't deserve its own pic
"The revolution"
"We only feel good when we stand with a blade in one hand and a throat in another" "Let's make the entire face of the planet into our new gladiator arena"
What nice, confidence-inspiring revolutionaries. I'm sure they'll rule the population with benevolence after they've killed all the Necessary People with Necessary Violence. Final interpretation of what constitutes as Necessary is reserved for the sole discretion of Megatron, ofc.
Good goals.
Sentinel might be an absolute asshole but at least he's got one thing right: they're literally a gang of thugs who gets high off murder.
"The people are my utmost concern"
'The people': ................
"Battling for freedom"
Freedom of what? Function? Autonomy?
Religion?
the ability to choose whether to fight? on which side to fight?
Idk why they used the word "pogrom" for this, it's way too specific
Anyways it doesn't matter, they won't be missed.
Good for Bumblebee for calling him out. Screenshotted this just to appreciate Megatron's bitchy face ⬇️
Other urban legends:
"Megatron loves Cybertron" let's just burrrrn it
He did fight to save Cybertron in Chaos Theory but also made it pretty clear why he did it. It's not out of the goodness of his heart or any sentimental reasons like that. It's an ego/dominance thing.
Plus his wording when he's trying to convince Optimus to let him go with the Lost Light: "I broke the planet. And that, Optimus, is why I owe it to you - to everyone - to find a replacement."
Replacement.
In other words: I made a mess and can't be bothered to clean it up, so I want to get away from it and find somewhere new to start clean.
I don't think Optimus appreciates the favour.
"Megatron tore down a corrupt government" which is true, just too bad that he's worse
He's also, um, a closeted Zeta admirer?
"Megatron advocates equality" ???
Megatron x dictatorship is literally his OTP. They were inseparable for four million years. A lot of people died trying.
"Megatron cares about the Decepticons" no he doesn't. Not his troops nor its cause.
Like for one thing he treats them with complete scorn
Admits that the most useful thing about keeping Starscream around is that he can bully underlings into line
Wants to use the humans' nuke to get rid of his troops and reformat them into peaceful drones after they outlive their use because they were "too ruthless" for his perfect peaceful society
Has zero scruples about fighting Deceptigod, just affronted that his own soldiers are being used against him
And basically just drops the Decepticons like a bag of vermin after he surrenders. He never once mentions them of his own accord, other than to insist he has nothing to do with them. Even his surrender speech is something Optimus makes him do as exchange b/c he wants to go on parole. He wasn't planning on making a public address otherwise, he was just going to leave them hanging.
Looking at the publication timeline, Megatron started out as an established Evil McEvilson-type villain similar to how he is in G1 and it's not until Chaos Theory in 2011 that JRo really gave him a sympathetic backstory that drew his characterization away from the bloodthirsty pugno ergo sum warlord into someone who once held ideals about societal reform and remains convinced of his own moral supremacy throughout the 4 mill years of death and war, adding worldbuilding such as Functionism/oppression/government corruption as justification for the beginning of the Decepticon movement. But because the start of the Decepticons was already written in Megatron Origins and every evil thing he'd done up till Chaos Theory can't be retracted and they had to keep Megatron as a villain until his story was no longer central to the Autobot-Decepticon war line, and JRo didn't try to downplay the atrocities he'd committed (some of the most sadistically disturbing things Megatron did were exclusively in MTMTE flashbacks), but rather tried to distance him from them and placed the focus on the juxtapositions to emphasize change, this as a whole just resulted in Evil McEvilson getting turned into Hyper McHypocrite.
#That being said I genuinely enjoyed Megatron's redemption arc in mtmte/ll. It's one of those stories that's very poignant and moving#on an emotional level#even though the plot itself doesn't hold up that much under close scrutiny.#moved this to the tags to make the post cleaner#I would've liked it more if LL used a few more panels to show Megatron Actually Making Friends#instead of shunting him into a parallel universe for idk how many issues in an already limited run#transformers#idw transformers#maccadam#megatron#trying to clear out more screenshots
398 notes
·
View notes
Text
Fandom Problem #4928:
One interesting thing I've noticed is how much antis hate redemption arcs for sympathetic villains who canonically have suffered from a lifetime of abuse and manipulation (or "were sad once for five minutes 🙄" as antis always call it every time the topic comes up) but they also think THEIR history of past abuse gives them license to abuse others without criticism or consequence as ling as they think they're justified and righteous.
I think it involves the mindset of how "abusers" and "abuse victims" could never ever belong to the same category and are in fact two entirely separate species of human. its "How DARE you say I'm anything like my abuser??" When abuse IS a cyclical and generational problem.
News flash, those redemption arcs don't exist to try to "make us feel bad for abusers." They're there to help us forgive ourselves and give hope that we could stop the cycles of abuse. If you're the type to go "ew, I can't believe people say they RELATE to this VILLAIN??" maybe try and think why you think you're exempt from that, rather than going "nope, nuh uh, not me, that could NEVER be me, because I've been abused that means I could never abuse, it's impossible" Reflect on the fact that it IS possible, and have the self-awareness required to avoid it, instead of thinking that it could never happen.
217 notes
·
View notes
Text
I get people being sympathetic to the Rat grinders, I really do, but the way people will out right lie about canon to make the Bad Kids the villains. The Rat Grinders are kids, they're being groomed by charismatic and dangerous teachers who they trusted, they're corrupted by rage so they're not thinking straight. At the end of the day, that makes them cultists, pitiable and sympathetic, but still villains who are perfectly willing to create a hell on earth for the plan.
I've seen posts condemning the bad kids for killing the rat grinders, I've seen posts calling the Bad Kids bullies this season, I've seen posts that blame the Bad Kids for the whole thing saying the rat grinders are just kids who are being tricked. It's all bullshit, whatever your headcanons, whatever your feelings on the Rat Grinders, they're not the good guys here and are very much the villains this season.
The bad kids killed the 3 of the rat grinders this fight, Ivy, Oisin, and Ruben. No, they didn't stop to try and reach out to them, to try and make them see the light. The Rat Grinders are trying to condemn a whole town to become the domain of a the new god of rage and murder a goddess to usurp her domain. They are high level with the capacity to cast 9th level spells regardless of their hp, with two epic level pc's with super abilities that normal class features don't cover. If the Bad Kids hesitated they would be dead, they knew that, the Rat grinders tried to murder them little over an hour ago. They've hated the bad kids for years and now decided to make their vendetta known, they fucked around and found out.
Which leads me to my second point, the Bad Kids are not bullying the Rat grinders. They're not pleasant to the rat grinders, but you don't have to be nice to the people who hate you. Other than Fig, who I will admit was messed up with how she treated Ruben this year, but also the Rat Grinders did something similar, they were just bad at it, the Bad Kids mostly ignored the Rat grinders. The worst thing the other bad Kids do to the Rat Grinders is make fun of Kipperlily's name, that's it. They don't even do it in front of other students, unless they legitimately forget her name, other than that it's only in front of each other or not other students like Alewyn or Jawbone. It's not great, but that is literally all they have done.
The Rat grinders however, have done all they could to make themselves enemies of the Bad Kids. Ivy was a mean racist bitch who helped steal the cloudrider engine and place pingpong balls all over seacaster manor for the plan. Ruben tried to get the bad kids to take drugs knowing it would get them in trouble. He intentionally had frosty fair held at Gorgug's home to corrupt it, putting not only Gorgug's family in danger but countless other people. Sure Jace had a hand in that, but at best Ruben was an accomplice. Buddy was a smug creep who vandalized Kristen's locker, threatened her brother, and demeaned her and her goddess, without being corrupted by rage. Mary Ann legitimately didn't do anything wrong this season she was just there and did her best on the field as she was supposed to (not even saying this as a joke, she has literally done nothing bad on screen so it's hard to judge her like the rest). But Oisin tried to honey pot Adaine the first week of school, stole the cloudrider engine and the pingpong ball trap, and sent a whole pack of dragons on them to murder them and hundreds of other kids. Kipperlily has been goading the bad kids since the first day of school, she has tried every dirty trick to try and win. She has murdered people, not even people affiliated with the bad kids, but people like Buddy who was on her side, she's tried to murder the bad kids or at least make sure it's harder for them to come back to life if they die, she's stolen from them, she's tried to kill them, she's done everything bad the fans have accused the bad kids of but worse.
And that's just the Rat Grinder's individually. Why are the Bad Kids monsters for killing dangerous people who have tried to kill them, but the Rat Grinders aren't? The Rat Grinders literally tried to commit mass murder of their school a little more than an hour. 500 students of the Aguefort adventuring academy were in Seacaster manor when it was brought into the sky and beset by dragons. 500 innocent bystanders, almost all children, half of them younger than both parties.
I'll get to the rage stars in another post, but I just want to finish this off with, the Rat Grinders are kids, kids who are being groomed by evil men and corrupted by magic. But the Bad Kids are just kids too. They're kids who have been specifically targeted by the rat grinders. The rat grinders started this feud, the Bad Kids retaliated and were better at it. If you're going to take a shot at the king you better not miss, and the rat grinders have been missing their shots this whole season. I don't get why people are blaming the bad kids for trying to save the world but it pisses me off. I apologize for the rant but the tag is for everyone
#fantasy high#fantasy high spoilers#fantasy high junior year#fhjy#fhjy spoilers#the rat grinders#the bad kids#riz gukgak#fig faeth#kristen applebees#gorgug thistlespring#fabian seacaster#adaine abernant#long post#fantasy high meta#d20#d20 spoilers
245 notes
·
View notes
Text
Some thoughts about Huskerdust relationship development:
I don't know if we'll get the chance to see this happen in canon unless Amazon gives Hazbin Hotel more episodes to work with per season (unless it's relevant to the Vees being the main villains of season 2, which is feasible) but one of the things I really want to see happen is for Angel Dust to backslide.
I feel like the biggest issue that Angel faced with Husk until they finally managed to connect during Loser, Baby is that Husk was honestly being really fucking judgmental about Angel being fake without understanding why he was doing it, because Husk thought he had a full enough picture of the situation (and likely was irritated enough by the incessant sexual harrassment) to be able to judge Angel Dust. At least until one of my favorite lines in the show, when Angel goes, "It's not an act!" and finally admits why he acts that way.
Recovery isn't linear. And even beyond that, you really cannot effectively recover from a trauma when you are still actively experiencing it. That's why Loser, Baby meant so much to Angel Dust. Husk realized that it wasn't reasonable to tell Angel that things are going to be fine when they're obviously not - but he's at least able to offer himself as a sympathetic port in a storm for Angel to be real with when he needs to talk to someone he doesn't have to be fake with.
That said, it still stuck out to me that he told Angel, "I just thought you were better than that," to dissuade him from caving to Cherri's pressure in episode 7. He connected best with Angel Dust when he stopped leveraging guilt and instead offered an open hand in episode 4, but he still has a tendency to apply that kind of pressure when he wants Angel to act "better," and while Angel's redeemable qualities were necessary for the plot in episode 7, I want to see how Husk would react when Angel isn't able to always behave like his best self, because he's still struggling and still under Valentino's thumb.
I think it would be really good for the growth of their relationship if Husk is able to see the worst of Angel and still be able to offer him safe harbor rather than judgment.
#hazbin hotel#huskerdust#angel dust#husk#hazbin hotel husk#personal#meta#i always stick a screenshot on my random meta ramblings so i can identify it in my notes lmao
295 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
supergirl346
supergirl
koscheitm
Oh, My Dear Doctor
no-brain-bitch
Untitled
azi-xheidnica
Menphina's Shield and Spear
digookrieger
Sem título