“Everyone loves a good villain. One who cackles at the sky and shakes their fist and brings some form of doom to something or someone. It is fun to have someone to root against and root for — especially if they have a fun, cosplay-worthy aesthetic. With all that goes into stanning our favorite villains of all time, there is something to be said about examining the superficiality of villainy.

Like many character types, villains have often been visually identifiable. They have some costume or way of moving or physical features that mark them as villains in the story. Villains look bad or evil. Villains just look like villains. This is where some of the problems start with who we assign villainy to in storytelling. A hero versus villain narrative is often an Us versus Them set up, with Us being on the side of the hero and Them being on the side of the villain.

I recognize that sympathetic villains have recently been on the rise. I, for one, have also argued there are more generous ways of interpreting villains from our literary past. Nevertheless, when we look at the big picture of villains, they are often the othered members of society who are wrong or bad or shunned.“

people have way too clean an idea of good nationalism versus bad nationalism lol

that tweet about piper i reblogged has me thinkin. part of the reason i love piper so much isn't just because the character she grows into is the type i always love. it's also because she doesn't start out that way. you see her go from terrified peacemaking middle sister to exhausted quick-temper blow-things-up-first-ask-questions-later big sister, and... i just think piper halliwell is so special, for depicting in real time on a fun TV show, how good girls get fed up taking shit and realize you have to be a bit of a bitch to get anything done

Do you think things would've been different had Louis and Marie Antoinette accepted constitutional monarchy.

Oh, definitely. I am bad at alternate history (which I dislike about myself, because it is super interesting), so I can't guess how, but it would sure be a very different situation if they honestly accepted constitutional monarchy.

There is this misconception of the French revolution as the "mob"/revolutionaries jumping at the first opportunity to crush royals, but in reality, Louis and MA were given so many chances and things dragged for several years until it became clear that they were uninterested at being constitutional monarchs. Then and only then the republic was founded and monarchy abolished. (And all of this before any of them lost their head).

We know is that the people of France - revolutionaries at least - wanted constitutional monarchy more than Louis and MA did. National Constituent Assembly prepared everything for it to be put into place, all while the royal couple pretended they wanted to play along. In the writings and speeches of many prominent revolutionaries, there is a clear will and hope for constitutional monarchy. Only a minority (mostly among Girondins) called for a republic. Still, the project of the constitutional monarchy was well underway and constitution prepared when Louis and MA decided to flee the country.

It became clear in the summer 1791 that Louis never really supported the idea of a constitutional monarchy. And yet, they did not proclaim the republic then and there - Louis got another chance. So things dragged for another whole year, but this is where the idea of a republic was truly born: through Louis' actions and treason.

So given that the king's treason and unwillingness to accept the constitutional monarchy led to the proclamation of the republic (and (in)directly, other things, such as the war with foreign powers and a surge of counter-revolutionary efforts to name a few), I can definitely say that things would've been different if he and MA honestly accepted constitutional monarchy.

There is a distinct difference between "something good with flaws" and "something bad that's almost good" me thinks

Baby Regressor Robin from Teen Titans - Brown Comfort Moodboard

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random post, but shoutout to 12 y/o me who got MW3 from her aunt one day and played it, expecting just to shoot stuff and not get into it… she didn’t know she had daddy issues even after clinging to every commanding officer in the game (sandman and pudovkin <3), and i didn’t know until years later that i clung to this stupid ass trio.

my boys. my idiots. my loyalist commanders. my war criminals. 2/3 are dead. 2/3 were ugly. yuri had no less than four missiles shot at his feet. nikolai’s face changed every single game. kamarov lived for drama and nothing else.

i loved them for no reason other than “teehee older man that i can substitute for my lack of father/older male figure.” yuri was silent 80% of the game. nikolai was perfect. kamarov appeared just to die. i didn’t even play MW2 or watch gameplay of MW1 until 2022, but i clung to this trio nonetheless 😭 soap, price, and team metal, as well (sandman my first love), but these three… special place in my heart.

(MWIII pics used BTC)

AND WE OFFICIALLY HAVE ALL THREE OF THEM IN THE REBOOT LETS GOOOOOOO

*sobbing on floor*

listen. listen. this doesn’t matter to anyone but me. i know i chose the worst group to attach my daddy issues to. in my defense, i was 12 and didn’t even know i had ‘em. honestly, “daddy issues” makes it sound too cute, i was a kid when i started getting comfort from these guys… call it father problems or paternal predicaments 😭

i’m just. look. i know how i look to an outside audience. i know how my blog looks to someone who doesn’t know me well; but, i’m not just fawning over every russian character. these three specifically, *tapping glass that they’re encased in*, are special to me. if i attach to them and pretend like they’d love me (romantically or platonically), then i can feel the love that i’ve never gotten from a father or an older male figure.

this is just a nonsense ramble because i’m so sleep-deprived, but you don’t understand. my boys are back and better than ever. nikolai eats everyone up whenever he comes on-screen. yuri actually gets to have a full name and cutscenes outside of “dust to dust”. kamarov isn’t ugly (gene farber 🙏) and they’re all just AKEHDKRJWJDKFJE.

i love them. i love the comfort they give me. i know it’s odd for me to cling to this trio of all people, but i have. my boys. my dumbasses. the reboot did them right. now, i just need them all on-screen at the same time.

i want them to have a podcast. i’d listen to it.

i think there's a danger in interpreting john winchester's actions under the false dichotomy of the "good abuser" and the "bad abuser." with the good abuser being driven by love, but led wayward by personal trauma or experience, while the bad abuser is driven by hatred, stymied by little as they are simply bad; simply hateful. that's not how abuse works. abusers are, as all humans are, shaped by experience and a product of their life on earth. now that abuse can be expressed in a myriad of ways, to varying extremes, and led by a multitude of motives. this can subsequently lead to a spectrum of variable impact on the abused. you can't really dichotomize abuse and its different forms. it's likely a more illuminating approach to understand abuse for its individual cases, its individual motives. false dichotomies imply a narrative that is much, much simpler than abuse could ever be

this is far from the worse one it's the example I give for not being explicit but like I fully internalized the word "nymphet" when I was young I thought that was a real thing and a normal way of refering to myself because I could tell there was something different between me and the normal happy kids but I didn't know how to say "adultification, religious racism and anticomunism made men objectify me and the fact I was already 'broken' made them comfortable enough with just being another rapist instead of the first one" so I just used that instead

I thought I knew who the good guys and the bad guys were!

(Captain America #183)

here's my hot take.

[image id: a meme from the joker movie. the first panel is a man saying "let me get this straight. you think series 8 of doctor who is good?". the second panel is the joker saying, "i do. and i'm tired of pretending it's not." end image id.]

as long as you skip three specific episodes and alter a couple storylines in your head it's actually really good.

Okay I'm doing another pathfinder poll bc I'm curios

The Reformation is such a rich and fascinating story full of unanswerable philosophical questions and moral dilemmas and things historians can't yet explain.

It's such a shame to see people reduce it to binaries and generalisations.

The problem with both Feminism (the political movement) and Anti-Feminism (the political movement) is that they give spineless, selfish men a free pass, in mirror image of each other. The one says that Womyn is Capable Of Anything A Man Is Capable Of (or more so, let's be honest, there are plenty of women who think that we as a society don't need men to function which is just... stunningly idiotic). The other says Well Women Have Fought To Be Equal so Any Woman Who Needs Help For Anything Is Just Entitled (which I just got told by a sterling example of the male sex. I blocked him.)

Or, in summary, Feminism (the political movement) is reeking misandry and Anti-Feminism (the political movement) is reeking misogyny.

Fall Out Boy, Hum Hallelujah // Taylor Swift, Is It Over Now?

being real im not having fun anymore if only i wish this could be a friendly fun internet event, like how when the sexyman tournament happened people made silly fanart of reigen and sans and cecil and everyone was having fun and in the end no one was MAD cecil won even if they liked sans or reigen, but now this is just another reason for people to be mad and fight cause its impossible to include homestuck in a conversation after the idea homestuck is the most evil most problematic most cringe piece of media ever and therefore must be treated with anger and disdain got so widely spread no one is capable of being normal about it now. im not gonna argue im the most oppressed person in the world for being a fan of unpopular media but it is a bit sad to see everyone just sees you as a horrible person for liking a thing that has flaws in it (like most media that exists) and that being AGAINST the Homestuck Character is some kind of moral fight that the Homestuck Character must lose because Homestuck Is Evil and Must Be Defeated. like cant we just chill ? please ?