yeah maybe sometimes I’m too literal with my character naming choices. what are you gonna do about it. gonna cry. piss your pants maybe

What would you say are your more controversial opinions about the hp characters?

ohhhh okayyy. i feel like my opinions on a lot of the characters aren’t controversial because i dont feel super strongly towards anyone in any negative light but here are some i could think of at the top of my head:

i’m glad the malfoys faced more extreme backlash after the second wizarding war. a lot of people in the fandom seem to be very sympathetic towards draco and scorpius for getting dogpiled with the brunt of it (which yeah, it sucks, especially for scorpius) but the prejudice makes complete make sense to me. if i was someone who didn’t know scorpius’ character, and had someone from my family get killed in the second war due to death eaters or something— seeing the malfoys still be wealthy and walk around freely without any jailtime, i would be bitter too. they’re hated on but they’re still one of the richest families ever, so they’ll live LOL

another anon has asked about this and i haven’t responded to them yet but when i do i will link it here for my reasons. basically: the best character in the cursed child is harry potter. i think the way they wrote his character and ptsd carried the play. it was def his story, not albus’.

i do think dumbledore has some aspects of him that may be considered morally gray, but mostly i dont think he is. he does everything for the good of the world, and his complete selflessness leads him to sacrifice anything for it— even himself and the people he loves, when necessary. i completely understand why people wouldn’t agree with his methods though.

james potter isn’t a sunshine character he’s a dickhead. fans of him made him a golden retriever character to be more palatable for modern times. i like him the way he is: an asshole and then less of an asshole 👍 this is what true stanning looks like

pansy parkinson is racist and out of all the female side characters, developing HER is so questionable from fandom

harry had questionable descriptions about a lot of male characters to make people think he could be a little 🏳️‍🌈 there was bill, there was sirius, there was cedric. but draco is not a part of that list. harry was not feeling draco whatsoever throughout the series but drarry shippers cling to that one ‘obsessed’ line

furthermore, harry rejecting draco’s offer of friendship wasn’t a sad or a ‘what if’ scene. draco was being a classist piece of shit and harry didnt want to fuck with that, there isnt any way in any timeline he wouldve accepted draco’s friendship.

slytherin sucks just generally lol. people want so bad to pluck anti-heroes out of a series that was written specifically with the mind to make all the characters suck.

hermione and ron’s drama isn’t as toxic as people make it out to be. yes, this includes the time hermione sent birds after him. people act like its the end of the world but she was tackling puberty and the end of society soooo i give her a pass to tweak out.

mostly every harry potter character has horrific names. like literally mostly everyone. even the name harry potter 🙁

movie romione wasn’t that bad LOL

severus snape’s ‘redemption’ or whatever was so ass. he bullies kids for five years and then everything is chill because… true love? on harry’s mum? are you kidding me 💀

weasley family angst goes hard but people (especially percy stans and some ron&ginny stans) acting like they’re the most toxic family to walk the earth make me want to rip my hair out and eat it. molly loves her kids guys shes not evil. jesus.

genuinely trying to think of more but i can’t right now…. maybe i will reblog and add to it. i feel like most of my opinions aren’t that controversial though 😭

Controversial Character Tournament Round 2: Viren from The Dragon Prince vs The Light Fury from How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

(remember that these characters are fictional and your fellow tumblr users are real. i will block you if you harass others in the notes, please consider sending your unhinged harassment to my inbox instead)

Propaganda under the cut, may contain spoilers:

Viren:

LOVE: - "power thirsty weasely advisor that ends up mistreating his kids in pursuit of power. my best friends that i watched the show with HATE him for this and frankly it's understandable. he's my meow meow though."

The Light Fury:

HATE: - "I know many fellow Light Fury haters, especially on Tumblr, but also many passionate defenders, not many neutral or nuanced opinions. But she absolutely deserves to be hated imo because: 1- Her design is full of human gender stereotypes because she's a GIRL dragon so she can't look reptilian and fierce like every other dragon (including every other female dragon in the films like Stormfly and Meatlug) no, she has to be perfectly smooth and have pink fucking glitter on her scales and big blue eyes because she exists for the sole purpose of being Toothless's love interest so she must be as stereotypically feminine as possible. Some people will try to defend this but it's important to understand, she is not real, she did not come into existence naturally or spontaneously, she has no agency... She was purposefully created and designed this way by the (mostly male) filmmakers. Also just because she doesn't have boobs and eyeliner doesn't mean it's not gender roles at all; other characters being worse doesn't make this one above criticism. 2- Somehow, despite looking LESS fierce than literally every other dragon in the film, her alleged purpose for existing is to be "the call of the wild" to lure Toothless away from humankind. She's only on-screen for less than 10 minutes of the entire movie, and she honestly doesn't act particularly respectful or caring to Toothless, and yet he's willing to immediately, permanently abandon Hiccup (his best friend/platonic life partner/platonic soulmate of 5 years) because this girl dragon he JUST met is pretty. (He also forces every other dragon to abandon their human friends too, because he's the "alpha" and can force them to do so.) I'm not anti-romance but I really hate when movies send the message that romance should take priority over all other forms of love, that it's acceptable or even necessary to abandon your friends once you get into a relationship. The Light Fury exists solely to push that idea. 3- The filmmakers didn't even give her name. Allegedly this is to represent how "wild and free" she is, but her offspring all get names despite being just as wild, so... Almost as if she's a completely 1-dimensional plot device rather than an actual character."

13 Questions Every Harry Potter Fan Should Be Able To Answer

Question 1: Which house do you belong to?

Ravenclaw. I'm curious, creative and introverted. But I would also be happy in Hufflepuff since I am, at the end of the day, baby.

Question 2: Which Deathly Hallow would you choose?

If I'm being honest with myself probably the stone, to have one final conversation with my mother who recently, and very suddenly, passed away.

If that hadn't happened then I would've chosen the invisibility cloak because I love the idea of not being perceived.

Question 3: Which Character do you have a (not so) secret crush on?

Interesting question. I had to pick someone compliant with their characterization in the books then I'd probably say I'm most attracted to Tonks or Sirius, or the Weasley twins. But if you saw my AO3 history you'd think Tom Riddle.

Question 4: What are your Indepth and controversial thoughts on Severus Snape?

I think that Severus is a very tragic character. He came from poverty, was abused and neglected by his parents. The only person to ever show him kindness was Lily. He was canonically ugly, weird, and had bad hygiene. He was bullied by two classist Gryffindors and craved power and vengence which led him down a dark path. He died a hero who was courageous and self-sacrificing but I don't think she-who-shall-not-be-named wrote a convincing enough redemption story, especially not one in which the hero would give one of his son's Severus's name. He was still a wholly miserable person who was stuck in the past and verbally abused the child of his former nemesis for six years.

My controversial thoughts surrounding Snape was that he was first and foremost a genius - a potions prodigy who literally crafted his own spells as a teenager.

There was an unequal power dynamic between Severus and the Marauders. He was a dirt poor half-blood and they were rich purebloods. There was never any equal footing between them and as much as he participated in the feud, it was always in retaliation to their cruelty. (I can say this without bashing Sirius and James as all people contain multitudes).

I also don't believe Severus was a bigot. I think there's a good chance he hated muggles, as a result of the abuse from his father, but I he was too smart to buy into the idea of blood supremacy when he, a half-blood, was smarter than most of his pureblood peers. And when Lily, a muggleborn, was at the top of their class.

One of the more controversial headcanons I have is that Severus was recruited into becoming a Deatheater, not because he believed in their agenda but because he was allured by the promise of power, influence and vengeance. I believe he probably moved up high in the ranks after graduating Hogwarts because he was cunning, ambitious, and committed to proving himself and gaining Voldemort's respect. I also believe during his time as a Deatheater he most likely had to commit horrible acts of violence and cruelty, and that while Severus does have a sadistic streak (one that gives him the allusion of power), he does not wish suffering upon innocent people. He probably dealt with these peforming these acts by compartmentalizing his responsibiltiies as a Deatheater and using occlumancy.

One final thing I want to add is that I don't think Severus was obsessed with Lily in a 4Chan, incel sort of way (in fact, he kind of gives off ace vibes). In my opinion, Lily was the only person to ever give him love, kindness and compassion, and while he was in love with her, he was above all else, completely wracked with guilt over being responsible for telling Voldemort about the prophecy. He agrees to protect Harry because he feels indebted to her until the day he dies.

Question 5: Who, In your Opinion, Is more evil: Voldemort or Dolores Umbridge.

What a funny question. The first thing that comes to mind for me is Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and the discourse in 2015-17 about which politician was worse. Voldemort (like Trump) is honest about who is is and what he stands for (self-interest and accumulating power). Alternatively Umbridge (like Clinton) tries to create the perception that she is good and righteous.

Umbridge represents the banaltiy of evil. She's sadistic and abusive, even towards children -all while wearing a polite smile on her face. She has the same vibe as a Catholic nun who abuses people in the name of god, and for Umbridge it was about the rule of law.

However, Voldemort's evil can't even be measured on the same scale. He's a meglomaniac eugenicst willing to purge the world of things he deems inferior to him. He was inspired by dictators like Hitler and Stalin.

It's far easier to hate Umbridge because she's not honest about who she is, and we've met a figure of authority who's exactly like her. Voldemort by all accounts and purposes, was far more powerful, influential and destructive, but too grandiose to relate to.

Question 6: Which death in the series is the most heartbreaking?

Sirius, Fred, Remus, but especially Fred. It was cruel to take him away from George. I think it would've been more satisfying if Percy, as a way to redeem himself to his family, sacrificed himself to save his brother during the Battle of Hogwarts.

Question 7: What Quidditch position would you play?

I wouldn't. I'd probably be in the stands or take advantage of the school being empty and fuck around in the empty castle all day.

Question 8: What Wizarding Career would you pursue?

Probably a teacher or academic/Unspeakable as I love research. That or someone who paints the magical portraits.

Question 9: Which book in the series is you favourite?

PoA was always my favourite as a kid because I really loved Lupin's character, and hearing about the Marauders. The time-turner plot gives me an eyeroll now but the climax is still one of the most thrilling to me. We also got a taste of Powerful Harry, which actually never came to fruition, but I really loved the idea that Harry was a very exceptional wizard who was coming into his powers and not just an every-man character.

Question 10: Who should have ended up together? Hermione/Ron or Hermione/Harry?

Hermione/Harry if it was developed earlier on. The author explained that Ron/Hermione was something she pigeonholed herself into in the first two books but later regretted it. I think canonically, Harry and Hermione are like siblings, but if their relationship was developed after PoA then it would've been really satisfying to see.

Question 11: Have you read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child?

No. Never will.

Question 12: Was Dumbledore a Hero or a Villain?

A hero. His plan worked in the end, as convoluted it may have been. I don't see Dumbledore as an all-good Santa-Claus-Grandpa character like his die-hard fans do, but I also don't see him as a chess-player villian twirling his moustache from the shadows.

I used to really hate Dumbledore because of how secretive he was. It was absolutely insane for him to have put Harry on that wild goose chase with such little information and it was a miracle they won the war at all.

At the end of the day, I think he was a man that feared having too much power due to the mistakes he made in his youth when he was hungry for it. He influenced things from the sidelines because he knew he was imperfect. He made mistakes all the time, and owned up to them, and if he was all-powerful those mistakes would have much graver consequences.

He loved Harry, in the end, and did not want to see him in that mess, but had the pressure of saving the world on his shoulders.

Question 13: Who is the real Hero of the Story? Harry Potter or Neville Longbottom?

Seems like a redundant question to me, but perhaps there's discourse around it I'm not aware of.

Harry is. But he doesn't carry that tile alone.

SEASON 1-6 TIER LIST

Disclaimer: This involves some controversial opinions. Mainly because I know how much my opinion differs from others, and sometimes this fanbase (mostly on Reddit naturally) handles others opinions not so well when it's about their favourite character/LI.

Also, this is the one of the last posts I make before continuing my "fixing bi women" series thing I'm trying to do. It'a taking a lot longer than I thought so I just wanted to add in some filler posts so people don't think I just disappeared (if I do stop posting, I'll let yous know, don't worry)

Without further ado, and with that disclaimer in mind, continue to read if you wish!

So I've done multiple tier lists over the years, however I decided to make a fresh one after deciding that I really wanted to put the characters into more specific categories. And name those categories accordingly so that people can at least get an understanding as to why they're there for me (apart from the last one but I have an explanation for that). For each category, I'll give a few examples as to why I've chosen them in that category, but I won't do that for everyone as it'd take a very long time and my fingers can't deal with all that typing conatantly.

Note: if you'd like to hear a reason why I like/dislike a character and I haven't stated it, I'll gladly answer when I can!

SO let's begin!

This should be pretty self explanatory. I love the character that much that if they were real and my actual partner, I'd 100% marry them. And here are a couple reasons why I like specific characters:

Levi: So I genuinely think Levi is one of my favourite male LI's of all time. And I like him more than Mason because of the differences in cherrygate. If you get Levi for cherrygate, he acts more sorry for it than Mason does. He looks like he genuinely actually regrets it, and doesn't really try to push the blame elsewhere. On top of that, if you don't get him during cherrygate, he acts like a sassy little bitch towards Mason and it's so cute to watch. And I just really like his character in general. So much that I might actually continue playing S1 for him.

Gary: Now I'm pretty sure Gary is the canon LI for S2, and I'd have to agree with their choice. I like the fact that you can just go around and continue seeing him even if you're not together. And the secret kiss in the gym? That is literally the one and only time I've ever allowed my LI to do that, because I'm all about loyalty but that man was something else. On top of that, I just feel like him and MC have serious chemistry. Like proper serious chem.

Angie: I mean, come on. Angie felt like the first real friends to lovers route for me. I often choose the wlw routes when possible, so just getting her right at the end was so satisfying. Now I am a little disappointed that we didn't get more episodes with her as our LI, but her character development? Literally fantastic. And that's what I love, y'know? I know some people are really impatient and don't like it when the slow burn route is only completed right at the end, but like- I'm in love. The way she questions MC and her experiences with other women, the way she opens up to you and lets you see her, and the roof terrace scene on like- Ep 39? My absolute favourite from the new app.

This one is also self explanatory. These are marriage material too, but since the people in the category above exist, I can't marry these lot :(

BUT, I still they are worthy enough to marry. Now I know the only controversial ones will probably be Gabi and Finn, but come on. Apart from Lulu, they were literally the best LIs from S5.

Finn: Even though this man is always like "I like you" and then runs back to Kat, that's basically that season in a nutshell. But there's just something charming about Finn. Is it the Irish accent I imagine when he speaks? Is it the fact that he defended MC even though literally barely anyone else did because that season was the bully MC season? Is it the red flags? But in all seriousness, I just think he is genuinely the best out of the worst, and he'd probably improve a lot once they've left the villa. I don't think having Kat on his back was helpful at the end when you finally get to couple up with him.

Gabi: I mean, so many people dislike this woman but I don't get why? You have to be reasonable to like Gabi. See, the way I see it is that Gabi doesn't really know about MC for a while. I can't remember if she actually does know much about MC and her role in Suresh's life before she enters villa so this part may be a load of shit, but bear with me for a moment. If you've got a guy sleeping round your house, and you find a ring, you'd assume it's for you, right? And then he disappears and you see another woman in his life (I imagine that's when Gabi really finds out about MC) you'd think she's the other woman. I don't think she really paid much attention after that. And when you really think about it, if Gabi didn't have her "tantrum" as people call it, when would we have actually found out about Suresh wanting to marry MC? Either way, I just like her character, and I think she's cool enough for a ring on that finger.

So this one is BF/GF material characters. People that I haven't really thought about marrying, and I don't know if I would, but people that I'm into nonetheless. To be honest, I don't really think many of these need explaining, but if you want to know my reasoning behind Bill, go check out u/SoundNo3485 they're really awesome and I've seen them post a lot about Kassam, Bill, and now for S7 Rafael. So yeah, just click that name and you'll be sent right to their Reddit page!

Note: since there's a 10 image limit, I had to leave these two together.

This one (the second category in the picture) is basically the last one, but we'd end up breaking up in the end. Now I know that the only one gonna be questioned is Felix, so I'll explain.

Felix: When you put aside his really horrible social cues, his terrible attempts at seducing women, and his kinda weird behaviour, he's actually a cute LI. Just like with Jakub, he'll actually have sweet moments with your LI, and he also has some unique dialogue when you bring the boys back from CA (which there is some of for each of them, but not a lot really). Overall, he still shivers my timbers sometimes, but once I can get past that, he's kinda cute. And he's not even that horrible looking, I think he just needs a beard. But then again, he's only 21 so I can't expect that.

So for these lot, I don't have feelings for or my feelings are so weak that were just best friends babe. I mean, six out of the twelve I picked are undatable anyways, so can you really be surprised?

These people I like a little to consider them as a friend, but I wouldn't want to class them as anything more because I can't see them as anything more. Now you might be wondering why Blake is there. And I am too, she's a bit of a bitch tbh. But at the same time, I really like her?? I'm not even sure I can give you lot an explanation as to why I like her. If she was an OG, I'd imagine we'd be friends.

Yep. Now we're getting to the characters I don't really like. It's not that I don't like these characters, I just don't feel anything towards them, or can't remember them, or literally don't care for them. Like at all. I guess the best would have to be Jen but I literally have zero reasons as to why.

I do not like these characters at all. Now these are pretty simple explanations to the point where I don't even think I need that much to explain why. Apart from Hannah, but I'll get to her.

Cherry: Started cherrygate and this woman is so odd sometimes. And her sad (like very sad) expression looks constipated.

Miles/Jasper: Genuinely, how could you actually like either of them? I mean, Miles is definitely more attractive, but even their names suck ass imo ofc (no offense to anyone with those names I'll just associate you with these two from now on)

Mason: Literally the biggest asshole once cherrygate starts. This man is so immature about it unlike Levi. And I swear to god this man blames you or someone else rather than taking the blame?? Frustrated me to no end.

Lexi: I mean, she made S4 at the start interesting, but I just found her kinda annoying? Would be a cool enemy to lovers, but as she is I have no likings to her.

Grace: Oh how I wish I could like her. But since my first route was with Ozzy, she was just this delulu woman who couldn't seem to grasp the fact that Ozzy likes MC. And even off his route when Ozzy likes MC, but MC doesn't, she still tries to pretend Ozzy and her are a good match. You're just not babe. You're the NOPE of S6.

Marshall: I mean, come on. I can't date my first LIs twin brother, that's fucking weird. Yet he definitely deserves better than Ratmelia. Though, that doesn't mean I like him whatsoever.

Hamish: I'm sorry, this man is just a walking ick, that's all I can say.

Hannah: Now, Hannah before she left would've been WAYYY higher. But R!Hannah? No, just no. You shouldn't change yourself just to get people to like you more. And you don't have to fake stuff like confidence (at least my headcannon is she faked it) to be liked. If you're trying to get with someone, changing yourself just for them is toxic in multiple ways. Just find someone who fucking appreciates you for you, you get me babe? Okay, rant over.

I mean, can you really be surprised that almost the rest of the S5 cast are in this category, plus Jo? I mean, apparently Jo is nice, but she's called me a people pleaser way too many times for me to think that she's not the canon option for that statement. I mean, what the actual fuck? I'm trying to get you lot to calm the fuck down because you're acting like children, and then you go ahead and say that to me? I'm sorry, I like Rahim, but he fucked up choosing Jo over Shannon.

I mean. I just really fucking despise these people. The only one I can at least enjoy is Dylan since he added a whole ass scene to the game, and it was fucking amazing I can't lie. I only done that after like- 3 routes though and then restarted the episode for Angie again because I ain't continuing that. It's cool how he automatically makes you get a second place if you go as far as possible with him. But yeah, other than that, I hate these all.

Now some of you might have been wondering where these three were. Yes. They are literally the last row. Meaning the ABSOLUTE WORST.

Bobby: I'm sorry, I can understand the appeal, but I just can never get behind it. I hate how he basically acts childish throughout the whole thing (and I mean, I love some childish people, but this man was hitting all the wrong spots). And he literally looks more concerned by Lottie and "oh poor Lottie, I'm sure Gary will come back" meanwhile Gary is in the hideout with MC giving her the time of her life. And then it's like "Poor Priya y'know" BRO YOU THREW THE POOR WOMAN UNDER THE BUS IMMEDIATELY. I just felt like, when I attempted his route for the first time since I've matured, that he's too concerned by other people. Not ONCE do I remember him comforting MC first. And then the nail on the coffin was the fact that he chose Hope over Priya. I love Hope, and I really wished she coupled up with Lucas at some point instead since her and Noah were beyond toxic, but calling her the "apron to his gloves" or some shit like that was beyond infuriating.

Noah: I half explained it in the Bobby reasoning, but his man is such a fucking child?? When Hope and Priya are fighting over him, you can choose to question Noah which I do ever single fucking time, and it just shows his true colours. He basically just says it's not his fault and he's not gonna take any responsibility for it, but my guy just won't fucking pick who he likes more which wouldn't end this issue. Like oh my God, that part was so- it literally felt like the equivalent to S5. As a whole. Also, I don't find him attractive lmao.

Bruno: I mean, Bruno is literally just an IKEA Bobby. Hate his fucking looks, hate his shitty jokes, and I just hate him in general.

So now that that's over, you'll probably gain an understanding as to which characters I'm more likely to post about.

And if anyone dislikes the characters I love, or loves the characters I hate, that's okay. That's fine. I respect your opinion, just please do not start ridiculing me or telling me I'm wrong or anything like that, it does get boring after a while.

See you for the next post (god my fingers are dead) <3

So I just needed a place to let my thoughts out on Infinite Wealth. It is likely going to have a bit of controversial opinions and certainly a lot of spoilers about the game itself. Or perhaps just the story.

The first thing I want to say is I am going to be honest...I do not like the new cast of characters from LAD7. While others may enjoy Ichiban and Nanba and etc etc etc and all of them as is WELL within their right to do, I hate having to slog through dealing with the Ichicrew to get to the actual character beats and characters I actually CARE about in the franchise.

I also hate that Kiryu apparently, though he LITERALLY HAS FRIENDS, its decided that oh...he'd rather pal around with people seemingly much younger than him instead of going and seeing the 3jimas or something.

Yes, he does meet them later in the game itself and they initially rebuff coming to his aid, but I honestly am flabbergasted they never came sooner aside from just. Oh big reveal and then they aren't interacting again.

Like why isn't the 3jimas with him in the hospital, why does Haruka only visit? It is baffling to me.

I'll be honest, I consider the end of the series around Yakuza 3 because that was meant to be the end of the franchise [I believe] but then they kept going and the story seemed to just get repeated...several times but in different flavors. Kiryu should have rested then...

In general, it also hurts to just see Kiryu abandoning his friends for this new blood. And I'm well aware he isn't actually abandoning them but goddamn does the writing surely make it seem that way especially with how, despite you know....the bonds of brotherhood with Saejima, the bonds of fatherhood with Daigo, and the bonds of lovers with Majima [my own opinion lol]...those three just get shafted time and time again.

And we are meant to believe that Kiryu is a good person? That he cares about the people he cares for? When he can just go 'lol bye' and dip out?

Listen, I understand that isn't what was meant to be portrayed at all but I can't help but feel that is what it is like when RGG just seems to have him come by, dip out, come by, ask favors, dip out again. One could argue hes trying to keep people safe but it doesn't work and hasn't worked...

I mainly hate him doing that to Daigo and Majima in particular. Especially Majima who does and would do anything Kiryu ever asked of him and had done so time and time again. They are just so inexplicably tied together by red strings of fate, only for Kiryu to just bounce. [Not to mention how RGG just seems to have some sort of issue with realizing just how popular Majima is but then only bring him out as DLC or you know, ways to get money all the same.]

The Kashiwagi and Kiryu scene at the bar just broke my heart too, now the playthrough I was watching, I don't know if you can go back to talk to him but just the brief like...two minute meeting and then the rest being karaoke, it just...idk man. I wish I could have seen an actual cutscene of them truly speaking with one another in private or SOMETHING. You haven't seen each other in YEARS.

Even if you wanted to play off the pretend names and all that, at least if you are alone, have that conversation. Something. ANYTHING. A crumb.

Then Kiryu going to the 3jimas to ask favors and stuff of them to help with the situation. I'm glad we learned why the fuck the Security company fell apart but if I was the 3jimas, I would be reluctant in helping too like...you constantly leave us and dip out on us and the only time you come to us is when you need something? Wtf Kiryu?

Because you know the 3jimas would welcome Kiryu with open arms if he would just commit to actually being their...idk...friend? Maybe that is why I get annoyed with that Ichicrew because...you had three other people right there that Kiryu could have been running around with but no.

I love Kiryu, deeply, but damn if the writing isn't frustrating to no end at times but well, I guess it is because he is meant to be something the player can project on even if it makes his actions so idiotic at times.

Also, I don't wanna get into the whole cancer bullshit, the ending image of Kiryu looking like a goddamn person on death's bed was heartwrenching enough. I understand that Kiryu wasn't meant to be strong forever but did the writers really have to do the cop out of getting cancer while he was trying to help that one dude? Couldn't Kiryu just grow old and go the Komaki route of training the new crew but otherwise be left alone?

And now once again the 3jima's fates are also a bit nebulously up in the air...and at this point, I just wish they would let all the OGs rest. You now have like 6-7 people for the ichicrew and gang and all of that, stop shoehorning them in for a fanservice that serves for like 5-10 minutes in a 50 hour game or what have you.

Also RGG, stop killing off characters too early...RIP Hanawa....Have you not learned yet...Or if you kill off characters, then explain why others are alive. I am looking at you Andre Richardson, where the FUCK is Mine then [Who RGG also killed off way too soon.]

Anyway, I'm sure I have more to rant about but agh.

At the end of the day, I do hope people enjoy Infinite Wealth and I think people that adore the Ichicrew will enjoy the fuck out of this game, but for me and what I was looking out for...well it was disappointing to say the least.

Part 2: Thoughts on Canon Relationship with Arthur Rimbaud/Randou

[Read Part 1 here!]

Thoughts under the cut to allow people to avoid ship talk if it makes them uncomfortable. Also, spoiler warning for Fifteen and Storm Bringer (again).

If you want to know my educated opinion on if they canonically, romantically love each other or if it’s completely up for interpretation with no intent or confirmation inherently placed either way, well, to be honest, I don’t think ‘opinion’ is even necessary here.

Don’t get me wrong; people are always free to interpret stories as they like and make up their own headcanons to change or add to things according to their comfort zones, and I’m well aware that VerRim/Rimlaine as a ship can even be quite controversial to some due to the canonical abusiveness/unhealthiness of it, as well. Thus, it is entirely valid if someone else doesn’t want to view them as such, and/or has a different ship in mind. It always is.  I, myself, ship BSD!Arthur with someone else in current time (even if I do ship Arthur and Paul in the past, up until post-Storm Bringer, for the angst factor), so I can even relate a little.

Hell, if you want to just make them siblings in your headcanons, or father and son, grandpa and grandson — you name it. I don’t care. I support you 100%. Go do your thing and have fun and write stories about it if you want. You absolutely have your right to do that. You don’t have to personally accept them as a romantic couple if you don’t want to.

That being said, I do think that anyone who outright tries to deny or convince others it isn’t the case that, at the very least, the two of them were clearly written with the intent on Asagiri-sensei’s part for them to have a heavily implied romantic relationship dynamic between them in his canon, really really is reaching too hard to justify their dislike for the ship and/or the people who ship them — because here’s the thing: VerRim isn’t like any other ship in the fandom; it is deeply, deeply rooted in historical fact, and again, as we all know, the author of BSD is extremely dedicated to doing heavy research into his characters’ namesakes and tying both key and subtler elements of their lives into their fictional counterparts. And it isn’t even like this is some obscure fact about them, either; their relationship was absolutely crucial to their history and deeply affected the works they produced. Whether you personally might think it’s for better or worse, historically and culturally, their relationship is every bit as famous if not more than their works alone.  If it was just some small, obscure footnote in their lives of, “oh yeah, and I guess they quietly were romantically seeing each other for a few weeks or something”, then yeah, I’d say absolutely, there is a possibility there was no intent at all to have them have feelings for each other and it’s 100% up for interpretation, but they were neither quiet nor absurdly brief about their affair; even at the time, it was a pretty huge scandal, and is something they are actively remembered for. Literally as someone who, before the release of Storm Bringer and really, truly deep diving into the historical background of the characters, used to kind of get annoyed about people claiming they were a thing, it is beyond absurd to try to deny that their relationship didn’t actively, intentionally factor into the story Asagiri-sensei wrote surrounding them and get reflected in their relationship.

Furthermore, the subtext regarding it isn’t even subtle — especially in Storm Bringer (and with the Stage Play of said book, I dare say it hardly even qualifies as just ‘subtext’ anymore at all, personally, but that is a side note.)

I’m not going to address all of the examples here, as again, I feel that is something better saved for my article and its future follow-ups, where I can go into detail about it, but just for starters, when Paul is trying to understand the reason why Arthur saved his life and smiled at him even as he faded away, even after all of the betrayal, not only is it stated that Paul knew exactly why it was and that he just didn’t want to face it because it hurt too much, and not only is it something that remains some unspeakable answer the book never gives us directly, but it is also related to a memory of how shy Arthur was when handing him his birthday gift. Come on. Even separately from that context, what kind of person is going to get all shy about handing their ‘best friend’ of several years a birthday gift, unless they have some kind of feelings for them? Put that together with the aforementioned context and it is completely obvious what was meant there, just as it is obvious when Paul shuts himself away from the world for at least 6 years after losing Arthur because he is the only thing in the world he would ever care about, and stays and writes poems to him in the basement all of the time.

And yes, I agree, prior to the end of Storm Bringer, their relationship is canonically abusive and uncomfortable, and still to this day is utterly tragic. I agree. But that’s the point. That’s exactly how it was in real life. Horrible, complicated, sad — an utter mess.

So do I think that Asagiri-sensei intended them to be romantically involved? Absolutely, there’s not a shadow of doubt in my mind, though it’s clear it was (primarily) one-sided on Arthur’s part until the end of Storm Bringer, at which point Paul realized and returned his feelings far too late.

God, those two and the story surrounding them are so fascinating…

Anyway, I guess I’ll wrap this up for now. Thanks for reading!

Hello! I know it has been a while and that Far Cry 5 fandom is pretty much dead (D:), but I was wondering what your opinion was regarding The Collapse DLC :-). Because there has been a considerable blacklash about it on tumblr when it came out, but I really liked it & I think it actually showed some hidden depths of the Seed family that I've just been wondering about... till now. So I was just curious about your opinion of the portrayal of the Seeds :-)

Hi! :D I know fandom reception of the DLC was…less than favorable (on tumblr, anyway. I didn’t see backlash anywhere else). But personally? I loved it, and I vehemently disagree with the claims that it was out of character. It might have gone against preferred headcanons, but in terms of what actually ended up on screen in the FC5/New Dawn base games, the Collapse DLC was very much in line with how the characters were previously portrayed. I haven’t seen too much controversy about Jacob, so I’ll focus mainly on John, Joseph, and Faith.

John has always been portrayed as a man with a strong sadistic streak that was simultaneously weaponized and kept in check by Joseph’s presence;  the “urges” speech might not be the most sophisticated writing, but the overall idea was just a reiteration of what we saw in FC5. He takes obvious glee in torturing Hudson and the Deputy and Nick and I did not find the story about the woman he killed to be shocking in the slightest. Maybe it’s because I’m not a John stan, but I find claims that he’s too violent in the DLC to be genuinely baffling. He’s always been portrayed as a sadist. 

In regards to Faith’s portrayal, I felt extremely vindicated lmao. I wrote a long-ass essay about Faith and what I feel are the obvious conclusions about her character and relationship with Joseph that are often ignored or denied in fandom (despite the game’s writer literally confirming it): that Joseph views her as a twisted stand-in for his wife, and he abuses his power to engage in a sexual relationship with her. To provide some background, @intheforest-hides-a-light and myself began collaborating on the doc several months before the DLC was even released. We had 20 pages of content WITHOUT *any* of the blatant subtext from the DLC—and yes, “Faith being the wife’s name” was one of the conclusions we made before it was stated directly. While the hints from the DLC were eventually added into the essay, FC5 by itself provides more than enough evidence that supports that Faith was in an unhealthy dynamic with Joseph.

Joseph is a manipulator and an abuser. He also has a deep sincerity in his mission and genuinely wants the world to be a better place in the post-collapse world. These things are not contradictory, as is the idea that because Faith victimizes others, she can’t also be a victim. I feel like in a lot of discourse regarding his relationship with Faith, it gets broken down into this black-and-white way of thinking that does a disservice to both characters. Joseph is a complex, multifaceted person, and the Collapse DLC just makes him more interesting imo. 

I’m not surprised that tumblr reception to the DLC has been frosty. This is a fandom that rejected Drew Holmes’ own words about the characters he created as being OOC, rejected New Dawn as fanfic despite the director saying it’s canon, and now rejects the DLC. Official content getting rejected in favor of headcanon is par for the course. 

And in a way, that’s fine. The beauty of fandom allows for people to interpret the characters the way they want. There are plenty of fandoms where I downright ignore parts of canon too. But I always remember to separate headcanon from actual canon. And imo, the portrayals of the characters were consistent with their portrayals from FC5.

Introductions (+ Sexuality Headcanons)

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INTRODUCTIONS

Hi, I'm Claire and I'm a huge sadist. I hope we get along well soon blah,blah,blah I'll just skip the formalities, shall we?/j

Sorry 'bout that. My name is Claire. I go by she/her pronouns and I found Mairimashita! Iruma-Kun anime while I was searching for some new anime to watch. I'll admit when I first saw this anime I thought it'll be a normal isekai anime or something.

 But ever since the first episode, I had caught an interest to the anime, I realise the more I watch, the more I had fallen in love with it. When I had finished the Harvest Festival arc, I immediately went to read the manga and oh boy, it did not dissapoint. I found one of the most relatable introvert ever, shout out to my kin character, Purson!

The most introverted boy in Mairuma. Love him.

Purson, a guy who was invincible to his classmates but has many things to say. The feeling of wanting to voice out your opinion but doesn't want to stand out resonated in me so much. I genuinely find Purson to be a person who struggles with social communication since he had to stay silent besides his family his whole life before the Music Festival arc. He's one of the huge reasons why this arc is one of my favourite arcs in Mairuma. 

(Sorry about my rant earlier.)

I have many things to post in the future too! So please if we could, be friends with me!

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HEADCANNONS

Agares Picero

He reminds me of the boys who look gorgeous af but doesn't even try-

Agares Picero likes boys.

I feel like the reason he is always uncomfortable is because he isn't interested in female. Because mostly the people who went for him are girls. I always thought he would be a huge tsundere. Like I said this is headcannons, I don't fully know if this is true or not. But based of my research it's pretty accurate. And also Gaap-kun exist so...

Ideas:

Wouldn't it be funny if his gay awakening was some demon kid in kindergarten? God, I just got one hell of an idea for a post, definitely doing that later. 

Also great potential to torture him with trust issues! #characterdevelopment  😜/j 

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Iruma

A literal cinnamon roll

Iruma likes girls and boys.

I mean... come on? It wouldn't be fair if Iruma-kun pulls both and only loves one gender? Seriously though, I mean he wouldn't be a Bicon and BiDisaster like Eiko but I would feel like he would be okay with both genders. Plus he radiates Bi vibes and have you seen his relationship with Azz-kun and Clara? 

Ideas:

Lied-kun has a huge admiration for Gyari right? Like an Akudol / Evidol crush, so I have been thinking what if Iruma found his first Akudol / Evidol crush to be a male? That would be the first time he realized he wasn't straight.

 (Look, for the IruAzz shippers I would like to say I knew Iruma had a few sparks with Azz-kun but it was never way too obvious, plus Iruma-kun is very dense when it comes to love so..)

⚠️  I'm not shipping Iruma with my own OC! This is simply an idol crush, like how Lied is to Gyari !   ⚠️

(I also shall not say his sorry excuse of a parent names cause he deserves better.) 

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Gaap Goemon

A cute pansexual

Gaap seems like the type of person to like any gender as long as their allies. (I worded that wrong didn't I?). I wanted to say he likes boys because of Agares but Kuromu and Nee-san ( Elizabetta-san) exist so.. and also radiates Pan vibes. 

Ideas:

I honestly don't think he would react much to his first male crush (Agares), I feel like he wouldn't mind at all and would just act like it's just a normal crush.

But I think his immediate acceptance will make Agares more bothered on how easily Gaap accepts himself when he, himself can't even get other people to accept who he is much less himself. So it will cause controversy between the two.

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✨So future angst✨

( Don't worry I know how to treat my characters well, there will be comfort. )

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ENDING

So yeah, this is my first post from this community I first plan to only do an introduction but then I felt bad that I didn't put any Mairuma content so I made 3 characters sexuality headcannons. I will make a part 2 on Mairuma Sexuality Headcannons! If you have any suggestion on what Mairuma characters I should do next, please tell me! Here is my discord in case you are interested in talking abt M!ik hcs, ships and etc with me: https://discord.gg/hsSt8sYH

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~Claire has logged off~

plz give us your opinions on the new toh ep queen <3

okay i apologize in advance bc i’m like almost done writing this while i add this disclaimer and i’m realizing it’s VERY ramble-y and my adhd brain keeps rapidly switching topics but i hope this makes sense HAHA

IT WAS GOOD! it wasn’t nearly as gut-wrenching as the last one but i do appreciate some good ship action (raeda and huntlow tugging on my heartstrings fr). a lot happened this episode and i feel like a big theme was character development and personal exploration, we saw that a lot with hunter, but most of all luz and willow! it makes me really happy to see luz get her palismen (palisman??) finally and string bean is so adorable! i was team snake btw so i’m happy with this outcome. a lot of people say that boscha was really annoying this ep but honestly i didn’t think so? i mean, she was a bit, but she’s clearly not a villain here; she’s just a traumatized mean girl teenager handling things badly. she’s developed some pretty bad abandonment issues from losing her grudgby team to the collector, and ended up taking those out on amity, which isn’t…great, but people are treating her worse than belos this episode lmao?? but ANYWAY i’m very happy to see hunter again <3 and i’m happy that his development is moving in a positive way. not everyone is happy about him having magic from flapjack, but i think it’s nice; it reinforces that flapjack is still with him, even if he’s not physically present, which is a nice sentiment. and like i am sorry he is going thru it or whatever but i MISSED him being an annoying angry boy,, and OH MY GOD “you mean a lot to me too” “cool, happy to help” KILL ME NOW?!?! THEY’RE SO ADORABLE.,,,, and i’m glad they focused on willow here too because it made me like her a lot more than i did previously. and ok going back to raeda the “i just like to come out and see raine” i don’t remember if that’s exactly what she says but eda literally risking being caught by the collector who still thinks she’s the owl beast just to see raine,, AND RAINE’S LOOK IN THE BEGINNING WHEN SHE GOES INTO HARPY MODE…… omg they’re in love. and i’m choosing to say raine is a lesbian bc it makes my heart happy. switching gears completely to camila,, just,,, in general,, her being a mother figure to so many of the kids and her conversation with luz to amity saying “you and luz are a lot alike”,, i love her so much i cannot believe there was a point in which she was controversial in the fandom. i’ve always been a camila defender. OKAY BUT THE ACTUAL EPISODE ANYWAY the collector is obviously being set up for a redemption arc of sorts; they’re really pushing the idea that he’s just a kid and doesn’t want to really hurt people, and it’s clear that he really did care about king (defending him from the coven head i forgot her name sorry lol, respecting his boundaries with his rabbit and not touching it, calling him his best friend, immediately not trusting belos when he said king has it out for him) and that’s why he’s taking his ‘betrayal’ so hard. i did NOT expect him to team up with belos ngl, i thought that this episode would be them defeating the collector and next ep would be belos, as like a first and final boss type of thing, but this is like. so much better lol. AND SOMEONE ON TWITTER POINTED THIS OUT BUT belos is ALWAYS looking down on people, specifically at hunter; there’s always a specific camera angle to showcase it, but in this episode, in his weakened state belos finally looks up at someone: caleb. belos has always been in a position of power in every relationship we’ve seen with him so far, EXCEPT for caleb. caleb is the only situation in which he’s been the dependent. which is really being showcased here and i liked the imagery,, and i’m curious as to why belos chose raine in particular? like obviously this is going to be used for some raeda plotline which i personally don’t mind actually but like. obvious excuse for ship angst is obvious. but i hope there’s some other reason than just “let’s make eda upset hehehehe” u know what i mean. oh and raine mullet,, pretty. if i had a nickel for every time belos possessed someone and they got a mullet i would have two nickels which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice right.

i’m excited to see how things go with the collector next episode (new noceda sibling real?) and i’m excited to see king, eda and luz’s reunion! i really need eda and camila to meet like NOW. i also really hope that hunter is the one who gets the final blow on belos, like sorry to luz or whatever i know ur the protagonist and that’s your moment but he DESERVES it. and obviously luz isn’t going to stay in the human realm indefinitely but with her mom i’m wondering how they’ll work things out; maybe there will be a more stable portal and luz and camila will be able to pass through both worlds and visit as they please? or will camila just stay in the demon realm with luz? idk!!! i can’t wait for next episode but knowing we’re officially on our final hiatus and that the cast just finished recording for the last episode is also :’D a bit miserable. sad to see it go but excited at the same time

quick question! why don't you support the author of acotar? sorry I'm not online these days and don't know what's going on

okay i know i’m probably gonna end up on at least a handful of people’s blocklist for it because i have heard and seen sarah j maas’s fans blocking anyone who points out the problematic things that the author has done.. but eh, let’s keep going.

tw: controversial opinions.

one main thing i’ve noticed about sjm is that when “accusations” or comments in which people point out how certain actions of hers can and are considered offensive, she doesn’t react. she doesn’t address the comments, doesn’t even hint that she’s listening to what these people say. rather, she chooses to brush it under the rug in the hopes that everyone will just forget about it and move along.

one striking example of this is when she posted the cover of her new book, a court of silver flames, on instagram. in the caption of her post, she brings up breonna taylor’s name (in case anyone doesn’t know who she is, that young, black, woman was a victim of police brutality.)

one thing that rubs me the wrong way is that there are some fans of sjm who are trying to justify this action by claiming she’s using her platform as a means to bring light to the horrific situation. personally, if i was a known figure who wanted to raise attention to an advocacy (in that situation it’s the black lives matter movement), i would dedicate a whole post to it—not merge such a pressing matter with self-promotional material.

then there’s the fact that she’s also remained mum about her stance in the palestine genocide. again, people are arguing that “just because she’s jewish doesn’t mean you’re entitled to know if she supports israel” which is.. something. and i’m fairly certain the assumption that she is a zionist comes from the fact that back in 2015, she had partaken in an interview where she said this (credits to rmvirtues on twitter):

now let’s use neil gaiman as an example. fans of his have dredged up old comments/tweets of his where he voices support for israel. when asked about this, he makes it very clear that his stance remains the same—he is a zionist. bear in mind, his platform is just as big, if not maybe more, than sarah j maas’s. so they’re in pretty similar situations, right?

their reactions are similar too: one explicitly voices support for genocide and the other feigns ignorance towards the loud demand for clarification on her stance now. and as someone once said, “silence is complicity.”

with all that being said, i still do love the characters in the acotar world (azriel my babygirl 🥺). it’s just that i’m not interested in wasting money on overhyped book series when there are literally people here on tumblr (because this is where i consume most of my writing contents) who create these beautiful, heart-wrenching, butterfly-inducing tales and share it to us.

and what do they ask in return? a like, reblog, feedback. it’s that easy—an absolutely simple alternative solution that anyone can do.

Goro Akechi lezzgoooooo

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh yes thank you for giving me an excuse to rant about my BOI 😈😈

First Impression

"Who is this pretty boy? I want to know more about this pretty boy. I wish he was a main character instead of just another confidant. It'd be so cool if he joined the Phantom Thieves but that definitely won't happen because he hates the Thieves. He has such strong values. I admire that about him. He is in love with my character. HE IS SO GAY."

Impression Now

How can I summarize my thoughts into a simple impression? I'm just going to end up writing a whole damn essay about his character and how much I love it and him. I LOVE HIM. He is my murder boi comfort character. I want to give him a hug. I'm writing a fic just to give him a happy ending. I love him. Baby.

Favorite Moment

How can I choose??? There are so many amazing moments...okay here are my top five, in no particular order.

1. The Takoyaki Scene

2. All of 2/2, but especially this dialogue right here.

3. I Am Surrounded By Absolute Fools

4. Crow and Joker's Showtime

5. Literally everything involving the glove.

I left out way too many equally amazing moments and I'm sorry 😭

Idea For A Story

I'm actually currently writing a Palace AU that takes place in early November. Goro Akechi's Palace is a Theatre where he stars in Robin Hood and His Merry Men.

Basically, it's a Goro Akechi redemption fic where the Thieves infiltrate his Palace while waiting for Sae's deadline after Futaba accidentally discovers he has a Palace while setting up the Nav hack. He catches on to what they're doing because Detective and there is Much Shuake.

However, the fic's frame story is the interrogation room, so we know from the start Joker still ends up arrested, so there's the mystery of why and how that goes down if Goro is allegedly supposed to have had a change of heart by now...

Unpopular Opinion

Literally all of my opinions are probably "unpopular" by some metric thanks to Goro being so controversial but...

Wakaba had nothing to do with Goro's Awakening to Loki. This seems to be a pretty popular headcanon/theory based on the Featherman game, but I don't think it tracks. In my opinion, Goro awoke to both Robin Hood and Loki at the same time. Both are equal parts of himself even that early on in his life, and I don't like the idea that Loki was forced out of him by experimentation. The headcanon can be done well if it doesn't villainize Wakaba (she was a good person and wonderful mother don't @ me), but I don't like the implication that Loki isn't fully Goro's true inner self when he is. I much prefer the headcanon that he awoke to both at the same time.

Favorite Relationship

Goro Akechi and the Persona 5 Protagonist, 1000%! They Are Gay. I can't get enough of their dynamic. It's so tragic, and so good. Joker loves Goro so much and it breaks my heart. Goro loves and hates Joker all at the same time and it's so complicated and messy. Joker is the only person Goro has ever genuinely befriended and opened up to, and yet he represents everything Goro never got to have himself and is the one person standing in the way of his revenge. Joker has such a huge heart and all he wants is for Goro to be happy and it's just...THE GLOVE. I will NEVER get over the GLOVE.

Favorite Headcanon

Of fanon headcanons, definitely that Goro is a dog person. Give this boi a puppy. Also, that Goro is still alive after Royal, but I basically consider that canon.

Of my own headcanons, that the first criminal case Goro investigated was his own mother's suicide, and he learned his father's name through his mother's suicide note that mentioned him. This was his tipping point and the catalyst for his revenge plot, and just after this he awoke to his powers in Mementos.

Send me a character (persona 5 or otherwise) and I'll tell you what I think of them! Anon asks are open <3

What does the 'Anne Rice fans you're free now' post mean exactly? I keep having to look up who she is, can you maybe explain a bit?

TL;DR version: she was a (US) southern gothic/horror/vampire novel writer who wrote Interview With A Vampire, among other things — if you’ve ever heard of a vampire named Lestat, that’s her most well-known character. She was also notoriously batshit insane about people writing fanfiction/making fanart/etc. of her characters and tried to sue/doxx/otherwise harass people throughout the early late 90’s/early 2000’s over it. Ever wonder why AO3 keeps lawyers on retainer? Or why a lot of people — especially the mid-20’s+ crowd — that post something will put a disclaimer at the top of every chapter? She’s a huge part of that reason.

For the rest, I’m mostly just going to copypaste what I said in the comments of that other post of mine because it’s basically what you’re asking — there’s actually way more valid reasons to dislike her that go far beyond the whole ‘wah! she hates fanfiction!’ thing you keep seeing:

I personally don’t even give that much of a shit about the fanfiction part to be honest — like yeah I think it’s funny she got That Mad™ over it, but ultimately if she wanted to hate fan content and be a salty bitch about it, that was her right. Plenty of authors do that. As long as she left it be (save for like the off person trying to monetize their fanfiction of her characters), I get it.

I do, however, care that she was a massive fucking cunt who casually advocated for doxxing “in the right conditions” (i.e. anything from fanfiction to bad Amazon book reviews of her books that upset her delicate sensibilities at a given point in time), but would immediately cry “gangster bullies!” (literally!) and be ready throw money (or her lawyers; her fanbase) at someone at the drop of a hat when they’d dare criticize any of her fuckery or do anything that she considered a slight against her or her brand.

She was the textbook definition of the southern genteel white Christian woman with too much money and too narrow a worldview to give anything other than a surface-deep brownie points take on half the shit she talked about. But boy oh boy she just had to make her opinions known. Like.

‘Who cares if your address and phone number get leaked online?’ says the woman worth $60 million (US) dollars and living in a gated mansion, that’s probably never had a serious stalking problem in her life.

‘You’re bullies forming a lynch mob against this woman because she wrote a controversial book!’ says the white Christian female author in defense of another white Christian female author who wrote a novel about a romance involving a captured Jewish woman that “looks like a gentile” falling in love with a Nazi officer at a concentration camp to (frequently Jewish) dissenters.

Possibly even more tastelessly than those two examples, she used the exact same “lynch mob” wording in her argument in defense of Paula Deen — another white, southern woman turned celebrity chef who got famous by making southern/soul food style recipes that she stole from her black chef at her restaurant — for Paula not being “slender, young, clever, and politically correct enough” (her exact words) to get away with making the breathtakingly* racist comments that she did in a court deposition for a racial discrimination lawsuit brought against her.

Basically Anne Rice objectively sucked shit as person, even if you were a fan of her books. Good fucking riddance; can’t wait for all the fanfiction lovingly written in her memory about Lestat getting his back blown out.

Also if you’re curious Interview with a Vampire is incredibly mediocre and you shouldn’t waste your time the end.

*If you’re wondering about the context of those “not pc enough” comments: When Paula Deen was sued for racial discrimination in her restaurant, she denied it. But in her deposition she admitted to “expressing her hope that her brother (the restaurant co-owner) would experience a genuine Southern plantation wedding reminiscent of an antebellum or postbellum era when black people waited on white people”, “living in a household where jokes involving the hard r are told to her ‘constantly’”, and, when asked if she had ever used the the hard r herself, said “Yes, of course.” Paula actually won the lawsuit, but her comments going public effectively destroyed her entire career — as they should. And Anne Rice co-signed that. As in, she thought that Paula had a right to say them without losing everything and being ridiculed.

Why is one of the first things that we ever learn about Roy Mustang the fact that he is useless in the rain?

So at this point, I think we’ve all heard or realized that Roy Mustang’s rain/water motif is not just a physical limitation for his alchemy but also a symbol for his regret and “uselessness.” It’s a brilliant metaphor that elementally balances him out. 

And it’s introduced the moment we meet him. 

While it does serve as a bit of comic relief during the extremely intense first episode, the significance of it being in that episode is still important to Roy’s development and how the audience develops their understanding of him throughout the series. 

First, we need to contextualize it. The first episode is centered around Isaac McDougal, the freezing alchemist (as in an alchemist who freezes, not a really really cold alchemist, although “Isaac the Really Really Cold Alchemist” would be a fantastic name. Anyways). Isaac’s goal is to freeze over Central Command via a city-wide transmutation circle using a philosopher’s stone. 

The plot of the first episode is a parallel to the plot of the entire series, and it is full of foreshadowing. In terms of exposition, it isn’t very subtle. The basic exposition of characters like Ed, Al, and Roy is pretty much told to us through dialogue. However, that choice is justified. For people who are completely new to the FMA world, as I was when I watched this two years ago, the first episode has a lot going on. New members are not only meeting all the characters, but they are also trying to put together what alchemy is, where and when this is taking place, and who they should be rooting for. And THAT is where the brilliance (in my opinion) comes in. Watching the first episode through for the first time, the audience is rooting for Ed and Al (because they are the protagonists), and the military (because our protagonists trust them and are part of it). When our protagonists are told to capture Isaac and to view him as a traitor, we do, too. It’s only when Isaac confronts Ed about his beliefs about the military that we start to question our own. But even then, we aren’t given enough information to understand why we should question the military. However, watching the episode in hindsight, our loyalties are switched. Isaac becomes the hero trying to take down the evil military, and Ed, Al, and Mustang become the villains. 

So, back to Roy. During the first episode, aside from getting the basics of who he is and what he does, we don’t learn much more about him. Just these two things: 

1. He is a veteran of something called the Ishvalan War (and the Ishvalan War is apparently controversial based on conversations between Isaac and Roy and Isaac and Kimblee).

2. He can’t make things go sparky sparky when he gets wet. 

And those two things are arguably the most important parts of who Mustang is and what he has been through. 

First, let’s talk about Roy, Isaac, and Ishval. As the first episode unfolds, the audience knows nothing about what happened in Ishval. But Roy and Isaac do. In hindsight, knowing how Roy feels about the Ishvalan War and what he did there, why on Earth would he be calling Isaac a traitor? Roy knows that the military is corrupt (although not to the extent that he will). Roy’s biggest regret is blindly following orders in Ishval. Roy has his eyes set on becoming the Fuhrer and changing things. Roy is literally a genocidal war criminal who stages a coup from an ice cream truck and overthrows the military. And somehow Isaac is the traitor?

Roy is following orders because he has to in order to achieve his goal. He is putting on a loyal-to-the-military act and biding his time until he can admit to the world that Isaac was right. 

Er, that his ideals were.

See, Isaac is Roy’s elemental opposite. Isaac is water, Roy is fire. He is also Roy’s narrative foil. While Isaac’s plan lacked patience and was too rash to ever succeed, Roy’s plan has taken him and will take him years, and he has been extremely careful curating it. It’s ironic to me that the character associated with water would act more rashly and have less patience than the character associated with fire. That’s not to say that Roy doesn’t act rashly. Roy’s impulsiveness and vengeance-driven actions are some of his greatest setbacks as a character. 

But Roy is also intelligent and strategic in achieving his greater goals. His dependence is on his closest allies, while Isaac’s dependence is on a philosopher’s stone. And while the characters do not yet know the ingredients for stones in the first episode, Isaac’s use of one to accomplish his ultimate goal is what sets him apart from Roy and the Elrics. And yes, Roy does use a stone to regain his eyesight, but he does not depend on one during his coup. I would even argue that Isaac’s use of a philosopher’s stone could also be foreshadowing Roy’s eventual use of one in addition to foreshadowing the overall plot. It’s also important for us to see Isaac defeated in the first episode because it shows us that although philosopher’s stones remove the law of equivalent exchange, they do not make the user all-powerful. At the end of the day, the user can still be defeated.

Another difference between the two is how their limitations are presented in this episode. Isaac’s alchemy is unlimited because of the philosopher’s stone, but the first thing we learn about Roy Mustang’s alchemy is that he is limited by water. This leads me to the second point. 

Establishing Roy’s limitations in the first episode does a few things for us: 

First, it establishes that he is dependent on Riza and trusts her in his most vulnerable moments. That even though Riza knows how easily Roy can be overpowered, she still chooses to stay by his side, protect him, and help him accomplish whatever he sets out to do. 

Second, we get a peek at Mustang’s creativity and perseverance. His determination and intelligence is displayed in how he overcomes the limitations presented, and it makes us want to root for him. 

Third, it gives us some information as to how alchemy works. We see a few types of alchemy in this episode: Ed’s without a circle, Isaacs’s with a circle and elemental, Roy’s with his transmutation circle gloves and unique flame alchemy, and Major Armstrong’s forceful style. This helps us get an idea of the varying styles of alchemy, varying ways of how it can be used and manipulated, and the different forces that use it for their benefit or the benefit of others.

Lastly, it begins the “uselessness” theme. It tells us that even though Mustang is an extremely powerful alchemist, there are still things that he can’t control. That there are forces that can overpower him, and the best thing he can do is to get back up and try again until he accomplishes his goal. We also see Roy’s anger at those forces, the ones that render him unable to do anything. And we see him use that anger to fuel his alchemy and overpower them.

“The power of one man does not amount to much, but however little strength I am capable of... I’ll do everything humanly possible to protect the people I love, and in turn they’ll protect the ones they love. It seems like the least we tiny humans can do for each other.”

Roy Mustang, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

So You Liked (Or Didn't Like) Bridgerton

So you've read the Bridgerton series and loved it--or, for whatever reason, you tried to read them, they didn't work for you, but you're interested in reading historical romcoms nonetheless.

Historical romance is a subgenre of romance, but in itself there are further subgenres. There are the gambling hell romances--think Dreaming of You, or the Rules of Scoundrels series; there are Scottish romances, along the lines of The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie; there are lighter romances, darker romances, and so on and so forth.

Bridgerton falls into the "family saga" subgenre. It's also a lot lighter than many historical series, and additionally does not dedicate much time to historical accuracy (which is fine! I personally don't care much for accuracy in my historical series). It could be categorized as a "wallpaper historical" but.... That term is understandably controversial as it can be considered a bit demeaning. A lot of what I read is wallpaper (the idea of historical accuracy being more important than the reality) and I tend to prefer more emphasis on the relationships than the accuracy.

Certainly, Bridgerton is more of a ballroom series--the characters are largely upper class, the stakes are relatively low, and we do indeed spend a fuckton of time with the ton.

If you're looking for something romcom-y, if you're looking for ballroom, it can be hard to sort through the genres. That's why I'm building a list of series to look for if you're seeking that Bridgerton vibe without it being Bridgerton.

Love by Numbers by Sarah MacLean. This trilogy does indeed focus on a family--specifically three siblings, including the Marquess of Ralston, his twin brother, and their half-sister. But where I feel this gives that Bridgerton feeling is the humor that MacLean tends to flavor her books with, as well as the frothy ballroom-y setting of the first and third book in particular. Fans of Penelope Featherington might like Callie, the heroine of the first book, Nine Rules to Break When Romancing A Rake--a plus size heroine who goes after what she wants (though in my humble opinion, her hero fuuuuuuuuuuuuucks a lot harder than Colin Bridgerton). While book two gives us something of a cozier romance, book genderflips typical class divides a bit--giving us a rakish, illegitimate heroine and the uptight duke who's obsessed with her (despite himself).

The Wallflowers by Lisa Kleypas. It doesn't get much more ballroom--or seemingly ballroom--than four wallflowers agreeing to help each other land eligible husbands. The marriage mart is on overdrive in this classic series. You get a little bit of everything here--self-made heroes, upper class peers, American heiresses seeking lords, marriages of convenience. The girls aren't family (well, two of them are related, actually) but they feel like four sisters. Keep in mind, though, as a general rule: Kleypas heroes tend to run a bit grittier and a bit more threatening than Quinn heroes. Featuring one of the most influential historical romances of the past couple of decades, Devil in Winter--but take it from me and read these in order.

Girl Meets Duke by Tessa Dare. If you love the humor in the Bridgerton books, you have to read Tessa Dare. Her books are undoubtedly the funniest historical romances I've read. This ongoing series in particular focuses on women who, yes, run into dukes. Whether it's a duke who needs an heir, or a guy named Duke--one way or the other, they are duke-adjacent. Dare's sex scenes tend to get a lot more graphic than Quinn's, but these books are nevertheless perfect for quick, light reading.

The Rogue Files by Sophie Jordan. Sophie Jordan has everything: romcom retellings (While The Duke Was Sleeping), rogues galore, SEX POTIONS??? There's a bit of wackiness to her books, and I can't help but appreciate her willingness to go for it all. Her Debutante Files duology is a good companion series, and while the books don't necessarily follow a single family to the letter, there is a stepsibling romance in that series. So.... points?

The Hathaways by Lisa Kleypas. While Kleypas does write another family series, The Ravenels, I find The Hathaways to be far superior. Following five siblings after they stumble into the upper class by means of an unexpected inheritance, this series blends humor and high drama for the sake of romance. You get a little bit of everything--rake romances, childhood friend romance, bad boy romance, epistolary romance. The sense of family is really strong in this series, and while not every hero is a conventional lord (Kleypas loves a self-made man) the sense of wish fulfillment in this one is strong.

The Bedwyn Saga by Mary Balogh. If you like your romances to focus on family while being a bit lighter on steam and a bit heavier on classic froth, the Bedwyn Saga is for you. While these books can be a bit too heavy on high society for me at times, I would call them one of the closest cousins to the Bridgerton books. I'd be a bit shocked if Balogh and Quinn didn't influence each other on some level.

Fairy Tales by Eloisa James. An Offer from a Gentleman is literally a straightforward Cinderella retelling, so why not pick one of these up? Although they aren't related to each other in plot or characters, these books are all fairy tale retellings by way of historical romance. Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, The Princess and the Pea, The Ugly Duckling, and Rapunzel all get retold in this series. James is another one who I find really funny, while being something of a classic historical romance writer.

I plan on reading more and adding to this list as time goes on--but in general, I think these series kind of fall into some of the same general categories as Bridgerton. Happy reading!

Regarding Konaka’s influence on Tamers (or how much he actually didn’t have)

(Rest assured that if you’ve had a conversation with me recently about this issue, I’m not vaguing you; this conversation has come up a lot in the last few weeks, especially in my private chats, so this is just me deciding that I should write something about this for once since it’s been weighing on my head lately.)

I think, right now, with what happened regarding the DigiFes debacle, a lot of people are having complicated feelings about how to feel about Tamers, and this is completely understandable. I think there are also some things that may be inevitably unavoidable, such as starting to second-guess certain nuances in the series and what they might lead to. All of that is perfectly reasonable, and in the end, it’s going to be up to everyone to decide how they feel.

In light of this, a lot of people have been bringing up the fact that, while Konaka was the head writer, he was by no means the only person working on it. This is very much true, but I’d like to add something else to the equation: this is an issue that goes much deeper than the usual claiming death of the author for the sake of sanity. The full picture is that Konaka has always had much less influence on the series than the fanbase tends to attribute to him. Official statements have been very clear as to not attribute the entire series to him, and, among all the other controversial statements he’s made, Konaka himself has at least been very active about crediting the other staff members as far as their influence on the series! The idea that he was the only person who ever did anything substantial for Tamers is something I’ve been warning against since long before any of this happened (if you want proof, I have a post from April with this sentiment in it), and right now we just happen to be seeing what’s basically the worst possible outcome of the fanbase constantly worshipping him like the only real creative heart behind the series to borderline cult-like levels...when that’s never been true, and has resulted in unfairly taking credit away from people who deserved it.

I’ll go into detail below, and I hope this can help people understand the situation better and sort out how they feel about it.

Note that I make references to his infamous blog in this post, which I’m deliberately refraining from directly linking for obvious reasons, but all of the information is still there, so it should be verifiable if you decide to look for it yourself.

Personally, I’ve always found it really bizarre how there’s been this obsession with portraying Konaka as some kind of auteur whom the entirety of Tamers depended on. I’m not saying this out of spite towards him, because, again, even he himself was very insistent on disclaiming credit for things he wasn’t actually responsible for (he was quite humble in this respect, actually). Not to mention that I think it’s a mistake in general to constantly pin a single person in a multi-person production as the sole heart behind it, and the Digimon fanbase has historically had this strange double standard behind it when it comes to uplifting him as the only heart behind Tamers when nobody says that about any of the head writers for...anything else. (How many times has Nishizono’s name ever popped up when talking about Adventure? People are usually more obsessed with talking about Kakudou or Seki.) Konaka’s work is certainly distinctive, but Tamers had a lot more going on besides just that.

In fact, based on his own statements on the matter and all of the other official information we’ve gotten about Tamers production, while you can’t really quantify such things, it’s generally been estimated that Konaka was responsible for something like only a fourth of the series. Which is an incredibly low amount compared to what the fanbase would have told you before all of this happened, because of this fixation that he must be the genius mastermind behind the whole series. Not only that, this “brilliant auteur” image of him was so inflated that people were attributing way more of 02 to him than he deserved; 02 episode 13 was the only thing he contributed to the series and he was specifically brought on as a “guest writer”, and the overall plot of the episode was determined by the rest of the production staff and not him -- but ask the fanbase and they’ll tell you stories about how he invented some grand planned arc for 02 that got cancelled, or even that Tamers exists because of a “writer revolt” from him and other writers not being allowed to do what they wanted. (You know, as much as I understand 02′s a controversial series, it would be really nice if people didn’t make up completely baseless stories like this just to scapegoat it...)

I honestly cannot emphasize enough how much of the problem we’re in right now has been horribly enabled by the weird pedestal the fanbase has been putting him on. This is to the point where there’s even been a double standard where some of the more unpopular/criticized elements of Tamers must not have been the fault of a brilliant writer like him, and in fact was forced on him by the executives (this excuse had always been brought up anytime someone doesn’t like something about Tamers, just to make sure the image of him as a perfect writer was maintained). Turns out, as per his own admission on the infamous blog, while he wasn’t the one who initially had the idea of putting Ryou in, the part that rubbed the fanbase the wrong way -- that he came in as an accomplished senior who was better than everyone and played up by everyone in the cast -- was unabashedly his idea (he apparently was enamored with the idea of having someone like Tuttle from the movie Brazil). Again, this is a weird scenario where even Konaka himself has been more humble about this issue than the fanbase’s perception of him; he fully admitted whenever he had trouble writing certain parts. For instance, he doesn’t actually like writing about alternate worlds, felt they were out of his comfort zone, and only wrote in the Digital World because the franchise needs one; he’d stated that if he’d had his way, the Digital World arc wouldn’t have come in as early as it did, which might be a pretty shocking statement for a Digimon fan to hear.

If you want even more specifics, here are some extremely major parts of the series that Konaka was not actually the one behind:

The character backgrounds. Konaka stated on his blog that he wasn’t interested in going too much into character backstories because he felt it was too plot-limiting to say that a character is the way they are thanks to something in their past or background (basically, he cares more about plot than character for the most part), and that he’s also not into worldbuilding. Certain things like Ruki going to a girls’ school were supplied by Seki, who infamously loves worldbuilding, family backgrounds, and character settings.

Certain nuances of Ruki’s character, especially the part where she’s pigeonholed into uncomfortable places due to being a girl, were informed by Yoshimura Genki, writer from Adventure and one of the head writers of 02 (who eventually would go on to create an entire career out of feminist cinema).

According to the posts on his blog, Impmon’s character arc didn’t have much input from Konaka himself and was largely written in by Maekawa Atsushi (also a writer from Adventure and one of the head writers of 02).

The whole concept of Yamaki being redeemable in the first place was something Konaka didn’t originally plan for; he’d initially intended to make him a straightforward antagonist, but, of all things, his Christmas song, combined with the input of the other writers (especially Maekawa) humanizing him, led to the development where Yamaki eventually changed sides and became sympathetic. (This makes Konaka’s recent stunt revolving around Yamaki a bit painfully ironic.)

The director, Kaizawa Yukio, was deliberately picked because he didn’t have experience on the prior series, for the sake of changing things up, and he spent Tamers as a period of studying what Digimon should be like. Based on what he’s hinted, it seems Konaka's writing style and choices were able to have as much influence as they did because Kaizawa approved of them -- that is to say, Konaka’s detailed imagery and descriptions were extensive enough that Kaizawa could go “sure, let’s go with that.” But in the end, nothing Konaka did would have gone through unless Kaizawa and Seki (among many others) didn’t also approve of it or provide input. Moreover, Kakudou Hiroyuki (director of Adventure and 02) has also been stated many times to have been a valuable consultant on invoking Digimon so that the new staff could understand what to aim for and how to get the right feel (and also assisted with providing stuff for the mythos, such as the Devas). Nevertheless, Kaizawa also seems to have had his own strong opinions and input on the story; he especially seems to get passionate when it comes to the topic of making the story something the kids watching it could relate to and imagine. (He would eventually go on to direct Frontier and Hunters, along with several episodes of the Adventure: reboot.)

So in other words, looking at this, a lot of these things that people emotionally connected to and loved about Tamers are things that literally were not his personal creation, and were largely contributed by the other writers! Of course, Konaka’s “creator thumbprint” is very obvious -- he was the head writer, after all -- and all of this had to go through his own vetting to make sure he personally liked it as well -- but nevertheless, you can see that this very much was a collaborative effort from head to toe, with him being very open about this fact himself. Insisting on making sure that this fact is well-known isn’t just a coping mechanism to try and remove his presence in the series, but rather a desire to get people to seriously stop giving him credit that really should be going to others (especially since, again, even he himself was very diligent about assigning that credit).

In the end, I’ll leave you with another thing to keep in mind: Konaka doesn’t get paid anymore for Tamers work (unless they make something new like the DigiFes thing), so continuing to buy Tamers merch and supporting the series through fanart and such will probably end up going more towards the Digimon IP as a whole. Basically, if we’re just talking about Tamers specifically, what degree this is going to matter is only really relevant to the content in the original series, which is now twenty years old and remains unchanged. By Konaka’s own admission, he wasn’t into all of these conspiracy theories until 2010 at the earliest, so while it’s understandable to be a bit wary about the themes in Tamers having traces of the base sentiment, the original series itself does not seem to be an outlet for alt-right propaganda, and it’s probably forcing it a bit much to read into it that way. Konaka’s also repeatedly insisted that all of his attempts at a Tamers sequel have been rejected and that he’s been doing increasingly strange swerves to get around members of the original cast not entirely being available, and the Japanese audience has turned out to not be very fond of the contents of the 2018 drama CD and the stage reading for reasons entirely separate from the politics, so it’s also unlikely we’ll be getting a Tamers sequel from him or something in the near future.

So -- at least for the time being -- what’s done with him is done, and the remaining question is how all of us feel about Tamers. I think everyone will have differing feelings on it, and that’s perfectly understandable. Personally, given everything I just said above, I’m going to continue treating it as a series very important to me, and one that many people (including, as it seems, a very different Konaka from twenty years ago) worked on with a lot of effort and love, although you may see me getting a bit more willing to be critical about the series and its themes thanks to my concerns about some of the sentiments in it and what they imply. I also completely understand that there are probably people whose associations are going to be much more hurt and who will have a much harder time seeing the series the same way ever again, and I think that’s reasonable as well. But at the very least, going forward, I hope all of us can understand the depth of this situation, give credit where it’s due, and not force credit where it’s not due.