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quillthrillswriting · 1 month

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i think that by far, the most common zutara trope i've seen is zuko freeing katara from her unhappy marriage with the clingy, unappreciative aang.

i've always felt that that aang would genuinely worship the ground katara walked on and be exceedingly kind and respectful, and so i've always thought that this trope would make a lot more sense flipped, with aang in the position of being katara's safe space after zukko reverts back to his angry, sullen, lashing out persona that he was before uncle iroh & the gaang's involvement.

this fic is the result of me having the thought "might f around and write a kataang fic that flips the usual zutara trope of "zuko helps katara escape a failing relationship with aang" 😳"

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Zuko was all alone, heading an entire empire and facilitating the transition of his nation from a war-bringer to a force for peace. At first, she told herself that it was only because he had needed help that she chose to stay with him, but that wasn’t being entirely honest. After that play on Ember Island, all of the scenes where the two of them were in love had opened Katara’s eyes to the possibility, and try as she might, she couldn’t shut them again. And Zuko, after all that he’d sacrificed to help them, after redeeming himself in her eyes, even fighting alongside her, he had seemed like her best chance at home.

So she had stayed with him.

---

Zuko proposed, after just six months, but Katara thought little of the brief timeline. When you know, you know, right? He had given her his mother’s ring, and had her dress in Fire Nation colours for the ceremony. She had been under the impression that the wedding would be a welding of cultures, and so she had spent weeks painstakingly carving a traditional water tribe proposal necklace.

When she had presented it to him, Zuko had only said that a Fire Lord couldn’t be seen wearing another nation’s trinkets . She had quietly dabbed away her tears when he wasn’t looking.

---

The moon rose and set six more nights before Katara rose with it, slipping outside of the castle during the changing of the guard, draped in traditional water tribe colours for the first night in years. Before anyone had seen her, she had made it, slipping between Fire Nation homes almost silently. She only paused to pull clothes and a cloth head covering from a clothesline, silently apologizing to whatever family she had just stolen from. She tucked a couple of coins and a piece of gold jewellery into one of the pockets of the pants still on the clothesline, an attempt at making amends for her crime, then blended into the night again.

She hadn’t stopped moving until she’d finally found a small forest, then she’d made herself a bed of moss and curled up as if she was a child back on the tundra, pretending to be a sleeping snow fox alongside Sokka.

She missed her brother. She missed her home.

---

She knew where she would go once the cargo ship reached the land. The last location Aang had been in was the Western Air temple. So that was where she would go. If she needed to, to find Aang, she’d scour every inch of the mainland. She knew he would do the same for her. Which begged the question- why hadn’t he come to her when he began to feel that something was off?

It was that question that Katara started with, as she settled into a comfortable position on Aang’s woven rug, a cup of hot tea curling steam around her body that she absent-mindedly bent into shapes around her.

---

Aang sighed, looking away. “Katara, I hate to give you more reasons to feel distressed, but in case you hadn’t remembered, you told me to stay away. Told me my “juvenile crush” was ridiculous and made you uncomfortable. I felt awful, and so, I backed off. I kept sending letters every couple months, trying to make sure you were okay, but you told me you were too busy, and I respected that.”

Katara’s tone was unsettlingly neutral when she responded. “...What?”

Aang titled his head, confused. “You said, in your letters, that-”

She responded in that same tone. “What letters , Aang?”

♥ the rest of the (completed) fic can be found here!! ->

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fellthemarvelous · 4 months

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Holy forking shirtballs

I'm choosing violence today. I started this on Twitter, but I'm going to finish my thoughts here like I always do.

But what really blows my mind the most is the way that people look at Aziraphale's "choice" at the end, as if he had one to fucking begin with.

I'm sorry, but Aziraphale knows how messed up Heaven is. He told The Metatron, more than once, that he did not want to go back to Heaven! We can debate what each of us means by "choice" all night because my "choice" and your "choice" might be two different concepts. He could have been strong armed by The Metatron or he could have looked at where things were headed and realized he had no choice but to intervene himself.

You need to ask yourself what Aziraphale has a moral imperative to do.

What do we owe to each other?

Seriously, if you have not watched The Good Place, I recommend you go and watch it, because it absolutely shaped how I've viewed Good Omens 2 since its release.

My levels of frustration with the bad faith mischaracterizations of Aziraphale are off the charts. If you are blaming him for everything, implying that he should have to grovel and that Crowley has a right to hurt him back, you have missed the point of Good Omens entirely.

I defend Aziraphale, but I don't think one of them is more right or wrong than the other. They're equals. They're a group of the two of them, acting and reacting to each other throughout history. They're Alpha Centauri.

I cannot even begin to explain how fucking devastated I felt when Crowley said these words, knowing he was fighting a losing battle. What he said took a lot of courage because he's finally admitting something they've both been too scared to publicly define for 6,000 years. Crowley has had to spend so long with a rough outer shell because he fell and had to hide all of his softness.

The look on his face was one of pure joy when he created that nebula, but I think the fact that he got to share that moment with Aziraphale is what has always stuck with him.

So yeah, seeing Crowley with a broken heart at the end of "Every Day" was sad for me as well.

My brain still lives here!!

But Neil has said that Good Omens 3 is not quiet, gentle, or romantic. I imagine it's going to be more like the the first season in which they are not central to the plot. GO2 will help us make sense of how they ended up where they are when we see the bigger picture with all the other major players involved with GO3.

Aziraphale was still a soldier and accidentally got himself discorporated in his own magic circle in season one. He had a platoon waiting on him to start Armageddon, and he deserted them to go save the world with Crowley instead. Aziraphale is a deserter. I need everyone to remember that. He yeeted himself out of Heaven and sought out Crowley before even locating a body just to warn him about what was happening so they could try to save the world together.

I can't help but think of 1941 and that magician who had been arrested for being a deserter.

Aziraphale disobeyed orders. That took courage but it branded him as a traitor against Heaven. They tried to destroy him for it the same way Hell tried to destroy Crowley for his part in stopping the war.

Aziraphale and Job are the only characters we have seen interacting with God directly. Aziraphale has spoken to God before and he is determined to do so again.

Aziraphale knows Heaven is flawed, but he also knows it's supposed to be good. He wants it to be good. He does not like the way the system works and he wants to make a difference. (And I'm pretty sure he's also determined to talk to God without being intercepted by The Metatron.)

Since when is that a bad thing? I don't get it. And I've had this discussion before.

If you need to change the system by burning the old one to the ground, it's still change, and we don't know what Aziraphale has planned.

It seems to me that people just want to see Aziraphale fail because it would punish him for returning to Heaven instead of running off with Crowley.

Some of y'all take everything Aziraphale says or does and twist those things into malicious anti-Crowley actions because you think the only reason Aziraphale exists is to make Crowley happy, and if he isn't thinking only about Crowley then he's doing something wrong.

Aziraphale does not exist as a plot device to further Crowley's character. They come as a pair. They've been learning from each other for 6,000 years. Crowley challenges Aziraphale just as much as Aziraphale challenges him.

You can be mad at Aziraphale all you want, but villainizing him is gross. Defending Crowley does not mean you have to tear down and mischaracterize Aziraphale anymore than defending Aziraphale means you have to tear down Crowley (but I don't see that happen on nearly the same level it happens to Aziraphale). Stop painting Aziraphale as an abusive partner, for fuck sake.

Aziraphale knows there are flaws in the system. He wants to make a difference, and since he has seen that Gabriel can change, then maybe the whole system can. He has to at least try, and if he can succeed then maybe he and Crowley can stop hiding and finally be together without having to look over their shoulders all the time.

Why is that a bad thing? He's just as protective of Crowley as Crowley is of him!

But don't forget that Aziraphale's wing was covering Adam and Eve too. As much as a wants to protect Crowley, he has a moral imperative to keep humanity safe as well.

He sent Adam and Eve into the unknown with a flaming sword so they could protect themselves.

As much as he wants to be with Crowley, there are 8 billion people on Earth heading toward the Second Coming and Judgment Day. They'll work together to fight alongside humanity in the end. Aziraphale should not have to humiliate himself just to earn Crowley's forgiveness. That's a rancid notion.

The Resurrectionist was a whole ass moral dilemma for Aziraphale, which is why I brought up The Good Place earlier, but that's a post for a different time.

Aziraphale has his own motivations and they're just as important as Crowley's, and they don't have to be chalked up to Aziraphale being the bad guy. Weird, I know, but shades of grey.

"To the world."

#good omens #good omens 2 #aziraphale #crowley #aziraphale defense squad #yeah i'm being bitchy #no i don't care if you're offended #no i'm not interested in your aziraphale hate #i'm not interested in hearing takes about aziraphale being toxic from people who can't even be objective #some of y'all need to watch the good place because you need a lesson in moral philosophy #we should be able to have discussions about the characters without gross takes calling aziraphale abusive #az and crowley approach everything from wildly different perspectives because of where they are #just admit y'all shit on az because he doesn't look or act like crowley #I'm so done with the shitty aziraphale takes #they aren't even interesting enough to debate #they're just annoying

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mdhwrites · 22 days

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Honestly I personally believe Sasha Waybright character arc was better written and engaging than Hunter and Amity’s arcs combined mostly because there was more agency in her arc and while the other two characters who go from enemies to allies to friends just didn’t engage me as much as Sasha’s.

I’m especially dissatisfied with Hunter and how his story while interesting wasn’t as cool as it could’ve been

So I've talked a lot about this in the past but the angle I'll take this time is simple: Sasha is more compelling as a villain to ally arc because the show let her be a villain.

That might sound simple but it's clearly something TOH itself struggled with. One could argue that ALL of the redemptions in TOH follow a pattern of one bad action followed by them being tenuously on the same side and then on the same side. Amity is out of character for her first episode and then Luz is actually at fault for Covention, even if Amity takes it too far. Then Amity is weirdly antagonistic during Hooty's Moving Hassle and then NEVER AGAIN. Three episodes into knowing her and she is now the person we are supposed to sympathize and want around and her biggest crime feels entirely out of character for the rest of her portrayal.

Hunter is similar. His first appearance is not Hunter. It's the Golden Guard who is WAY more fun a character than Hunter ever was and kind of a bastard. Then the mask is removed in his second real appearance (not counting the stinger in Escaping Expulsion) and he is someone to start sympathizing and working with. He is the sad but mad boy by his third major appearance and his second appearance makes him somewhat sympathetic, just like Covention did for Amity... Or For the Future does for The Collector despite lines like "I can't wait to play amongst the bones!" in Hollow Mind that feel, drumroll please, OUT OF CHARACTER TO THE REST OF HIS WRITING!

Lilith is the only to subvert this... Kind of. No, they actually go out of order but still the same essentially with her. Her first appearance makes her sympathetic and not properly a threat because she's still willing to play ball with Eda for a one on one competition, then she spends the second half of S1 just palling around in shenanigans she should not be allowing but is because... Fuck you. Then we get her one truly evil action in kidnapping Luz, coupled also with having been the one to curse Eda but that's also used to show she's a good person now so the kidnapping is the bigger deal here. Then... She's just a good guy afterwards.

This all makes for the most shallow, bullshit uses of this trope I think you can do while being allowed to claim you did it. After all, a key point to all of these redemptions aren't "Then they sided with the good guys," it's just "Then they're a good person." They don't bring who they were as a villain with them. The strengths that led to their villainy are just gone and they're hard to say what they were in the first place, what they add to the narrative in their redemption and joining of the main party because who were they before they joined. What are they actually fighting against as a person instead of just deciding not to be evil anymore or wanting the cookies that the light side offers?

It'd be like if after Sasha was redeemed, she was as bad as Anne at being able to lead and use people. If the show went "To better erase all the crimes she's done, not only will we say Sasha only is a bad person because her father is Ultra Satan but also she now is entirely incompetent in what she was good at before." Amity loses her intelligence. Her plans are always the most straightforward after she starts getting a crush on Luz and she canonically started having her grades slip. Hunter is the most pathetic character in the main cast with I think zero wins in his belt besides his first appearance despite being the only one with combat training. Lilith is just... Sad in how much they reduce all she was for over forty years of her life to go "Now she's a silly nerd girl. Fuck ambition."

And, of course, their bad sides being blamed on mother, uncle, mother kind of for Lilith actually, just that the exposition for that comes after her redemption, and the Archivists and Belos for the Collector. They aren't bad people, they just were forced to spend time with the wrong people. Now that they're nerds and led by nerd Jesus, everything is okay.

There is a VEEERY real problem in TOH of Us vs. Them mentality that comes from these arcs that's really gross. Swap Luz to a white, male jock and suddenly the show becomes WAY MORE UNCOMFORTABLE!

Sasha dodges all of this because no one tries to excuse Sasha. Sasha never tries to pretend she's anyone other than who she is except for when she's explicitly putting on an act. This means everything compelling and good about her as a villain can cleanly transition to when she is a hero, even if it's hard to believe that which the show even calls out.

There is no Sasha's Angels in TOH. That might be a weird one to reference to you because it doesn't include much Sasha but it nails on the head what makes this trope so exciting. To Anne, Sasha letting others do the work while she gets to theoretically kick back looks like the same old Sasha that she now is suspicious of. Someone who is self serving and so Anne lashes out. However, it's not the case. Sasha's ability to manipulate always came from being able to read a person's weaknesses and strengths. She's a MUCH better manipulator than Belos in this way because she doesn't leverage on you or for you to already be siding with her. She can read you like a book and tear apart your pages until she plays with your spine. And as a hero, that's going to mean she's a great delegator. She's the sort who would go "Nah, we don't need to save them from what you see as certain doom. I know he can deal with it." And she's right. Not because of blind faith but because of the same skills that made her villainous.

Something that wouldn't hit nearly as hard, or feel reasonable on Anne's part, if we didn't get so many examples of this being who Sasha is. Of the fact that Sasha uses other people for her own means. And even now, you can claim the same... Except it's not for her means. It's for their needs.

It actually is part of what makes her becoming a therapist so pitch perfect. A good therapist can call you out when you're trying to hide behind something to not get to the core of your problems. They can catch what is at the root of your issues even as you don't see it yourself. They also can see your value and use your strengths to help combat those problems after helping you identify them. It's actually pretty close to how she tried to get out of Toad Tower in her first appearance. Bring in someone, earn their trust, use their passions against their weaknesses and make them better. The only difference is that now she cares about making them better.

Amity, Hunter and Lilith could never have such a satisfying future because again: What are their strengths? Hell, post redemption, that statement stands true. You can call Amity good at magic I guess but Hunter and Lilith are pathetic people who kind of luck out in being useful at times and that's really it. These aren't people who have anything going for them. They're as good as goons with one of them being an elite in a one off episode as far as villain forces go and that's not very compelling for a redemption of this sort. Not unless you're really going to get into that and A: Lilith was one of the strongest mages on the Isles and studied her ass off so you'd think she'd mocked less for sucking at her job and being a fucking moron and B: they didn't even try for half a second with Hunter who I don't really know if they intended to make look as pathetic as he did skill wise.

So their futures are just random factoids introduced during the story. Does Amity being an inventor say anything about her redemption? No. In fact, it really sucks because Odalia would have LOVED her daughter to follow in her father's footsteps because that's the most profitable option for their company. Good job show. Hunter just takes up the job that connects him with the only thing we know is explicitly Caleb related, no conjecture needed, which sucks for a character who was supposed to be his own person. Then Lilith is... A historian. Because she likes that I guess. Does that have anything to do with her time as the coven head? No. Her ambitions? GOD NO. It's just a random choice that puts her in line with the inoffensively nerdy cast.

And before ANYONE says anything about the shortening, I want to say I've done a blog comparing the fact that Amity, in S2A (so before the shortening) has as many appearances as Sasha does in Sasha's entire redemption arc. You didn't need more time to do this better, the show needed to actually commit to its concepts. Actually needed to be willing to do its tropes rather than slapping it on for marketability and to make lazy analysts happy.

Because enemies to allies is not one of those tropes you can half ass. Not unless you want none of its power and boy, these are some weak character arcs. At least we've got Sasha.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#amphibia #sasha waybright #the owl house criticism #toh critical #amity #Hunter #Lilith

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daenerysies · 4 months

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someone sent me an anon ask about the anti rhaenyra agenda most rhaenicent shippers have and like a dumbass i accidently deleted it so i'm just going to try my best to re-answer it here (yes i wrote a whole spiel about it and now it's gone forever and i'm upset.)

from what i can tell there are only two reasons as to why people can't stand rhaenyra but love rhaenicent; and it's because they either have some heavy internalized misogyny OR that's the only way to continue and keep their uwu sad lesbian alicent headcanons semi-tethered in reality. alicent is a character that has next to no positive interactions with other characters, least of all any women. she has a 'good' (and i say that lightly) relationship with rhaenyra for 2 episodes in hotd, and then they are adversaries for the rest of the show. the only other women we see her interact with are helaena and her lady in waiting talya ( who regularly spied on her for mysaria) and minus talya, those are the same female relationships she has in f&b. she doesn't really have a good track record with anyone.

in the book she terrorized rhaenyra from aegon's birth up until rhaenyra's death. rather than teaching her son to rule and raising him to be an upstanding prince of the realm she instead spent her time calling rhaenyra, a literal child, a slut, she accepted criston into her service as her own personal protector in spite of his predatory behavior towards rhaenyra (which she acknowledges), and continuously tries to have rhaenyra and her sons disinherited and killed due to her own spreading of the bastard rumors. not to mention that she was eighteen when she married viserys to rhaenyra's nine. there's really nothing romantic about it. in the show almost everything is still the same except for her being the one to arrange helaena's marriage to her known degenerate and rapist son (in f&b viserys is the one who had them marry) and most likely told her the same rhetoric of rhaenyra killing them to secure her claim that she told her sons from when they were babies up until the coup. with rhaenyra she still antagonizes her because she (lemme check again, told alicent she didn't sleep with daemon and got otto fired because he was working against the crown to install his grandson as heir over her). don't even get me started on the villainization of rhaenyra in order to uphold alicent's constant victimization storyline. alicent is the one who abused rhaenyra, not the other way around, and the age changes in the show (which are so stupid omg) only serve to make alicent more sympathetic and rhaenyra an apparent privileged brat who doesn't understand what it's like to suffer because of the men in her life and therefore deserves her fate (i can literally see the entire galaxy with how far back my eyes are rolled rn.)

if the show wanted to include or focus on two women who were torn apart by the patriarchy and the men around them, helaena's blank character was right there for the taking (and would've been even juicier with the sister vs sister, queen consort vs queen regnant debacle.) she has no personality in the book or any relevance besides losing her children in violent ways and going mad, they definitely could have made her a more present character on screen in a manner that adds an actual emotional connection to her but alas, rhaenicent is top priority. furthering that, if the show wanted to include queer representation with their leading lady, laena had more hints in the text for that type of relationship than anything the show has given us for the rhaenyra/alicent dynamic, even with how hard they're trying to force it down our throats.

the entire relationship has made the story go completely off kilter because the show won't just let it be, and it's affected almost all of their other relationships. they're not going to convince me that rhaenyra cares about alicent more than her own children or even vice versa (though in an entirely different manner) and that reconciliation is possible in spite of aemond murdering luke. it makes both the characters and the writers look like delusional idiots. there's absolutely no reason for these types of glaring mistakes in a series where characterization and the relationships that revolve from them are the reason it's so popular amongst the masses. this lack of proper relationship building has caused hotd to feel a lot more shallow and lackluster than what you'd expect with how massive it's budget was when they created it, the amount of talented actors they casted, and the literal blueprint laid out of what not to do that got season eight is. someone should have taken accountability for these dumb decisions and realized how quickly they're streamlining straight towards what ruined game of thrones in the first place.

#f&b #hotd #hotd critical #rhaenyra targaryen #pro rhaenyra #helaena targaryen #laena velaryon #anti alicent hightower #anti criston cole #anti aegon ii targaryen #anti viserys i targaryen #anti rhaenicent #faye answers #anonymous #whoever you are i'm sorry

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glade-constellation · 5 months

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“We’re going to literally spell out why the bad guy is bad, and how to help them, but do nothing about it because they are Bad Guy™️ and bad guys can’t change.”

The current running theme for every single fucking villain in TSAMS. A running theme I viscerally hate with my entire being. I think KC was the only one to escape this, but even then they just killed him off later.

For a show that seems to want to handle sensitive and heavy topics, they sure as hell never handle them well. Listen, if a majority of your audience is young teens, you need to be careful with the story you tell and what might be taken from it. TSAMS is teaching its audience that bad people will never change.

That’s just not true. At all.

Often people who act out do so because of past trauma. Trauma can be healed with time and therapy. Yes, it’s difficult, especially when the person says they don’t want to heal. But you can do it. Did you know that rejecting help can be a subconscious survival tactic? It doesn’t instantly mean that the person wants to be bad, or wants to stay bad. They are simply living in survival mode, and their brain thinks the way they currently act is the only way to survive.

Just because Bloodmoon says they can’t be helped doesn’t mean it’s true. And it definitely doesn’t mean they immediately deserve death. Yes, they have done terrible things, but nearly everything they’ve done has been ordered of them by another person. That, or their coding. The coding may be a harder thing to fix, but listen. Look at your current cast. You can’t tell me Moon and Solar couldn’t work together to fix it. Or Earth couldn’t help them with therapy and they’d eventually turn to killing just animals. There are so many ways Bloodmoon could be helped, but no. Just no. They don’t want to be helped, so we won’t go out of our way to try.

It’s just so unbelievably frustrating that several fans have pointed this out and the show doesn’t seem to care. Bloodmoon has room to be redeemed, even now, but the show doesn’t want that. They seem to be stuck on this idea the Bloodmoon can’t be redeemed.

And it’s not like this is a new theme they’re trying to tell for the story. No, this has been around since Eclipse. Yes, Sun and Moon did try to help Eclipse in the beginning, but help is a strong word. It was more like they tried to bargain with him. No one actually tried to help. And the moment the bargaining didn’t work, they just dubbed him the villain and turned against him. In the end, Eclipse tried to help. It was pretty terribly done, yeah. But he was trying. He even gave up his one piece of power and told Moon he could send him anywhere in the multiverse. But no, the only way out was through death. I get that Eclipse did a lot of terrible things. I get that a large majority of the cast had their own trauma because of Eclipse. But he could have been helped. We have seen moments where he wanted help, but would immediately turn back to his survival tactics. Eclipse was bad, but he didn’t have to die.

Anyways, they already taught the “villains always bad” story with Eclipse. They don’t need to retell it with Bloodmoon. That’s just reusing old parts of the story.

The only reason I don’t bring Ruin up is because Ruin was different from all the others. There wasn’t anything that made him a villain besides the fact that he was a virus. There was no “sad backstory”. He just was evil. That is how you write a villain you want your audience to love but still want to kill off in the end. Ruin was fun to watch, and a great villain, and I wasn’t mad when they got rid of the virus. I was attached but not at the emotional level as I am with Eclipse, KC, and Bloodmoon. He had no backstory to make me want him to live. I love a villain that is enjoyable to watch but don’t mind when they’re gone. That is how you write a good villain you don’t want people to riot about afterwards.

This has just turned into me ranting about storytelling and character analysis, but honestly. TSAMS. Do better. A good portion of your fan base is screaming for a Bloodmoon redemption. Why are you pushing so hard for people to hate them? You’ve already told the plot line you’re currently trying to sell. What is the point of just upsetting your fans?

#🌟 Ten Talks #tsams #sams #the sun and moon show #sun and moon show #tsams bloodmoon #tsams eclipse #tsams killcode #tsams ruin #long post #not super long but long enough

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aerascreamer · 2 months

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After seeing posts about who’s right between Jason and Bruce, I’d say there’s really no definitive answers to this dilemma.

Batman has the status of a « hero ». Heroes at their core are characters who inspires and embodies important values.

For him, it’s resilience. For him, It’s defiance. It’s putting his life on the line for innocents. It’s looking at crime, violence and darkness right in the eyes and say : no. It’s becoming a beacon in the deepest night.

And it’s sad for me that this aspect is seen as bad. That He’s criticized so much for not wanting to kill when he devoted his entire life against it. That killing is an acceptable answer. That’s he’s criticized for choosing life and investing in infrastructures to rehabilitate and help people in needs (victims AND criminals who wants to turn their life around). He’s the only hero that is frowned upon for incarcerating instead of murdering.

Batman comics have a darker tone than others, but that doesn’t he should become some kind of anti-hero like the Punisher. On the contrary: being in such a dark environment and not falling into it is a testament to his strength of mind.

He should be respected for going against the cycle of violence and bloodshed while offering second chances to those who need it.

Jason as Robin saw the magic in the mantle and the chance to make the world better.

But all his hopes and dreams were killed by the Joker. A man his mentor and father has been fighting for years already and who killed hundreds.

When he learned that the Joker was still alive, it’s a slap in the face of everthing. He lived to try and make the world better. He grew up in the most ruthless part of Gotham and still hoped for the best. He died at the hands of evil incarnate. He died while saving his mother you betrayed him. He died believe in Bruce’s mission.

And it didn’t matter. Gotham didn’t change. The Joker is still killing. So many victims and their close ones are crying. And there’s a new kid who believes in Batman like he did once.

For him, there needs to be more. Every system in Gotham is failing. The cops are corrupt, Arkham and BlackGate aren’t prison at all, rapist are still running free, people are forced to turn to crime or sell themselves because of poverty while scumbags profit of off their misery. Many people had second chances. Even third and fourth. But they are unredeemable and a threat to innocent people with only one option left: execution.

In the end both have points and both do fail:

Batman is choosing a non lethal approach to be a beacon, a symbol, a protector. People in Gotham can see there’s someone looking out for them. There’s still good people out there wanting to do the right thing and willing to help you turn your life around.

But some people aren’t good. Some benefits or take pleasure at others suffering and will never take the olive branch to redemption. And those people still walk free. The structures that are supposed to contain or stop those people are failing and letting crime breed.

Red Hood’s will to get his hands dirty to make Gotham safer by taking out the cruelest of the criminals. People who lived in fear of the bigger fish can sleep in peace. People who lived in pain can finally get retribution and move on. He makes sure the weak and vulnerable are being protected and put an end to their abuse.

But killing can’t be undone. If Red Hood made an error of judgment or mistook the wrong target, then he might have shot an innocent person. Unless he personally saved them or made their lives better, citizens will fear RedHood and not see him any better than Two-Face.

As much as I like Jason and Bruce reconciliating, it’s impossible. Batman can’t let Red Hood and let him kill. Red Hood will never believe again in Batman’s way. Batman letting someone kill freely and Red Hood not killing are in anti-thesis of their character.

Either canon make Jason break his principles or fanon break Bruce’s principles in order for them to be father and son again.

The best they’ll get is teaming up out of necessity and putting their differences aside temporarily to save people. But that truth will only end in a fight

Bruce will never be the father Jason needs. Jason will never be the son Bruce knew.

They long for each other.

They love each other.

But there’s no going back to being family.

And, as bittersweet as it is, that’s how the things are now.

#dc #batman #bruce wayne #dc comics #jason todd #batfam #dc red hood #red hood #character analysis #rambles

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thekingofwinterblog · 7 months

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The Problem With Yasopp

So like many people I was genuinely surprised by Netflix One Piece, adaption, which turned out the exact opposite of pretty much every single travesty that america has made when adapting Manga and Anime.

It certainly was not without flaws, for one thing it needed to be at least 3-5 episodes longer in order to fix it's pacing issues if it wanted to get all of East Blue into one season, and the fight scenes while very well choreographed, didn't exactly sell me on the superhuman strength of most of these characters.

However, there was one thing that genuinely pissed me off, in large part because the american adapters changed something they didn't like, in order to fit "western sensibilites" and in doing so, completely missing the point, and frankly tragedy of the original context.

That of course, is the character of Usopp's relationship with his parents Yasopp and Banchina, and the rather sad tale of plans going completely arry due to twists of fate.

In the west, the character of Yasopp has been a rather contentious one, for several reasons, but also one that has been a bit altered by the changes from Japanese to English.

Yasopp is critiqued heavily by people who don't like him for abandoning his kid, and his wife to seek adventure on the high seas. Now this is not untrue, but there is a bit of context here that's a bit lost in translation.

And you can really tell that, because the way Netflix portrays Yasopp leaving is the surface level one you might get if you just read Syrup Village arc, and you don't pay any attention at all to the timeline given.

In the neflix series, it's explicitly said that Yasopp left Usopp and his mother while Usopp was still a baby. That is such a common reading, that it's actually what the One Piece Wiki claims happened(Another example of why you should always be critical of Wiki's).

The actual Manga tells a different story.

Yasopp left Syrup village right before Banchina unexpedetly got sick with the disease that ultimatly killed her.

When Usopp is so touchy against Kuro about him badmouting his father, it's not in the context of him idolizing some father he never met, because Usopp and Yasopp knew and loved each other dearly. Usopp's wish to see his dad again isn't some wish to meet the father he only knows through stories, but to reconnect with the dad he loved so much growing up and was sad when he left.

And then of course there is the glory of mistraslation. If you've read this part of the manga, you might rightly be wondering, what sort of woman would be proud of the man who abandoned her to take care of their kid while he sought adventure.

The answer, which the english translation does not give, is a woman who was the one to convince him to go out on that journey in the first place.

Because that is what happened in the orignal manga. It was Banchina, for reasons we don't fully understand or have the context for, eho convinced her husband to go out and seek his dreams.

That's the reason why she is so certain Yasopp will NOT be coming home, but why she is also not bitter about it. She was the one who encouraged Yasopp to go out to sea, while she stayed home and took care of their kid, until he grew old enough to care for himself, and seek the seas himself if he wished.

The story of Yasopp, Usopp and his wife is a genuine tragedy, but not because Yasopp abandoned Usopp before he ever got to know him, but because Usopp's parents made plans for the future, that while not perfect by any stretch, seemed workable enough... only for the entire thing to come crumbling down after Yasopp left due to something as mundane as a random disease.

One can certainly make an argument that this was NOT the best course of action for Yasopp and Banchina to take, but it's not the complete deadbeat dad who abandons his baby trope that the Netflix series portrays it as.

Further hammering in that this was a bit more complicated than that, Yasopp seems to have been one of the very first crew members Shanks tried to recruit, having sought him out not long after Roger died... And Yasopp seems to have flat out rejected him, as he stayed with Banchina for years and years afterwards.

It adds a lot of context to the idea that Banchina was the one who ultimately convinced Yasopp to go out and chase his dreams while she took care of the kid... Because it took years and years for it to ultimately conclude at this course of action. Yasopp would continue to reject Shanks offer to join him for years to instead to take care of his wife and kid, until about a year before Shanks met Luffy, when his wife told him to go.

It's a hell of a lot more nuanced and interesting than what Netflix did, that's for damn sure.

#one piece #yasopp #usopp #banchina #meta #netflix #red haired shanks #timeline #adaption

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thrashersasuke · 6 months

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i rlly do think i’m fully entering back to my 2018-2019 naruto extreme hyperfixation phase where i am on the point of being like a little crazy about it maybe a lil delusional (fr) but it actually makes me shake with anger when ppl completely don’t understand wtf i’m saying especially about sasuke. like the whole post was about how the land of the waves arc was a SET UP to SHOW LATER ON how sasuke is a character who is COMPLETELY ABOUT LOVE. the love for his clan and family drives him to orochimaru, not hate. it’s the entire point why he leaves to kill itachi. because he Loves his family and clan, and itachi implemented that in order to get revenge on him would to live in hatred. maybe he hated his brother (valid obviously) but the whole reason he is suffering from such tremendous sadness and loneliness and grief and why he Feels So much about itachi is because of the love he HAS for family clan etc (even itachi..) love as a central point of his character is shown when he doesn’t kill naruto in vote1. sasuke knows that the one way (according to itachi) to get the power to kill him is to kill his best friend and sasuke Doesnt. he Can’t and actively tries not to. leaving in the middle of the night, trying to make naruto go away at the very beginning. he doesn’t want to leave the leaf he doesn’t want to leave naruto specifically but he feels like he has to. and this carries into the other point being besties with orochimaru…? WHEN?????????? he is manipulated from the very first time orochimaru sees him. he gives him the curse mark because he knows he wants to kill itachi. when orochimaru and kabuto say that they have to separate naruto and sasuke cuz “the nine tails boy is changing sasukes heart and mind”. when he sends his sound ninja after sasuke in the end of naruto. sasuke is so distraught about leaving team 7 and the last push is when the sound ninja like beat him up and are basically like “u want power right? to kill YOUR BROTHER right???” and he goes. he’s manipulated by powers outside of his control, he’s 13!!!! and even then. LIKE SHIPPUDEN?? WHEN HE LITERALLY TELLS OROCHIMARU HE DOESNT NEED HIM ANYMORE and that what orochimaru does to ppl and what he was going to do to him DISGUSTS HIM “i don’t like your style, you sicken me” ?!?!? HOW IS THAT BESTIES he KILLS orochimaru. ig they team up later on, but that’s only when orochimaru is “different” (i hate orochimaru still but whatever) and sasuke doesn’t gaf because his goal is to see if he should really destroy the leaf village because uhhhhhh like. well they committed a genocide against his entire people and have actively ostracizing them and oppressing them basically since tobiramas term as hokage so like. do i even need to explain how sasuke was completely right in his hatred for the leaf? for the “peace” everyone was so blissfully (and ignorantly) living in was from the massacre of an entire group of ppl SASUKES PEOPLE. like DO I NEED TO REALLY TALK ABOUT HOW ALL HIS FEELINGS AND THOUGHTS ABOUT THAT ARE 100% JUSTIFIED? i won’t cuz it’ll make this post super long (more than it already is) but yeah. OMFG. DONT SPEAK ABOUT SASUKE IF YOU DONT UNDERSTAND HIM especially not on my posts IDGAF IM CRAZY

#anyway.#my post

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engie-the-profit · 10 months

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worst popular infinite headcanon?

oh my. this one got long so im going to spare peoples dashes by putting this under a cut haha

anyways my answer is: making him out to be a little crybaby who is driven purely by revenge and sadness to make the world pay for shadow killing his squad mates, whom he loved in a normal way and saw them as family or whatever. it makes his character so goddamn flat and boring bc thats such a standard villain motivation, and it entirely strips away a lot of his personality even when theres already so little to work with LMAO

i know ive spoken about it at length in the dog&hog server but to me, infinites most notable trait is that hes selfish

in the prequel comic rise of infinite (yay, prequel comic talk. everyones favourite, i know) he deliberately ignores any protests from his gang against accepting eggmans deal of working with him, because eggy singles him out and offers him a place at his side to bring his fantasy of ruin into reality. not infinite and his crew, just infinite

(image has two comic panels. in the first one, eggman is reaching a hand out to infinite as he says "now you are an interesting guy. i like you. how about i hire you to lead my forces? together we'll take over the world!" in the second panel, one of the jackal squad members says "boss! dont be tempted by him. we'll be fine!")

and infinite says yes after briefly talking about how he personally feels bored and tired of how the world is right now

(image has two panels. in the first, infinite is mumbling to himself, first laughing and then saying "interesting. all this time ive been going through the motions. ive actually grown quite tired of the world as it is." in the second panel he stands and says "lets do it doctor! i'll help you change this world!")

again, its a decision based off an entirely personal and individualistic opinion that only takes his own feelings into account. you would think that if he valued his squad to the extent that they were "like family" to him, he would have listened when they said he shouldnt make a deal with eggman. if he actually cared about them as much as he cared about himself, he would have trusted them enough to say no. instead he only thinks about what he wants and what he can get, not about what will happen to the others

ive always been of the opinion that infinite used his squad and position of authority as their leader to prop himself up and viewed them more like underlings or subjects that he could order around and be superior to, rather than equals whose opinions and input he valued. maybe he started out having more camaraderie with the other jackals, but it certainly doesnt show by the time we get to the events of the prequel comic, and even less so when we get to episode shadow/the main game

the idea that he saw his squad more like tools to make himself look better than people also makes more sense because when in episode shadow, eggman calls infinites squad "useless" directly to him and all infinite says is "yeah, yeah" in a very uncaring fashion. even when he then spots shadow and says "you.. you destroyed my squad!" its entirely unconvincing to me that he said it out of sorrow or sadness; to me it was more like simple anger that it happened. because now without his little group of followers that looked up to him and did whatever he told them to, he had nobody to feel superior to. he couldnt go on any more power trips by being The Boss bc there was nobody left to indulge him, no one to stoke his ego, nobody to be the boss of. so thats why he felt slighted by shadow in the first place; how dare this hedgehog take away what made him feel special and important. and then of course the ensuing humiliation that came afterward was just the icing on the shit cake haha

it also explains why infinite never brings up his squad in any of his monologues (besides the prequel comics and episode shadow being obvious afterthoughts to the main game loool); he just doesnt care. if anything, their loss was his gain bc it pushed him towards acquiring the phantom ruby and getting to go on the ultimate power trip of world domination and near total subjugation of the population. i think that also ties into his mindset that friends make you weak and you cant rely on anyone but yourself; in his case, thats literally true. if he hadnt lost his squad, if he had initially listened to them, the chain of events we know well would not have come to pass and he would not have gotten to become the powerhouse he did. he would have still been leading his monotonous life and following the same old script. from his perspective they really did hold him back, and only once they were gone was he able to become stronger. he reiterates this by thanking shadow in the dlc for doing what he did in mystic jungle (killing the jackal squad and kicking infinites ass) bc otherwise he wouldnt have gotten the incentive he needed to take on the mantle of becoming a super powered weapon

and if you want some more evidence thats admittedly a lot more of a stretch, you could also interpret infinite creating a posse of past sonic foes as him filling the void of using the jackal squad that was created after shadow had taken them down. he gets to control people again (even if theyre clones that had no choice but to obey him but nyeh i told you it was a stretch), he gets to be a leader again

idk, i just think that having a sob story as a main motivation is (funny joke here) weak. i have never once thought that infinite needs to have some kind of sympathetic or tragic backstory. and maybe thats just my own personal bias coming through bc i prefer villains that are evil for reasons like their moral philosophies or have some kind of goal that makes the audience go "maybe they do have a point tbh" and villains that are just evil for the sake of it over villains that say "my mom died" as if that is any kind of justifiable explanation. imo it almost always comes off as them making an excuse, and its lame. just own it, yknow?

so yeah if i could block one thing from the minds of infinite fans it would be the hc that infinite was tightly knit with the jackals and wanted what was best for them. bc with all the evidence ive seen, its not supported at all, and hes actually the exact opposite; he does what he wants and uses who he wants for his own purposes and gain

also yes i do think shadow straight up killed the other jackals and i do think thats in character for him but thats a conversation for another day

#he said ask #bitter-sweet-coffee #engie.txt #infinite the jackal #sonic forces #sth #jackal squad #as with every opinion i have #remember that this is just that. an opinion #idc what anyone else does #if you want infinite to sob over losing his besties then fine #but dont act like its the most reasonable and backed up interpretation of canon #bc the evidence simply isnt there #im more than happy to enjoy canon all by myself #sitting alone in my i-love-respecting-canon corner

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quillthrillswriting · 1 month

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this one's for all the kataang shippers that got a little sad every time they saw absolute husband aang slander in a zutara fanfic.

OR: the common zutara trope of "zuko helps katara escape an unhealthy relationship with aang" is flipped entirely and completely on its head.

...

The liveliness of this mountaintop temple was nothing like the cold quiet that she had felt in Zuko’s castle these last few years. After she and her friends had saved the world, ending the Fire Lord’s reign, Katara had found herself at a crossroads. Although it made the most sense, she couldn’t bring herself to return back home, to the Southern Water Tribe. The memories were… too much.

Sokka had extended an offer for her to join him at the Northern Water Tribe, where he planned to find a teacher to aid him in mastering the traditional non-bending fighting styles of their people, but Katara just couldn’t bring herself to go back there, either. Toph and Aang were both headed to reconstruct important cultural monuments destroyed during the war, including the Air temples. She had considered coming with them, she really had, but ultimately… she made a different choice.

...

So she had stayed with Zuko.

Through his breakup with Mai, she had been the one he came to.

Through his first year as the Fire Lord, she was at his side. Attended every meeting, talked through his ideas, dragged him out to social events when he felt so in over his head that he would sit paralyzed in his room. That closeness had turned into something else the first night that he had kissed her.

...

And after what felt like years of quiet complacency and mild agreement, Katara felt her temper awaken, flicker. She calmed herself, reasoned that she didn’t know what he was doing with them. He could be checking for threats on her life, for poison sealed into an envelope. She held fast onto that tiny scrap of belief that he was still the man she had married, trusted, loved and been loved by.

Until that last thread of hope and trust was pulled taunt and then snapped entirely when Katara slipped into his office and found them.

There were entire drawers of letters with her name on them.

...

Her attention drifted to the bottom of the bag. To Aang's scrolls. The ones she still hadn’t let herself read.

...

Katara,

How’s the fire palace? Started any underground dance clubs yet? I guess they’d be pretty tricky to start right under the nose of the new Fire Lord. Is Zuko adjusting well? I’m a bit worried about the burden of dismantling an entire empire falling squarely on his shoulders. Do you think I should head back, stick around for some peacekeeping? Give me any reason to come to be with you help, and I will.

Yours, Aang.

...

(Fire Lady) Katara,

I heard by word of mouth from a few Fire Nation travellers that passed through the Western Air Temple that you and Zuko had gotten married. Congratulations are in order, of course, but… Sokka, Toph, your dad and I never got our invitations. Was it a Fire-Nation-only event, or something? Your dad is pretty broken up about it. Sokka and I tried to console him, but he’s fairly upset, and honestly? I’m worried about you, Katara. This doesn't seem like you. You don’t sound like yourself.

Yours, always, Aang

...

She selected a third scroll, dated only a month before.

Katara,

I can’t deny that I’m concerned about how you’re doing. Especially considering that the Katara I know would never shut down every single opportunity to see her friends. We don’t mean to be overbearing, but we love you. So much. If all the new duties that come with being wife to the Fire Lord are too much, please, please, talk to any of us. Talk to me. I care about you, Katara, I always have, and I miss my best friend.

Forever yours, Aang.

Katara slid the scroll closed before her tears could drop onto it, and she quietly packed the papers away. She reached up, rubbing those tears away furiously the way she did as a child whenever Sokka called her a crybaby. The attempt to hold the tsunami of emotion back was fruitless. She doubled over, shoulders shaking with sobs.

She knew where she would go once the cargo ship reached the land.

♥ the rest of the (completed) fic can be found here!! ->

youtube

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jade-gemstone · 9 months

Text

Why I think Eden is probably definitely the Mastermind of drdt

Spoilers for everything up to Chapter 2 Episode 11 in DRDT and all of the cannon games (especially V3)

So, I've made quite a few fangan concepts in my time and think I know how to make pretty good mastermind characters. There are a lot of general patterns I've noticed with Eden that make me think that she's a mastermind.

I'm going to start with my weakest evidence and work up to my strongest evidence.

Weakest Evidence (basically just minorly suspicious shit that might have no basis)

She is the first person Teruko meets besides Xander

This one may seem random, but if I recall correctly, in V3, Tsumugi is the first character besides Shuichi that Kaede meets in the prologue. If Eden were to be the Mastermind, it would be an interesting parallel.

Her ultimate is based in proficiency with complex machinery and attention to detail

When building a mastermind character, giving them these traits through their Ultimate makes it easier to explain the construction and maintenance of the monobots and how to game happens without that much going wrong.

The Game and in universe show is called 'Despair Time'

A game called Despair Time with an ultimate clockmaker mastermind just sounds right to me. Also could be clever foreshadowing.

Medium Strength Evidence

Starting drama with Arei in chapter 1

Not 'inviting' Arei to the baking thing in chapter 1, while presented as an accident, also brought out the worst in Arei. It also started the chain of events that led to Arei wanting to be nicer to Eden. This eventually led her to being the victim in chapter 2. As a mastermind, Eden could have planned this in order to keep the game interesting and moving quickly.

Strongest Evidence

She is the ONLY one to actively defend Teruko in the chapter 1 trial

While this could be seen as a demonstration of her kind and naive nature, it is strange that she only brought it up during the trial.

This line from Hu implies that a full group discussion took place, and that everyone was fully in agreement. Why would Eden only begin voicing her concerns about Teruko's side of the story during the trial? And while she does do the same for Min later on in the trial, this is after much more evidence has been stacked against Min, and is done much less insistently.

A mastermind would want to keep their game going, and the participants voting the wrong culprit in the first trial would completely ruin it. Her defending Teruko is not outside the realm of believability for the persona she puts on, making it not suspicious for her to do so.

The chapter 2 opening

The opening of chapter 2 is literally Eden monologuing to the camera. None of her dialogue is internal, as it is shown through white text, and we are likely seeing this from the canonical audience's point of view. I think it's weird that this is an outward monologue instead of an internal one. Unless you consider that someone needs to open this new segment of the show in context. And who would be best at it and know exactly what to say? The Mastermind.

Possible Detractions

Her emotional arc and heavy involvement in chapter 2

Masterminds are not usually heavily involved in cases or possible culprits, nor are they likely to have emotional arcs. Her involvement in chapter 2 does go against this trend. However, this is simply a trend and not a rule. It's entirely possible that Eden is an exception.

The Entire Literature Girl Insane mv

At this point, David is such an obvious mastermind red herring that I feel kind of sad for people who think he's the Mastermind. No one has their mastermind go batshit before they're revealed as the Mastermind. I do have a different theory about his role in the story that I think is more likely that I might share one day that I believe is supported by the LGI mv.

The Personal Reason I think Eden should be the Mastermind

Autistic Lesbians deserve to be a little bit evil. As a treat.

I am tired of getting all of my insane character representation in characters like David. I want to be able to tell people that I kin Eden and have them completely grasp that I am fun and nice but also a little crazy.

These are just my personal opinion and observations. Watch the Mastermind be like Arturo or something.

#I'm so normal about this theory guys i promise #i honestly think the mastermind whit theory is just as valid as this one which is why I didn't mention it btw #drdt #danganronpa despair time #eden tobisa #drdt eden

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gold-rhine · 7 months

Note

Hsr update was a thing that happened... I'm just wondering what is HAPPENING with the writing?? Like it was never good imo but they know how to write in a few companion quests. Like belebog are y'all okay?? I've unistalled the game temporarily so I can have space for my other games but am wondering if I should even bother going back (I probably will for Like a character design I like or for nanook or yaoshi or xipe) the story just keeps getting more confusing in terms of direction. Like what are they trying to show here? Even the game play can't keep my attention long.

Anywhoo I think this can all be fixed if they just give the people what they want

Nanook

right???? like idk whats happening on luofu bc they don't tell you shit and i'm not piecing together drama from expedition clues, thank you very much.

but for belobog its like. hsr spoilers btw. first we gonna lie to ppl that the tyrant that segregated half of them in underground mines without ever letting them see the sun and sent the other half to senseless wars with monsters is a hero actually. so they don't lose hope and bronya gets to conveniently step into position of tyrant herself, which everyone is like yeah she's the best option, shes so great!

then space amazon shows up and demands that they own the entire planet to cover 700 yold debt. they promise to solve ecological catastrophe, but everyone is gonna be amazon slave now. which ok, i can believe space amazon is this scummy, sure. but then instead of fighting it, instead of finding out precisely whats gonna happen to people, asking success rate, which methods are gonna be used, you know, asking ANYTHING. bronya reads letter from amazon union breaker executive whos like "my planet was bad too, and then we were sold to amazon and everything is a-okay now, so amazon's slavery is good actually:) you should trust me:)"

bronya is like hhm she sounds trustworthy:) then she asks opinion of like. 10 ppl. and is ready to sign ALL OF HER PLANET TO AMAZON SLAVERY

then himeko shows up like hey so i googled it, and amazon terraforming only succeeds in 60% of cases, otherwise you guys might die. bronya is like wow no slavery then >:\

and then she wins over amazon executive corporat by showing like. the giant engine first tyrant ordered to make. and union breaker, who btw took control of all robots and already sent them against local military AND fought main character directly, is like oh wow! your planet has strong leaders which my planet didn't, so your planet can stay free :)

like... the implications... bc "strong leaders" are literal tyrants... who, again, locked half of ppl into underground mines... and last tyrant was ready to destroy the whole planet... that these tyrants are the reason belobog is special from "weak" planets who can't survive by themselves and need to be owned by amazon... like what the actual fuck hoyo

oh and then we're supposed to feel sorry for amazon corporat bc she got demoted one rank :( boohoo i hope she gets shot, like?? are you kidding me??

its like if nahida didn't took akasha down, and instead dottorre demanded she has to let him use all the power of akasha and energy from sumeru's ppl minds as payment for akademiya debts. and she convinced him not to with power of friendship (but she kept exploiting ppl's dreams with akasha). and then we see a scene where dotorre is reprimanded by tsaritsa and we're supposed to be sad for him. like lol. lmao even.

also, i think plot expects me to fight nanook in the end. which like. no. i hope yall are getting crushed by his giant gold titties.

#rhine talks

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dimdiamond · 11 days

Note

❤️ for tintin if you're still doing the unpopular opinions ask game

OH RIGHT THIS GAME! OF COURSE! THANK YOU 💕

❤: Which character do you think is the most egregiously mischaracterized by the fandom?

*deep sigh* The most huh? What if I said Tintin himself? Look, I'm not against fanon interpretations and just going against canon because that's what you like and want to do. However, it gets really annoying when people take some interpretations as canon when it's actually not canon or, even if it is, not in the entirety of canon. And I think a big reason this happens with Tintin is because of the animated series, you know the classic one. Let me elaborate.

For many fans the cartoon series was their first approach to The Adventures of Tintin and for many of them it was a childhood favorite. This alone creates a bias, realizing it or not, especially if you haven't read the comics, the original material. Don't get me wrong, I love the cartoon and it's the most faithful adaptation we have of the comics but that doesn't mean it is faithful. Many scenes were cut, violence and alcoholism were limited to the point of changing scenes entirely (I'm looking at you Crab with the golden claws), heck even the official order of the episodes doesn't match the original publication order. There are many reasons for these decisions to have been made and it doesn't mean they're wrong, they just worked for this kind of media and for their target audience at that time (90s cartoons had many limitations regarding what it could be shown, including violence, but that's how we got artists getting creative with how to depict violent themes in a nonviolent way). Yet I have seen fans taking the ideas of this cartoon as if they are the original ones.

Tintin isn't a goody shoes. Tintin is very kind and caring but also chaotic and with his own values and ethics. He doesn't curse out loud and he represses many of his feelings and anger but he is also very patient and understanding. And most of all HE HAS CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT! Tintin from the first albums and Tintin in the last ones isn't the same guy! I understand people liking his character more in the first adventures but you can't characterize him the same in the later albums. And it's not only because decades passed during the serialization and Herge as an artist and writer changed. It's also showcased in the story, Tintin slowly gets stable companions, friends he shares his adventures and even his life and slowly he becomes mellower and yet more open and honest, he likes his peaceful life and doesn't chase adventure unless it comes to him. How can you have Tintin after Picaros behaving like prior meeting Haddock? As if his previous adventures didn't happen and affect him?

And what the cartoon depiction of Tintin does is to take his softer and calmer traits of his character and show them during all his adventures, regardless of how he acted at each adventure. This works for making an iconic and stable hero of a cartoon but it's not like that in the comics. The movie does the opposite but I see more fans accusing it of mischaracterization although this wilder side is also part of Tintin.

So in summary, my annoyance comes when I see Tintin characterized the same throughout all his adventures although this isn't how he is in the comics and I think this is because of the effect the cartoon had on the fans. In my opinion, Tintin's character is hard to grasp and get because he's the two ends of a spectrum at the same time, calm but violent, patient but impatient (his limits are known to himself only, you can try to kill him and not yell at you but you try to kill yourself and he'll make you regret it), selfless to the point of not caring about himself but selfish enough to do what he wants and believes is right etc.

He's such a fascinating character with many layers and it makes me sad when I see people read him as one dimensional character with no space for changes and development. However every person can have their own interpretation and such and I'm not the fandom police here so go have your fun!

#this became a long answer lol sorry nonnie but thank you so much for the ask #i could write about haddock too but i feel tintin suffers more from it as he's not a very expressive and open character in the first place #compared to haddock of course but he too has many layers and i have seen people treat him as this one dimensional drunk captain and it's sad #so yeah i guess both tintin and haddock suffer from mischaracterization often #i could also talk about chang here but he's canon material is so little so i guess there's not a lot to mischaracterize #my main complain with chang is that many fans treat him as tintin's shadow without realizing it #anyway i am blabbering again if any of you wants to hear more of my opinions you can ask me #again THESE ARE MY OPINIONS AND YOU DON'T HAVE TO AGREE OR TAKE THEM PERSONALLY #tintin #the adventures of tintin

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petitebonnie · 2 years

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Hello! This my first time writing about fnaf scenarios ♡ I hope you like it, please like or comment¿? (Still new to dis app ;u;)

Characters: Freddy, Bonnie and Chica.

Inculdes: soft fluff ♡

Freddy Fazbear

You and Freddy have grown to like each other a lot. In the beginning, your favorite animatronic was Foxy.

So you always went over to the piartes cove to talk to him. You knew he wasn't actually alive, in a way. But It made Freddy a bit jealous seeing all your attention go to the old fox and hearing his dumb pirate puns and stories.

But your visits too Fazbear's grown a lot, so you decided you wanted to work there. You were a great waitress, many children liked you and the staff like you too. The male staff get along with u best, since the catty female workers get jealous sometimes or competitive. But Freddy would fume! Seeing how nice u were with the other staff members.

He wanted to be the one to swoon you over, hold your hand, have long conversations with you - heck even make u laugh till u can't breathe anymore.

He was a gentleman, after all, and an animatronic. He felt something for you - he wasn't sure why, but he wanted to find out why.

You offered to clean up the animtronics. You kept hearing complaints from parents how the pizzeria smelled like rotting meat. You questioned it being the animatronics, but you wanted to make people happy, meaning make more tips.

That's how u and Freddy met, after cleaning all three of the other animatronics. You were very gentle with scrubbing the artificial furr and removing Freddy's bow tie, hat, and microphone. He watched as you cleaned his hands, arms, chest, and his feet.

He was so flustered when u cleaned his face, especially how gentle your touch was. He sometimes gets way too nervous thinking he smells too bad, and u might not want to clean him.

But you cleaned all of the animatronics, you always made sure scrubbing off whatever pizza sauce or soda was penetrated on there furr but you also bought them nice vinalla/blueberry scent bodysoap for there furr, So they smell nice.

After a long day at the pizzeria, you finished all your tables and orders. Gently wiping the sticky substances off each table and candy wrappers - sweeped confiti and trash, etc.

" Evening, miss (Y/N). " Freddy hummed behind you. You looked over your shoulder, seeing the 6 foot animatronic tower u with a smile. You gently waved tierdly up to him. " Heya, Fur ball. " he hated that nickname, and you enjoyed teasing him with it.

It made him think his little mane of furr was always messy.

He made a soft whine of disapproval of your "mean" nickname calling. " How was your day, dear? tiring, I assume. " Freddy gently placed his big paw/hand on your shoulder.

You gazed up at him, watching his eyelids express a worried/sad look. You put the broom up against a chair and turned around to face him, giving him a big bear hug. " Yes.. it was very busy today. But I missed you! " If he had a tiny little tail to express his happiness, he would definitely be wagging it.

" Missed me? " he chuckled, lovingly rubbing your back. Wrapping his arm around your waist. " My dear, you were around me all day? Especially keeping the children away from me. " he laughed. You pouted and frowned up at him. " awh! You know why, though! They always have something sticky on their hands! I'd have to keep bathing you. "

He hummed in response, " Or maybe my dear (Y/N) is.. Jealous? " Freddy cooed, watching your body language closely.

"Jealous?!" You playfully gasp. You giggled as u turned away from your cheeky boyfriend. Freddy wrapped his arm around your waist, pulling u close he made a soft growl. (In a loving way, don't worry c:)

" Yes dear~, you have nothing to worry about. They're just children, and you are my entire world. " he carefully grabbed your hand, placing a kiss against it.

" You mean that? " you said, turning around mid sentence, fixing his bow tie.

" Always. " Freddy placed a kiss on your head, hearing a gently squeak sound from his nose.

" Good! Cause I love you more, Fur ball. " you said with a grin on your face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bonnie

Bonnie fell in love with you at first sight.

He was so interested in you. He always saw kids running around, playing, or even trying to feed Chica pizza.

Parents sitting at booths talking on the phone or watching their children play.

Same old same old.

But you? You always interacted with the animatronics. You loved them all, and you came to the pizzeria a lot as a kid.

Bonnie doesn't remember, though. It's understable- they are old animatronics. They don't get proper care, so sometimes their scanners or memory chips just fade.

You met Bonnie on the stage, of course. You always talked to him. But you didn't think he would respond!

Once u two talked more about your likes and interests. You two became best friends, always sneaking him out the stage, hearing him play his gutiar for you and maybe sing a little.

But he is a little shy about it, so don't be mean!

He sometimes draws little bunnies for you whenever u come visit him. Which is almost every day. You were, in fact, the number one customer at the pizzeria.

But sometimes, he would even

" Sugar ? " You shook your head, looking at Bonnie. " Oh yeah? Sorry- did u say something? "

Bonnie frowned. He placed his gutiar to the side. He was trying to teach you the notes on the gutiar. But you were daydreaming. " What were ya thinking about, muffin ? " Bonnie said in a slightly annoyed tone.

He hates it when u think about something other than him- especially when he teaches/shows u things he loves/likes. But Bonnie didn't know that you were thinking of him.

"Oh - nothing honey buns -" you playfully winked, sitting criss cross style on the stage. Your hang out spot is mainly at the stage. But dont worry, Chica is always in the kitchen, Foxy never leaves his cove. And Freddy.. we don't know what he does - sometimes u see him in the girls' bathroom -

" Is that right.." Bonnie said. In a tone, u knew he didn't believe you. He was sitting in front of u, and he placed his paw on your thigh, giving it a light squeeze. "You like Freddy, huh -" he said.

"Wh- Freddy?! What gave u that idea!-" You scrunched your nose at him. Bonnie laughed. You loved his laugh. It was deep but in a cheery way? " Hahaa! Nah, I'm just messin' with yah princess. "

You rolled your eyes, smiling. He removed his hand from your thigh, patting his lap. Immediately, u knew what he meant, and carefully u hopped on his lap, nuzzling his light furry chest.

" Awh, you could never replace me toots. You know that, don't yah?. " he smugly said, placing his hands on your waist. Caressing them as he waits for your response.

" Of course I do, you’re my bugs - " you squealed and giggled against his lips as he immediately shut you up with a kiss.

" HEY- I'm waaay better than that dumb bunny! More handsome, too.." he murmurs against your lips. You laughed, playing with his ears. Earing a purr from the big ol bunneh.

His ears perked upwards, he reached for his gutiar, and he pulled a little folded note. Handing it to you- you didn't notice it was even on the neck. (Part of the gutiar, where the strings are ^^)

"Oh? What's this?" You asked, Bonnie rolled his eyes. Kept his same smugged expression. " Yah gotta open it dumb dumb. " Gently booping your nose, you stuck your tongue at him and opened the little folded note.

♡ It was you and him holding hands ♡

You looked at him in awe. " This is so cute bon bon! I have so many of these, but this one is my absolute fav. " You kissed his nose.

" Oh yeah, by the way- " you said. Bonnie's ears lightly being perked.

" You're a bit handsome compared to bugs bunny - "

" Hey! "

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chica

Chica met you in the kitchen. You were the best chef in the whole planet!

Chicas words exactly.

You caught her stealing pizza and fries. You didn't inform the manager, but u let her eat SOME of the food. You didn't mind making more pizza or wings, etc.

But Chica doesn't believe she can't actually eat food. She smells it somehow and just needs to shove it in her mouth. Like the delicious pizza you make every day for families!

Carl (the cupcake) tells her she can not or else she's gonna go back to parts and services. Like the last time.. you aren't a technicne of any kind. All you know is how to cook pizza (and more).

During your spare time, you have lunch breaks, and you eat with Chica sometimes. She is usually busy with other kids or entertaining them with songs.

When u do have your breaks with her, you give her little little portions of your food. Like a piece of pepperoni or maybe a piece of chicken from your wings.

Yeah, yeah, u know it's bad, but a widdle won't hurt, right?

"Heya (Y/N) ! Can you make pizza today?" She happily chirped. She ran up to you and hugged u tightly. She always holds your hand. She likes letting everyone know that you're her little chefy girlfriend . You hugged her back, holding her hand as u gave it a small kiss. " Mwah! Of course, my love. What kind would u like? " You smiled.

It made u so happy that she loved anything u made. Even if u accidentally burned it or put too much seasoning (which is so rare for you, you're always focused. Unless she peppers you with kisses as u cook)

" Thank yooou~!, and cheese pizza please. " she blushed lightly, looking down at you.

Oh yeah- I forgot to mention. Chica is way taller than you. (If you're tall, sorry in advanced D:)

She leaned down, wrapping her arms around your small form, squishing your hips. She pressed your head against her chest softly. You nuzzled in between her chest. You loved that squishy, soft feeling of her body, and she knew that's where u love resting your head against the most, besides her thighs.

" Would u like me to stay for the night again? We can watch movies and I'll cook for you?.. " You looked up at her with puppy eyes.

You do that mostly to get what u want, usually works for her. Sometimes u can't always sleep over. The other animatronics like scaring u or mess with you and Chica, and she hates it! You two sometimes don't always get alone time.

She softly sighed, gently running her hands through your hair. You let out a satisfying sigh. She knew you loved that too.

" Maybe cupcake.. u know how the others are. But maybe we can sleep in the kitchen?!. " She squeaked, looking down at you for approval. Chica placed her hands against your hips.

Chica is a huge touchy, touchy girlfriend of yours. She loves to grab and squeeze your fleshy parts. Especially your breasts, those are her absolute favorite.

" That's a great idea, we can lock the door as well! Making sure they don't get in." She wiggled her eyebrows playfully after that comment. You laughed it off, standing on your tippy toes, giving her a sweet kiss. She shyly returned a soft kiss back, being careful not to accidentally harm you.

" Sounds perfect! I'll make sure to make it worth your while. "

#fnaf x reader smut #fnaf x reader #fluff #headcanons #reader insert #fnaf #fnaf chica #fnaf bonnie #fnaf freddy #fnaf bonnie x reader #fnaf freddy x reader #fnaf chica x reader #fnaf 1 x reader

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lloydfrontera · 9 months

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DAMN THE EMPEROR PICKED THE WRONG TIME TO TRY TO BE AN OVERPROTECTIVE WORRIED DAD LMAO. THIS IS LIKE IF ARCOS WAS LIKE "hey lloyd u always get in trouble/danger bc u try to build stuff everywhere, why don't u stop that" 😂

it is also so shitty of him it's very funny to me jakshdka

like damn, your son who spent his entire life so sick he could barely get out of bed on a good day has seemingly found a purpose in life besides lying around waiting to die in opening a clinic to heal patients for free, has poured his entire soul into making it work, has literally risked his life in an effort to keep it running, is demonstrably healthier and more driven than he's ever been and is accomplishing pretty amazing feats that always seem to be related to that clinic of his.

y'know what would be a pretty good thing to do as a dad? closing it down and make him focus on his studies as heir. the ones he never could take because, again, everyone was just sort of waiting for him to die so his brother could be named heir to the throne.

like yeah. that would be such a responsible parent thing to do.

it gets sorta funny in a very sad way lmao he's such a bad dad even when he's actually trying to be better lol

and about arcos,,, that man would love if his son could stop running around risking his life actually. he's. so stressed. all the time ajksdhka

arcos is a completely different character from asterion. like two polar opposites in the "proud dad trying his best at parenting a danger prone child" spectrum. but ultimately they both just want their kid to be safe.

the problem with asterion is that he's,,, used to getting his way as emperor lol. he's so authoritative that he just expects people to do as he orders. rakiel gets his attention precisely because he refuses to bend to what he expects him to do, he's interested because his son finally is showing some spine and initiative. but rakiel can't outright defy him either because, again, he's the emperor. so he has to resort to convince him and change his mind whenever asterion wants him to do or not do something that doesn't align with his plans. it's a fine line that he has to walk.

lloyd and arcos don't have to do that lol. lloyd isn't afraid to go against arcos wishes and he mostly doesn't have to either. arcos is way more lenient with lloyd than asterion is with rakiel. once lloyd proves that he's being sincere and not trying to cause problems arcos just trusts him.

he wishes lloyd would run away from danger the moment he sees it, he even goes as far as to think he should scold him to stop getting involved in dangerous situations when he comes back from fighting a hell knight, but he ultimately doesn't.

there's even a scene back in the giant ants arc (that the webcomic skipped grrrr) before lloyd starts the construction where he tells lloyd that he thinks his plan is great but he has one condition, for lloyd to stay outside the mine while it's being constructed because it's dangerous. but lloyd tells him that he can't promise to do that because the best way to prevent accidents and gain his workers' trust is to be right there while the projects is done. but he gives him his word it will be safe and arcos gives in to lloyd's stubbornness.

(he ends up being buried alive in a mountain with hundreds of giant ants but like. it's the thought that counts lol)

so! at their core both asterion and arcos wish their children would stop putting themselves in danger! they're parents that's what they do! they worry and fret and sometimes scold when their kids get into risky situations! but they way they deal with that desire is vastly different.

arcos trusts lloyd judgement, he asks him to be safe and to stop getting into dangerous situations, but at no point does he try to impose his will on lloyd because he knows his son is capable and trustworthy and whatever he does he's surely doing it for a good reason.

asterion is proud of rakiel, but he doesn't really,,, respect him, in a way. he thinks everything he's doing for the clinic is just a hobby of his, something he's doing to pass the time before taking on his duties as crown prince. he likes what rakiel is accomplishing, but he thinks rakiel being a doctor isn't nearly as important as what asterion has planned for him as prince.

he also feels guilty for neglecting his kid in the past, he feels guilty because only when rakiel regained his health and future did he start showing that he cared for him. so he's trying to make up for it now by trying to keep him safe and giving him more responsibilities and the respect that comes with them but in doing so he's trampling over rakiel's actual wishes and will. which is pretty hypocritical of him tbh, something that sir roberto actually calls him out on, it's great perfect scene 10/10

so like. yeah. i have a lot of thoughts on the way arcos and asterion act as parents as you can tell ajshdka

#hey i got an ask #m1sosazai #tged #the greatest estate developer #arcos frontera #lloyd frontera #asterion magentano #rakiel magentano #crown prince sells medicine #cpsm

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butterflydm · 1 year

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WoT reread: pre-Sanderson books

spoilers through knife of dreams

I deliberately took a break in between the Jordan books and the Sanderson ones, mostly so that I won’t be ‘grading on a curve’, basically, and will be able to judge Sanderson’s characterization on its own terms rather than just being relieved that I no longer have to read CoT/KoD Mat & Perrin. I would honestly have preferred Mat standing in a field picking his nose for two books rather than the character assassination that we got in CoT/KoD, so my bar for the male characters was VERY low going into the Sanderson books, back when they first came out.

Anyway, as I enter The Gathering Storm, I just want to note what everyone should be doing next, per their most recent PoVs in the previous main-story book, and also my general feelings on the characters as of where we ended in KoD:

Rand: desperately trying to make a truce with the Seanchan, even if he has to return women to slavery to do it. Other than that, he’s basically been refusing to do anything plot-related for the last two books, mostly just treading water instead (despite there being several plot-related things that he COULD have been doing). I’m frustrated with how Rand’s plotline has ground to a halt so that we can spend way too much time with Perrin and Mat’s pointless sidequests. Theory: Jordan couldn’t figure out how to get Rand to what happens in the ending, so he focused on Mat and Perrin in order to avoid thinking about Rand.

Egwene: she is currently captive in the White Tower and her next plot point was very clearly stated in KoD - she will be serving Elaida at her next dinner that evening. Her current plot is essentially the same as the plot she's had the last six books -- become undisputed Amyrlin Seat of a united White Tower. This is really one of those plotlines that’s good but, wow, really should have taken place over fewer books.

Elayne: she's won over the Houses and now just needs to be officially crowned and then buckle down to the work of getting Andor ready to help during the Last Battle. Proud of her, love her so much. Egwene and Elayne (and the prologues) were basically the only good parts of CoT & KoD for me. Rand & Nynaeve had one or maybe two good scenes each in that entire section.

Mat: in CoT & KoD, he lost almost every good quality that he had EXCEPT for his loyalty to Rand; instead of keeping his promises being about him (secretly) being a man of deep integrity, it has essentially become a weird fey thing where he apparently feels a compulsion to keep his word but puts it off for as long as possible first. He completely threw away all his character growth from the earlier books and considers slavers to be more worthwhile companions than Aes Sedai. Expects that the next time he will see his 'wife' is being faced off against her troops on the battlefield and is somewhat sad about this (because he's talked himself into liking her despite her being a genuinely awful person) but he's prepared to do it anyway. I am DEEPLY disappointed in Mat, for the most part. His characterization basically fell off a cliff in CoT. He does still have enough loyalty to Rand and enough intelligence that he didn't actually betray anything to Tuon during their time together -- he didn't tell her Rand was his friend (Talmanes did, sorta by accident) and he didn't tell her about his medallion (Setalle Anan did, in a very bizarre characterization reversal of her own where she went from vehemently anti-slavery in WH to kissing Tuon’s ass and giving up other people’s secrets to her. I will note that trying to ‘reason’ someone out of bigotry doesn’t require throwing your previous friends under the bus and betraying them! -- post-WH Setalle Anan is kinda Opposite Day to the Setalle Anan that we got to know in ACoS & WH, who thought of Mat as a loveable rapscallion and who hated slavery, as opposed to CoT/KoD Setalle Anan, who automatically sides with Tuon against Mat because they’re both women but is willing to have ~reasonable discussions~ with Tuon about the pros and cons of slavery and is also literally fetching and carrying for a slaver) -- but CoT!Mat is just straight-up an inferior character to pre-CoT!Mat. Jordan just... really trashed Mat in these two books and it feels like most of the reason that he did it was so that Tuon wouldn’t be required to experience any character growth because Mat just rolls over for her instead of challenging her (there is so much rolling over and not challenging Tuon in these two books. And the few people who DO challenge her are all people that she instinctively non-persons anyway, so it has no impact on her) and spends the majority of his page time attempting to appease her. And destroying a main character in order to prop up a minor character is such a poor narrative choice. Just... everything about how Mat was written in CoT & KoD has frustrated me so much. Poor writing choices that turned a favorite character into one of the worst in the series. IMO, the outriggers were the worst idea that Jordan ever had, because it led to him tanking a major plotline and major characters in his main story. Mat transforms from being a “good and great man” (to paraphrase Nestelle from WH) who risks himself to free slaves into being a selfish and weak-willed patsy for his slaver ‘wife’, who looks the other way when she reclaims ownership over all the slaves in her ‘rescue party’. Anyway, his next plan is to go north to Caemlyn to the Tower of Ghenjei to help Thom save Moiraine & then he was going to reunite with Rand, because he has a lot of Last Battle-related help that he can deliver to him (or maybe the other way around).

Nynaeve: has not had a plot of her own in a while; the last time she had a plot that wasn't basically "help this man over here" was TPoD.

Perrin: finished his own soul (& woman) selling story in KoD; has been reunited with Faile (the only thing he cares about), so should FINALLY be heading back to Rand, one way or the other. I am disappointed in Perrin, but that's nothing new. He did sink to a new low in KoD, now officially being a slaver himself, having sold two hundred-ish women into slavery. So... there’s that.

For secondary/tertiary characters who we know about:

Aviendha: traveling with the Aiel in Arad Doman and 'catching up' on her Wise One training.

Galad: leading seven thousand Whitecloaks, having 'deserted' from the Seanchan forces and planning to work with Rand & the Aes Sedai to fight in the Last Battle.

Ituralde: working with the Dragonsworn to try to rid Tarabon of Seanchan and firm up Arad Doman as a bulwark against the Seanchan invasion.

Pevara & Co: in the Black Tower, having just made a deal with Taim to bond with Asha'man.

Tam: recently found out his son is the Dragon Reborn (not from Perrin)

Gawyn: still taking orders from Elaida, does not yet know Egwene is prisoner in the White Tower.

Lan Mandragoran: riding from the furthest west part of the Borderlands over to the furthest east part of the Borderlands, to fight against the Shadow.

Cadsuane: still hasn’t taught Rand ‘laughter and tears’, which is literally her only goal.

Loial: plans to talk to the Great Stump to try to convince the Ogier not to abandon the world right before the Last Battle.

Forsaken: Moridin has declared that no one is to hurt Rand but definitely please try to kill off Perrin and Mat; at least some of the Forsaken are all "lol nah I'm gonna try to kill Rand anyway".

Tuon the slaver overlord: being an asshole High Blood/Empress and in deep denial that, by her own beliefs, she should turn herself over to become a damane; her main goal is probably forcing Rand to kneel in front of her; general villain-type goals of invasion and enslavement of others, etc. It really is a shame that Jordan decided to yeet any potential for her character into the void. She was intriguing in Winter’s Heart. And then never again, lol.

Bashere: there was an assassination attempt on his wife back in the CoT prologue that made him agree to something that he’d been asked by “the man who spoke to me yesterday” and we haven’t really checked in with him since then.

Olver: in LoC, he was a war orphan who was a believable child who seemed like a genuinely interesting addition to Mat’s story. In ACoS, all he cared about were boobs. In WH, he barely even noticed that the Seanchan had invaded, because he still only cared about boobs. In CoT, he briefly acknowledges that the Seanchan are the bad guys hunting them but does not at all react to them similarly to how he reacted to the Aiel in LoC - he shows no signs of anger over Mat having been injured by the Seanchan invasion, despite anger towards the Aiel due to his parents dying in the Aiel invasion being a big thing for him in LoC. In KoD, he’s buddy-buddy with Head Slaver and once again obsessing over boobs (this time, leering at a slave’s boobs, which. you know. charming). The only book where I’ve been able to stand Olver was LoC tbh. He's been just a weird & exaggerated parody of Mat in every book past that.

Minor general spoilers below for some things I vaguely recall about the last three books (no spoilers about the ending):

I’ve read the Origins book & glanced over Sanderson’s retrospective on writing the last three books, and he mentioned some specific bits that were already written by Jordan, so I will probably keep that in mind as I read. I’ve only read the Sanderson WoT books once, so I’ll be finding out now if the experience is different this time around.

I do feel like some of the criticisms that I’ve seen of his writing are already very present in CoT & KoD, though, specifically:

Mat’s character being noticeably more sexist (honestly, all the male characters feel like they’ve gotten more sexist the last few books; Mat is just the most obvious example).

Mat feeling wildly out of character to who he’d previously been. Wildly out of character. To who he’d been in Winter’s Heart. Which took place one week before Crossroads of Twilight picks his story up again, and suddenly Mat doesn’t give a shit about the Aes Sedai that he risked his own escape to help ONE WEEK AGO. He’s completely forgotten that his little sister (among other women he cares about, like Elayne, who he had an entire book about coming to terms with, and like Egwene and Nynaeve) is a channeler who Tuon would happily debase and destroy until she groveled at Tuon’s feet. Mat’s reactions to almost everything Tuon does are just such character assassination that I can’t even acknowledge CoT/KoD!Mat as the same character as EotW-WH!Mat. His reactions just seem... so bizarrely off from anything he would have done previously. It really does feel like Jordan parachuted in a pod!Mat from a parallel world. I LOVED EotW-WH!Mat. You couldn’t pay me to be in a room with CoT/KoD!Mat.

Nynaeve not having a storyline of her own or doing much of anything unrelated to the men in her life.

Sanderson didn’t fix any of those problems (from what I recall) and it would have been nice if he had, but he didn’t create them either.

Some other things that I personally dislike in the series as of KoD and that I am curious to see how Sanderson handles compared to Jordan:

Slavery being an Acceptable Evil, especially with Mat, in particular as of CoT/KoD, only caring about slavery when it threatens him personally and not giving a shit about other people anymore (and he cared a LOT in Winter’s Heart. The contrast between how deeply he cares about saving the Aes Sedai & Windfinders in WH vs treating the Aes Sedai like unwanted pests in CoT is incredibly jarring). But, in general, it feels like Jordan decided that the main PoV male characters aren’t going to care about slavery if the slaves are primarily women which is... such an ugly look. It feels like the Seanchan storyline went off the rails hard in CoT & KoD, and I don’t personally feel like “but the planned outriggers!!” is a valid excuse for destroying a main storyline and main characters so badly. Having ALL THREE of the main male PoV characters coming to the conclusion that other people being enslaved is the ~price they are willing to pay~ for what needs to be done is... it’s very much that Lord Farquaad meme, yes? “Some of you may die, but it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.” Mat deciding that he needs to defend and protect the slaver overlord hurts other people, not Mat. Perrin selling two hundred women into slavery is hurting them, not Perrin; Rand sending the damane back into slavery... etc. They are not ‘making sacrifices for the greater good’, they are sacrificing other people. They are saying that these specific people (who are all women) are not worthy of being allowed to have free will and lives of their own. And that author putting that storyline in three different plotlines implies things that wouldn’t be implied if only one of the main guys was doing it. “Women’s freedom is negotiable” is basically the message in Rand, Perrin, and Mat’s storylines in CoT & KoD. “When we say we want to save the world, we don’t mean women.” And I did not get the feeling that was the original intention of the damane/Seanchan storyline! Which is why CoT & KoD rank so incredibly low on my ranking order. Because it feels like Jordan broke the narrative promises that he made about this storyline all the way through Winter’s Heart. I think Jordan exploring this idea (of his characters willing to sacrifice women’s freedom for the sake of saving the rest of the world) could have worked in a critique kind of way if it had only been in ONE of the plotlines while the other two plotlines were about things other than allying with the Seanchan. Mat’s character is the one that gets the most distorted by this plotline, so I would have tossed his out entirely. Perrin’s is mostly in character -- his entire plot here was that he would be willing to do anything for Faile, even vile and evil things -- but I think Jordan actively deciding to have him LIKE Tylee even as her people are carting off her new slaves in the background was a character-breaking choice. Rand’s plotline would genuinely be fine (because he’s the most reluctant of the three PoVs on allying with the slavers)... except that Min and Nynaeve should have mentioned the sul’dam secret. It’s wildly frustrating how useless they are in the Seanchan plotline when they literally know THE key secret about the military and economic might of the empire. Jordan had them suffer convenient amnesia so that he could do his ‘allying with the slavers’ plotline.

The domestic violence that is endemic in the majority of the male-female relationships in the series. In particular, I am curious to see if Sanderson ever has the female characters hauling off and straight-up punching their ‘love interests’ in the ribs the way that Jordan so frequently had them do. This is an issue that really started around A Crown of Swords and has gotten steadily worse (in The Shadow Rising, Faile punching Perrin is called out as a bad thing by Perrin and by the end of the book, neither of them are being violent with the other, but in ACoS and beyond, violence is just treated as the norm in romantic relationships).

Related but adjacent, I am also curious to see if beating/spanking remains as large a fixture in the series as Jordan had made it in the last few books.

Women being politically/magically diminished in order to be in a relationship with non-political/non-magical men (ex. Morgase and Tallanvor; Siuan and Gareth; technically Juilin and Amathera but that feels like the most understandable of the examples).

Women being stuffed into Fates Worse Than Death while men just get to be killed off (and the Seanchan becoming a dumping ground for “out of control” women that Jordan didn’t want to kill off).

Min being a liability to Rand but the narrative keeps telling us she’s Best Girl, Just Trust Me.

Tuon being a genuinely cruel and malicious person, but Mat keeps telling us she’s Better Than Most Nobles, Just Trust Me.

Okay, I think that’s everything I wanted to note before I started my The Gathering Storm reread.

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