A common societal trend I’ve noticed is quite prevalent is the romanticization of certain mental disorders and the infantilization of others. This trend thoroughly befouls our perception of people with such disorders, and in certain circumstances this can be quite harmful.
Disorders such as depression, OCD, and, even to a certain extent, anxiety are all heavily romanticized in literature and media. Characters with these conditions are constantly sought after, and seen as beautifully broken. Their suffering is seen in itself as an art of its own.
Whereas characters, as well as people, who are on the autism spectrum or have ADHD, are very often infantilized, their behaviors being described as childlike. They may be seen as annoying, bothersome, or just a pain to deal with in general. Their pain is not seen as poetic, but essentially meaningless, because their plights seem so trivial. If they are doted on, it’s often demeaning.
I’m certainly not blameless in this cultural phenomenon, but I do believe that it’s truly messed up. I wish to understand why mass behaviors such as these exist. Why do we perceive certain conditions in different lights, and is it possible that society’s preconceived notion of these disorders can change?
hey this is chance and here’s week 4’s prompt. how do strangers within the world view your protagonists? how would they describe them? and how does this contrast against how the protagonist views themself?
hello!!! the strangers of the world view my protagonists as we do celebrities or politicians. a sort of detached admiration or contempt, with no real feeling behind it. they would describe Valian as the quiet prince, who deigns to appear in public once in a while. Caeles would be described as the prince’s “friend”, and the son of the Northern ambassador. Valian views himself as the quiet owlfeather prince, who dislikes crowds and noise, and Caeles’ lover/bestfriend. Caeles views himself as the courageous swanfeather Northern lord, who can’t still his hands and who loves to talk, and as Valian’s lover/best friend. thanks!!
as I stand here - on this early Tuesday afternoon, my fair share of grief today already behind me, in the kitchen smelling homey from the bread my flatmate baked, waiting for my coffee to cool off - I find the beauty in being alive once again
Thinking about Edward Elric as the Amestrian Military's specialest little unfireable boy
State alchemists can be fired for underperforming. We know this up front from the likes of Shou Tucker. And this makes a ton of sense from the homunculi's standpoint since the state alchemists are sacrifice candidates, and the homunculi would want to cull the weakest candidates and focus only on cultivating the strongest ones who stand the best chance of opening the portal.
........Then there's Edward. Who's already opened the portal.
There's no need to cultivate him. No gamble taken on whether he's good enough to open the portal. He passed the final test already. Graduated 4 semesters early.
And as such, has a free pass to do Absolute Fuck All.
And I'm imagining how funny this is from like an outside perspective.
Some newish state alchemist who'd only ever read up on the stories of Edward Elric, ready and excited to start their career of being paid handsomely with endless freedom to research and travel and do anything they want in the pursuit of science... surprised and confused to find themselves put on probation their first month for things like "ignoring orders." Which is, as best they had thought, a famous Edward Elric pastime.
Roy showing a slight bit of stress about his yearly state alchemist report, and Ed just snorting and rolling his eyes at Roy because every year HE just hastily does his on the train ride over (canon in the manga, a travesty it was left out of the anime) and it gets rubber stamped. Ed not realizing that other alchemists' reports get genuinely scrutinized and torn apart while Ed is free to turn in whatever absolute bullshit he thinks of 36 hours ahead of time. One year his report was about whether alchemy could be done via dance (conclusion: no it can't) and no one cared. Roy WANTS to tell Ed there's some kind of unknown favoritism around Ed making him literally bullet-proof but Roy has no way to phrase this that doesn't sound like he's just in denial and mad at how good Ed's train-reports are.
Guy from the Internal Amestrian Affairs sector who's responsible for auditing other internal military personel for any suspicious activity hitting about 1 million red flags for Edward Elric, issuing a STRONG and URGENT recommendation to suspend the alchemist pending further investigation into things like "literal bunk-buddies with two members of the Xingese royalty (enemy nation)" and "spent $10,000,000 of his stipend on a librarian to make her re-copy (what he seemed to interpret as?) military records in some extremely transparent effort to unearth state secrets (it was a recipe book but he was literally asking her about state secrets)" and "literally has never once obeyed an order, ever, not even once in his career, and is on public record having said 'I do not care about the goals and protections of the Amestrian Military. I am in fact only pursuing my own interests several of which are diametrically opposed to the safety and well-being of the governing body of Amestris'"
The issued recommendation is intercepted before it even reaches its intended desk. President Bradley himself has taken issue with it and denies it before a single set of eyes has seen it. The President's veto stamp is a terrifying hammer, used rarely, and it is now sitting on the auditor's desk.
The auditor sleeps with one eye open from then on out.
he's a cult leader, he's a fashion icon, he's a war veteran, he's immortal, he dies all the time, he's haunted, he's high and he's sober, he's agnostic, god hates him personally. i didn't say his name but he popped into your head, didn't he?
My very specific headcanon that these five characters have a group chat called The Girls and Klavier has always wanted to be in it so badly but they won't let him be one of the girls
Don’t get me wrong, I love the sunshine/grumpy dichotomy of Wrightworth but Phoenix has shown on multiple occasions that most of the time he is ““The Straight Man””.
He’s a wet blanket and routinely gives snide comments on all the weirdos he has to hang out with in the investigation segments. The only time his silly weirdo side comes out is when he’s in court with Edgeworth and that’s because it’s a kangaroo court where he’s fighting for his life the whole time.
In Phoenix’s world Edgeworth is not only infinitely more competent than he is, he’s also the only other normal person. At least in the trilogy that is.The first time I played turnabout big-top I thought I missed a game, or a character interaction or someone else wrote the game because he was such… an asshole? To maya to everybody. He was so 100% no nonsense it freaked me out. But then it was revealed that Edgeworth “died” and that really struck a cord with me.Phoenix’s factory settings are all “Im a mature straight laced lawyer” until he’s around Edgeworth.
Whenever there’s a “sweaty Phoenix.png” in a case against someone else other than edgeworth,it’s because he’s incredulously tolerating the other person’s nonsense.Whereas whenever it’s with Edgeworth it’s given the connotation that he feels he’s less competent.Sort of in silent reverence that he thought that he could get one over Edgeworth.I really love this aspect of Phoenix and I feel it gives his character a ton of nuance besides just being sunshiny or just being prudish. I wish I were better at writing i would totally “wright” him more than with this aspect of his personality specifically.
Bonus points if you factor in that while he was with dahlia he was lovestuck and silly and how that means that this is not only consistent with the type of guy he is when he’s in a relationship but how that could mean he sees himself in edgeworth’s and that’s why he likes him.