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fledbeast578 · 2 months

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Lostbelt Servants Often Don't Work as Chaldea Servants

I've reached a conclusion on why I dislike servant x Ritsuka pairings so much, and ended up spending a few hours thinking about some other thoughts.

When it comes to the gacha game format, you don't have enough time to develop every character equally, and certainly not the way fgo goes about it (Oh boy another lb6 centered event? You really shouldn't have Nasu...). As a result, oftentimes servants only ever get interludes (and sometimes events, but even those are shaky) to develop their bond with Ritsuka, and this is even worse for lostbelt/singularity villains, because they have to shed an entire dynamic and replace it with a new one. Sometimes this can work fine, or even improve the character, such as with characters like Cu Alter, Hessian Lobo, Jeanne Alter, Jason, and even arguably Avicebron, but oftentimes they can sort of... flounder.

Cu and Jeanne Alter succeeded because fundamentally there was that initial gap that comes from an enemy, not only because they were a villain but because we simply haven't developed a bond yet. So they showed us it, they showed Cu Alter learning to trust and rely on us in his interludes, we saw Jeanne do the same across multiple events. They didn't just abandon their old identity they had to built a new one off the corpses strewn by their old one.

Characters like Anastasia... don't get that, they get a facsimile of a bond developed because they don't want to restart from the very beginning of the relationship pole or be obligated to use all of their lostbelt characteristics.

So rather than showing Ritsuka and Anastasia growing a close bond and her developing a crush on him, we get one dream sequence where Anastasia confided in him that she kind of hates the people who killed her parents. Then it's just... "oh my master is utterly adorable" from her and then "Why don't you kiss her, master?" from Medea

None of this was earned or developed, at best it was implied because other people say similar stuff about Ritsuka, but notably, none of those scenes include Anastasia. They're writing this interlude like it's an alternate timeline where Anastasia was a main servant who watched you grow and develop similar to Mash (Thanks to @300iqprower for making me realize this). There is no unique relationship, there's no event where they were forced together, we just have to assume that at some point Anatasia and Ritsuka hungout a bunch and she got a crush on him.

It feels more like a filled in template for a servant-master relationship than anything actually developing. Why does Anastasia like Ritsuka? Because he's nice, trustworthy, and strong. Great, the same applies to Mash, Ushiwakamaru, Melusine and so so many other servants. There is nothing to me that says she would love Ritsuka for any reason unique to Anastasia, in the same way I can look at her and Kadoc and see why they love each other in the crypter manga. There's no Ritsuka discussing how he can relate to having his opportunity to grow into an adult ruined, there's no Ritsuka having to fight by her side for an extended period of time, there's no Ritsuka helping her come to terms with her family's death, it's just... nothing. It's Anastasia having a crush on Ritsuka because it's Ritsuka.

And like... we have to see this this with so many servants. As much as I love Barghest and find Melusine interesting, to a massive degree they were made worse after lb6. The desire to protect Fae Britain and Aurora respectively was an intrinsic part of their character, and when none of those exist, there's just a big hole in their motivations and relationships. But rather than write elaborate depictions of what changes in their personality there is, Melusine decides that Ritsuka is their lover and Barghest does... cooking? And also wants to fuck Master sometimes.

Worse than remaining stagnant a lot of lostbelt characters actively plateau. Stuck in a hell where all their characterization is dependent on the unique setting of a lostbelt, but also being physically unable to do anything with that setting because then they have to deal with the baggage associated with it.

This is to the point where the only characters who become better or remain well written after their lostbelts are overwhelming the ones who completely sideset this issue. Yu Mei-Ren and Qin? Popped into throne of spirits. Percival, Habetrot, Aesclepius, and Gareth? Literally completely different characters. William Tell, and Odysseus? Lostbelt fuckery. So they develop a new character from scratch and are forced to deal with that.

But a lot of servants don't get that. We know Melusine's past and generic character traits, the game implies (doesn't show) how they grow to like Ritsuka, so we don't get to see any more of that develop. Rather we get to see whatever they decide they would fit best for the present, which typically is uninteresting and repeated.

#fgo #ramble #character analysis

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ipsen · 11 months

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Kamishiro and Kirishima: Ends of a Spectrum

(Alternatively: Women Too Pretty to Ignore So I Wrote About Them)

Thanks to @just-another-tokyo-ghoul-fan for unlocking a part of my brain I didn’t even know existed. It’s definitely not like Touka is tied for 2nd place for my favorite character in TG. No, sir.

As always, I’m using the official translations because of my monolingual curse.

Under the cut.

Let’s get this out of the way first. Rize and Touka are not friends. I doubt they could ever be friends due to their opposing philosophies. They are fundamentally different people who should not be left in the same room together. Why?

(she hates her so much)

Besides the obvious, it’s because they view their common circumstance-- being born a ghoul-- very differently.

(TG ch3)

(TG 46.5)

Touka blames her status as a ghoul on the reason why she’s had to run and hide her whole life, especially after losing both her mother and father. Rize prides herself on her ghouls powers because being a ghoul in the Garden meant a lifetime of imprisonment, and she wanted out. Touka is tethered down by her identity, while Rize flies around using it.

Ironically, Touka becomes “free” at the end while Rize remains trapped and dies. Let’s tackle that next. Why, in the context of the overall story, does Touka live, and Rize die? It’s pretty straightforward, fortunately.

Rize doesn’t confront her problems, instead electing to always run away. Whenever she gets bored, she leaves. Whenever someone, in her view, tries to tether her down, she leaves. Because she doesn’t want to return to anything resembling that helpless womb in the Garden. Watch:

(TG 46.5)

(re 64)

Running away isn’t a bad thing in a vacuum. Personally, I think you should try to run away when you can afford to. But the thing about Rize’s brand of running away is that she forces the consequences of her actions onto someone else. Like Banjou, who was forced to take over the 11th ward because she killed the last one. Shachi as well, who takes the fall for her and gets imprisoned in Cochlea.

And as a result of her constant running and tendency to leave behind no trace, any chance at a meaningful connection is lost. No one really helps her, because she’s already disappeared. She literally cannot be helped. One of the positive themes of TG is the achievements people can achieve together. Rize, embodying the opposite of this, does not achieve anything substantial. And in the end, she is reduced to someone else’s plaything with no mind of her own.

(re 119, featuring the tip of Touka’s head.) ("Tip of Touka.” “Touka’s Tips.” Someone should use those. She offers very sound advice.)

It’s sad.

Meanwhile, Touka reaches out to people (when the story wants her to). Because unlike Rize, who does the leaving, Touka is the one who is left behind. She deeply understands the loss and hurt that comes with it, and she has tempered that helpless feeling into a kind hand to reach out to anyone.

And I mean anyone.

(re 69)

Even the brother who, when she last saw him, violently tore out her kakuhou. She doesn’t blame him, only supports him when he needs her.

(re 120)

Even the daughter of the man she killed.

God, she’s so cool. Peak big sister. I wish we saw more of it; her contributions to Goat would have changed the tides if the story just let her.

Sorry, focusing. Okay.

But it’s because of this willing to work together with people, seek peace through proactive methods, that she succeeds and lives through the horrors of the world. She uplifts those around her and is lifted up in return. Kindness begets kindness, and I’d say kindness is one of the best parts of living.

It’s nice.

... “What about their relationship to Kaneki?” What about their relationship to Kaneki.

Anyway, hopefully this made sense and you got something out of it. These lovely ladies are such a joy to talk about.

Thanks for reading!

#tg #tg meta #tokyo ghoul meta #tokyo ghoul #touka kirishima #rize kamishiro

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coraniaid · 9 months

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Last post on this topic for a while, I promise.

I saw that somebody tagged my recent post about Helpless as ‘anti-Giles’, and – while I can see how you might get that impression (I mean, to be fair, I did use the phrase ‘unambiguously evil’) – it’s not really what I was trying to drive at. My problem is with the way that particular episode depicts Giles (and to a lesser extent with the broader fandom attitude towards Giles) not with the character of Giles more generally.

What I mean is: I think the version of Giles that exists in Helpless is basically impossible to reconcile with the character we’ve seen in the first two seasons of the show. The Giles of Prophecy Girl who was so appalled by the thought of Buffy dying that he wanted to “defy prophecy” and fight the Master himself surely wouldn’t have taken so long to stand up to Quentin Travers. The Giles of Innocence who told Buffy that “all you will get from me is my support and my respect” certainly wouldn’t repeatedly drug her and lie to her face about it. The Giles who spent all summer chasing down possible sightings of Buffy across the country after she ran away at the end of Becoming would not be so willing to risk her life again just to follow orders from a group of people he openly despises.

And – because the show doesn’t ever come back and address what he’s shown to do in this episode – it’s also impossible to reconcile Helpless with subsequent episodes. Nobody ever talks about it, at all, and so the impression is that it either didn’t happen or just wasn’t a big deal. Giles was unfairly sacked, for some reason, by the Bad Watcher’s Council, and that’s all there is to remember. (The fact that Giles worked for years for the Bad Watcher’s Council and would’ve happily kept on doing so if they hadn’t fired him goes similarly unremarked on.)

But I don’t think a Buffy who had been betrayed by Giles this fundamentally would go back to trusting him as quickly as she does. If ever. I don’t think that only a few episodes later she’d be in any hurry to talk to him about the manslaughter she’d unwittingly been involved in, or that she’d so readily listen to him as her unofficial Watcher when Wesley arrives. As it is, she spends more time being upset by the fact Giles had sex with her mother this season than she does caring about the fact he almost got her and her mother killed. That just doesn’t make any sense to me.

And, just to be clear: I really do like Giles a lot. He is one of my favorite characters in the show. I think the evolution of his semi-parental relationship with Buffy is really well done; I like his connections with Jenny and Ethan and the way he gets to play off of other characters like Snyder and Joyce and Wesley. I think he is generally a very good deconstruction of the trope of the wise and patient mentor. I think that ASH’s performance as Giles in Season 1 is probably a large part of what got the show renewed for a second season. I am, in fact, firmly pro-Giles.

What I don’t like is the collective willingness of the fandom to overlook all of his faults. To strip away everything that makes him interesting until he’s just “Buffy’s Nice Dad”. To afford him a level of tolerance and understanding that somehow never seems to extend to any of the women in Buffy’s life. To pretend that Joyce Summers is being ridiculous or unreasonable for blaming him for her daughter running away, even though it is explicitly Buffy’s calling as a Slayer – and the fact that Giles himself insists she keeps this secret from her loved ones – that makes the events of Becoming possible. [No, Buffy doesn’t just run away because of what Joyce said to her: if that was the only reason, why did she also cut off all ties with Giles and Willow and Xander and her other friends?] And, yes, to act as if the fact that Quentin Travers, of all people, tells us that Giles has “a father’s love” for Buffy is the only takeaway from Helpless, and to pretend that his actual actions in that episode don’t undermine that reading at all.

Joyce Summers can tell Buffy not to come back home if she leaves the house without permission – in the heat of the moment, during an argument, clearly regretting it the second she says it – and twenty-five years later the internet is still full of posts calling her a bitch and a terrible mother and claiming she wanted Buffy to leave. Joyce can be compelled to burn Buffy at the stake because she’s possessed by a demon and this is still a running joke in the fandom two decades later (nevermind the time the season before when Giles was similarly possessed by a demon that tried to kill Buffy: that one doesn’t count, apparently). Buffy can literally tell Giles that she doesn’t “see the point” of living in the world anymore after her mother’s gone and you all act like it’s a complete mystery why she might be depressed after The Body. Buffy tells her mother she loves her every season, starting from the third episode of the show – the first episode we see her tell anyone she loves them – and you all pretend that it’s somehow a huge retcon when she still loves her mother four seasons later and that she misses her when she dies.

But Giles goes along with a plan that seems all but designed to get Buffy killed, hypnotizes her, drugs her, and lies to her face about it – not because he’s possessed, not because he’s not in control of his actions, but because the people who employ him tell him he has to – and … nothing. There’s no outrage at all. The fandom and the writers alike all agree to pretend it just never happened. I look for any discussion of this, but you’re all just talking about how much more consistently written a character Giles is than Joyce (which … no, sorry, that’s obviously nonsense; the Season 2 Ripper retcon alone is evidence enough of that), and how he should’ve gotten to adopt Buffy after Joyce died (when … uh, Buffy was legally an adult??), and writing fanfic after fanfic in which Buffy tells Giles he was more of a parent to her than Joyce ever was (nevermind that she says almost literally the opposite in Season 6, or that she didn’t even meet Giles until she was sixteen, after Joyce explicitly uprooted her whole life to try to find somewhere for Buffy to have a fresh start) and … honestly, I don’t get it.

I just don’t get why you all hate Joyce this much, or why the fandom collectively seems to judge her by standards it never ever applies to Rupert Giles. When did we decide that the times Joyce hurts Buffy are a fundamental part of her character and that the times Giles hurts her can be safely hand-waved away and ignored? Why was I not at that meeting?

Like I said, I don’t know.

But what I do know is that Joyce is practically the only recurring character on the show who was played by a woman in her forties.

[For reference, Buffy’s recurring female cast includes two centuries old vampires, a thousand year old ex-vengeance demon, her friend the still-active vengeance demon whose exact age we don't know but was active in the 19th cenutry at least and probably for centuries before that, an ancient and immortal hell-god from another dimension and a centuries old ball of green energy that takes human form. Not one of these characters is played by a woman over 35. In fact, only one of them -- in-universe, quite possibly the youngest one of them -- is played by a woman over 30.

The adult woman with the most screen time after Joyce is Jenny Calendar, who is played by a woman who was 27 years old when her character was killed off. A year later, Giles starts a relationship with another woman called Olivia Williams (who the show and the fandom are both profoundly uninterested in: at the time of writing there are more fics on AO3 shipping Giles with Oz than there are fics shipping him with Olivia.). Olivia is played by a woman who was also 27 years old in the only season she appears in, the same season that ASH turned 46. She's also introduced by Giles as an "old friend", which is probably something it's best not to think too hard about.

The one other woman over forty to appear in more than one episode of Buffy was Lindsay Crouse, who plays Professor Maggie Walsh in Season 4. She appears in eight episodes, anticipates fandom by calling herself an ‘evil bitch’, then dies in an incredibly stupid and pointless way. That’s literally it.]

So maybe I do get it. And frankly, it sucks.

#btvs #rupert giles #anti giles #pro giles #(tagging it both ways to ensure nobody reads this I guess)#joyce summers

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zabiume · 1 year

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it’s interesting how orihime essentially rejects tsubaki in the ss arc as a trauma response because she fundamentally cannot imagine dishing out violence she herself has been subjected to in the past, but it also brings up the question of why tsubaki exists in the first place if she was meant to be a traditional healer anyway, and the short answer is that she's not! not entirely. tsubaki is the teeny part of her soul that is capable of a great anger/a killing intent, but unlike ichigo’s rejection of his hollow/zangetsu, orihime does acknowledge tsubaki early on; she just doesn’t want to use him the way he’s "supposed” to be used. this creates an intriguing conflict, where orihime has some killing intent, but the only points of reference she has are the shinigami, uryuu (quincy), and arrancar who use theirs quite traditionally, so she’s not quite there yet in figuring out how she can use hers without compromising her fierce pacifism. this is why i’d argue that meeting hachi was quite formative for her, because there’s a guy who is not a fighter but still fights in a way that doesn’t take away from his nature. in fact, it’s kind of strange to me that this moment —

— comes before the 17-month timeskip and not during, but kubo loves a timeskip so i guess this was the most appropriate place to include this scene. post-lust-arc orihime has this realization that she’s sabotaging herself and those she loves by not capitalizing on tsubaki more. the obvious conclusion most people in her place would arrive at is that they need to reject pacifism as a principle entirely, but orihime is stubborn, so she comes up with shiten kosshun (her detonation shield) instead. she forges her powers based not on how they should be or are expected to be (more combative) but on how she wants it to be (a fighting style that is effective but still rooted in pacifism). i think it’s really cool how she has agency here, and isn’t pressured into giving up something that’s really integral to her being just so she can still fight alongside her friends (i also think this is that “something” rukia was talking about in ch 228, because rukia is well-aware of the kido corps, and as a kido user herself, she knows there’s more than one way to be useful on a battlefield and was confident they could have found it together with enough time and training). orihime’s self-actualization shapes her powers rather similarly to how shinigami’s internal motivations shape their own bankai, which @/troius talks more about in this excellent post. ultimately, she accepts tsubaki but on her terms, though it's unfortunate we never really saw him and the other fairies much physically after the time-skip.

#hachi and orihime is my favorite implied dynamic but at least 686 told us ichi/hime still stays in touch w the vizards #they should hang outttt; they should train together. [insert that one panel of rose talking about vizards being lonely &#that meeting ichigo & orihime was like meeting long lost relatives🥺#there's just something about the way those two made friends in every 'camp' so to speak because they're just...homely characters #arrancars..shinigami..vizards..fullbringers..freaking kon. the kurosakis dont close their doors to anyone #orihime inoue #meta

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melonteee · 5 months

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First I really would like to thank you for your amazing work, it’s thanks to your videos that I finally kicked myself into catching up on OP. I don’t regret it the slightest, thank you for dragging me back into my life-long mad obsession, it really feels like coming home lmao.

Your Law video in particular really punched me in the guts, your analysis really shed a new light on him for me and now I’m obsessed with him. I was thinking about the potential place of guilt in Law’s quest of avenging Cora, especially survivor’s guilt and it's something that is worth mentioning I think. I noticed that Law blames himself a lot in his flashback, saying at several occasions that Cora’s been hurt because of him, and also in the light novel, where he loses himself in “what if”, where guilt eats him alive to the point of having nightmares and even telling himself than if he hadn’t met Cora then Cora would still be alive. That’s such a sad thing to think.

For survivors who suffer from this kind of ptsd, the mere fact of being alive is a constant source of guilt and anxiety. Law probably doesn’t feel worthy of living over the sacrifice of Cora, feels responsible for his death and overly blames his whole existence for it. His already existing feelings of worthlessness (induced by Doffy’s teaching methods, the internalized rejection due to amber lead and the emotional neglect he suffered from) and this overwhelming guilt definitely feed into each other in a vicious circle. This leads him to this need of constantly trying to make sense of his survival and his existence, like trying to pay penance and justify being alive. This is why he came to overburdening himself with the responsibility of avenging Cora’s death, and why he was so self-destructive while doing so. Because there’s also a strong process of identification to the deceased, as a coping mechanism. The survivors have this need to mirror the suffering the deceased went through, it’s a way for them to feel closer to the dead, like if they want to join them in death. It’s the survivor’s attempt to regain his own identity and to reduce the guilt and the psychological distress. I can definitely see that in Law, in how he made Corazon his whole identity, and how he was very willing to die to achieve his quest. There’s definitely a martyr complex going on there. He launched his whole-ass plan at 26 years old, same age Cora died, and I refuse to believe this is a coincidence. It's like he was forbidding himself to live longer than Cora did. And to think that he had all this simmering in him for basically half of his life...that's insane.

Anyway to me this guilt plays a lot in Law’s dedication to Cora and his obsession in avenging him. I also think about how he felt responsible for dragging Luffy into his mess and how he was willing to die as a penance. For me it is also one of the things that definitively separate Law from Doffy on a fundamental level. Because Doffy never has shown the slightest amount of guilt for everything he did, and while he might feel regrets for having killed his brother, regrets are different than remorses.

I’m sorry that was a long one. Told you I was obsessed. I hope the read was interesting anyway!

This is an amazing read anon! I don't have much else to say other than I totally agree! Law's character totally explores survivor's guilt, even if not said outright. It hits double hard considering not ONLY has he gotten this guilt from Corazon dying, but from being the ONLY survivor of Flevance town as well.

Robin was similar in this case, thinking her life was somewhat expendable and 'allowing' herself to die. The only thing is, Robin very much DIDN'T want to, she just saw no way to be ABLE to live. Her mother told her she must live, and Robin only found the will to KEEP living and being ALLOWED to live due to the Strawhats.

Law, on the other hand, was seemingly ready to die from the get go. At 10, he accepted his death from white lead poisoning - expecting to die at 13. Then, after Corazon saved him, Law fully expected to die at 26 with his fight against Doflamingo.

Law has never been able to grasp his own life in his hands, it feels as if he's had this idea he SHOULDN'T be alive and - since he IS alive - he must be alive for SOMETHING. Which is why when Sengoku tells him that ALL Corazon would want is for Law to LIVE, the way LAW wants, it was a big thing for Law!

Law's never had the thought that maybe he can just...exist. Maybe he doesn't need to be alive for a reason. There's truly an aspect of survivor's guilt in such an idea.

BUT now, thanks to Luffy and the people around him, Law's managed to break away from this line of thought. Law is truly starting to live for himself now, and it's wonderful to see!

#ask #melonask

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midnightshade · 8 months

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Geto Suguru's Downfall and the True Scope of His Plans

I've noticed a lot of misconceptions surrounding Geto as a character, specifically considering his goals. I've seen some people say his plans weren't very well thought out, but I couldn't disagree more!

Geto's plans were a little more refined than just, "kill everyone," and we even see evidence later on in the series that shows his plans were a lot more refined than people give him credit for.

Before I begin, as always I'd like to provide a disclaimer. This is a discussion on Geto's plans and the depth and thought behind them. This is not a defense of his plans.

Let's begin with a recap of Geto's downfall and what led him to his current beliefs up until his death.

Geto originally believed that the strong existed to protect the weak. He clung to those ideals so resolutely that when he came face to face with the ugliness and unfairness of the system he was working within, it broke him.

Riko's death was the catalyst that sent Geto spiraling. He was one of the Strongest and yet he couldn't even protect a scared girl right in front of him. Haibara's death broke him further, as his Junior had given him some hope: to keep doing what he could because it was something he could do, only for him to die tragically on a mission.

Finally, Geto snapped when he saw Mimiko and Nanako in a cage, beaten and sentenced to death by ignorant, hateful humans.

Geto wasn't born evil. He was struggling and desperately clinging to his ideals in a system that saw him and other sorcerers as fodder. He was right to break away from the system and right to call out the ugliness of humanity. By all accounts, shaman are an oppressed minority and humans are the oppressors.

Minorities are well within their right to be angry at their oppressors, but Geto's mistake was turning to genocide and hatred rather than finding other methods of changing the system.

So, what exactly was Geto's plan? Kill all non-shaman, yes, but it's a little more refined than that.

If you look back at his conversation with Yuki, you see that she mentioned how a mass cull might force the survivors to develop Cursed Energy, much like how birds developed wings. Suguru took that idea and ran with it, and to his credit, it's implied to be a possible route

A good route? No, but a possible one

We learn this thanks to Kenjaku. Shoko is the first to mention a connection between the brain and the Cursed Technique, but Kenjaku later confirms this connection: the brain of a Shaman and Non-Shaman are fundamentally different, but it's possible for the latter to become the former.

Kenjaku himself does this. He used transfiguration to transform a handful of modern day people into Shaman and we see Mahito do the same with Junpei, altering his brain for Jujutsu.

It's just that, unlike Kenjaku, Geto lacked the scope required to perform a mass-evolution on the scale he likely wanted.

But why would anyone join him? Even if his plans could work, why would anyone willingly go along with it?

Simple. Shaman, as mentioned, are oppressed. While Geto's methods are cruel, it's no surprise that those who have been continuously hurt and disenfranchised would side with him. Unfortunately, Gege doesn't give us much to go on with his family, but Mimiko and Nanako are good enough examples.

They were children, only 6 years old when their parents were murdered and when they were locked up and tortured for the crime of being Shaman. Considering Nobara sees similar behavior in her own town, it's safe to assume that the Countryside (and many humans in general) have not improved with their bias towards Shaman.

The narrative is against Suguru's methods, but notice that it never says he's wrong in his core beliefs that the system is flawed. We see this with characters like Gojo and Nanami, who each react differently to similar pressures. Nanami leaves Jujutsu Society and even goes so far as to say he understands Geto and what he's doing. Gojo, meanwhile, is trying to change the system gradually from the inside. Regardless of their methods, they're in agreement: this system isn't fair and it isn't working.

Geto Suguru is considered a genius through effort, compared to a natural born genius like Gojo. His methods are cruel and very clearly wrong, but they're more thought out than people give him credit for, and there's a good reason why people follow him.

#jjk #jujutsu kaisen #geto suguru #forbidden writings #jjk meta #jjk spoilers #spoilers

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jelly-as-in-grape-concord · 10 months

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48 + 50!

48. OC who is a perfect cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure

no one in either story is textbook "perfect cinnamon roll" but sasha ramirez and gigi (gianna crane (shes from cannibalistic pigeons, the project partner i mentioned)) are close contenders. Sasha is a nice person, but not like the pure and innocent variety yk? gigi on the other hand, does start out in cannibalistic pigeons as like 100% cinnamon roll but eventually unfurls completely as the forest begins to call her into it. kinda like how you unfurl an actual cinnamon roll, the sugar and cinnamon and sweetness is still there, it is fundamentally still a cinnamon roll, however it is now a strip of what it once was. or something like that idk the metaphor got away from me

50. Give me the good ol’ OC talk here. Talk about anything you want

uhhhhhhh this is really long so

the gloam started out as bnha fanfiction LMAO

from the basic idea i had written in my notes: "Izuku is accidentally taken to a different universe where the prototypes exist (yu takeyama=uraraka, that version of bakugou that was blunt about everything, other weirdly designed people like kaminari and toruu). The world is kinda in an apocalypse state thats overrun by creatures called aberrants. there’s “heroes” but they’re treated like pest control than celebrities (people still did hero gimmicks for the fun of it)

he ultimately made friends with the other versions. he was forced back home after katsuki was killed by aberrant and yu wanted revenge

when he wakes up back in the regular mha world, aberrants start entering the world and hes the only one who knows how to deal with them"

which in short: alternate universes or whatever. the reason why i abandoned this idea though was because it sorta molded izuku and several other characters into something that they werent. so i saw a post that was like something about fanfics turning characters into basically OCs and i was like. wait a minute. I CAN DO THAT

and so:

the first original idea used to be about 7 teens going on a big camping trip after graduating from high school. the main couple (sylvia + guy i forget the name of) get into an arguement, its super awkward so theyre all like ok ig lets just go home, so sylvia goes in the car with isaac and sasha and in this version, theyre not rlly besties, just people who are friends with each others friends kinda deal yk. but BOOM on the way back they get into a car accident. Sasha and sylvia r badly injured and cant get out, so isaac goes to get help but gets replaced by another person(same as happens in the gloam 4.0 (yeag there is a 3.0 im gettin there)). the rest of the group catches up, get out of the car, and get eaten by a monster. then the whole plot after that was that sylvia and sasha wanted to find isaac as the replacement admits that on the other side of the forest, theres an alternate universe that they could travel to find him. i have no idea what was so supposed to happen after so i scratched the idea.

gloam 3.0 was something similar, adding in the spiciness that the inside of the forest WAS the alternate universe and everyone in it was fighting for their lives. and also sylvia got a gun. what!!! then i scrapped it because i still had no idea how it would be ending or how the story would start because i kinda hated the car accident thing. i could never imagine it quite right.

then theres the gloam 4.0, where you BECOME this alternate version of urself by becoming a sick monster. and also i aged up the main three because i dont know how to write teenagers. im hardly one myself sometimes but i have hanged around both middle aged and old people for my entire life.

i did keep the original ig crossing a threshhold into an alternate universe thing as a seperate idea (anti-glory) but its not something im thinking or working on

(theres a lot more detail that i coul write here but im currently typing this in a moving vehicle and very sleepy)

#sorry about the rambling. it will happen again.#<3 #the gloam #cannibalistic pigeons #jelly as in asks

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coldgoldlazarus · 2 years

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Also, my RvB binge last night and my Lariska brainrot today are melding in interesting ways.

Cause like, I couldn't help but draw some parallels between Lariska and Carolina. Teal armor, super fast, highly-trained and hypercompetent killers working for a morally bankrupt organization, and having a decidedly... complicated relationship with the leader of that organization?

This, along with a post I saw interpreting TSO's rather... weird... form as a sort of raptorlike shape, plus my own interpretation of Lariska being quite obviously Velociraptor-inspired, got me thinking about the possibility of headcanoning TSO as like, basically her dad? Like the Director with Carolina. Obviously with Bonkle, reproduction doesn't happen and parenthood as we know it thus isn't really a concept, but regardless, the idea could sort of work, still.

Them actually being the same species, and TSO having taken her under his wing a long time in the past, essentially adopting her. Then time passes, she becomes more personally proficient, and he becomes the coldhearted dickbag we know today, and somewhere during that the Dark Hunters are founded, and their dynamic goes from father and daughter to boss and employee. And then it just, breaks entirely when he has her arm removed, and replaced with a bad prosthetic instead of being allowed to rebuild it properly.

And so there's just this sort of fundamentally broken dynamic now where any bridges between them are completely burnt and collapsed, but because of their roles they're still working together, seeing each other every day, seeing the ruins of the connection that once was there and mutually understanding that there's no repairing it, neither of them even particularly want to repair it, but they're just dealing with that because they're still boss and employee. And Lariska fully intends to kill him someday, and TSO fully intends to not let that day come, but they both know it's going to come sooner or later regardless. But it's because there was once such a strong bond there once that this is unavoidable now. There's nothing positive left to be found there, not even a sliver of remorse of "maybe we can go back", yet still the memory of the care that used to exist is why they're so unstoppably at odds now.

Idk, part of me feels like this is maybe a bit too... idk, melodramatic? Soap-Opera-ish? But at the same time I feel like it could really add some additional meaning and emotional heft to their exchanges, in a way that doesn't undermine the inevitability of their arcs.

And unlike Carolina, when finally given the chance to kill her father figure, Lariska would indeed follow through.

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vyragosa · 2 years

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so like, cowardly schemer seimei, extracting himself from his own story, tired of the restraints, constantly running away despite being fully present, someone who cannot get focused on individuals as he scolds douman for doing so simply because seimei isn’t allowed to love anyone or be loved by anyone because of how he doomed by just seeing their true essence, or how his character is fundamentally moved by his mother leaving as a child after he saw her true essence, how the truth has done nothing but hurt him, how he wasn’t physically present for all of heian-kyo but only and exclusively, there for douman, the one who actually dared and wanted to know seimei’s thoughts that the latter keeps from anyone and he willingly shares them with douman, why? because seimei cannot stand to make another victim? once the truth is revealed the victims already exist

did seimei not want douman to become another of his victims? he did, and he proved it by stopping douman from killing themselves

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beardedmrbean · 3 days

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Ugh great now racists, are saying any type of black Mc means diversity hires

But here the issues like yes we can have more black rep in like in fantasy stuff

But there are fundamental difference between how I handle it vs they do

Okay it not rocket science, but as you know tumblr have the idea of diversity is middle schooler one

Also how people use my culture and people struggles to demonize white people…wait.

When these people learn about the dark side of American history? Are they blind to the several dark jokes we have towards Thomas Jefferson or why black Americans often have their ancestors slave owner last names?

No to mention most Congressmen got their slaves from inheritance

But the black characters are so UGH

Also why they all act like rootless urbanites? Yes I understand orphans was often used in stories (but anyone who a writer knows it for easy storytelling)

Also where the family? Like a black fantasy character man who struggled under his family shadow? Of course they exist and such. But like a black man and his son having a falling out but they slowly patch up

“But that says you want people to stay in their toxic families!” My brother in Christ my father and I have a complicated relationship

BUT I use our relationship to created a Jrpg scenario where a BLACK male Mc at 16, accidentally get his girlfriend knocked up

WAIT DO BREAK THE SEVEN SEALS YET- the mc named Darius decided to settled down and raised his son named Cyrus.

Now this is the first act of the game, Darius gf then wife named Maria leaves in the middle of the night when Cyrus is 4. Now 3 years after that, Darius decided to go on a quest and he bring his 7 year old son along with him.

Yes I can hear the new god of war similarities between my ocs and Atreus and Kratos. But the thing is that they are very different execution. My OC was standard Jrpg adventurer that accidentally became a father and still in his 20’s. Kratos was a Spartan who became a god and well we all known how he was in the og gow games.

But Cyrus is mainly a mage who overtime because a marksman as he get older becomes there a Industrial Revolution going on in this fantasy setting and Darius think that giving his son a long range weapon (Cyrus get taking around 9 or 10) suck as rifle would be easier for him to use for offensive

Also a gameplay mechanic that Cyrus gave a magical backpack that actually like your moveable inventory. You known how parents used your book bag on field trips?

Though as Cyrus getting older and level ups. He picked on the tactic and after a big boss battle when you try to put an item into his back bag. He goes “HEY!” because his magic is also develop so he needs room too.

But think about my fantasy idea, I’m subverting the deadbeat teen dad stereotype AND using the father and son roadtrip formula as inspiration.

What we already kill them, let take their shit

Oh wait I can control my daddy issues, so something fresh and rare like my Jrpg idea wouldn’t work

Ugh great now racists, are saying any type of black Mc means diversity hires

Not sure if that was the plan of the people pushing forced diversity or not but it's the outcome most people with sense saw coming, Justice Jackson that biden appointed is gonna have that hanging over her head forever too, regardless of the fact that she was (is) very qualified to have the job.

Several of them freed their slaves too, at least to the extent that they could,

But the black characters are so UGH Also why they all act like rootless urbanites? Yes I understand orphans was often used in stories (but anyone who a writer knows it for easy storytelling) Also where the family? Like a black fantasy character man who struggled under his family shadow? Of course they exist and such. But like a black man and his son having a falling out but they slowly patch up “But that says you want people to stay in their toxic families!” My brother in Christ my father and I have a complicated relationship

I'm enjoying how you're covering my side of this too here.

Hey writers, maybe try writing and working out a solution occasionally, like, as said, patching up a familial relationship issue.

That doesn't work as well for the YA dystopian fantasy novel and those are what's cool now I think.

Maybe Stephanie Meyer can work some of that in to the Twilight thingy she's supposed to be working on......

BUT I use our relationship to created a Jrpg scenario where a BLACK male Mc at 16, accidentally get his girlfriend knocked up WAIT DO BREAK THE SEVEN SEALS YET- the mc named Darius decided to settled down and raised his son named Cyrus. Yes I can hear the new god of war similarities between my ocs and Atreus and Kratos. But the thing is that they are very different execution. My OC was standard Jrpg adventurer that accidentally became a father and still in his 20’s. Kratos was a Spartan who became a god and well we all known how he was in the og gow games.

lol

But think about my fantasy idea, I’m subverting the deadbeat teen dad stereotype AND using the father and son roadtrip formula as inspiration.

I'm enjoying the progression here, be fun to see Cyrus with a firearm too, even if he never uses it, not after teaching his kid at least, good father and son bonding time over learning gun safety n such.

Wouldn’t you want to play a Jrpg where you fish with your son, watch as his skills grows, loot powerful dungeons together, teach him how to unleash plagues on bandits. And then how to loot their corpses for money or items. What we already kill them, let take their shit Oh wait I can control my daddy issues, so something fresh and rare like my Jrpg idea wouldn’t work

Ahh you beat me there on all of that then, lmao.

This all sounds like a good start on all of this.

#zoomer huey anon

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vincentpriceofficial · 1 year

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A while ago I saw some YouTube guy compare Viserys hotd to ned stark and say he’s an example of a ~good man~ in this morally grey universe and my initial reaction was like No!!!!! Excuse me!!! but I’ve continued thinking about like WHY this is wrong

I guess I think that ned and viserys function as characters to illustrate very different but complementary things about this fictional universe. Ned really is a good and moral person and his death shows that a person like that can’t survive in this world, that their goodness makes them vulnerable and will be exploited

Whereas Viserys’s defining quality isn’t that he’s good so much as that he’s just incredibly normal. he is Just Some Guy he wants to collect adult action figures and he means well but doesn’t know how to parent his kids and he hates his job and never wants to do it. I feel like it’s extremely likely he reminds you of at least one middle aged man you know irl if not several. He’s incredibly fundamentally regular and yet the values of the culture he exists within and the pressures placed upon him externally cause him to commit absolutely bloodcurdling crimes

(#misogyny cw #csa cw)

like this man killed his wife and then replaced her with a child. He fucks his 15 year old daughter’s best friend. Alicent is a kid, she’s a high school freshman!

This is all utterly heinous shit and the point I’m making is that it requires absolutely zero pathology or abnormality on behalf of Viserys as a person bc it just literally is that normal to use and abuse women in this society. Viserys is sympathetic but he’s not good because it’s almost impossible for him to be good after living the life he has. If he was good he would be Ned Stark. If he was good he would be dead

#hotd #I mean they very much did kill Jesus but you know what I mean #he didn’t die because he was particularly naive or upstanding or moral #he wasn’t any of those things and if he was he probably literally would have been assassinated #he was regular

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bigskydreaming · 3 years

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Compiling a Top Ten List of Things I Wish Non-Nightwing Fans Knew Weren’t True About Him (pre-Flashpoint and ten only because I’m using a panel example for each one and just linking to longer essay-proofs I’ve made on literally all of these lmao why am I like this).....I need one more though. Thoughts?

1) Dick didn’t hate Jason, treat him badly or ignore him when Jason was Robin

2) Dick’s iconic jerk moments towards Kory, Donna, Alfred and others in NTT #18-22 don’t actually say anything about his character because they exist as part of a narrative showing he was brainwashed, and no, it wasn’t a retcon

3) Dick and Kory’s breakup had EVERYTHING to do with Mirage, they were fighting about it literally the page before he proposed, and you can’t claim not being ready to get married was the problem unless you acknowledge Dick only wanted to get married to prove he loved Kory in the face of everyone doubting that because of Mirage

4) Your view of Dick’s feelings about Jason upon his eventual return, and him killing people, absolutely needs to factor in the fact that Dick once beat the Joker to death because he mocked Jason’s death to Dick, and no, Bruce reviving the Joker doesn’t change anything this says about Dick’s feelings here

5) What happened with Tarantula was not the de facto worst thing to happen to Dick at that time, it is just as significant if not MORE significant that Blockbuster targeted and killed everyone close to him in Bludhaven specifically BECAUSE of Dick himself, from his apartment building, Haly’s Circus, etc. In fact, given that Tarantula wasn’t the first time Dick was raped and the fact that even as it happened, Dick - who had already taken responsibility for her and her training - told her not to touch him not just because he didn’t want it, but because he was poison....its highly significant that his thoughts were focused on him being WHAT ruins everyone who touches him....including his own rapist. He saw himself as the common denominator, and I don’t think there’s anyway to divorce this from his first rape, which was also at the hands of someone he worked with in a superhero capacity. Finally, all of this was ultimately compounded by the destruction of Bludhaven itself, and that....really....can’t be stressed enough. As well as the fact that all of this took place at the exact same point in the comics as Tim’s losses of Stephanie, Conner and Jack Drake.

6) Dick was never Slade’s apprentice. Ever. As Renegade in the comics, he worked WITH Slade, as part of an attempt to infiltrate the Society of Super-villains, but the whole time he did so, he was at Slade’s request training his daughter Rose himself. He was never Slade’s subordinate or student. That just fundamentally didn’t happen. Furthermore, he outwitted Slade, in retaliation for Slade subverting his attempt to tell Clark he wasn’t really a traitor and making Clark actually believe he was.....and it was him outwitting Slade and getting Rose to turn on her father that led Slade to have the Society destroy Bludhaven as its example to the world, despite Slade having previously promised Dick that Bludhaven would be protected. You can’t unlink any of the links in this chain of events. Bludhaven was only destroyed BECAUSE Slade and Dick never once interacted as student and teacher, master and apprentice. It was a cat and mouse game where they both played both roles, knowingly, the entire time. As equals. As all their interactions between them have gone, going all the way back to their earliest encounters in the Judas Contract. Please stop erasing this aspect of their comic book dynamics just to warp it into something where Slade is a predator who hopelessly outmatches Dick, his chosen prey. Slade’s preoccupation with Dick isn’t because of his potential, its because Dick’s the one who keeps fucking up Slade’s plans AS HE ALREADY IS. Constantly reframing things so Dick is hopelessly at Slade’s mercy or desperately in need of Slade’s help or protection says nothing about their actual dynamic, it's just using them as interchangeable props in your preferred dynamic. Which I mean, you can do, its just. Know that isn’t actually them?

7) Dick didn’t fire Tim, kick him out of Wayne Manor or Gotham, ever think he was crazy, threaten to throw him into Arkham, refuse to believe him about Bruce’s death, pick Damian over him, or any of the dozen other rabbits people have pulled out of the top hat that is Red Robin in order to depict him as the absolute worst person to ever live and who should totally just go to Hell.

8) Dick is actually the ONLY one of the Batkids who has had the experience in Arkham that people like to say Jason has had and blame on Dick himself, as he went undercover for Bruce in Batman R.I.P. in a manner that necessitated allowing the Black Glove Society to capture him, hold him prisoner in Arkham for a week, straitjacketed and drugged up to the gills and about to be lobotomized when he was finally able to fight back and free himself. While Arkham was actually full of various Rogues, unlike the time Jason actually spent in Arkham, being bored, and subjected to nothing more than psychological evaluations that said he was fine, all because Dick wanted to PROTECT him in a way that he knew wouldn’t be possible if Jason was in Blackgate, after POLICE arrested him regardless of what Dick did or didn’t want.

9) Dick absolutely 100% WAS adopted by Bruce when he was an adult, he isn’t the only one who wasn’t adopted, just the one who wasn’t adopted before adulthood. I have major issues with HOW the adoption went down, and think it should have played out much differently and would love to see a million fix-it fics tackling the WAY it played out and doing it better, but it is just flat out, categorically untrue that it just didn’t happen at all. And to be fair, Dick Grayson stans are just as guilty as perpetuating this one in the name of angst, and personally, I think that is counter-productive and just enables the perpetuation of treating him/viewing him as something ‘other’ than one of Bruce’s kids himself.

10) I have a few ideas for the tenth, but nothing definitive, so.....thoughts? Any other major topics I’ve ranted on before that anyone thinks should make an appearance here or doesn’t get acknowledged enough, or perhaps a topic I haven’t covered yet?

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thevoidcannotbefilled · 2 years

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One of my fundamental issues as Annabelle is written is that... she's not a person. Or more accurately, you could replace her with a walking talking spider or a person possessed by spiders, or something to that effect and it would be the exact same role in the narrative.

Thing is, I don't mind if she's mostly Web. I think that makes sense for an avatar of it. The more you're in it, the more you lose yourself, the more you let go of your natural impulses and can be guided by your entity. I also find the idea of giving yourself up to the Web due to seeing your own insignificance within the world fascinating (maybe especially now where there's so much happening in the world and personally being able to do nothing to stop the bad in it. There's a temptation to give into that misery). The Web is also a huge parallel with Jon's entire journey. Any character who embodies the idea of inevitability, the choices within lack of choices, and feeling small in a complex world should be a huge deal! In a way, her character is everything Jon would hate himself to be. And while I personally don't like taking her statement literally, the fact she parallels her backstory to Jon to mess with him shows how much she directly can get under his skin.

But...

1) there isn't a major moment where she does anything to have an effect on Jon that's related to who she is as a person. There is no shining moment where she and Jon have an understanding or see each other beyond just barebone avatars. And that's because...

2) Annabelle doesn't want anything. As much as the idea of giving herself up to the Web is fascinating... she just doesn't want anything from it. No side schemes to use the Web to counter productively get a better future. No setting up her own manipulations by twisting the final plan. No sense of giving herself up to the Web for protection. Not even "Jon make it easy and just do what you need to do. Then the fear can go away".

She has no motivation. Nothing. Because at the end of the day, all she does within the plot of the show is make sure the Web can do its plan. That's it.

Ever since I saw the line where she was okay with dying to make sure the Web's plan went into fruition it just made me so sad about her character. Oliver makes sense; he is an End avatar, that's his whole thing. His entire journey was learning to accept the monster and the messed up fear the End was teaching him.

But Annabelle? I can see where the whole "I'm just one small step to this plan" mindset is but... for every other avatar there has been some examination of their humanity. What motivates them. Who they are and so on. Season 4 and season 5 explore their complex existence where even if they're hurting people they still have wants and desires. There's something driving them to do what they're doing. Oliver is part of the exception but his exception proves a point in his horror. Even Jonah for how horrible he is, has desires that can be graciously translated to "he never wants to die and wants to make sure no one can ever kill him".

Annabelle doesn't have any of that and I'm not 100% sure why she was written that way. Yes, she wants the Web's final gambit to go through, but idk, its just so odd to me to have an actual person in the role she plays in the current story when a puppeted character could do the same. If there was an examination of the idea of letting yourself go to a higher force for some sake, then that would be something. But as it stands, Annabelle Cane is an awkward character that is too much of a person on the narrative to reliably be seen as just a person possessed by spiders but not enough motivations or want in the narrative to actually be one.

And that's just disappointing more than anything else for a show that's otherwise so good at having wonderful layered characters.

#tma #the magnus archives #annabelle cane #tma crit #long post #tma analysis

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musclesandhammering · 3 years

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Every Single Issue I Have With S*lki (It’s Not Just The Selfcest)

Here goes. I threatened to post this a few days ago and never did, but I just saw a s*lki stan Twitter account claim that Loki caring about Sylvie more than the whole multiverse was a Good And Romantic thing and it pushed me over the fucking edge, so now you all have to read this. I’ve divided it into categories cause there’s just THAT much.

OOC Bullshit

• First and foremost, no amount of mental gymnastics you do will ever make me believe that this specific Loki- the one that just invaded New York, that just came off a year of Thanos Torture, that just got done being influenced by the sceptre, that was literally in the middle of a crisis already, and then on top of that went through all the trauma of Ep 1- would even be worried about a romantic relationship. That would be the furthest thing from his mind. Go back and watch how he acted in Avengers- you think that guy would abandon his previous mission to become a snivelling simp for a girl he’d just met 3 days prior? Yeah, there’s no universe in which that makes sense.

• “It’s very in character for Loki to fall in love with himself lololol-“ NO, it’s literally not. Out of all the characters in the mcu, I don’t think I can think of anyone that genuinely hates themselves more than Loki. He even referred to all his other male variants as “monsters” and said meeting them was “a nightmare” in this series. He’s got so much self-loathing, plus the fact that he genuinely thinks himself to be an evil backstabbing scourge- so there’s no evidence at all suggesting that he would ever develop a fondness for, or even be inclined to trust, another version of himself, after only knowing them for 3 days.

• Building on that, the whole concept of Loki falling in love with a version of himself just feeds into the annoying ass misconception that he’s a narcissist. No matter which way you stack it, he’s not. If you’re referring to NPD, he doesn’t fit the criteria, and if you’re saying “narcissist” just as a slang term meaning “selfish and arrogant”, that still doesn’t accurately describe him. But when creators like Waldron and Herron do things like having him fall in love with himself, it makes it so much easier for casual viewers to think that he is.

Shitty LGBT Rep

• It’s kinda sus that Loki’s are allegedly genderfluid and yet the only female-presenting variant we see (and apparently the only female-presenting variant there is, cause the male Loki’s all seemed unfamiliar with the concept) is treated as some kind of mind-bogglingly special paradox. Also very sus that, out of all the Loki variants, the one our Loki falls in love with just so happens to be the only female one. What a coincidence.

• The fact that the creators of the show went around bragging about Loki’s bisexuality and Marvel purposefully (lbr) allowed stories about Loki possibly having a male love interest to circulate, specifically enticing queer viewers to watch the show (you know, the definition of queerbaiting), and then instead of having a male love interest (Loki was the first queer main character, so it was the perfect opportunity) they gave us *gestures to this dumpster fire* this… it’s just a middle finger to LGBT fans. The fact that they would rather have this relationship with all its myriad of problems than have a gay relationship is just……. Very telling.

• While him being with a woman obviously doesn’t refute his bisexuality, the fact that they showed/talked about him being interested in 3 different women (flight attendant, Sylvie, Sif) and never even hinted at him being attracted to a man, definitely makes it seem like they were trying to cover up his bisexuality to smooth things over with the more homophobic viewers. You know? It’s like “I know you’re pissed that we sorta confirmed Loki as bi, so we promise we’ll never mention it again! Or even hint at it! As a matter of fact, we’ll give him lots of female lovies and make him seem as straight as possible! That’ll take your mind off of that horrible crumb of queer rep, right? Please please please keep giving us your money!!!”

• Aside from all the other issues, at its core, the biggest reason why I think I’m so irritated with s*lki is that it took one of the most interesting, complex, and diverse characters in cinema atm and squished him into a tired ass unnecessary heteronormative subplot…. Like literally every. single. other. protagonist. ever. Loki is such a unique character, and it’s so so so incredibly disappointing that they stuck him into that same boring cookie cutter romance that happens to every other character in every other movie I’ve ever seen. It’s a disservice, and it’s honestly just not compelling or entertaining at all.

Thematic Issues Galore

• His arc didn’t need a romance. With anyone. It was unnecessary and it didn’t make sense plot-wise. In fact, one of the reasons he was my fav prior to this was because he was the only big-name mcu character whose story wasn’t muddied-up by a romance that didn’t need to be there. So much for that.

• He wasn’t emotionally ready for a romantic relationship with anyone. Hell, just a genuine friendship would’ve been pushing it for him at this point. He was in such a bad state that any relationship he got into would’ve been toxic and unhealthy for both him and the other person, and it doesn’t make sense why the writers would want to put him in one when there were so many cons and essentially no pros (other than “Uwu aren’t they cute together”).

• Sylvie’s character in general was unnecessary and Loki’s character was robbed just by her being there. The whole show became about her post-Ep 2. They spent most of the time giving her backstory, building her up, telling us how awesome she is, trying to convince us to like her, etc when what they really needed to be doing was building Loki up- cause I gotta say, if I had to describe TVA!Loki in a few words, they would be Flat, Boring, and Weak.

• The romance overtakes the plot. They spend time portraying their supposed connection that could’ve been spent adding depth and complexity to literally any of the characters. They make the big Nexus Event them giving each other googly eyes on Lamentis when it could’ve been so many other way more profound things that speak to the fundamental nature of Loki’s. They have the climax of the finale be “oh no she betrayed him to kill He Who Remains” when it could’ve been something way more compelling (Loki having a moral crisis over whether or not to kill HWR, Loki contemplating the state of the multiverse and weighing the pros and cons of freedom vs order, Loki looking into some What If situations and getting emotional about what could’ve been regarding his family, Loki realising the gravity of HWR’s offer and finally coming to terms with how important he is to the universal cycle, etc etc). The entire plot suffered in favour of a romance that half of us didn’t even want.

• It essentially reduced all of Loki’s potential character growth down to “He did it for his crush.” He seemed to at least have some motivations of his own in Ep 1-2 (feeble as they were) but after Sylvie showed up in Ep 3, literally every action he took was just him being a simp for her. Why did he lie in the interrogation? To try to protect Sylvie. Why did he fight the minutemen and Timekeepers? To survive kinda, but mostly cause it was important to Sylvie. Why did he get pruned? Cause he got distracted trying to confess his crush to Sylvie. Why did he try to get out of The Void? Cause he thought Sylvie needed him. Why did he stay in The Void? Cause Sylvie was staying. Why did he try to enchant Alioth? Cause Sylvie told him to. Why did the multiverse get cracked open, leading to an infinite number of Kangs waging war on all of existence? Cause Loki didn’t wanna hurt Sylvie in their fight at the Citadel and then get distracted by her kissing him. It’s uninteresting and honestly pretty embarrassing.

• Throughout their “relationship arc” the writers do their absolute damndest to convince us that we should like Sylvie more than Loki. And you know what? It’s the most hypocritical shit I’ve ever seen. They preach and preach about how Sylvie’s life has been so difficult/we should feel bad for her/she had it so bad/poor poor sylvie/she had it SO much worse than pampered prince Loki…. But then they never even touch on any of Loki’s trauma of hardships (the ones that have been ignored for literally 3 movies now). They frame Sylvie as a good person and a Freedom Fighter after she spent literal decades/centuries mass-murdering brainwashed TVA agents and showing exactly zero remorse for it….. but then they make it their mission to constantly remind us that Loki is a terrible person and constantly put him in situations where he’s forced to acknowledge his wrongdoings/show remorse/admit to how “evil” he is for being a mass murderer for like 2 years. They show him on-screen having a wider range of powers than her, and perpetuate his whole shtick of being a “master manipulator” or whatever….. But then they make Sylvie “the brawn” more competent, intelligent, and physically capable than him. Tell me how it’s a good thing for a ship to be so narratively biased toward one character.

Missed Opportunities

• If they absolutely had to have a romance subplot, then they could’ve paired Loki with one of the characters that have already been established OR one of the characters that were a big part of the whole TVA storyline anyway. It would’ve been so interesting if they’d revealed that Loki had a history with some of the players from previous films (Sif and Fandral both come to mind). It also would’ve been really interesting if they’d given Loki a love interest that actually had some allegiance to the TVA as a whole (Mobius maybe, but not necessarily. It also could’ve been Renslayer or B-15). Hell, imo it would’ve been cool if they’d followed through with that “See you again someday” line that he said to the flight attendant in Ep 1. ALL of these characters have way more chemistry with him than Sylvie, and they were also already relevant to the plot without wasting half the show to give background info on them.

• If they absolutely had to have a hetero-presenting love story involving an enchantress-type figure, then there’s a whole Enchantress (Amora) that was actually Loki’s love interest in the comics. Plus, fans have been screaming for Amora to appear in the mcu for years. Plus, Tom literally pitched an Amora/Loki storyline way back in 2012-13. Also, Lorelei (another enchantress) is also one of Loki’s love interests in the comics, and she already exists in the mcu (she was on Agents of SHIELD). There were several different established characters for them to choose from. Creating a whole knew amalgamation of a character and going with the “she’s a Loki variant” storyline was just completely unnecessary and made no sense.

• They completely robbed us of a Chaos Twins dynamic. Had they handled Sylvie better and not forced her and Loki to smooch, the two of them could’ve had a really really complex and interesting sibling relationship. Loki could’ve stepped into Thor’s shoes and sort of used that new role to gain some self importance, and Sylvie could’ve finally had somebody to look out for her/teach her magic/be there for her. It would’ve been very aesthetically pleasing, the vibes would’ve been out of this world, it would’ve been way more profound than this bs, and frankly it would’ve been much more entertaining to watch.

• Loki’s relationship (read: obsession) with Sylvie completely overshadows all Loki’s other relationships in the show. Loki and Mobius were literally the focal point of the series in Ep 1-2, but after Sylvie showed up in Ep 3, they barely had any interactions with each other, and Mobius pretty much faded to the background entirely. Loki had the beginnings of a pretty interesting antagonistic relationship with Renslayer (with her wanting him pruned, then arguing with Mobius that he couldn’t be trusted), but after Sylvie showed up the dynamic shifted to focus on the history between her and Ravonna. Loki and B-15 started off very badly and openly disliked each other throughout Ep 1-2, and then in the end of Ep 2, Loki showed a little bit of concern for her when she was possessed, hinting that they might be inching toward a reconciliation- especially considering how obvious it was that Loki was gonna uncover the TVA’s sins eventually. There was so much potential for him to be the one to give her her memories back and convince her to change sides, but no, of course that honor went to Sylvie. In fact, after Sylvie showed up, Loki and B-15 never even spoke to each other again.

Various S*lki Fails

• If they were trying to convince us that this affection was mutual, they completely failed. There’s nothing I’ve seen that even hints at Sylvie feeling the same way about Loki that he does about her. At most, I’d say she has a slight endearment to him. She finds him likeable and she’s grudgingly fond of him, but she definitely isn’t in love with the guy. Maybe she thinks he’s cute and hopes that he gets out of this mess alright, but her mission obviously comes before him- whereas, it’s been confirmed multiple times that Loki cares about her above anything else. She doesn’t trust him, she looks at him like he’s an incompetent fool half the time, she shows little to no reaction during most of his confession moments, and she kissed him as a means to distract him so that she could get him out of her way. Look, all I’m saying is, when you get into a relationship where one of you is way more invested than the other, it never ends well.

• This goes without saying for a lot of us, but the selfcest is just straight up odd and cringey. If you’re cool with that sort of thing, fine! People can ship what they want! But don’t pretend it’s not at least a little bit uncomfortable. Yes, I know they’re not technically siblings so it’s not technically incest, and they’re also not technically the exact same person, but they’re similar enough that it makes things weird. And yes I know selfcest can’t happen in real life, so there’s no way to judge it morally, but neither can most of the other stuff that happens in these shows/movies (the Snap, Loki destroying jotunheim, superhero with powers being held accountable, mind control) and yet we still find ways to judge their morality, because they all mirror real-world events. (The snap= genocide; Loki destroying Jotunheim= bombing other countries; superhero accountability= weapons accountability; mind control= grooming and coercion). And lbr the closest real-world mirror to two versions of the same person (who may or may not share DNA, family, backgrounds, physical and emotion characteristics) being romantically involved with one another is incest. And you can be ok with that if you want- that’s your prerogative- but don’t get pissy just cause a lot of us are squicked out by it.

• The whole mirror metaphor (learning self love via each other) thing just fell completely flat. First of all, having Loki learn to love himself by looking at someone who mirrors him did not, in any way shape or form, require them to be romantically involved. But they were. Of course. Secondly, the creators have contradicted themselves so many times on whether Loki and Sylvie are the same or not, that it doesn’t even really register to the viewer that the mirroring thing was what they were going for. Finally, Loki and Sylvie are shown to have so little in common- and to have only the most bare minimum of similarities personality-wise- that it doesn’t even make sense that Loki would “learn to love himself through loving her”. Like? They’re nothing alike. So how would he make the connection that he himself is actually pretty cool, based on her alone? There’s virtually nothing in her that reflects him.

• I know the objective of the entire show was to convince us of how awesome and unique Sylvie is, but honestly her relationship with Loki just did the opposite. A hallmark of a Mary Sue is having her constantly upstage the male lead, and then having him instantly fall madly in love with her anyway. And that’s.. exactly what happened here. Everything they’re doing to try to force her character to be more stan-able is really just forcing her to look more like their self-insert OC. Which is exactly what she is. It would’ve been so much more satisfying if she didn’t have to try so hard to look cool, if they didn’t have to try so hard to make her backstory tear-inducing, if they didn’t have to turn our protagonist into a snivelling simp just to prove how incredible she supposedly is. Very much #GirlBoss energy and we all know how performative and cheap that is.

• The entire thing was too rushed, there was too little build-up, and it was nowhere near believable. As stated above, it’s ridiculously unlikely that Loki would canonically even be interested in Sylvie, and this show did nothing to explain why he was. He just suddenly was. There was nothing they showed us as viewers that would justify a guy as closed-off and preoccupied as Loki falling head-over-heels for a girl he just met. Their was no explanation, no big revelation, no reasoning, it just… kinda happened. And I’m also severely skeptical of any love story that has the characters go in this deep after only 3 45-minute episodes of exposition.

I’m sure there’s other stuff, so if anyone thinks of anything, let me know and I’ll be more than happy to add it. Tagging @janetsnakehole02 @raifenlf @natures-marvel and @brightredsunset800 for expressing interest. This is all your faults.

#antisylki #loki meta #kinda #loki series critical #loki series negativity #anti loki x sylvie #anti loki series #anti sylvie #frosty bby #loki deserved better #I don’t even like TVA!Loki tho so I guess it doesn’t matter with him lmao #tva loki #loki laufeyson

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doberbutts · 2 years

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What are the situations that lead to a dog being in that state where it causes a mauling?

Honestly it can be something so stupidly benign that it wouldn't trigger other dogs into that state, even other dogs of the same breed or type.

Recently one of my store's groomers was mauled, yes MAULED, by a customer's 5mo pit bull. Why? Nail trim. The dog stiffened, she went to retract away, and the dog not only nailed her on the hand but began thrashing and needed two people to pry it off of her. The owner was unapologetic. She went to the ER and has recieved multiple stitches in her hand as a result. When I saw her just after the attack she was visibly shaken, crying, and her hand looked more like shredded meat than a hand. That, to me, is a mauling. If safety restraints had not been on the dog and the other groomers present to save her, that could have turned into a very bad situation.

When I was in MD, a similar situation happened with a much larger dog. A corso puppy (already big) had a similar reaction to a nail trim except instead of just catching the groomer by the hand he grabbed her arm, flipped the table he was restrained on, and when she managed to get free of him chased her across the salon dragging the table behind him. This was in the area where pit bulls were banned and so everyone who wanted a stupid out of control bully breed instead got a stupid out of control mastiff. She ended up mostly just having punctures, so it was not a mauling, but that's mostly again due to safety restraints and other people being present to help save her from this dog. That dog's owner was not only unapologetic but also combattive when she was informed that we would have to report the attack at the ER.

The same day my groomer was attacked by the pit bull, I was also bitten by a smallish spaniely mixy creature for just walking past. I had nothing in my arms and was walking regular speed. The dog ran at me and bit my leg about mid-thigh. The owners did not react though did pull their dog away from me when I had to pass by again. Thankfully due to size and the dog's lack of commitment, I just got pinched and my leg had a bruise for a week. A friend of mine was bitten years ago by a rottweiler for the same thing, but recieved a much more serious bite. I have seen dogs escalate to mauling for even just that.

I have seen dogs maul people just for being in their house. I have seen dogs maul people just for walking by their house. I have seen dogs maul THEIR OWN OWNERS for holding them back from something they wanted to get to. I have seen dogs go from happy excited to mauling behavior in an instant. I have seen dogs maul people for getting between them and a different animal they wanted to bite. I have seen dogs maul people just as they exist in their own yard.

From my non-doctorate level understanding of dog psychology, I would say that I think maulings mostly happen from two reasons:

The dog has a very low threshold for arousal and also considers using teeth in situations more strongly than other dogs. This can be dogs that were bred and raised for combat roles, but it can also just be predatory behavior or a lack of capacity to self-soothe when frustrated.

The dog simply has something fundamentally wrong with it. I won't lie, I think outside of a very specific combattive role there really is no place for dogs who maul people in our current world. If I were to have the power, I would say all of them should be euthanized. A bite is one thing. Deliberately ripping and tearing through a person's flesh in an unstoppable frenzy until someone chokes you out is completely different. This is behavior I would not fault a non-domesticated animal for. Domesticated animals should not be maiming or killing people in this way unless they were specifically being utilized to do so. Not an ethics argument but a domestication one- what use do we have for a predator we cannot keep from killing us? That goes completely against the reason we domesticated dogs and not tigers.

When posting about these things I'm thinking of that little boy whose arm was ripped off and FUCKING EATEN by his neighbor's huskys. I do not care who was right in that situation. There is no place in this world for dogs who rip off a toddler's arm and eat it. I'm thinking of that chow mix that 'got out' of its owner's yard and did a very clear predatory escalation with the toddler playing on his trike a block or so down from where he lived. I'm thinking of that guy who got mauled by his rottie and his doberman when his dogs started with happy play excitement and ended with grabbing the owner by the arm and shoulder and taking him down to the ground. I'm thinking of the woman who was torn to literal pieces alone in her home with her presa canarios and frenchies. I'm thinking of the pit bull (mix?) that broke through that elderly woman's door and killed her in her bed. I'm thinking of those supposed dauschund (mixes?) pack that killed that woman. I'm thinking of those three labradors that killed that little girl.

Something is fundamentally wrong with those dogs. I don't think those dogs should exist in a world where we are capable of having dogs in combat roles that aren't completely dangerous to be around. There's a lot of people who might disagree with me, but I think today's modern world is slowly becoming a place where very few actual scenarios need to end with teeth on skin, and as a result dogs who cannot be controlled in this urge whatsoever are not dogs that should be here with us.

#tbh most dogs I would call stable that are in roles where they may maul #are that first option #low threshold for arousal and jumps to aggression ladder when stimulated #I've met a lot of dobes from some old school lines like this #they're really cool working sogs #dogs*#but I do not want one of those #I think it is dangerous to put a dog whose first instinct is always to bite the stimuli #in the hands of someone who neither wants nor knows how to deal with that #if that 'pussy-fies' my dobes so be it #the doberman may have been intended to be a sharp asshole willing to throw down without hesitation #but they were also intended to walk down a city street without carnage #it seems too many people prioritize the first without considering the second #I'm not about that life

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