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rowanwithaz · 1 day

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The perfect end is near?

MHA 424 spoilers

Those new leaks were literally fucking perfect,like??? Not just for shipping (I'll get to that) but just for a conclusion of the series.

Simple ending?

(First of all,I personally wanted Hori to kinda send the kids back to school,y'know,to see how they'd be after the fact how this war really changed their mindsets,but to also give them so time to just be a class. Those kids deserve to be kids just for a little bit).

To me this just proves even more so how Hori loves and enjoys his characters,he loves the world he's built for them,I think he wants to explore this further,and all the power to him! I know we want stories that are mind blowing every step of the way,but that's just not realistic and that's not really fun.

Hori,in my opinion,has made a heartbreaking and inspiring story,but I appreciate that he can dile it back a notch. I appreciate stories that can just roll with the simplicity. I feel people have this negative connotation of simplicity,that simple is automatically bad,which isn't true in the slightest.

I am a big fan of deep and meaningful stories,but I think one of the deepest turns you can take is to simplicity. These kids have been fighting non-stop and have been experiencing tragedy after tragedy,I want to see them recover. I want to see them comfort one another.

Let's not forget Hori has given us plot twits,death,war,grief...so if MHA goes back to how it was in the beginning,by being a little more simple,then I'm in full support for that.

(Just making this argument before the dudebros start talking shit! As for Shigaraki and AFO's ending,and the war,I've already done a pretty long analysis for those two,so I kinda see no point in repeating something since my feelings on it haven't changed)

The gay ending???

ALRIGHT. Let's get to the shipping portion of this post.

(Izuku trying to reassure him is so fucking sweet,oh my fucking God, he's like, "Oh,Kacchan don't cry everything's okay :D" whilst trying not to cry himself,and Izuku being shocked to see him cry? Like,bitch,this man has cried to you like two times before this,but at the same time he's never openly sobbed I guess)

Guys,we're going to get the quirkless hand hold. GUYS,WE'RE GOING TO GET THE QUIRKLESS HAND HOLD.

And Katsuki being vulnerable with Izuku once again? Honestly this whole chapter hasn't been some dkbk/bkdk crumbs,it's been a full-course dinner.

Now let's get to the most important part...

THIS. This is so telling of the future in a sense.

Katsuki and Izuku being brought together by All Might's words once again,which Hori fucking HINTED at,

Something tells me he was super excited to do this whole scene. With All Might,once again,bringing these two together,it makes me think of Togachako,especially with Ochako at the end here.

If Ochako is the one holding her stomach at the end,then we can assume that's where Toga stabbed her and she's thinking of her,while dkbk/bkdk are having their moment. This is extremely important.

I've said Izuku is kinda like Togachako's All Might,and I stand by that. Throughout this series,Ochako has been growing to become a hero,her own hero. And,Izuku has been one of her biggest inspirations,so much so,she feel in love with him. But,as things change,and Izuku has grown away from her,she's grown away from him.

What I'm saying is: Ochako has fallen out of love with Izuku. I've said this a million times,but I cannot stress it enough. Izuku has brought Ochako and Toga together though,that's for sure.

I mean,if we really take a look at their recent romantic moments,who has Ochako been thinking of?

and the rooftop scene?

people please stop trying to make this about Izuku. This is about Ochako finally realizing what kind of hero she wants to be,and that's why she falls out of love with Izuku.

Ochako wanted to save the heroes (Izuku) but in the process she found out she wants to save the villains (Toga). This is her story of becoming a hero,and falling out of love with Izuku. Izuku brought them together,their shared feelings for him made them realize their feelings for each other. Sound familiar?

Izuku's and Katsuki's shared feelings for All Might caused their feelings for each other to bloom,then their conflicting ideals made it to where they couldn't be together. Sound familiar?

(And let's not forget they had two fights,each one of them.)

And,Katsuki said something this chapter that made me think: "Oh,Togachako vibes!"

Remember when Ochako says she wants to give Toga her blood for the rest of her life?

Or the lyrics in the mha season 2 ending theme about Izuku's feelings for Kacchan?

Dudes,these mfs just wanna be together.

Those are just some of my thoughts one the ending,dkbk/bkdk,Togachako,and all that. I'm super fucking excited for the rest of this series though!

(Let's cross our fingers for a Deku Vs Kacchan part 3 but it ends with them making out???)

#Mha #Bnha #Bnha 424 spoilers #Mha 424 spoilers #Bkdk #Dkbk #GreeNade #tgchk #chktg #bloodbubbles #dekucchan #katsudeku #togachako #ochatoga #deku x kacchan #toga x ochako

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sexiestwerewolf · 2 days

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I feel like Dumbledore has done irrefutable damage to the "wise older mentor who takes the traumatized kid under their wing" trope just because Rowling can't write father figures properly and now everyone expects every "wise old man who takes the traumatized kid under their wing" to be some inherent evil who's actually the spawn of Satan and only looking to harm said kid

I've seen it time and time again to many characters, but the ones I think of the most are All Might and Wu even though, objectively, they're great teachers and don't expect their kids to literally give up their life to stop the big bad. they made a few mistakes but literally everyone to ever exist is gonna make mistakes, but it doesn't make them bad people

in general I just really hate "character bashing" especially that of which I'll see in fanfiction and genuinely believe that if you stopped looking at all those characters through the lense of black and white and instead actually take the time to look into their characters and why they may act that way or make those mistakes and even, for fanfic writers, utilize those and expand upon them you'll find so much more depth

also usually I'm finding people giving more sympathy towards villains than characters who slighted the MC just a little bit and don't get me wrong I love my villains (huge garm fan here duh) but forgiving one but being overly critical of the mistakes of another is so weird

anyways I love my fanfiction writers who make old wise teachers flawed and human (so to speak in Wu's case) instead of irredeemable monsters who only have it out for the mc

#harry potter #albus dumbledore #mha #my hero academia #all might #ninjago #lego ninjago #ninjago wu #rossthinking #i also think it has slightly to do with the fact that most of the victims of character bashing arent hot young men with tragic backstories #i mean some character bashing victims have tragic backstories but that's besides the point

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dyssonant-skyline · 6 hours

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Full Moon Spoilers: The Final Scene

I have some thoughts.

Okay let me start with saying, the Stolas & Blitzo conversation should not have been relegated to the last 5 minutes of the episode. I think the rushed nature of the conversation doomed any chance of it being a satisfying exchange between these two characters that covers the full reality of their situation. I’m listing this up front because a lot of my grievances could have been resolved with more time, which the team spent on 15 minutes of lead up that I believe were ultimately unnecessary to the show's central plot and actively hinder the direction the showrunners want the story to go in.

During the episode he acknowledges that Blitzo is in a horrible situation. He states that the deal was wrong, implicitly acknowledging guilt for thrusting it unto Blitz and trying to resolve that by giving him the Azmodean crystal. He has decided to end things, and goes through with it even though he displays clear interest in Blitzo’s advances.

Then what does he do when Blitzo assumes that Stolas hasn’t changed? When Blitzo believes that Stolas, the person who he has only had transactional relations with, is setting up a new kind of transaction?

Instead of further ensuring Blitzo and trying to clear the air. He throws a tantrum. When things didn’t immediately resolve in his favor. Then he immediately goes into blaming Blitzo for only thinking about sex in their, again, transactional relationship. This gets worse because Stolas doesn’t wait to establish a healthy non romantic/sexual relationship before insinuating that he is still interested in Blitzo sexually, opening Blitzo up to misunderstanding his intent… then not being willing to clarify his intent.

“I have wanted you for so long, the fact that you couldn’t believe that I might have these feelings about you, that your first instinct is that it’s always about sex… that’s enough to know what this is.”

My brother in christ, you confront him about this during the sex deal night and don’t expect him to expect sex? You give him ~10 seconds to react to this information before deciding you don’t want to deal with his emotions anymore because they aren’t what you wanted?

The monologue that Blitzo had after that was completely justified and extremely gratifying to hear.

“Fuck you Stolas! You spring this feelings bullshit on me, are you fucking kidding?” - “Can I get a fucking minute to think after everything you put me through?” - “You can’t just dismiss me like that.”

After that sincere outburst, instead of Stolas recognizing what Blitzo is saying and taking some accountability or apologizing… he reacts with

“I didn’t realize you think so low of me.”

HUH? What happened to the transactional deal not being right? Surely if he knows he isn’t right, he knows that Blitzo would probably have a pretty low opinion of him? Breaking the deal doesn’t make his victim required to forgive him, especially not within 5 minutes.

Sidenote but: Stolas’s desire for immediate reconciliation is compounded by the fact that Stolas buries the lead at the beginning of their conversation. He keeps things vague with statements like “I need [the grimoire] back permanently” and “I’ve made up my mind” that lead Blitzo to believe he is being fired. I don’t really believe that the way that Stolas talks here speaks to his character, it reads more like bad writing in favor of a misunderstanding to get Blitzo worked up. It doesn’t seem in character to dwell like this, you could argue it is nerves but I’d argue there is no positive reaction to those first few sentences and Stolas isn’t socially inept enough to fail to realize that.

Honestly, if they were gearing up to have Stolas as a villain still and if Blitzo hadn’t had an apology cut off, I would have loved this exchange as it characterizes Stolas as a villain very well. It shows that Stolas still doesn’t care about Blitzo, just the version of Blitzo he has built in his head in excruciating detail. It shows that despite Stolas trying to make amends through words and actions, he still can not face the hurt that he has caused his victim and will run away when confronted with them. Unfortunately I’m pretty sure the writers are just going to make Blitzo into the one that Stolas hoped would fall into his arms immediately. So whatever.

#full moon episode spoilers #helluva boss spoilers #helluva boss critique #helluva boss critical #vivziepop critical #dys rants

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raineandsky · 2 days

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Hiiiii, love ur writing!!! May I request a story about the strong and undefeatable villain getting some head injury (maybe concussion) during the battle with some third party, and after that peacefully resting on a bench in alley, but then hero finds him and decides to help, even though these two don't like each other. Pretty please 🐹☘️💗

your please was so pretty i couldnt not write this! i really enjoyed this one, i hope you do too :D

Part of the hero’s job is helping those in need. Stopping when they cross someone lying on a park bench, in the dingiest, darkest part of the park, just feels normal to them in the moment.

That is until they notice who it is.

“[Villain]?” The hero can’t think of anything else to say. Their hands are already halfway to the cuffs in their pocket. “What’re you doing out here?”

This is the part where the villain leaps up with a laugh about how the hero’s fallen into a trap, leaping into a monologue before the inevitable battle.

But instead the villain opens his eyes to glance at them, his gaze not fully focusing on them, and simply says “‘m tired.”

The hero crouches down to his level. It’s clear he has no intention of getting up. They open their mouth to say something curt, distrusting, but they stop themself short.

They’ve noticed the blood painting the other side of the villain's face, dried into his hair and on his skin. Panic flutters in the hero’s gut. How bad is it? What happened? Their training only covered the basics of first aid. This wasn’t part of it.

He looks so small like this. The hero had always thought of the villain as indestructible, perfect in every evil way. But this—he’s defeatable, he’s normal, he’s human. Just like the rest of them.

They carefully push the villain over, earning a disgruntled “eugh” that they ignore to brush his hair away and take in the damage.

“Are yo’ shoes clean?” he says shortly as the hero grapples with a tissue from their pocket. “I think… I’m gonna throw up.”

“Please don’t.” They carefully take their tissue to the villain’s head, which he tries to cringe away from. “Can you tell me what happened?”

“Wha’?”

“What happened to you, [Villain]?”

The villain’s eyes train on the hero's idly, unseeingly. “There’s stars on your face.”

“Okay. Okay.” Blood has turned the tissue into a crime scene, but it’s making little difference to the state of the villain. “We need to get you some help.”

It barely even occurs to the hero to do otherwise. A hero isn’t a hero without the soul to do the hardest parts of kindness, they know. To show mercy to those who might not deserve it. To help those who likely don’t want it. To show the villain compassion they know they’ll never get back.

The hero pulls the villain upright, with absolutely no help from the villain. They get him sitting up and he almost keels straight back over the moment they let go.

They settle on the bench next to him, careful to hold him up. “How’re you feeling, [Villain]?”

“I hav’ the… worst headache.” It comes out disjointed, like he’s piecing the sentence together as he says it. The hero pulls his arm over their shoulder. “Wha’s going on?”

“We’re going to the hospital.” The villain barely reacts to this, when before the hero probably would’ve had to drag him there kicking and screaming before. “We’re going to stand up, okay?”

“‘Kay.”

The villain sways on his feet as the hero pulls him up, a slight stagger almost taking them both down. “Oup,” he says with a short breath of a laugh.

“Okay,” the hero says again, more to themself than to the villain. “Let’s get you fixed.”

The hero walks the villain all the way to the hospital, the journey slow and full of close encounters with the pavement, and makes themself at home in his hospital room.

The villain would never do the same for the hero. They’re a villain. Obviously. That’s why the hero is the good guy. They'd expect nothing less.

But when the villain wakes up properly, coherent and all-there, the first thing out of their mouth is an absolutely seething, entirely genuine “thank you.”

#creative writing #writblr #writers on tumblr #writing #writing community #heroes and villains #hero x villain #LAST DAY AT WORK TOMORROW BITCHESSSSS #i am So Excited to leave it has been a tar pit ever since i handed my notice in #fukn BYE

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epiclamer · 2 days

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POURQUOI C’EST TOUT EN FRANÇAIS?????

The same fingers curled back into Hero’s hair, deceivingly gentle as they teased their locks and stroked their scalp. Hero pulled away and the touch went cruel in a split second, easily yanking the crime-stopper’s head back by their hair.

“Oh come on, Hero. Don’t try to escape me now...” The one in question let out a horrible half-whine half-strangled gurgle. “We only just started…”

Supervillain’s smirk was far too wide as they draped the cloth back over Hero’s head—ignoring the other’s haggard breaths—one hand still wrapped in their hair, while the other reached once more for the hose.

Hero was thrashing before the water even came, but Supervillain was stronger. Supervillain was always stronger.

To the hero, the torture lasted forever. They were drowning; no matter how many times it came, no matter how many times Supervillain restarted, it never got easier. There was no way for Hero to calm their body, no way to hold their breath with the water streaming down their sinuses, no way to spit water with the cloth, no way to struggle with their restraints.

And, fuck, did it ever burn.

“V-Villain—”Hero yelled when the water stopped and their head was freed from its smothering. They were gasping, choking, coughing, and still they were shouting for the criminal with the shreds of their voice. “Villain, please—”

The supervillain huffed, rolling their eyes before turning to their partner. “Do you have something to say?”

Villain blinked, blank eyes staring back at their boss, then flicking to the blubbering hero where they struggled in their chair. They angled themselves away from the crime-stopper, turning their full attention to the supervillain and they heard the hero sob a broken plea. “About?”

Supervillain’s grin widened and they gestured at the hero with a flamboyant wave. “About Hero here? Don’t you remember how close you two used to be? Hero seems to think your old connection will grant them some sort of mercy…”

“I don’t need m-mercy, you f-fucking psycho.” Hero spat, glaring at the supervillain as much as they could from their current position and the other tightened the hand in their hair. They winced and their attention switched to the villain standing in the corner by the door. “V-Villain, please, Supervillain b-brainwashed you—”

Hero’s neck was wrenched backwards at a clearly uncomfortable angle as Supervillain looked down on them. “That’s enough out of you, hm?” They turned to face Villain, cloth once more in hand, an ominous promise of what was to come next. “Do you feel brainwashed, Villain? After I saved you from the Heroes Agency where they tortured you and kept you from me? Convinced you I was the bad guy?”

When the hero attempted to speak up the sopping washcloth was pressed back down against their nose and lips, causing them to start struggling once more. Their obviously exhausted body still fighting tooth and nail for survival.

“No. You saved me.”

Supervillain’s face lit up, pleased with themselves, passing the hose off to the henchman at their side. “Exactly, sweetheart.”

Hero’s muffled yelling could be heard as the supervillain stepped away from them and let their henchman take over. The words were clear enough to understand, yet the rest of the room continued to ignore the kidnappee.

Except for Villain. It was in fact quite difficult to ignore someone desperately screaming your name. But they didn’t let that show and only a moment later Hero’s begging was drowned out by the soft sounds of running water.

“Henchman, carry on for us will you? Villain and I have lots to catch up on.”

With a tap against the villain’s elbow, Supervillain gently guided them out of the cell and down the jail-filled hallway. Escorting them through turns and up stairs, Hero’s wails and cries out for Villain slowly blending into the background.

Supervillain was talking, voice lofting through the air, but they never reached the criminal’s ears. Instead, Villain was calculating how much longer they would have to keep the ‘amnesiac-brainwashed-minion’ act up until their team could take down Supervillain and rescue Hero.

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fake-married-my-dead-fiance · 2 days

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I think one of the things that really worked with Lovely Runner is that the drama was so focused on the main characters. An ensemble drama is wonderful, but if it's going to be a couple-focused romance, then the other story lines need to serve the main plot instead of feeling like filler or a distraction. And this drama pulled it off!

The friend and brother show people making the choice to be in love despite their circumstances and not regretting it, just like Sun-jae. They also showed that Im Sol cannot change what is decided by people's own will:

The parents show people catching the same emotions in every timeline (enemies to reluctant friends for them) They also provide obstacles for the leads to overcome:

Tae-sung shows that Im Sol cares about people even if she has nothing to gain from them. He is also a rival for Sun-jae. Sol saves him from going the wrong way in high school and he saves her and Sun-jae from the kidnapper:

And if course, In-hyuk existed to help Sun-jae be a loser and give him bad advice:

Also, the kidnapper wasn't dwelt on too much (Uncanny Counter had this problem, too much demon backstory), he was just a fate moving towards Sol & Sun-jae. And we don't need to feel that sorry for him because he made the same bad decision in every timeline.

So many dramas get bogged down by side characters or irrelevant story lines in the last few episodes, but not this one! Everything basically stayed focused on the main story and every minor story aided the main story. Im Sol was trying to save all of them. Cohesion!

(one of the worst examples of this done poorly is Strong Woman Bong-soon. The villain got way too much screen time, the side stories were mostly irrelevant to the main plot, and there was so much useless filler, especially towards the end.)

#lovely runner #not done gushing about it yet #I was almost never bored #and that is great!#and no bad episode 9 #everything was good #it got better over time in fact #spoilers #ep 16

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lintwriting · 14 hours

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How to Write a M/M Romance: Scum Villain's Bingqiu

Where Masculinity and Teacher/Student Intersect

Teacher Student Romance is the APPEAL, NOT a Plot Convenience

Easily the most problematic part about Scum Villain (beyond the dubcon papapa to save the world) is the teacher/student relationship baked into the main romance of the work—the one between Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe. Not only is it pervasive, it's not even brushed aside for the reader to forget about, the way the problematic aspects of other medias often are.

In fact, unlike the way age is brushed aside in fantasy dramas that have "teenage protagonists" for marketing reasons, such as The Vampire Diaries or Re:Zero, where the age is only there to draw in a teenage audience and otherwise the characters act like young adults, Scum Villain's Teacher x Student is purposely highlighted in a way that makes it clear that the dynamic is part of its main appeal.

For one, Luo Binghe's main form of address for his romantic partner is "Shizun," calling him teacher in a super respectful, almost worshipful way. This is the opposite of weakening the unbalanced dynamic. It's elevating the Teacher/Student power imbalance (in ways that make the reader suspect it's a kink thing for Luo Binghe LMAO).

For two, Shen Qingqiu is cognizant of how bad it looks to be called Shizun in a romantic context, feeling textually weirded out when it happens during romantic relations. Despite this, most of the ways he shows affection to Luo Binghe are very paternalistic (milf-coded), such as scolding him in fond exasperation or kissing him on the forehead like a father. In addition, Luo Binghe is specifically noted for not having older male authority figures in his life other than Shen Qingqiu, as his adopted mother was a single woman and his bio father could not care less about the son his late wife gave up her life for (seemingly for no reason, BUT I'll get to that in a different meta) (AND despite ample evidence that he CAN be a good father to Luo Binghe's cousin).

And while one aspect of it is that the Shizun/disciple dynamic is a genre-wide trope thanks to the influence of the early work, The Return of the Condor Heroes, wherein the Confucian taboo of the teacher/student romance is a source of tension and excitement within the novel, I wouldn't say that that's the whole of why Scum Villain (SVSSS) emphasizes the teacher/student romance.

Why are We Hot For Teacher: Return of the Condor Heroes vs Scum Villain

For one, within Return of the Condor Heroes, the romance is between a male student and a female teacher (because it's a het novel, lol), but SVSSS is a BL novel and wouldn't necessarily need to play into such tropes to create this "taboo"-evoking tension.

A lot of BL novels already play into the way being gay is marginalized or frowned upon to accomplish this, for instance, SVSSS's author's latter work, Mo Dao Zu Shi (MDZS) (The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation), wherein the main character has compulsory heterosexuality.

For two, the dynamics of the Return of the Condor Heroes is playing with heteronormative ideas about the roles of men and women in romance. It's notable that the student is the male lover, and the master is the female lover in this relationship, playing with non-traditional ideas about who is submissive and who is dominant—while simultaneously using it to reaffirm traditional pursuer/pursued dynamics.

This male pursuer/female pursued dichotomy is not usually explicitly stated within media as that can seem sexist and clunky, rather it is usually implicit and portrayed through various contrivances. Xiaolongnu is a "cold beauty" who therefore must remain pure/aloof, which is accentuated by her role as a teacher, and while she is "dominant" as the teacher setting the terms for their relationship, it's mostly to emphasize the lengths that Yang Guo, the student, would go to pursue her. He becomes extra romantic for pursuing her while accepting her lead on choices like separating for 16 years.

In addition, the teacher/student relationship is a contrivance that affirms society's implicit bias about gender by giving textual, non-gendered excuses for the man to pursue. In this case, it would be an abuse of a teacher's power for Xiaolongnu to make the first move. Thus, traditional gender dynamics where men are the ones pursuing women are reaffirmed without making clunky statements about gender, even through nontraditional dynamics like a teacher/student relationship where the woman is dominant.

But, again, SVSSS is a BL, so the two main characters are both men, meaning there is no societal answer on who should be pursuer and the pursued. However, it is notable that SVSSS does play with this same dynamic of "cold, aloof teacher" and student who would go to extreme lengths to pursue them, while also purposely describing Luo Binghe as the "peak of masculinity."

This is where we start getting into SVSSS's intersection between Masculinity and the teacher/student relationship.

Because while although Condor Heroes uses the teacher/student relationship to affirm the heteronormative dichotomy of the male pursuer/female pursued, SVSSS's usage of this dynamic is in service of satirically demonstrating the "acceptable" avenues of affection when living as a man (since there's no women, and they're both men lol).

Teacher/Student Romance as a Way to Escape Restrictive Masculine Gender Roles

Teacher/student dynamic is a huge aspect to SVSSS because it’s a way to escape the masculine gender roles critiqued within the work. This is on the face of it obvious. Shen Qingqiu lets Binghe act bizarrely clingy under the assumption that he’s merely taking care of a filial or needy child. The understanding that "masculine men have to be straight" and the understanding that "Binghe is the most manly person within the novel as the stallion protagonist" intersect to ensure that any affection between them is strictly platonic, which is a double edged sword.

Because Shen Qingqiu allows Binghe close to him with the reassurance that Binghe HAS to be straight (a surprisingly common way for straight men to interact), that means that as Binghe ages, his access to affection will also get cut off, since he's supposed to be aging out of the role of a clingy student and into the role of stallion protagonist.

This is even grafted onto the scum villain/protagonist dynamic, as exactly at the point where Binghe's on the cusp of becoming an adult, Shen Qingqiu is forced to be the opposite of affectionate and become the villain by throwing him down into Xianxia hell. Which, to him, means that he's killed his baby student and replaced him with a stallion protagonist out to take him out.

So when Binghe becomes an adult, he loses access to affection along two axises within Shen Qingqiu's mind. The first being that he's now vengeful stallion protagonist out to get him throwing him away, which is the explicit reason Shen Qingqiu rebuffs him. And the second being that he's now a straight adult man who isn't supposed to get affection from his old teacher, which is also a factor.

This loss and transformation into a protagonist causes him to become insane to almost comical proportions, indiscriminately killing people and so distraught that at any point he's liable to self-destruct—all because he's constantly being rebuffed when seeking affection from his teacher, who thinks he wants to take him out for throwing him into hell. It's notable that any time Shen Qingqiu rejects him, Binghe lashes out in an almost stoic anger, rather than with the vulnerable crybaby tears that Binghe used as a kid. All this is highlighting the consequences of toxically masculine gender roles—where a severe lack of emotional vulnerability creates only violence and status as ways to express yourself, leading to severe emotional issues.

Now this is where it gets to the satirical aspects. Because all that before is pretty angsty and not very funny, but Scum Villain is a comedic satire. This is because it's not from the perspective of Luo Binghe—it's from the perspective of Shen Qingqiu.

The Point of Scum Villain's Meta

To all of this, Shen Qingqiu is totally oblivious, as he is still under the impression that everything was platonic. Which I'd argue he SHOULD be, considering that Binghe was a young student in his care that he was only trying to groom into being nice, person not into a sexual relationship 💀💀. Now, the ethics of fiction about raising your spouse is a whole other issue outside of the scope of this discussion, but within the universe of Scum Villain, where we know his intentions, he gets the pass from me!

The reason Shen Qingqiu is oblivious is because one, as the most terminally online hater on the Internet, he's read about stallion protagonist Luo Binghe way before transmigrating into the story. And the Luo Binghe of the original story was a miserable sack of shit who got an unhappy ending despite being the peak of what masculinity "should" be.

A harem of women to show his virility, a stoic facade, and a constant stream of face slapping for hundreds and hundreds of chapters. He's an alpha male to the point of farce because Airplane needed to appeal to the lowest common denominator of teen boys on the internet—Andrew Tate's main demographic. It's not just a satire of YY novels—this, too, is part of Scum Villain's critique of toxic masculinity.

The second reason Shen Qingqiu is oblivious is because he's homophobic, sexist, heteronormative, etc. etc. etc. He was an INTERNET TROLL for a reason. And while people like to joke that he was a feminist king on the forums, I feel like it's more in line with the themes of the story to take him reading this schlock at face value because it's part of Scum Villain's trap! Anytime you feel like complaining about Scum Villain's hack writing, you're one meat bun away from an uno reverse card. The instant you start complaining, the author can hit you with a "Cucumber-bro calm down," and BOOM you're done! Never comment again!

And this is so effective because none of us want to be an un-self-aware, terminally online, trash-reading hater like him.

So, the satire of the novel is taking this kind of guy—both the Andrew Tates of the world and his basement dwelling followers—and wondering "Would gay sex fix them?" And the answer is YES, WHICH is HYSTERICAL to play straight in a romance like this. It's "Fellas, is it gay to like women?" but make it into an actual romance.

On a thematic level, being gay is indeed antithetical to a masculinity that upholds having sex with tons of women as the ideal, so it's doubly poignant for this closeted gay man to realize that the only thing he needed to do to live was to accept himself and the people around him by giving up his need to fit them into boxes—both on a meta "they're not fictional characters to him anymore" level, but also on a "toxic masculinity shouldn't define us" level.

Climaxing

The old Shen Qingqiu is dead. Long live Shen Qingqiu. Gay sex to save the world. Luo Binghe is back to his crybaby self. All is well in the world.

One thing I love about this teacher/student romance that it portrays Bingqiu afterwards as really happy and in love. Logically, nothing about that makes sense — 45 year old stepfather marries 25 year old stepdaughter from a bad home who idolized him, even while he acts like he's embarrassed to be around her and encourages her helplessness—but it makes perfect sense because it's a perfect marriage between all these different layers.

The "bird leaving the nest" conflict

Qingqiu is allowed to be affectionate with a scary adult Binghe because Binghe can be both a clingy student and an adult

2. The scum villain/protagonist conflict

Binghe never wanted to kill Shen Qingqiu, only to be loved by him.

3. The comphet conflict

Binghe never intended to go out and get a harem of women as a sign of masculine status, he just wants to be gay with Shen Qingqiu.

4. The "should I treat them like real people or fictional characters" transmigrator conflict—

Binghe is a real person separate from the character of Luo Binghe because he's no longer that unattainable masculine ideal—he's human and happier for it.

All solved with a student/teacher relationship in service of critiquing toxic masculinity. Now that's economical writing!

(I love the inclusion of the original Luo Binghe meeting them in the Extras, and that Luo Binghe is pretty evenly matched with him. I feel like the idea that someone "is automatically stronger with the power of love, and therefore that's why love is better" is pretty shallow, as it plays into the toxically masculine idea that strength is all that matters. Luo Binghe may not be stronger than the toxically masculine ideal version of himself, but he doesn't feel the need to be because he's happy the way he is. And his ideal self is jealous of him for that—not vice versa.)

On their own, these resolutions would probably still feel as creepy as Lolicon, but in the context of critiquing masculinity, it makes a lot more sense. Masculinity, I think, fascinates as a writing tool because there's a lot of mini tools baked-in its structure, like Shen Qingqiu's comedic plausible deniability thing, as well as assumptions about power.

For instance, since Binghe is quite literally the God-emperor of his world, it feels more like a kink thing for him to call Qingqiu Shizun, and not like he's actually less powerful than Shizun in their dynamic. His bouts of learned helplessness come off as traditionally feminine Sajiao, NOT like the learned behavior of creepy pick-me pedophilia. It's like a cat showing its belly, because we all know it's a murder machine showing its vulnerable side out of trust, not because it feels the need to degrade itself. So, while his behavior emphasizes the Teacher/Student imbalance, the reality is that he's doing it mostly for kinky reasons and that the two of them are on a pretty level playing field. It's extremely funny when people joke that he and Qingqiu are the same age due to all that time Qingqiu spent dead, because they are Not Wrong.

Problematic Kinks

Romance fiction is usually about ways to get certain needs met in ways that would never be possible in real life, which is why a lot of it is problematic. Virginity kink is not about real life virgins, but the idea that your partner is guaranteed to think you're competent in bed. Bodice ripper stories do not reflect the reality of getting raped, but is more about the idea of getting sexually satisfied with none of the shame of "being slutty" for desiring sex, since it was "against your will." Or they're about controlling the fear of getting raped within this safe romantic fantasy where everything turns out all right. Or various other things because kinks are personal.

Shen Qingqiu is the perfect example of this, where he functions as a great insert for female readers who might have shame around sexuality, since he's a "prude" without actually being one, hence his parallel with Xiaolongnu. Instead, he's just comedically under the misconception that he's straight or that Binghe's only platonically in love with his teacher—that's why he's always ashamed and putting on airs. It's a comedic/unrealistic version of comphet, so you don't gotta think about purity culture while reading your silly little stories.

And Luo Binghe is the self-insert fantasy of readers with daddy issues. His strict father who criticized him all the time actually secretly thought he was the bestest-westest, most handsomest boy in the whole wide world, and there was a secret understandable reason he had to be mean to him, and he secretly loves when he acts like a crybaby because that just means an excuse to pamper him.

And while in real life, many of these would be incredibly dysfunctional—within fiction, we can make these fantasies work anyway. If your romance manages to hit at one of these underlying desires in a fantastical way, you've got a hit with one audience of people! Whether that be by making them EVEN MORE dysfunctional (papapa to save the world) or by having them somehow communicate it out into a healthy dynamic (the extras, presumably).

All this to say, if you're a man frustrated with your love life, all you need is a gay, milf-y male teacher to ruin your life.

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lakesbian · 2 days

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which of the undersiders would transition fix?

...okay probably none of them but which of them should most do it anyway

if we're reading taylor as trans i think she just comes off like she's already aware she's trans and being treated suchly (i.e. badly) at the start of the story and like. gets illegal villain estrogen or whatever (regular estrogen but it's being supplied via being a villain and she takes it using bugs because of the way that she is like how she brushes her teeth with bugs) and it still doesnt change literally anything about her arc. like wildbow made her accidentally bi and to a slightly lesser but still significant extent accidentally trans but doing yuri or transitioning would not save her.

brian is ontologically a cishet man

i feel like lisa being epitome cis white blonde meangirl is sort of critical to her character design because it's very much a survival-tool Mask and Role that she wears/plays so it's like. If she were to transition away from that i think it might be a Sign or Symptom of things being less bad for her but it would not be responsible for the fixing per se? like, being able to do it would be a pH indicator of her Environment being better but it would not be the Cause of her getting fixed?

alec is....i think i've posted "regent get estrogen" and/or some sort of sentiment about transitioning being a fix before so there's that. i don't have a strong opinion about his gender and i don't know if he does either but, like, i can see a world where girlregent is a thing and being a girl is an Improvement. so many trans girls on here love being dolls and alec is already a doll so all thats left is for him to become a girl. i genuinely believe direct and conscious engagement w/ her (girlregent)'s body to mold it to be how she wants via transition would be an improvement over boylec's I Do Not See It situation

if aisha is trans we all know it's in the sparklegender pronouns are airhorns sense and that would not fix anything but it would be fun to witness. rachel i just genuinely think is a girl in the sense that if you point at a dog and call it she/her the dog will go ok 👍she's not fussed about all that

rachel's a doggirl and shes butch deviation from this is not permitted so if she's trans then she's already transitioned or is transitioning during the course of the story and it did not fix her. taylor hebert fixed her. which. hm. which is t4t so then it wraps back around to yes transitioning did actually fix her in a way

so. out of the options here the only one that really qualifies is, i think, alec. and while we're at it get cherie on testosterone (will make her worse but i want to see it) tl;dr regent get hoverboard AND estrogen

#ask #worm spoilers #wormblr #arbitrarily maintagging this despite being nothing bc theres nothing in there rn but victoira dallon thinker 1 jokes

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prince-strife · 2 days

Text

So I watched “Like Minds” (I’m super unwell about gay people)

this one is like 3x longer than the tenet one

spoilers for a movie that came out 20 years ago ig

alex is clearly rly smart but he’s a right prick about it

nigel sure does like to stare 🤨🤨

oh so he’s a little freak. bro’s got a taxidermy cat in his luggage

ARE THEY MAKING BOMBS??

well. def explosives

DOES HE TAXIDERMY THE ANIMALS HIMSELF

he rly likes dead stuff…

not the gay little obsession

GIRL RECORK YOUR WINE BOTTLE

NIGEL WHY ARE YOU DISSECTING BIRDS IN YOUR BEDROOM

he’s so pretty tho fr mfer has gorgeous eyes

bro fuck this cop frfr

he did not seriously just punch this kid

oooh alex is fucked in the head too. inch resting

alex is one of those rich boys ._.

“obligations” hmmm i Do Not like the sound of that

WAIT THAT WAS HIS DAD??? that explains that ig

wait why is alex on the villains wiki. WHY IS ONE OF HIS CRIMES NECROPHILIA

interesting that alex is so aggressively anti-church (as an establishment, i mean)

ooooh nigel is Looking at him

not him fighting with his teacher

taking detailed notes about the people around him…nigel colbie autism

nooo leave him alone :((

alex is so mean to him omg. let him be a little freak in peace

HOLY SHIT HE JUST KILLED THAT KID

OHHH SALLY ROWE IS FUCKIN. JONI THROMBEY

wtf ym you “can’t find” the colbies..

omg staring across a casket at each other..

tom sturridge is so fucking beautiful i’m unwell

“i almost missed him” 🤨🤨

38 minutes in and i think this is the longest we’ve heard nigel speak

THE FUCK BOOK IS HE READING FOR THIS CLASS

idk i need nigel and alex to kiss

WOAH NIGEL JUST GOT REALLY CLOSE

“i’m really sorry about your friend” baby don’t lie no the fuck you’re not

smth abt the way nigel said “but you don’t have to worry” reminds me of the scene at the end of batman where joker is telling the riddler he did a good job.

THE GLARE AT THIS POOR GIRL nigel looks jealous as fuck

nigel baby giving the boy you like a hand is not the way to his heart

“it looks like you need a hand.” BABE. NO. TOO ON THE NOSE

he’s so cute in his lil jumper

SITTING ON HIS BED??? LEANING OVER HIM WHILE HE SLEEPS???? nah this is. gay behaviour

“alex, wake up. i’ve got a night planned 🥺” aww they’re gonna go on a date

oh they’re super close. NOW KISS

ooh hanging the essay over his head

the big smile… “are you having fun?” the little giggle. the smirk. he hates his ass. he is so in love with him. WHAT IS GOING ON

hmm i do not trust this

THE PUPPYY

“i’ve never brought anybody here before” INTERESTING (“i’m being vulnerable plz don’t be a dick abt this”)

i’ve still got an hour left of this movie good god

my mom is watching gbbo rly loudly and i just got super confused as to why the music Did Not Match the scene

“do you like it 🥺🥺” NIGEL. BABY. he’s so proud of his weird little lab it’s so cute

these little history nerds…

i rly thought nigel was gonna cuddle into him for a second

HELLO NIGEL IS STARING AT HIS LIPS????

“do you know what a pike is?” batting his eyes, looking as coquettish as possible. oh my god. oh my god.

CALLING HIM JACK. i’m so unwell this is so gay.

“we’ve been brought together for a reason” oh my god he thinks they’re murder soulmates

HIS SMILLLLEE

“for eternity.” gnawing on the bars of my enclosure

not him asking her out, nigel’s gonna be PISSED

the sword to his neck 🤭 OMG THE RUNNING IT DOWN HIS SPINE WHAT THE FUCK

the way he says “jack” i’m gonna pass out

“my name is alex. stay away from me.” NOOO it’s ok nigel i’ll be your jack

taking the gay goggles off for a second nigel clearly is in desperate need of a friend and is trying so hard to make alex his friend and it’s making me super sad bc he doesn’t seem to quite understand why it’s not working :(((

but also nigel baby stop breaking into his room

it’s giving yandere tbh

“what’s with the knife” *biggest most innocent doe eyes* “i don’t know what you mean, jack”

HOLY SHIT NIGEL. I FIGURED HE WAS GONNA KILL HER BUT WHAT THE FUCK.

i feel bad for her fr tho she didn’t do nothin wrong. not her fault alex is oblivious to his psychopath boyfriend

lol alex looking around for nigel when he finds out she’s dead. he’s not stupid, i’ll give him that

HE TOOK THE KNIFE

nigel’s very bad at acting innocent

“i sense some hostility” NO REALLY

they look like they’re abt to kiss

“no jack, you did it.” babe.

“feels good to vent one’s anger doesn’t it jack””i don’t want any part of this” “too late for that”

oh he’s CRAZY

he so sure that alex is just as nuts as he is.

OHH MCKENZIE IS IN THE CLUB TOO?? INTERESTING

wtf happened to nigel’s parents

babe being cryptic is not helping your situation

OOOH ARE THEY GONNA FIND NIGEL’S LITTLE ROOM OF CREEPY SHIT

i bet his parents are dead

hehe the jack <3

his jars of dead shit are so weird

was that a drawing of the dead kid?

nigel has rly nice handwriting omg

idk if the knowledge that it’s purely for scientific interest makes the pictures of the sleeping girl better or worse

HE TAXIDERMIZED HIS PARENTS???

he calls them helen and john???

love him introducing alex like he’s his boyfriend

THE EYE CONTACT HELLO??

nigel looks so dead inside omg

“stop it, nigel :((“

OH HE MADE THE BIBLE??? i thought it was a book he had not smth he created that’s actually pretty cool

“our union” 🤨🤨 its giving marriage

“nigel was right about this” hmmm boyfriend behaviour

omg mckenzie SUCKS like he’s just kind of an asshole

“i knew you couldn’t resist a secret rendezvous <3”

“you didn’t know nigel”

DID HE FUCK HER CORPSE

“my dearest jack”

IS HE SLEEPING WITH HIS MOTHER

THE PICTURES WERE OF HIS MOTHER????

his lack of reaction to her getting shot…

SO MUCH JUST HAPPENED IN A SPAN OF 30 SECONDS

he’s so clinical about the cleanup…

he’s so pretty…

HES SO FUCKED IN THE HEAD

omg does he want jack to be his maraclea is that why he got the gun (ik his mom was his maraclea let me be delulu)

he rly thinks this is completely justified

HOLF SHIT HE PULLED THE TRIGGER

i’m so sad he’s dead :(( gimme my babygirl back

holy fuck alex got released

AND HE KEPT THE BOOK

“my beloved susan” WHAT DOES THAT MEAN

“nigel got what he wanted…eternity”

OH MY FUCKING GOD J CANT BELEJEV HE DID THAT… continuing nigel’s work… oh my fucking god

“you like history.” BITCH WHAT

Edit: I forgot to give the movie a rating .-. 500/10 i fucking loved it, i’m already making a forbie playlist

#like minds #like minds 2006 #forbie #jt watches stuff

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bigleoenergy · 2 days

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Obviously this isn’t the last chapter of my hero but even so I think the ending of this final battle was done very shallow anyways. Like happy for bakudeku people fr I’m happy they got their destiel moment but I sincerely feel like horikoshi said whatever to the actual story he was writing in favor of pleasing the izuku and bakugo fans which are the majority of the fandom. Because besides them literally every other character has just been side lined into an “okay? That’s it I guess??? “ ending. I’m so serious if you step outside of Bakugo and Izukus storyline not a single other character has had any proper wrap up for this war. Over half of these characters aren’t even acknowledged despite being set up for a more impactful story it’s crazy.

And I’m sorry but genuinely what is the point of anything right now if Touya, Himiko, and Tomura are dead. I literally don’t care if one of them did actually survive and we see that in the next chapter, we should see them alive now….getting help…being acknowledged. What was the point of emphasizing to your viewers how fucked and unfair hero society is and how so many people suffer and become villains because of never getting help if the three characters who represent the unfairness just die??? All of them??? Like okay… hope that their deaths impact the hero students so hopefully when they grow up they….feel more inclined to be sympathetic to future villains, instead of actually writing how current society should’ve acknowledged our marginalized characters and through enough help these people could be rehabilitated into a better society. Like the point of emphasizing this entire time how this new generation of hero’s, Izuku especially, are better than the hero’s before them and are going to right past wrongs should be shown in the characters actually doing that… not just hoping they will. Like because these characters are dead there can’t possibly be any justice brought. If they are all truly dead how can we see hero society face their mistakes and work to fix them because nobody else in this universe if going to care about the deaths of these villains besides Izuku, Ochako, and Shoto who knew them personally. It truly feels like he backed out of writing the harder story in favor of just pleasing the majority of fans there’s no other way to spin it.

Also….the way izuku didn’t even reach his goal like bro failed….and not poetically like you can spin it as “he’s just a teenager!!! He can’t be expected to actually succeed at everything!!!” We know. We’ve seen him fail plenty before. Showing us this in the final battle is unsatisfactory. “It’s realistic to show that you can’t save everyone! Not even the good guys can meet their goals it wouldn’t be realistic .” First of all this is a fantasy story. This is a fictional story written by someone to share a message to his audience. And he failed at showing the message he had built up since the start. Like there’s plenty of times you can show me how the good guys don’t win every battle and I love it but trying to say this at the price of your characters who represent abuse and mistreatment is bad writing and it’s lazy. You can not spin it any other way.

I’m just spur of the moment rambling so if anything I say is incoherent sorry I just genuinely expected so much better.

#mha spoilers #mha 424 #tomura shiragaki #himiko toga #touya todoroki #dabi #izuku midoriya #bakugou katsuki #mind you I’ve never been a LOV stan like many are #but I’ve always recognized and appreciated the unique messages this story was mwking and it never resolved to anything #I’m just shocked truly

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zev-rynna · 2 days

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I am made aware of the controversy around Jiyan on how he became the general and the terrible story writing from the writers part.

Jiyan has been called names like “Run-away General”, “The Faux General” etc etc, and the complaints that Jiyan is a hypocritical character that judged Geshu Lin’s decision making and yet made the exact same decision Geshu Lin made in the end.

Honestly speaking, I don’t doubt the possibility of terrible writing on Kuro’s part but I wonder if this also reflected the complexity of human nature in the sense that there’s just no perfectly evil/bad person (in this case Geshu Lin) or the perfectly good/right person (in this case Jiyan)? Maybe it was written this way, but wasn’t properly done? Idk..

This is going to be long, bear with me…

Geshu fought the battle and was almost winning, and he has lost too many people to back off. And in his “conversation” with Jiyan, he did also highlighted that backing down and running away will not do justice to all those lives he carried behind his back. It’s true, when it’s war, if you decide to back down knowing you could’ve won, you have nothing to explain to those who have lost their lives in previous battles. Geshu Lin carried all those lives with him, and in his knowledge, the retroact rain’s effect was relatively unknown to him, and his arrogance or overconfidence may have resulted in him disregarding the significance and danger of the unknown. And Geshu Lin was born a warrior, fighting to win battles also means sacrifices have to be made, and therefore his actions reflected his values.

On the other hand, Jiyan was born a medic. His values revolved around saving lives, and the purpose of winning certain battles is to ensure better lives for his people. So if a war caused too many sacrifices, is that war still considered a win for his people? And so with his knowledge and his instincts on the catastrophe that may happen due to the retroact rain, with no Geshu Lin in sight, he made the choice to save as many people as he can by ordering a retreat. I believe at that point, he has no intention to override Geshu Lin’s authority or to made Geshu Lin the “bad guy”, but solely to save the people left to save before they all perished.

But the society (Jinzhou citizens) will need someone to blame. This is the reflection of how humans are like. When loss is too big and incomprehensible, the tendencies to blame become prevalent. In that situation, without knowing all sorts of context, Geshu Lin led to the death of the people and Jiyan was the one who ensured lives saved. Jiyan naturally became the hero and Geshu Lin the villain.

I don’t believe that Jiyan personally wanted to reprimand Geshu Lin or try to taint his reputation so it can make his “promotion” to General more believable. Yes he did not agree with Geshu Lin’s ideals, but I don’t think the whole “Geshu Lin was the cause of this tragedy” talk was started by him. It was the people who needed a hero and someone to blame during the difficult times. Then he was chosen to be General, and when you get to a position like that, confiding in people to tell them how you truly feel becomes a luxury because people start to rely on you and in order for them to respect you and able to lead an army, you have to be composed, and mask all forms of doubts.

When Rover came as prophesised, Jiyan was seen having a “conversation” with Geshu Lin before the war, and Jiyan was mostly quiet on his part. You can sense his doubts manifesting as he is about to make the exact same decision Geshu Lin made years ago, and he questions himself. But then again, Jiyan was flamed incredibly cuz of the irony that he did in fact made the same decision Geshu Lin did, but Jiyan was in the luxury to make that decision knowing what he knew, and having Rover by his side made the odds significantly better. And this was what made the fans/anti-fans so bitter about Jiyan because this was pure hypocrisy at play, especially it made Jiyan looked weak cuz everyone knew the outcome may have been the same as years ago if Rover was not present. But that’s the thing, if Rover was absent, I don’t think Jiyan would’ve made the decision he made.

The tragedy was that Geshu Lin was too quick to be burnt on the stake by people who were desperate to find closure. And the situation Geshu Lin was in, made this grey in the sense that no one truly knew what happened at the war zone and Geshu Lin did not have everything that the people know now about the Retroact rain and Rover to made the war of his time a success. Jiyan has that, that was his luck. But how does one blame Jiyan for that? After all, luck is an also huge component of strength. And probably (just a speculation) - the irony of Jiyan making the same decision as Geshu Lin may be a foreshadowing of Geshu Lin’s return to mock the hypocrisy of the entire ordeal, including the people who blamed him.

The whole situation where Geshu Lin was strongly blamed as the villain and Jiyan was depicted as the hero and the best person ever was so overly exaggerated, I don’t think this was what Jiyan meant for to happen. And I know a lot of people say that “well but Jiyan took all those compliments bla bla”. But he was promoted to general though, he cannot just come out and disregard what people said about him because he needed these people’s vote of confidence, and during those dark times, he is in no position to show any form of doubts. But it doesn’t mean that he didn’t mourn the loss of respect and reputation of Geshu Lin when he’s alone.

I’m upset Jiyan got too much hate for this. This was a perfect depiction of how complex humans are and how things cannot be black and white. It’s so nuance that I’m not sure if I properly explained it in words.

Then again, I really like Jiyan’s character, although I have the admit, the writing was terribly done, which may have caused so much backlash cuz of all the unsaid things. I felt that with a little bit more of explanation on the plot and Jiyan’s thought process would’ve significantly helped with Jiyan’s character building. Now Geshu Lin is so well loved cuz everyone felt that Jiyan stole all that belonged to him. I wouldn’t say Geshu Lin was entirely innocent despite the fault of the people who were quick to blame him, but that’s for another day.

Again, there isn’t a perfectly evil person, just like there isn’t a perfectly good person. People are complicated and one action does not justify the other.

#wuwa jiyan #wuwa #wuwa rover #wuwa spoilers #wuwa official #wuwa geshu lin #jiyan #geshu lin #rover #wuthering waves

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a-whisper-in-the-forest · 1 day

Text

A game of darts

Part 1 ( Disgraced apple pie) Part 3 (A deal)

Villain turns the page of their book. They lean back against the couch in the living room and start reading the first sentence on the page. “Damn it!” the Villains’ Sidekick yells. “How can I lose again!” Other Villain laughs. “Maybe start by not challenging someone with perfect aim as a superpower.”

“I'm not even using my power, Sidekick here is just horrible at darts.” Assassin answers, pulling their dart out of the board. “Bullshit. You are using your power.” Sidekick huffs as they sit down next to Villain on the couch. “Come on, I'll make it fair. One more game,” Assassin says as they pull Sidekick back out of the couch. “Okay, okay,” Sidekick sighs “And I'm winning this time.”

Assassin starts by throwing the first dart, conveniently landing it in the triple 20. And so does the second. And the third. “One hundred and eiightyyy.” Other Villain yells like the presenter of the dart games on TV. “Stop you using your power!” Sidekick argues with Assassin. “I'm not,” Assassin says as they plop down on the couch next to Villain. “What are you reading?” they say as they put their head on Villain's shoulder. Villain sighs. They should've stayed in their room. Way less distractions there. But then they remember what Supervillain said. ‘You have to socialize with your siblings.’ They weren't real siblings, but that's what Supervillain liked to call them. “A book on the history of vikings,” Villain answers. “Sounds interesting.” Assassin answers, snuggling closer to Villain.

“Ha! Suck it, Assassin!” Sidekick yells. Both Villain and Assassin look up at the board. They landed two darts in the triple 20 and one in the 20. “I still have more points” Assassin answers with a smug grin on their face. “Not for long!” they say letting themselves fall onto the couch, replacing Assassin who is getting ready to throw again. Villain really needed to find another reading spot. “It's not fair, Villain. They keep using their power.” Sidekick pouts next to them. It's moments like these where Villain notices how young they actually are.

Maybe they could lend Sidekick a hand. It's handy that the room is lit by a few lamps instead of the big light. Makes it easier to play with a shadow.

“How the hell?!” Assassin's last dart lands in the 1. “What did you do?” Assassin almost flies towards Sidekick. “I did nothing. Why are you so angry? People can miss sometimes…or were you using your power?” Sidekick answers smiling. Villain can't help but smile a little. “Oh, Villain, you absolute assh-”

They were stopped by the sound of laughter. And next a thud as Other Villain falls off their chair. “Oh, Assassin. You should see your face.” Other Villain's eyes begin to water. “Shut up,” Assassin says with venom in their voice. Oh, Assassin and their short fuse, Villain thinks. Right at that moment their phone vibrates.

‘Feed the hero Sidekick ’ appears on the screen. Right. Villain stands up to go to the basement. “Villain, don't leave me alone with Assassin. They're going to kill me,” Sidekick says, grabbing Villain's arm, slightly panicked. “You wanted help, now live with the consequences,” Villain says smiling. Assassin is never going to actually kill them, so Villain doesn't feel too bad leaving them.

They open the door to the basement, warm plate in hand. The Sidekick immediately crawls to the corner of the room. “We're done with that. I am just here to give you some food,” Villain says, trying to sound somewhat comforting. Unfortunately, the stone cold voice they had to learn themselves to speak with, comes out. They place the plate on the ground in front of the sidekick. The Sidekick, however, doesn't make a single move towards the food. “When am I going home?” Sidekick's voice sounds raspy and doesn't sound louder than a whisper. “In a couple of hours, just hang on a little longer,” Villain says. Hero's not going to be happy with them. What does it matter? They're just a hero…

Right?

“Okay…” Sidekick says shakingly. They drag the plate closer and start to eat. Villain sighs. They really hated this. Punch a hero? Sure. Kill an enemy? Fine. Torture a defenseless kid? No, that doesn't sit right with them. But every time they wanted to rebel, to fight the orders, Supervillain would push it out of their mind. They didn't want Supervillain to take control of them again. To make them do things they didn't want to do. Whenever Supervillain did take control, it was like they were a programmed robot. They were still there, but it wasn't them that was moving their body.

They despised it.

By the time they finished their train of thought, Sidekick had finished their meal. Without saying anything, they picked up the plate and went back upstairs, leaving the trembling Sidekick behind.

A few minutes later Villain puts the dirty plate in the soapy water. When they entered the kitchen to put the dirty plate away, they had noticed the pile of dishes. Having nothing better to do, they decided to wash them. Theu were only a few plates away from finishing when they felt two arms wrap around them from behind and hug them. “Assassin nearly murdered me with a pillow,” the villainous Sidekick mumbles into Villain's shoulder. Villain hums in response. They had a feeling Assassin would do something like that. “Did they eat?” Sidekick asks innocently like the young teenager they are. Again, Villain hums. “Do you mind if I stay here for a minute? I need a hug,” Villain can hear the Sidekick's muffled sniffs. They slowly turn around to face Sidekick. “Another nightmare?” Villain asks quietly. The Sidekick only nods and hugs the Villain even harder, letting the tears flow freely. Although they don't like to admit it, they have a soft spot for Sidekick. Ever since Sidekick was sent on their first mission, Villain has been their caretaker. Helping them through tough nights, giving them fighting tips, teaching them how to do basic stuff like washing their clothes…

“How about you go to your room already? I'll come in a minute.” Villain says to the now calmed down Sidekick. “O-okay,” Sidekick tries to say between the sobs. All they had to do now was finish the dishes and drop off the Hero's sidekick. They hope Hero won't make this too much of a hassle.

“Have you gone insane?!” Other Hero yells out in Hero's tiny office. “No, but it is the only way to get them back!” Hero answers, pulling the USB out of the computer. “And lower your voice.”

“You're about to give super secret information to THE supervillain. The Agency is going to literally kill you,” Other Hero says panicked. “Don't worry about that. I used some programs so they will never know it was me.” Hero says, trying to calm down Other Hero. “I hope they don't find out.” they respond, still not convinced. To them it seems stupid to give up such important information for a Sidekick. What Oher Hero doesn't know is that Hero is not just bringing back Sidekick, they also want to find out why Villain would do something so cruel while clearly being so against it.

Hi! Wow, it took me long to most part 4. I'm very sorry about that. My exams are starting soon so I'm probably going to post even less frequent ( didn't know that was even possible tbh.) Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this part. It's a bit all over the place bit it hopefully gives a little insight to the future parts.

(Also, every time i get a notification somebody commented, reposted or liked something, i get so excited. I am honestly suprised people like what i write.) (I'll stop ranting now)

#hero x villain #heroes and villains #my writing #snippet #villain x hero #writing

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thetwilightroadtonightfall · 1 day

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your khux finale post makes me unwell (positive) and it also made me realize how in kh even though several of the bosses are friends fighting each other khux is the only one (that I can think of) where the playable character is the one on the “bad” side. sora vs riku-ansem, aqua vs ventus-vanitas and later terranort were ones were you fight a character who’s possessed and not fully in control of themselves. in days and kh2 roxas wouldn’t have fought xion or axel if they hadn’t forced him to. but with player vs ephemer and skuld YOU are the one “possessed” and forcing the others to fight. a fun new layer of tragedy!

YEAH YEEEAHHH!!!! It’s so juicy in so many ways, especially from a gameplay/video game media standpoint

khux starts with Player as a more or less blank self insert and slowly and subtly builds them up as a character with their own agency. They’ve probably sometimes said or done things that you yourself wouldn’t do, but it’s usually not a big deal. You’re still the one in control here, you’re still the player.

Like you said, in the other kh games, you fight as the character on the “good” side. You want to win because you want to save Kairi, or you want Terra to snap out of it, or you want to protect somebody from getting hurt, etc etc. You know you’re fighting for a good cause.

But the khux finale forces you into an uncomfortable position. Suddenly all that control you have over Player must be used to hurt two beloved characters, their friends, your friends. You must win, even if you don’t want to. You, player, are the villain here, and you have no choice in the matter.

Of course we learn after that Player was also fighting for a good cause. They were on the “good side” all along too. But no one else knew. It’s a lot like Xion’s fight in Days actually. There wasn’t really a right vs wrong. Just friend vs friend(s) and the circumstances that forced them into this impossible situation. And it didn’t feel like anybody won in the end, even though a larger crisis was ultimately averted/delayed.

It’s incredible. A fun new layer of tragedy indeed!!

#asks #alphascorpiixx #khux #kh analysis #chi infodumps

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miraculouslbcnreactions · 1 day

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Fixing Gabriel's Writing via a Corruption Arc

Like it or not, Miraculous considers Gabriel Agreste to be a loving father. If he wasn't, then you wouldn't get things like the season five ending or this bit from Queen Wasp:

Gabriel: (guilt-ridden) I don't want to break our promise, but… I can't keep putting our son in danger. Style Queen was supposed to be my masterpiece… but even she failed. I feel like I've done all I possibly could, you know? I'll never be able to fulfill my wish without Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous. (Scene shows Emilie in her coffin) Forgive me, Emilie. I'm giving you up, Nooroo.

But this side of him only shows up in big dramatic moments. When it comes to his more general writing, he's a full out cartoon villain and terrible parent, which is why I've said there's a lot of valid ways to write him. His character is wildly inconsistent. This is a problem that is easily fixed via an actual corruption arc where he goes from somewhat decent parent to monster. There's a couple ways to do this, but here's how I'd do it in the context of keeping canon mostly intact:

Early seasons needed to make Gabriel come across as more openly grief stricken. Really highlight the fact that Emilie's death changed something major about him and his relationship with his son. This is one of the reasons I like a more nuanced Chloe. If you let her and Adrien be actual friends, then you can have her make statements to indicate that Adrien used to be quite close with both of his parents and that Gabriel used to be a good father. You can also have Adrien make statements like this to Plagg, I just like the Chloe angle more as she's more blunt while Adrien is more likely to hide his pain/focus on the positives.

Have Gabriel be unwilling to send akumas to areas where Adrien is. Episodes like Riposte should be impossible as Gabriel will be wholly unwilling to let akumas go after his son. This also lets you justify Adrien being locked up. As is, Gabriel just comes across like a jerk. If he's only banning Adrien from going out in order to keep his son safe? Well, he's still a jerk, but at the very least, he's a jerk who worries about his son's physical well being. Origins saw Adrien sneaking out of the house, so keep that element and make this be the reason he gets caught up in akuma attacks.

As time goes on, Gabriel gets more desperate and more willing to take risks. Lots of things could trigger this such as Ladybug always resetting everything, making him feel less concerned about hurting others. After all, he'll fix everything with his wish and, if he fails, then Ladybug will do it for him. There's really no way to lose here. Style Queen could become a turning point where Gabriel finally willingly put Adrien at risk and he feels awful, but make that also be the closest he's ever come. Have Gabriel decided that risking Adrien is worth the cost if it brings them back Emilie.

After that, things start to go downhill. Gabriel draws away from his son more and more due to guilt, but he's convinced he's in the right because he wants Emilie back so bad. The ends justify the means and all that. This can lead into several different types of endings, but the general feeling of Gabriel's final ending should have an element of pity. He's a villain, but he's a villain many could easily become.

This is the kind of path canon needed to walk if they wanted the season five ending to feel realistic. As is, it's going to read as total nonsense to most fans because they're going to go off of the way Gabriel was played in your standard, monster-of-the-week episode. They're not going to think about those core characterization episodes that were supposed to define Gabriel because those episodes are just too uncommon and too antithetical to the way Gabriel tended to be written.

#Gabriel Agreste deserves better #Gabriel deserves better #ml writing salt #ml writing critical #kept this high level just to get you thinking #to do this properly I'd have to just give you a fanfic link and let you make judgement on a final product instead of a high level pitch

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kzele · 3 days

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Unpopular TSSM Opinion

Sha-Shan was a better example of a serious moral compass love interest to Flash than Gwen was to, well, anybody.

The gal clearly has no problem turning a guy down until they've proven he isn't a too much of a douche. And she doesn't care how popular they are. If they make make the right, but hard choices, then they've got her interest.

Gwen, on the other hand, can’t seem to judge any of her friend’s moods or situations correctly and make an appropriate decision. For instance, whether as friends or love interests she and Harry are a dumpster fire. When the guy passes out in the courtyard and then avoids her, what does she do? Does she (a) tell her COP dad about it at home, (b) tell Harry’s father, (c) tell a teacher/coach/school counselor AKA any other figure in a position of actual authority? Nope. She tells Peter that something’s wrong with Harry, but doesn’t elaborate enough for him to take her concerns seriously, so he puts it among the lesser problems he has to deal with. Because if Peter was actually told the specifics, this would be MUCH higher on his problems list. There’s no way he’d have to be bullied into talking with Harry, otherwise. (Also, how is it possible that she couldn’t sense anything off about Eddie after he returned to the lab? He’s obviously creepy and fake and you’ve known him since you were both in single digits. If it was just Eddie this happened with, I wouldn’t be having my doubts about her judgement.)

This brings me to my next point about boundaries. Peter respects hers more than she respects his. Thus, she can only enforce her boundaries and/or will if someone already respects her. Harry and Gwen’s full-on couple status is proof. Harry’s shoved her against a locker, jumped over her during a villain attack (did he ever apologize for that?), and the first thing he does is ignore his new girlfriend in favor of calling his dad about having a girlfriend. Oh, and she’s ignoring all these red flags in an implied attempt to make Peter jealous. Nuff said about that ball of toxicity they got going on.

Flash saw Sha-Shan as a hot nerd/rebound, then as a challenge, and finally as someone whom he wants to be respected by. She didn’t let him get anywhere by being a jerk or overstepping. Granted, she had the benefit of not caring about Flash’s opinion of her, like Gwen would with long-time friends. And yet, despite being very judgy about him at the start, once they’re together she understands that Flash will say/do dumb things but it doesn’t take away from his good heart. Sha-Shan accepts him and his flaws. Ironically, despite Gwen being in love with Peter over Harry, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a time where she cuts Peter any slack for anything even when it’s not his fault. Including and up to not dying.(Not actually joking about that. See Christmas Tree aftermath s2ep3.) Maybe it’s just me, but I swear Harry and Eddie could be be kicking puppies off the Brooklynn Bridge in front of her and she’d be giving Peter the silent treatment for missing her calls trying to stop it.

I'm aware that Gwen isn't evil whatsoever but I find her immensely frustrating when TSSM has better female characters to choose from. And this post is for other people who agree with me. I'm not denying the flaws of anyone else here, be it Peter or Harry or whoever else, but I can't cover my thoughts on all the dynamics at play here without overloading my laptop and this site. I feel like Gwen's actions in the show get glossed over a lot. I've seen Peter and Harry get criticized for their actions and sympathy for their differently bad lives within the show, but Gwen. . .doesn't get that same scrutiny. She makes objectively horrible/stupid choices about how to go about things in her relationships but somehow she seems to get less spotlight shed on those things. Instead, the responsibility is often shoved the two guys for screwing up, despite either having far more on their plate or a bad home life. Anyways, I've rambled incoherently enough. Hope it brought you some food for thought even if you don't agree with everything.

#tssm #the spectacular spider man #no hate to those that like Gwen but i dislike her wattpad-style writing and how everyone's brain flies out of their head when she's around #but also i would never write her being killed off or being turned into 2-D witch with a capital B #peter: i love liz/mj/felicia/somebody else besides gwen #tssm writers: and we took that personally #gwen rhyming with y/n a coincidence?? i think not!!!#especially when you remember that time she dodged a football without looking or having spider-sense and Peter went all heart-eyes??#that happened #also my tags are now getting off-topic sorry

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