#this was totally not an excuse for me to see what Empathy would look like in the emotions' clothes | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

familyagrestefanblog · 6 months

Text

Clarification I definitely should have done ever since season 4 and the Ladynoir conflict started escalating, but hey, let's just get it out:

There are reasons why I'm harping down so badly on Miraculous' Girlboss feminism and defend Adrien as much as I do.

To get the feminist (in-universe) explaination out of the way first:

I would be lying if I said that I like the direction the show has taken Marinette's character and the story in general. But regarding her specifically I simply have to say that most of my problems with her are how she is written as Ladybug, Guardian, and especially leader & partner. Not in her civilian self. Hence why you won't find that alot on my blog, only when it contributes to the overarching double standards problem from s4 I take issue with.

I simply cant deny it, Ladybug is a kind of leader I just came to not be able to respect alot anymore in how she operates most things bc she doesn't really ever look passed how things look & stand for herself, and what SHE needs & wants. Marinette is a very low empathy person in the sense that she struggles putting herself in other people's positions, or remembers considering that at all.

But that's not the reason why I can't respect her as leader. I have ADD, that would be really hypocritical of me.

What leaves me unable to respect her as leader though (& honestly kinda even wanting Alya to take her position) is the fact that the show doesn't see much wrong with Maribug doing that.

They don't properly depict this as flawed leadership she actually NEEDS to grow out of by making up for her shortcomings by, for example, making other people her official co-leaders. Instead the show since s4 (& kinda s3) will proceed to put it's feminist foot down if Maribug isn't actually in the end 100% correct and "totally girlboss justified" in any given case - with CN & authorities specifically - no matter the context. Ergo she's barely ever truly improving her weakpoints in partnership skills for example & continues doing the same mistakes over n over.

like she genuinely would benefit from having Chat Noir as her co-leader too, not just Rena Rouge. But no. The neurodivergend low-empathy girl can't have a high-empathy boy co-leader bc apparently thats misogynistic now, huh ?

Again, I have ADD and I'm also a woman. In fact, I actually have alot in common with Maribug (hence why it hurt so much once s4 took her away from me), so forgive me when I still say: I am NOT going to lower my standards of my believe that neither of those aspects get to be an excuse on everyone else's expense regarding LEADERSHIP (which I do also am in the position of in my life).

And I repeat: LEADERSHIP. Not Marinette herself as a person necessarily & esp not her civilian life.

People always say that her critics wouldn't be so hard on her if she were a man, but I strongly disagree. In my experience, if Marinette were a boy people would actually draw a line nowadays and call out that Mariano is too stuck in his own head to be a good leader (& partner). And maybe even demand that he shouldn't be in that position anymore either at all or until he's in a better head space.

Bc with male characters people are actually drawing lines now in important factors when it comes to power & the accountability coming with it, bc in the end being in change means it ain't about you

Hence why e. g. Steve Rogers (Captain America) was then a fucking fugitive from the law when shit got real in the MCU. They had to do that bc of his leadership morality not being able to exist well within a corrupted & complex law system under fire and attack. My man's an amazing battle leader, but the MCU did VERY well leaving taking care of all kinds of social & political matters to Tony Stark. This kind of nuance ain't Steve's strength. Marinette & Steve are actually a EXTREMELY similar type of leader and it's interesting that I don't exactly vibe with him too much either in that regard, but like him as person the way I did Marinette. So for me it's definitely an issue with their type of leadership.

But the mainstream female leader characters are often still "too female" to get held to the same regular standards bc telling a female leader character in a complicated and not entirely beneficial situation & position 'yeah, it's sucks but you're not the center of the universe'' is now more often than not still "too mean/ sexist"

again, Steve was made an outlaw for a reason and you can bet if he had been a Stephanie people would have made all her struggles about sexism & called the 'outlaw leader' route after Civil War misogyny, merely bc "society doesnt respect women". This is whats happening with Maribug & it clashes with her leadership style.

Hence why there AREN'T ALOT of mainstream female leader characters. And if we get some, most of them are narratively defined by how powerful & in control they are for THEIR OWN BENEFIT and it being depicted as 100% right & just in general (like with Marinette) which goes against what a normal leader should be, so alot of people don't like them (ignoring the actual sexist people for a sec)

The first Wonder Woman movie for example was so well-received for a reason. They did it RIGHT (& may I please also recommend Wakanda Forever? Fuck, that movie was GOOD)

But yes, it's notably how Maribug treats Chat, who is supposed to be her partner and friend, that I take alot of issues with.

And yes, I would say the same if LB were male and CN female. Ladynoir is so rooted in toxic femininity that this "partnership" (or just the entire LS) the way it is could NOT exist today in gender bend. S4 and the s5 finale in particular are unthinkable in gender bend and they sold it as "justified female empowerment" & "unparalleled loving treatment" from Ladybug's side Chat Noir needed to learn to be GRATEFUL for.

All while, and I will never stop stressing this: the show has never stopped writing Marinette to treat Chat Noir as if he basically just spawns into existence once he puts on the mask. He's HALF a human being. Even once she falls in love with him in s5.

This is the fundamental and deep seeded problem of where my issues come from here. It never stands in question if Adrien views Marinette and Ladybug as full human beings, but the other way around that very much is the case. In whatever way it's depicted. Yes this is a line I draw, especially because of the whole Sentihuman thing.

I personally am alot more like Adrien regarding Friendship and partnership (or what his character initially started out). They are heavy & meaningful topics for me. So seeing Marinette being utilized to girlboss all that into the ground with Chat Noir, esp in s4, while she apparently barely ever even noticed anything wrong with how she treats him in the first place as she literally replaced him with Alya/ Rena in everything but name

cause buring him under a wall of secrets & lies meant she can still 100% benefit from his eternal devotion by letting him believe she's too alone to be a partner anymore AT ALL. (Kuro Neko onwards and then NEVER stopped letting him think she's just as alone as he is. NEVER. She's still doing it in s5 while leaving him 100% isolated which was then his demise in the s5 finale.)

and gives Alya the deluxe partnership entirely on his expense, while barely ever sparing him even the most basic thought in anything; & by "Risk" then literally having them switch status. Rena is her actual partner she fully treats that way and he's merely her favorite temp hero with no rights, which Rena was previously.

And the only reason why Chat was treated with something resembling to fairness or dignity again in season 5 (& finally wasn't a rag doll for her every little mood anymore...) was because Maribug plainly had no other choice and had her team & position of power taken away by force while Alya renounced for her own safety. And yet she's still treating him as half a human being even by the end of S5. AFTER her character development. He's Chat Noir and that's where his existence ends in her leadership & friendship. CN and Alya in s5 are literally 2 halves of ONE PARTNER.

All that was painful to watch to say the least. Bc it's imo honestly a disgrace to friendship and partnership. I can't put into words how ashamed I would be of myself if I treated someone the way Marinette treats Chat Noir (again, HALF A HUMAN BEING).

Much less a friend I claim to love dearly and don't want to loose (another thing the MCU did better regarding Steve's fall-out with Tony over Bucky... I should really make that comparison post why Steve works for me & Marinette doesnt)

Just the mere fact that Marinette in "Elation" even told Chat "It doesn't matter who's underneath your mask" is honestly outrageous.

Because thats simply what it is for me. If s4 & 5 Marinette were portrayed from a similar morality angle to Emonette in the Paris special I would have much less issues with her. Cause thats ironically an angle female characters barely get & is mostly used to redeem the broken bad boys with a hidden heart of gold™.

Double irony: s1-s3 actually DID put civilian Marinette often into that angle, hence why I really liked her, but then s4 suddenly said "well, her methods & actions really dont matter. She's wrong, but actually not really; ergo she should get rewarded in the end. Always. But with a few exceptions. Here n there she loses to claim otherwise. But actually the world just needs to learn how right & amazing she is."

She makes countless mistakes but often either doesn't really learn from them anymore or they just don't "count" bc that's 'what makes her quirky & loveable', so having any issues with her now means you hate women. And she's a very flawed leader but actually never did anything wrong. Ever. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

I will be VERY blunt now: The moment you put a female character into the leader role the FEMALE aspect is supposed to be of secondary importance. And a leader, by the nature of the position, ALWAYS has to be questioned morally wise in my opinion bc of the fatal blindspots that will automatically occur in every leadership.

And it happened here too: Chat Noir's treatment. But they demanded that her being the (female) leader means she's OWED to treat him badly & gets to keep him as blindspot on HIS expense bc she doesn't like thinking about him existing as civilian person.

A leader is ALWAYS somebody who is NOT going to sit well with everybody regarding their approach. That's a normal instinct, and in fact it would be highly dangerous if that wouldnt happen at all. So if I, or other people, don't respect her as one that simply means she has an opposition the way every leader has & is being held to normal standards a leader should be held to, regardless of gender.

Sorry if you think thats sexist, but in my opinion that's a YOU problem. I personally respect female leaders too much to not acknowledge them as anything else but the potential threats they are. The same way I do with male leaders.

You're leader first, woman second. If you can't handle that get out of the leadership position (yes, oc that also applies the other way around). Feminism was about making sure that women cant be excluded from e. g. position of power just bc we're female. The goal wasn't to have yet another group of people stomp their foots, now claiming that they are OWED power once they wanna have it to feel powerful. But that's what Marinette was used to teach an entire generation of children, especially girls.

The last thing you will EVER get me to do is accept that I should be holding women - specifically for equality, female empowerment and leadership - to LOWER (moral) standards as I would the men in her position.

Buddy, I am NOT gonna fucking do that. Just the thought is pissing me tf off, and has ever since s4, cause it directly plays into the misogynistic thinking of:

"Women can't be given power, status or even too much focus as human beings because they're too irrational and immature to be able to then lay proper priorities & take rightful accountability for their shit like a man in power could; and not just scream and cry while playing the oppressed victim card the moment things don't work out & they aren't being given the special female treatment to let them mostly off the hook consequences wise.

Leading to everyone around them, especially the MEN, having to step up, do the work & basically babysit the women like children - while still having to give her the credit as person in charge - turning the women more or less into toddlers wearing a queen's crown"

Which, by all means, Adrichat in every dynamic of the love square by season 5, Gabriel at the end of "Recreation" and even Luka & Félix (& "thankfully" Alya too since s4) had to do for Maribug in alot of ways.

Pick up all of her slack in several major areas & catering to her while simultaneously having to still give most of the credit to HER or else they would be "mean to the female lead" (it's also telling that Alya is treated the best here, & goodness dont get me started on Su-Han...).

And with that out of the way, a few more meta reasons:

1) I'm NOT watching a damn documentary. Marinette is NOT a 14 year old, she doesnt exist & isnt based on a real person or story. She's a fictional main character and narrative tool, so forgive me for approaching this differently than a real life case.

and 2) in everything I watch I automatically look out for the narrative's blind spots and victims of the writings' favorites. I take it this seriously because this is career related for me.

Hence why I have barely ever liked a main character and ironically Marinette/ Ladybug was once one of the few exceptions (alongside Korra from Legend of Korra and Blitz from Helluva Boss)

Look, when I for example watch Helluva Boss or a Yugioh show I will automatically pay extra attention to how the female characters are being treated bc they are obviously treated worse by the writing and much more neglected and scapegoated than the male characters.

Meanwhile when I watch Miraculous and She-Ra, I do the opposite and pay attention to how the male characters are treated bc now they have the gender-biase against them.

And when I for example watch Avatar the last Airbender or Legend of Korra [and She-Ra, that show is great], then I actually get to be mostly fucking happy for once in my life jfc

I'm not going to elaborate too much more on this because I already named by my main point in the beginning: Chat Noir's - not even Adrien's, I mean CHAT NOIR - sometimes honestly awful treatment being the biggest moral and narrative blind spot of the entire show, and honestly where most of Maribug's problems then are also rooted in. Hence why I started focusing so much on Chat Noir since season 4. I look at the overall narrative and circumstances and look for the blind spots that needs to be solved to get to the core of the problem of this whole mess, to get effective results.

And that was and even by the end remained the fact that Adrichat is treated so badly, scapegoated in every possible way in the name of "feminism" and kicked out of the story where HE is at the core of most everything going on, just so the show can force Maribug into everything, make things about her that have no business being about her

Just so she can then be made to constandly turn around and scream, cry and stress about problems - and go about them in the least effective way - that wouldnt be there in the first place if she wasnt the main character of a story that isnt hers.

Mate, I dont know what to tell you here, but the fact that we are following Marinette Dupain-Cheng ,who has nothing to do with anything besides being the cool action girl, is and will always remain of the of core problems of this show. I WISHED that wasnt the case. But for the love of everything, Kagami would have made so much more sense as the female lead, but no.

Anyway, I will leave it at that now cause I already elaborate much further than I initially wanted to, I just wanted to finally have all this stated.

This Blog is not a full representation of how I lay priorities in (feminist) media in general, my view adjusts to the piece of media I'm watching.

And unfortunately, ever since season 4 Miraculous turned into a full blown extreme case and has only gotten better somewhat recently. So I will continue doing what I always do: focus on the fucking VICTIM whose bad treatment pulls down the whole show's quality, and here that's plain obviously Adrien Agreste/ Chat Noir.

And with all due respect: Die mad about it.

71 notes · View notes

memyselfandmya · 19 days

Text

8 days until JWCT

OH MY GOD NEW CLIP NEW CLIP NEW CLIP

youtube

I'd like to apologize in advance if this is a little hectic. I'm so excited and my mind is absolutely reeling and my thoughts are running around so if things are a little unorganized please excuse me.

So first things first, YASAMMY IS STILL TOGETHER. I'm so happy to see that. The moment where Yaz was like "ohmygosh are you okay?" was everything to me I'm actually dying inside. And it's confirmed. Ben saying, "Get in between two girlfriends?" AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Yaz's "Tadaa" in the opening was so on point and in character. These characters still feel very much the same just older and I absolutely love them. They captured her adorable awkwardness perfectly. The background is absolutely gorgeous, I love these new urban settings. Sammy just trying to be a supportive girlfriend <3 I LOVE YOU SAMMY AND YOU LOOK DROP DEAD GORGEOUS

Big Ben is still a big dork <3. Him screaming from the hologram has me dying. The way Sammy is just shocked but Ben is being all extra throwing his legs up and doing another extra little scream. Oh Ben you big doofus I love you.

Ben is my reaction to all this Chaos Theory stuff and Sammy is everyone looking at me freak out w concern.

Along with this clip we have an interview with the showrunners.

"We really wanted to focus on Yaz’s emotional journey as she dealt with the PTSD she suffered from during Camp Cretaceous, and then on what her reaction would be once the dinosaurs made it to the mainland. We had always imagined after Camp C that she would go on to college and study psychology and use her empathy and experience to help those that suffer the way she did. We really liked the idea of her using cutting-edge “immersion therapy” technology to help herself and others like her in a controlled, safe manner."

This is what most stuck out to me about the whole thing. In the beginning I was worried that they'd neglect the trauma that these kids went through but I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised they're putting focus on it, especially with Yaz who we sort of first saw suffer from PTSD in CC. With kids shows, creators usually aren't willing to dive into deep subjects and they typically follow a "one-and-done" storyline as I like to call it. They have an episode that focuses on one thing and then the next episode is an entirely different thing. And while I understand that on an audience level--- kids have short attention spans and don't stay on topic---I'm glad to see that both CC and CT are paying attention towards (consistently) acknowledging the darker sides and the trauma. Also hearing about where her character went/is going is so incredible to see and it's crazy to say that I'm proud of a fictional character but I really am. It's concerning how much I love these characters but denying that would be denying an entire piece of myself. I need this show like I need air. Y'all better be ready for the longest ass posts I'm going to make next friday. Just 8 more days. Almost one more week.

One day if you're going to be watching the first episode tomorrow. After careful consideration I do think I will attempt to watch it tomorrow. I think deep down I knew this was going to happen however with the newly released clips it showed me that watching some of the show in advanced doesn't dim my excitedness and really it only amplifies it. Obviously, if you choose not to watch it, totally valid and I respect your decision. I will keep my account "spoiler free" in that if I talk about the first episode I'll use the keep reading feature and the spoiler tag out of respect for those who don't want to or can't see it yet.

So you will catch me on Roblox tmrw. If anything it'll probably be around 4:30/5:00 cst. I don't know if it's an all day thing but that's what I'm assuming it is. If you want to join me my acc is @/greekqueendemigod (don't judge I chose the name when I was like 12) and u can just send me a friend request and if you do lmk in the comments bc i'm not always checking.

#jwcc #jwct #jurassic world camp cretaceous #jurassic world chaos theory #jwct spoilers #sammy gutierrez #ben pincus #yasmina fadoula

31 notes · View notes

batbitesthebat · 8 hours

Note

Hey bat!!!! :D it's been a whileeee.. So- here's my question!

Do you have any head canons for your octonauts- characters? (Regular au) if so. Can I know em? :0

Sorry this took me so long!! I'm a very busy Bat!!

I decided to share some headcanons for all of my octonauts for my normal BatBites AU.

Captain Barnacles:

He goes to sleep curfew on the DOT and wakes up at 7:00 am each morning, and will wake up the other Octonauts as well

He feels like the father of the crew, whether he likes to or not

He doesn't open up to anybody about his struggles or insecurities- ever! He's bad at that sort of thing...

During the summer he'll take extremely long cold baths that he'll literally dump ice in, and he sheds like crazy, he does NOT like the summer.

His suit has a cooler. Tweak built it for him!!

He is totally unaware of any feelings his CREwMAtes might have for him....

Lt Kwazii Cat:

He bat's other peoples tails instinctively...

He can bareeely taste sweet, so he'll usually add a shit ton of sugar to his desserts

Struggles with impulse control and social awareness, struggles to understand what can be talked about on the dinner table and what can't be

Quite ashamed honestly about his cat-like behavior, so he'll try to keep it to himself. He doesn't like to meow or purr around anyone but Shellington, but because he lacks impulse control, he'll end up doing it anyway. Dashi loves the meowing.

He's incredibly affectionate

His first thought when a sea creature gives them trouble is I'LL SHOW THEM WHO'S BOSS!!!

Medic Peso Penguin:

His urge to pick up rocks everytime he sees a pile of them goes strong, and he usually ends up doing just that

This is more of a redesign than a headcanon, but he has a full set of teeth in the og books and I thought that would be a good excuse to give him fangs in my AU just for added cuteness

He's a chronic apologizer

He gets picked on by the crew occasionally, he hates it

He looks up to Barnacles and Kwazii so much- he IS the youngest and the last one to join, after all.

He does really like taking care of his friends.

He's a bit of a crybaby. His sense of empathy is really big and strong, and he'll feel himself tear up if he sees something- or someone- suffering.

IT Officer Dashi Dog:

Because she's the IT officer, programmer & photographer, she's super busy all the time

And speaking of time, she always loses track of it..

If Kwazii and Barnacles were to be unavailable she would be in charge.

She likes to keep incredibly clean even if the DEMONS tell her to jump in the MUDD and have FUNN

She loves everything cute and collects chibi cat squishies. This is like, one of my first head canons ever.

She's in charge of the wifi, whenever it shuts down and the crew begins to bug her about it, she gets super fckin annoyed

She barks, because of course she barks, and her tail wags whenever she sees something she likes or is giving/receiving affection

Her tail ALSO wags when she's talking to Captain Barnacles, I wonder why THAT is!!!

Engineer Tweak Rabbit:

Gets 1 second of sleep every night

Taught the rest of the crew how to play her video games

She glows in the dark because she's literally radioactive, same with her dad

When she needs a break she goes to the garden to chill, and eat a few carrots on the way

Will wake up in a cold sweat to randomly build something in the middle of the night

She does not give a shit about how messy she gets

Dr. Shellington Sea Otter:

Spends so much of his alone time just grooming himself

Goes searching through the fridge for ice cubes during the summer. Loves his ice cubes

Was the most geekiest geek in high school, he had like 3 friends

He plays visual novels

He's really defensive, embarrassed, and shy about what he likes.

His sleep schedule is fcked up, he talks in his sleep as well. He'd much rather be spending his time researching so as he sleeps he'll usually dream about his research.

He cannOT take a compliment. Compliment him and he will curl up into a little ball out of shame.

Professor Inkling Octopus:

He'll put on classical music in the library and vibe to it with whoever's with him

He hosts story nights occasionally

He's really good at giving romantic advice

He refuses to drink coffee

He needs to be constantly MOIST

his chair is super high tech and comes with a heater and cooler

May or may not be the group therapist

He's INKredibly humble

Tunip Vegimal:

Like 4 years old

Gets excited over literally anything

Gets the cutest puppy dog eyes when he wants something

Defaults to running around with the other vegimals when there's nothing to do

His fave thing in the world is watching the crews face light up when they eat his food

Vegimal food just hits different

Tunip sees Shellington as his dad, and sees Tweak as his mama. Kwazii's the gay aunt

*flies away*

#octonauts #headcanons #headcanon #octonauts headcanon #captain barnacles #kwazii #dashi octonauts #tweak octonauts #shellington #professor inkling #vegimals #tunip vegimal

9 notes · View notes

memorygirls · 8 months

Text

Because I’m a young attractive woman (I use this term very loosely - let’s say at least not what society thinks I should look like as a high supports needs autistic/disabled person), my autistic traits, burnout, depression, meltdowns, childlike/intense interests, self isolating, extreme sensitivity/empathy, problems with social relationships, eating/self image issues, trying to mask better have always been seen as personal & moral failings, lifestyle choices, “tumblr/edgy personality traits”, something to be fixed, shamed out of, that eventually I will grow out of feeling like this. Just some silly woman who will realise how juvenile she’s being eventually!

If I was a man, would it have taken me until my mid-late 20s, after years of violently refusing to go to school as a child (until police were called) or outside or not talk to people or look people in the eyes - because it made me feel disgusting/not in control to be seen while not masked/looking/feeling okay. Feeling like a monster and alien and not knowing why I was so awful or acting this way when nobody else did. Would he have been screened for something sooner instead of just being like “silly girl doesn’t think she’s cute so she’s gonna stay inside, it must be all it’s all for men/social approval, she will get over it” “You’re just depressed/socially anxious get over yourself and force yourself through it, it’s your own fault”

I realised at a very young age, the better you look and the quieter you are the better you’re treated or at least glossed over socially. I saw makeup, style, body language, interests even as a way to mask and got so hyper fixated on it/myself/hyper vigilant that even to this day I can’t go outside when I’m not feeling my best. Like I’m playing a part of “charminglovelynormalgirl.exe” on those good days, and days like today where I can leave my house or clean or function or throw up when I go in the car… I feel like I’m not even real, like that “other me” must just be an act. How can she be so different to this me. Like I feel totally disconnected to myself at times like this… it makes for some really complex trauma and identity issues… that’s just being a silly insecure girl to the rest of society.

Also those people who only see me irl every 6 months when I’m in “prettygirl.exe” mask mode, absolutely think I’m fine, or just a little anxious/shaky because look how great and charming and nice I am, how well I can communicate, the rest of the time is just me choosing to be inside/alone/hating myself because I enjoy it, obviously. I’ve ruined my whole life as an excuse to live this way. Absolutely.

#I fucking hate it hate it hate it #neurodivergent #autistic woman #all just moral failings #when I can go outside and put makeup on people will literally refuse to accommodate for me because I’m fine cause I look okay #oh and I definately think the abusive men who approached me while in my teens knew exactly who they were targeting before even I did

21 notes · View notes

crooked-wasteland · 2 months

Note

I envy your writing skills and how you articulate your thoughts as an essayist. What is the best advice you can give about improving my own critical thinking skills and my writing

You honor me anon.

Excuse me if I become a little philosophical here anon, but I feel the best way to expand your critical thinking skills and writing is empathy. I feel my stance is highly controversial nowadays, as people have attempted to normalize this sense of pseudo-sympathy through relating oneself and our own experiences to others as a way of expressing empathy, but in reality it is the erasure of other people's experiences and thus identities by failing to try and live through their eyes.

True empathy, to me, is reverse engineering actions to feelings to thoughts and motivations. Someone may not behave or feel the same way we do in a given situation, so by critically analyzing someone's behavior, truly seeking to understand why they are the person they have become, takes a lot of effort and self effacement. They are not us, and by trying to superimpose our identities onto them by projecting our own experiences onto others, we erase their existence in our minds.

Critical thinking necessitates understanding over agreeing. Empathy is validating but not mirroring. It requires being able to logically understand the irrational comes from a place of total sense to someone else. No one behaves wildly for no reason, so no story or character will behave without reason.

It may seem reductive to analyze humans as one would a flow chart, but we are beautifully complex machines of biology. The things we take for granted as artists and humans are all spectacularly complex, and the one thing we take most for granted are ourselves. We are so familiar with our own minds, we see it as something so intrinsically understandable, and we erroneously believe that everyone else is somehow just like us. Or worse, that we are in fact the most complex being in the universe while everyone else is a lesser copy, and as these other organisms look less and less like us, the less complex and whole we see them to be.

Learning true empathy is a daily exercise to deciphering critical thinking as a skill. Approach everything as there being a sound reason to why they feel and/or behave a specific way and search for that reason. Learn to slow down and ask questions when you don't understand. Allow space for yourself and others and the rest of this planet that is so much more than ourselves. Every person is a universe that is waiting to be explored. Do so with empathy, delicacy, and respect.

Love and critical thinking go hand in hand. Both are a labor that extends us outside ourselves. To be critical is not to hate something, but to love it to the point that we care when it fails and put in the effort to understand why. To acknowledge that it fails at all is an act of love. And to feel anger, resentment, or even hatred towards something is also not the opposite of love, apathy is. Apathy is the lack of desire to understand or care.

Learn how to love outside yourself and you will understand critical thinking. 🩷

#anon ask #anonymous #critical thinking #critical analysis #empathy

14 notes · View notes

rhythmantics · 8 months

Note

Oh! God I can’t believe it never hit me to ask this til now lol but what do you think Xander and Karen’s relationship looked like? How do you think they got together?

warnings for the fact that xander is a horrible scumbag and a mentally ill, child-abused wretch. so. usual warnings for that apply.

so a couple things to note; the first is that karen is literally xander's employee - he's the lab's associate director, she's just a low-rank gene sequencer. Second thing to note is that although he's 29 and she's 34, according to the prima guide, xander was originally conceived of as being 35, so I think karen was intended to be younger than him (even if only by a year).

Either way, she's pretty demonstrably weak-willed (betrays alex after a beating, and is persuaded by xander to risk her life to steal something from the lab for him). I don't think she's a bad person; in fact, i think she is a very nice, normal person (like let's be totally real, which one of us would be able to stand up to BW), which makes her ultimate fate at Alex's hands both a huge tragedy and a major reminder that neither Alex nor Xander are good people. I do NOT think it's right to blame Dana's involvement at Xander's behest on him - they are equals in that partnership, more or less - but I DO think some of the blame for Karen's death falls on Xander's shoulders. And Alex's.

In short, Xander takes advantage of her. Given his history with his mother (Ms. "worse than foster care" Mercer), and his suite of Emotional Issues besides, I have a very hard time imagining him in a relationship of equals. And they aren't equal - she's not as smart as him, literally his employee, and implied to be more naïve and trusting. He absolutely seduced her, and there's no way he's not letting the implicit threat of her career hang over her.

They definitely don't live together. We know they have their own separate places, but it's likely Xander had 0 intention of ever living with her, because the entire living room space in his apartment is his office. Given that the Point of Karen's character is that she's SUPER NORMAL, any future where they wind up serious together is one where she'd desire, you know, an actual living room. An entertainment center. You can probably already imagine about how well that would go over with Xander, who's spent his whole life compromising, and sees his new job/income/lifestyle as freedom.

That said, there is no overt abuse in their relationship. Xander has an Image, he has Standards, he hates his mother so much that he strives to be her opposite as much as possible. He would never raise a hand to Karen, but you don't need to be violent to exert control on a partner. I imagine he uses more subtle tactics. The fact that he's so beloved around his office that people would take his word over hers. The fact that he can and will use his horrific backstory to guilt-trip and justify any poor behavior toward her. The fact that he's clever enough and a good enough actor to - quite literally - gaslight. So on.

I think Karen actually thought she was very close to him, very intimate. He'd have framed his usage of his backstory as "opening up," or vulnerability, even though he's very cognizantly using it to make her feel like she was special, was fixing him. He'd put off talks of marriage or cohabitation with excuses of "not being ready" and "needing more time to learn how to trust people" while cognizant that he was never planning to let her move in, never. In many ways, he's the perfect partner, never forgetting a birthday or anniversary, always taking her out to nice places and getting her the things she wants/saying what she wants to hear, while ensuring he always has a leash on her and an exit strategy planned.

And the thing about Xander I find kind of fascinating is that he's motivated by contradictory forces. Xander is NOT a ~dark and twisted cycle path~ with no empathy or capacity to care for others; rather, he's someone with Severe PTSD who was literally in a survival situation for basically his entire life, with no trustworthy caregivers and practically 0 emotional nurturing.

It's not that he only sees her as a sex object - rather, Xander has a deep, deep craving for love and intimacy, and then screws himself over in that regard, because he doesn't feel "safe" if he isn't in total control, and he feels compelled to abandon other people before they can hurt him by abandoning him.

All relationships to him - even for his sister, who is "the only person he can trust" according to his prima bio (karen doesnt even make that list lol) - are functionally over before they begin. He expects the worst out of people - that they are liars, betrayers, cheaters, abandoners, insensitive, ignorant, and cruel - and then deliberately pushes the people around him to prove him right. Then he burns bridges, holds grudges, resents people. In Karen's case, he'll do things like deliberately not mention his birthday, because he's testing to see if she'll even care to remember (and if she doesn't, well, look at how cruel and insensitive she is, he was right to think that about her). If she does remember, he'll judge her on the quality of the gift she gets him compared to what he gets her (he's constantly psychoanalyzing and compiling mental dossiers on the people around him in case he needs to retaliate, which has the side effect of making him a REALLY GOOD GIFT-GIVER). And if it doesn't measure up (and it won't, because he doesn't actually open up to people, so how are they supposed to know what he wants), then that's "proof" that she's a dumb little sheeple, who doesn't care about anyone but herself, etc. etc.

But the core of this kind of resentment and hypercriticality is fundamentally that he craves acknowledgement, affection, validation, and emotional nurturing, things that he was deprived of growing up. The fact that he's so manipulative actually contributes to his despair; he hates that people fall for it, that (in his eyes) "they only see what they WANT to see," that he can ruin lives and destroy careers just by putting on a fake smile or pantomiming being hurt. It drives him crazy that he can get away with it.

At his core, Xander hates himself. Ten years of foster care and ten more years of child abuse have completely fucked up his internal self-image; he fundamentally conceives of himself as a worthless piece of trash that can easily be discarded as soon as anyone sees "the truth" (like he was in foster care), and/or as a weak, pathetic, inherently unlovable target and victim (as he was living with his mother). That's why he has to constantly self-aggrandize, say things like "I'm always right," train his body, avoid drugs and alcohol, put others down - he's constantly teetering on the edge of despair, a wounded animal still actively bleeding from welts that won't heal, in a world that has taught him that other people will hurt him. It's also why he goes Beast Mode on even minor perceived threats to his intellect or competence - what other people might see as a harmless jab, he perceives as a mortal threat. And given the fragility of his emotional state, it very well might be!

So what he gets out of Karen isn't pure physical gratification (although there is that). It's oddly contradictory, but to him, Karen is a symbol of "making it" - she's a hot young blonde with a PhD and a stable job, whom he can easily control (and is thus "safe"), who is madly in love with him. On the other hand, it's all fake, she doesn't actually care about him, just the fake persona he adopts toward her, NOBODY will ever actually care about him, EVERYONE sucks and he HATES THEM ALL. It's practically a form of self-harm.

So I don't think he's ever outwardly done anything to harm Karen. In fact, I think Karen thought she had, like, the PERFECT boyfriend, if only he was more open to the idea of moving in and getting married (but it's okay, she's fixing him). But I do think it was always 🤏 this close to BECOMING toxic and horrible, and Karen never had any clue.

TL;DR: Xander has many Big Feelings and most of them are hatred

#prototype 2009

18 notes · View notes

elliaze · 2 years

Text

GODS WARROR - CHAPTER NINE

Pairings: Steven Grant x fem!reader x Marc Spector

Warnings: just few curse, really sloooow burn, rocky relation between Marc and reader

Words Count: 2900+

MASTERLIST

Y/N KNOCKED ON THE DOOR.

She had sincerely had enough of this day and, above all, of the events of the last two hours. The fight with the jackal and the knowledge that she could not rely in any way on Poseidon's help had completely exhausted her. And, in a way, terrified her, as she was left unattended for the first time. As she fulfilled task after task from the gods, as she fought and condemned more souls to eternal suffering, she had always felt the presence of her guardian beside her. Now she felt absolutely nothing, and she was already beginning to miss it. She could deny it as much as she could, but nothing could change the fact that she treated Poseidon like the father she didn't really have. She had never resented her mother for walking away from her regretful husband because the man was a definite bastard and Y/N was glad that she never really had to deal with him. She therefore doubly appreciated Poseidon's attitude towards her and understood that this was definitely how a father-daughter relationship should be. God cared for her, even though he didn't have to at all. He could leave her alone and only appear when necessary, and he even made her life miserable, almost every day. She had always reproached him, teased him and joked with him, but now she really understood how much it all meant to her.

The lock opened and in the wide-open door stood Marc, dressed in a sports T-shirt and plain jeans. Even in her state of complete exhaustion, she could see that he was handsome. In a completely different way than Steven, even though they shared a body together. Evidently it was all about the aura they surrounded each other with. Where Steven attracted with his empathy and friendliness, Marc was characterised by a definite certainty and strength.

“You still didn't let go?” He said in greeting, and she sighed heavily.

“Listen, Marc,” she rubbed her eyes with her fingers and lifted her gaze to him. “It was a long day. Full of unplanned events, and I really don't want to argue with anyone. Can we talk like civilized people?”

“I don't think we have any other option, do we? Especially since you said that you wouldn't leave me alone.”

She was surprised that he remembered her words from yesterday, but made no comment. Marc had let her in, and it was all too strange that she had been in this flat only a few hours ago. In that time, so much had happened, as if at least a week had passed. Y/n, however, did not resist the urge to look around a bit, as she had not had time to do so the previous time. The flat wasn't large, but it was clear that Steven was the one living in it. Bookshelves formed a small library, and a goldfish swam in the aquarium. Further away was the bedroom, and although it seemed strange to her that there was a large jar of sand in the room, she had no intention of either intruding on the space in question or even asking about it.

It wasn't until a moment later that she saw that there was a packed bag on the table, with all the necessary documents for the journey next to it.

“Are you going somewhere?” She asked, pointing her finger at the visible passport.

“To Cairo,” he explained. “If you'd run off with the scarab, as you should have, instead of saving Steven's arse, I wouldn't have had to at all.”

“Excuse me?” She stammered out with difficulty.

“Harrow has a scarab because you decided to play superhero even though you totally didn't know what to do. You think if you put on some super suit, you know all about fighting and killing?”

Y/N's eyes widened more with every word she heard. A surprise attack was the last thing she could have thought would happen. She wanted to defend herself, to fend off these accusations and say they weren't true, but something was holding her back. Her lips formed a soft O, as if she wanted to speak up, but in the end she didn't. Because, in essence, she knew that Marc was right. However, she also realised that she could not do otherwise. Even if they now had to face the consequences of this behaviour.

“You should go home and forget all this,” he spoke up after a while, a little softer. This time the girl snorted an ironic laugh, regaining her voice.

“What the bloody hell? You should know perfectly well that people like us can't just suddenly forget something,” she pointed out to him, fixing her hair nervously. She suspected that she looked like hell after the fight with the jackal and the conversation with Poseidon. On top of that, she knew that her whole neck was exposed, and the bruises were visible to the naked eye, but she didn't have the strength to worry about that yet. “Especially now. Harrow must be stopped, there is no other option. I'm flying with you to Egypt.”

Marc grunted and shook his head.

“That's not an option,” he said firmly. “I don't need your help to find Ammit's tomb.”

“I know,” she agreed. “But I can help you, and you know it, even though you don't want to admit it. Besides, during the fight with the jackal, one of my daggers disappeared and Poseidon has a hunch that the two cases are connected. If my dagger ended up in Harrow's hands, then we have a common problem. As I told you yesterday. Together we can do a lot more. If you're afraid I'm putting myself in danger, don't worry. It's not the first time, and it won't be the last.”

Marc fell silent until he finally took a deep breath and let the air out heavily.

“You're stubborn, which means I've judged you correctly,” he commented briefly, sending her a resigned look. Marc walked over to the table where his belongings lay and then reached for the envelope with the tickets and handed it to her. “That's why I bought a ticket for you too.”

She picked up the envelope in surprise, opened it, and when she looked inside, she actually saw two plane tickets for a flight from London to Cairo. One was titled with her name and had all her contact details on it.

“How do you know where I live?” She asked, furrowing her brow.

“I checked you,” he said without hesitation, and she recognised that she had asked a particularly stupid question. She might have expected it, especially as she herself was no better. “YN Y/L/N, born in Nottingham. Mother works in a shop, father is deceased. At secondary school, you were an example of a good student and graduated with an award for your contribution to the school. You studied journalism for three years, until a holiday in Greece in 2017. Then you moved to London and have been working in a library for six months.”

“Not bad,” she smiled and nodded approvingly. “But I did my research too” she put her arms across her chest. “You enlisted in the army while you were still in high school. However, you were later dismissed from the service because of your health. Normally everyone would have gone home, but you became a mercenary. I've even seen pictures of places where your presence was confirmed. It was not a particularly pleasant sight, I must say.”

“Not everything is my responsibility,” he replied immediately, and Y/N may have been unreasonable, but she believed him and felt that he was being honest with her.

“It may seem strange, but I believe you.”

Marc raised one eyebrow upwards, and she had to admit that there was something about it that made her feel a strange but pleasant twinge in her stomach. Her heart beat faster, but calmed down just as quickly.

“And what are you going to do about it?”

“Absolutely nothing,” she shrugged her shoulders. She looked again at the envelope containing the tickets and then took out the one dedicated to her. She tucked the card into the pocket of her jacket and lifted her gaze to the man. “I'll meet you at the airport, Marc.”

She moved to leave, but stopped for a moment beside him and patted him on the shoulder.

“Don't worry, I won't be late,” she said as she walked away, and before Spector had time to react, she was gone.

☾☾☾

In quick time, she had packed all her bags, cleaned herself up and changed into more comfortable clothes and found herself at the airport an hour before departure. She passed through all the security gates without a problem, found the right terminal and, after a few minutes of searching, finally managed to spot Spector. Marc was sitting in one of the chairs in the waiting area just inside the terminal entrance, sporting a grey shirt and leather jacket, and wearing a black baseball cap on his head, worn so that it completely covered his eyes.

Y/N pulled her small suitcase towards him and took the vacant seat next to him as if nothing had happened. It was then that she noticed that there was an embroidered crescent moon on the front of his cap. Marc did not say a word, but moved slightly, letting her know that he was fully aware of her presence. She took a sip of the orange juice she had bought at the duty-free zone.

“Can I ask you a question?” She spoke up, glancing fleetingly at Marc.

“It depends,” he replied mysteriously, closing his eyes. She giggled quietly.

“From what?” She asked with amusement. “Anyway, it doesn't matter. I'm just curious about something.”

Marc muttered quietly, giving her a sign that he was listening to her, and she was going to take advantage of it.

“Khonshu is choosing all clothes for you?” She asked cheerfully, pointing her finger at his hat. “I know he's the god of the moon and probably loves to show that he controls you in some way, but seriously? The hat?”

“I've had it for a long time,” he muttered in his defense. “Is there something you don't like about it?”

“No” she shook her head, and the smile didn't leave her face. “It's cool. You look great in it.”

“It's not that your suit doesn't say at all that someone is controlling you too,” Marc replied emotionlessly, paying no attention to her words, for which she was damn grateful. “Usually I don't agree with Steven, but earlier he was right.”

“About what?” She furrowed her eyebrows.

“About your outfit. The one you fought in. You're not going to tell me you don't feel like you belong to someone else.”

“No, no, no” she moved her index finger sideways a few times. “Firstly, I am a young and independent woman, not someone else's property. Secondly, the suit is to protect me. And thirdly, I think I look pretty fucking great in it. Besides, I'm not the one flying around town in bandages and a cape.”

Marc lifted the corner of his mouth up, and she decided it was the closest thing to a smile she could get from him. Always better than nothing. But almost subconsciously she congratulated herself that she could be funny, that even someone like Spector - cold and gruff - could appreciate her skills. Or maybe he wasn't like that at all? Maybe, after all, somehow he and Steven were more alike than they both wanted to admit?

For a brief moment, neither of them spoke. Despite the late hour, there were an unusually large number of people at the airport and virtually no one was paying attention to them. She caught a glimpse of an elderly lady sending her a cordial glance, but what she meant by this, she completely did not know. As a rule, however, she was friendly, so she smiled in response and then looked at the screen that showed the direction of the flight from their terminal. The big white Cairo sign made her feel like grabbing her stuff and leaving the airport. Once again she was flying to the place of her dreams, but not for relaxation but out of obligation. And she knew that, as much as she would have liked to, she wouldn't even find a moment to try, and explore something.

She sighed heavily, and as she shifted her gaze to the final document-checking booth, she saw that two stewardesses had already appeared at the desk. One of them approached the closed gates until she finally moved them aside and invited all the passengers on the flight to queue up.

“They will be letting us in,” she informed quickly, patting Marc on the shoulder.

Without waiting for a response from him, she got up from her chair and, dragging her suitcase, lined up. He stood next to her, and after a while, the first people were allowed on the plane. She loved flying on planes, although she always felt that slight stress that something unexpected might happen. She knew that she herself would survive any tragedy, because all she had to do was call out to Poseidon, or at least use her suit. However, others wouldn't be as lucky, and that scared her the most.

She handed her passport and ticket to the stewardess and waited with a smile while she went through all the verifications. When all went well, she waited on the side for Marc and after only a few moments they were walking together along the airport to the designated plane. She looked up one last time, where she could see the illuminated buildings of the city in the distance, wondering how long she would be gone again. She knew that if she disappeared for more than three days, she could say goodbye to her job at the library. It had been one of her favourites until now, but there were important things and more important things.

She boarded the plane and, stepping behind him, quickly found their seats. Marc tossed his bag into the overhead luggage locker and when she wanted to do the same, he quickly overtook her, taking her suitcase in his hands and placed it next to his luggage. She was surprised by this and definitely unused to such gestures. She couldn't remember the last time someone had helped her with such a trivial thing as putting her luggage on a shelf, and she felt her heart beat a little faster than before.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?” Marc asked, noticing that she was looking at him. She shook her head, concluding that if she said out loud what she was thinking about, yes it would be too idiotic, even for her.

“I was just thinking,” she explained, not going into whether the brunet actually believed her or not. “Thank you for your help.”

Marc nodded and made a hand gesture, letting her know to sit down first. She took a seat by the window and looked out, although she could see nothing else but the airport apron plunging into darkness. Bright neon lights reflected off the front of the plane and the turn signals, but not enough for her to accurately distinguish the silhouettes of the passengers boarding.

More and more people were gathering inside the plane, and consequently the air conditioning was turned on, which almost immediately made her feel shivers on her skin. As a rule, she didn't complain about the slightly colder atmosphere, but now in the middle of the night, when her dream was to bury herself under a warm duvet, she wrapped herself more tightly with her sweatshirt and tucked her hands under her arms. She always did this when she was trying to keep them warm, and although sometimes her trick worked, it didn't quite now.

“I got a bit carried away yesterday. I'm sorry you got hurt. That's not what I intended,” confessed Marc unexpectedly, in a downcast tone so that only she could hear him. Y/N sent him an uncomprehending look, as she had absolutely no idea what he was getting at. Then he pointed a finger at her neck, and she almost automatically put her hand to it and immediately sensed that she had forgotten one important thing on her way out the door.

The scarf that had been hiding her bruised neck all day was still lying on the cupboard by the door in her flat. She cursed loudly, so that a mother with a child walking down the plane corridor sent her a disapproving look. Later, she pulled the hood of her sweatshirt over her head and zipped it up to her neck to hide any sign that someone had almost tried to strangle her yesterday. Although clearly it looked like that wasn't Spector's intention.

Even though she had seen his file and pictures of his probable crimes, that's how she felt safe in his company.

“I've been worse, believe me,” she whispered in reply, but she tore her gaze away from him and looked at her own hands. There was no trace left of the blue polish, and now her nails were only gently shimmering due to the conditioner she had inaccurately applied while packing her suitcase. “No problem, your apology is accepted.”

⸻

@officialholyagua

@graciexmarvel

@princessleah129

@simonsbluee

@inwisper

@ahookedheroespureheart

@rayrlupin

@simpforbenhargreeves

#marc spector x y/n #marc spector x reader #steven grant x reader #marc spector #steven grant #moon knight #moon knight x reader #steven grant x y/n #moon knight x y/n #marvel #fanfic #oscar isaac #elliaze

48 notes · View notes

filthforfriends · 1 year

Note

I'm sorry to say this because I like you usually. But the answer you gave to anon is the worst I've seen on tumblr in a while because it sounds a lot like I want to save my ass but I won't admit I did something not nice here and will coin it on the other person. Please read the third paragraph again, that's a non apology, except for the last bit. It's going into the last paragraphs as well = "I understand that the language I used made you feel othered. The othering did more emotional damage than providing captions could ever outweigh for you." "I put captions not to target people with prominent accents" but you do exactly this with "thickest accent" and quite literally writing it out as targeting people with "prominent accents". It can be that you really can't see this because you want to be right over this at all costs, but I would have expected something better of you. Furthermore anon is right, I believe, that this isn't the first time, you have such a sentiment, if it be conscious or not, with how he talks and this is only ever present when it's about Thomas which might have even soured them more to actually sent this ask. It might have been looked at a lot different if it would have been the first time they noticed it. The last thing which I don't understand is the "inclusiveness". How is it inclusive when you only caption one part? People who for whatever reason have the captions on or the sound off aren't really helped when 2 minutes of an interview that's 30 min long are captioned? They don't just have that for Thomas then, so it doesn't make any sense. This is a genuine question as I really don't see any thought or sense behind this excuse.

I have been operating out of a giant blind spot in my privilege. I had no idea that that way I comment on Thomas’ accent is problematic that’s never even occurred to me. I absolutely do think that commenting on someone’s accent can be problematic. Even without malice it can be xenophobic, racist, ableist, or otherwise discriminatory. My thoughts were that none of the above apply to Thomas, and I’m doing so affectionately, so how could this be wrong? Clearly I missed the point.

When I read that ask my thought was “is this anon alerting me to a widespread issue or is this someone whose suffered a lot of discrimination and my careless use of language brought all that back?” I came to the conclusion that it was the second one and tried to approach with empathy. When I reread “the othering did more…” I cringe so hard. I was trying to be validating by showing I understood how they were feeling, but it came of as demeaning and fake which wasn’t my intent. I’m sorry to that initial anon for dismissing you. I recognize that from whatever intent I speak from, my words cause harm.

I absolutely have described Thomas’ and probably the others accents this way numerous times out of total ignorance. I’m so sorry for marginalizing people who speak English as a second language and making them feel unsafe on my blog. I’m going to run this blog differently.

I unfortunately can’t caption and upload the entire thing because Tumblr has limits on file size. I will make little montages for the other three. I know what’s not the point, but it was mentioned by other anons.

Thank you for everyone supplying me with new information♥️

3 notes · View notes

rosesfox · 2 years

Note

Just need to vent this out to pro-Feyre accounts coz im mad pissed just looking at the recent nesta tag was a huge mistake rn. I just saw a post saying that Feyre just inherited the crown but not a whole kingdom since Nesta was the true queen? Like excuse tf out of me?! It’s so weird how these ppl (that user in particular) downplay Feyre’s queen role, calling her selfish and immature just to elevate Nes. The way they’re so blinded with everything they’ve read that they completely forgot how serious Fey was with her role. IF PEOPLE ONLY READ THE BOOKS THEY WOULD KNOW HOW MUCH FEYRE CONTRIBUTED FOR HER COURT AND PRYTHIAN. They only see her as this “who just went around with whatever d!ck” which is so hypocritical of them knowing how so “defensive” they are with the slutshaming. ISTG I can tolerate anti-Fey posts (even though some of them are hilarious since yk for sure they haven’t digested the books well) but calling her a “fake queen” then comparing her to Nesta?! LIKE THAT’S A REALLY STUPID TAKE.

I don't remember a part of the canon where Nesta had a better development than Feyre in terms of wanting to reign and be a good ruler.

it is curious as Nesta doesn't even show the slightest interest in being a ruler, and until acosf she had no interest even in being a warrior. she says there are other ways to be strong besides holding a sword, and she also expresses a desire for other things like travel, if I'm not mistaken, but her development took a totally different path in acosf.

I think when they argue with that, when they push this image of "Nestha being queen", they disregard the character's own wishes and everything she's thought/spoke up to that point in a desperate attempt to demean Feyre.

this not a hate argument, there are times when Nesta shows empathy and care for humans, but there is simply no development that sustains a leadership role. yk, everything inside the ''queen Nesta'' has more to do with her arrogant attitude than with grandiose actions that she never had for being very supportive or wanting to change the world, like Aelin and Feyre.

so, as I said, I believe these lines are from people who don't even like or know Nesta because the role of ''queen'' was never what she wanted, it was never something inserted in her journey, but just, just hatred for her. Feyre. I don't even know where this hate for Feyre comes from.

#anon ask #pro feyre archeron #feyre archeron #nesta archeron

9 notes · View notes

stillness-in-green · 2 years

Text

Chapter 356 Thoughts

Written before the 357 leaks and largely left as-is, give or take a snarky footnote. Presented this week in order of events.

• Oh my god, Jirou is such a badass. Just think about the kind of guts it takes to be like, "Okay, I'm a thousand feet(1) up in the air and can't fly under my own power, but whatever, my bandmate has a black abyss fist with that supervillain's name on it. Catch you guys on the flip side!"

• This fight continues to be pretty fun, as far as fights that I'm not terribly invested in go. Jirou dropping her jacket over Dark Shadow, and Tokoyami using his cape to wrap up his arm, are exactly the sort of doing-a-lot-with-what-little-we've-got measures that I'd like to see more of from this series, making the heroes play smart with the resources they have on hand rather than constantly leaning on super tech bought by private millionaires or convenient pre-planned reinforcements from other heroes despite the alleged depletion of hero numbers.

• I do not like All For One reassuring the audience that his problems were Definitely Not because a girl was allowed to be effective and directly contribute to taking down an arc boss, but blahblah somethingsomething Quirk Rebellion.

On the one hand, if I were to be generous, it's easy to see AFO flailing to make excuses for why the Demon King just took a major L to some random teenage girl, and it's even pretty funny in that light. On the other hand, we directly see the quirk rebellion from inside AFO's skull, which makes it looks like his description is accurate to reality. And like, look, Shounen Manga Power Level Bros have the same mentality AFO does, and will take any excuse they can get to downplay the contributions of side characters, especially side characters who are girls. I don't like the manga going out of its way to hand those people justifications.

Why not just let Jirou (and Tokoyami as well) have this? Like, consider AFO's extrasensory quirks, just the ones we know about: vibration-sense, infrared, maybe the empathy, and Search.

It hardly needs to be said how a violently loud wall of sound would fuck with a vibration quirk. Sound is literally vibration in the air! Jirou's is so loud it has physical impact! Of course AFO can't detect shit with a vibration quirk in the wake of that!

Infrared would pick up Jirou and Tokoyami just fine, but how about Dark Shadow? What's his working temperature? Crucially, is it meaningfully different than the temperature of thin air? And, if Dark Shadow is difficult to pick up with infrared because he has neither body heat nor any particular lack of body heat, then how much would Tokoyami's heat signature be masked by being wrapped up in Dark Shadow's essence?

Does the empathy come with a sense of directionality—can AFO move through the world detecting emotions around him? Or does he have to pick a target and focus on them in particular? Does he have to be talking to them? It would be so easy, and accomplish what the story needs of it, for the empathy quirk to be something he has to be interacting with a person to use, without imparting any sense of directionality. Indeed, if the empathy quirk is meant to be the source of his lie-detecting capability, the rather strong suggestion is that he does need to be directly interacting with a situation to use it effectively: he didn't pick up on Aoyama and Deku's little performance being a total sham because they aimed it all at each other instead of him! He likewise missed Aoyama's parents' deceit because that deceit was technically coming with Shinsou, whose presence AFO was unaware of. The fact that it needs that targeting aspect suggests to me that an ambient sense of emotions around him is not part of the quirk.

Search is another that pings the location of someone, but from what we've seen of it from Shigaraki's perspective, it doesn't give the user a visualization of their target's form or moment to moment updates on their actions. It's purely a mental blip and a list of weaknesses. The Tokoyami blip could be coming closer very quickly, and AFO could make the logical assumption about what's coming, but Search wouldn't give him a dodgeable visual.

So like… Vibration-sense and infrared would have been all the help in the world against All Might at Kamino. Against a girl who fills the air with vibrations and a boy whose super-power is a literal shadow, with no indication one way or the other about its body heat? Not so much! AFO even told the guards at Kamino that he has these powers, so the heroes could well have put Jirou and Tokyami there on that exact reasoning!

But no, can't make it look like two side characters synergizing well against known weaknesses would have been effective. Gotta make up some stuff about quirk rebellion, and then can't even have that rebellion being led by the face in there that the audience knows.(2)

• Nice to have the explicit confirmation that killing AFO was the plan here. I'm gonna go ahead and assume that's the plan with Shigaraki and the flying coffin, too. I'm so curious about whether we're going to get any call back to All Might declaring at Kamino that trying to kill AFO was a mistake he didn't plan to repeat. Did that come up in the planning? Did Hawks have to talk him around to, "No, it was totally the right move; we'll do it again only it'll work this time"?(3) How does that connect to Ending calling out Endeavor as a hero who kills, the thing heroes are never supposed to do?

Is there a chance that killing AFO was not in the plan, and this is just Hawks being Hawks, a hero who Very Definitely Does Kill, figuring he'll deal with the consequences later? Not like anyone's going to complain too much about a villain being dead—they didn't about Twice, after all. It is notable that Hawks is the first one to break out the K-word in this particular encounter—previously, the wording had been the more ambiguous "downfall" and "taking down." On the other hand, centering the plan around taking out AFO's life support mask always rather strongly implied a plan focused on killing AFO, a conversation that took place between Hawks and Best Jeanist, with All Might not shown to be present.

• The fire and quirk cannibalism thing is effectively unsettling, but like… If that was an option all along, why in god's name was it a big plot point that ShigAFO couldn't just destroy New Order, but had to physically dump it on some rando? Sure, New Order is a strong quirk, and would have gone down fighting, but she/it would have been up against the original quirk vestige of All For One, backed by Shigaraki's powerfully destructive hatred. So why wasn't that viable? I know that, strictly speaking, we saw AFO still hoping to dump it on Sir I Can't Believe This Guy Got A Name And Random Civilian Lady Didn't, so we know he wanted to preserve it if possible, but still, in Chapter 333, he explicitly says, "I can only steal quirks or bestow them. I can't just dispose of one!" So what exactly is he doing by metaphysically devouring them?

Furthermore, if he can get rid of them this way, isn't that kind of, uh, counterproductive? Sure, it stops them rebelling against him, freeing him up to move again, but wouldn't that deprive him of their use? So he's down to just his four remaining normal senses? Which is an extremely dangerous place to be in when you're floating in a three-dimensional space surrounded by enemies trying to do you harm? Especially when those enemies can specifically make your hearing unreliable, too, because like hell would anyone hear Hawks or Tokoyami coming through the racket Jirou is capable of making.

Maybe the idea is that, if AFO devours the vestiges of his extrasensory quirks, it will leave him with just the quirks themselves, with no lingering consciousness attached to defy him? But if that was an option, then why didn't he ever do that to deal with his vestige-caused nightmares? I guess if we find out in the next chapter of this fight that he did do that to deal with his nightmares, just as soon as Ujiko told him what he was dealing with… And that would set up something I would very much like to see, which is Shigaraki decaying the AFO vestige and leaving just the power itself, with only Shigaraki in control of it. Still, though, Vestige!AFO was very present-tense when he talked about his nightmare problem back in 287, so I doubt that's the intended takeaway here.

Seriously no idea what him biting the head off a vestige lady Charlotte the Dessert Witch-style is supposed to represent.

• Hawks protecting Tokoyami and Jirou is good stuff. Great hero instinct, and the narrative can just let it stand for itself, rather than making a big thing out of it.

• One wonders exactly how much use that mask is going to be, not only in six hundred pieces, but also full of Rivet Claw divots dimpled all across the inside. Not exactly a hermetic seal for AFO's delicate old man lungs, y'know?

• Endeavor's arm (and of course it's his Victory arm—leave no good parallel undrawn, eh, Hori?) getting pierced through is excellent gore of the sort that I remain incredibly curious about how the anime is going to handle. The war arc is loaded with it; are we just going to get Dramatic Silhouettes every time? Like with Magne, and Shigaraki dusting that crowd in Deika? At a certain point, it really just feels like they ought to suck it up and change the timeslot.(4)

• Love the heavy shadows under Young Enji's eyes on that big panel before the page turn. Distaste, disdain, maybe just a touch of displeased surprise. What a fantastically subtle expression for Enji's self-loathing.

Also, the degree to which he looks like Natsuo is just gutting. One wonders how Natsuo is ever going to look in the mirror when he hits, like, 35.

• Finally, to the big reveal of the chapter, WOWIE ZOWIE IT WAS HIS DAD NOT JUST SOME DAD.

Firstly, yes, I do think Caleb got right what the fan translators missed. I ran it by my sis-in-law translator friend, and her opinion was to agree with Caleb based on the wording Young Enji uses. Basically, Japanese has different ways to refer to one's own father as opposed to someone else's father or just fathers in general. While Young Enji doesn't directly use a possessive like "my" or "your" (ore no or omae no), the word he uses for "father" there is chichi. It's a term for father that is very strictly neutral; contrary to expectation, this doesn't mean that it's a depersonalized word for fathers in general, but rather that it's practically only ever used to talk about one's own father.

This is because the Japanese culture expects one to be respectful towards others, so using such a neutral term, with no honorifics or formality, to talk about another person's father could be seen as rude; you should be respectful and use more polite language! So Young Enji using it there is, contextually, talking about his/Endeavor's own father.

That said, I quite like this reveal. I don't think it unduly softens Endeavor up, but rather provides a grounding for his obsession with strength and all the places that obsession led him. It makes him a fascinating case study alongside the likes of Izumi Kota and Shimura Kotarou in terms of the unaddressed grief and resentment at their parent(s) for considering them less important than a total stranger. Left alone, these emotions metastasize into maladaptive behaviors every time! Seriously, do the children of dead heroes ever get any kind of counseling at all?

This then feeds in interesting ways into his relationship with his own family. If Enji's got this buried trauma about family dying because they aren't strong enough to cut it during hero work, no wonder he completely shorts out on dealing with Touya! No wonder, too, that if Touya can't be the strong hero Enji wanted, he doesn't think Touya should be a hero at all, not even a kind of middle-of-the-road one. Middle-of-the-road heroes just get themselves killed on the job.

This analysis is, of course, banking on the assumption that Enji's father was a hero, and not just a bystander that got brave. We don't actually know that for sure, based on the available evidence. But it does explain his various issues better, I think, so I'll be sticking to it until we hear otherwise.

Circling back to the counseling Enji clearly never got, I don't suspect we're going to get any more on that moment going forward; we got what mattered most out of it, after all. Still, as someone with an axe to grind about Hero Society, I wish we had just a bit more context. Like, how did Young Enji come to be at the edge of that crowd/crime scene? How long did he spend standing there in the rain with no umbrella, staring in horror at his father being packed onto a stretcher, two policemen standing in front of him and not apparently trying to usher him somewhere more private? Dedicated Hero Society bashers need to know.

• I was just a touch irked when the leaks dropped that none of the flashback panels of the family included Fuyumi, but with the context of a coherent translation, it's perhaps interesting that Fuyumi is not included in the toll of Things That Exposed Our Weakness. On the other hand, Rei wasn't in any of those panels, and my god, what Rei exposed in Enji…

• I was also very irked in the leaks that Endeavor cites Deku as a hero he'll never be like, because, my god, can we please take a break on the unwarranted Deku Hype. But with the context of the rest of Endeavor and Enji's exchange, I'm actually pretty much fine with it. To borrow the language of the Bakugou/Deku rivalry, the two Enjis aren't talking about heroism in "saving" sense; they're talking about it in the "winning" sense. Endeavor's got nothing to say here about Deku's morality; this is purely about power—and, moreover, about the same power, since Endeavor now knows about One For All. So of course he brings up Deku when talking about "superhumans."

"The enemy is weakness," is such a knotty, thorny sentiment. Because this is a shonen manga, and a Shonen Jump battle manga at that, then weakness of character gets so tangled up with weakness in battle, while strength gets conflated with victory, with superhumans, and it's hard to know how much of this is meant to be A Positive Thing for anyone to aspire to (fulfilling one's duty even in the face of weakness), versus A Positive Thing for Enji (striving against his inner ugliness), versus just kind of a negative thing overall (continuing to conflate strength with solo pillars; an inability to ever quit even in the face of "a job well done").

I suspect there's some values dissonance going on between me and the manga, but it would be nice if some of that values dissonance was also between Enji and the manga. On the other hand, if it is intentional, one can't help but feel like you can't win a fight against AFO on values dissonance—and we're spending a lot of time on this if AFO's going to take the victory because Enji's heart still isn't in the right place. I dunno. I'll be curious to see how it continues developing.(5)

• In the continuing adventures of Dabi Sure Is His Father's Son Alright, I enjoy the parallel between Enji's self-loathing telling him that cursing his weakness is the only thing that's kept him alive this long with Dabi's whole thing about the weak body he was born into, the way it caused his father to reject his very existence, and (phoenix quirk theories aside) his own "curse" that's kept him going all this time.

----FOOTNOTES---

1: Only convert your hyperbole to metric 'cause you're Japanese.

2: See my point last chapter about Ragdoll.

3: Spoilers for Chapter 357: It doesn't.

4: That point should, of course, have been, "Right before My Villain Academia."

5: More on this next time, particularly tying to the idea of how wise it is to try and kill AFO.

#bnha #bnha 356 #chapter thoughts #todotalk #bnha all for one #jirou kyouka #quirk metaphysics #my writing #sorry if this is a bit of a wall #my week got a bit crazy there and is not letting up just yet #so i'm just posting this now to get it out before 357 officially drops

9 notes · View notes

tim-hoe-wan · 2 years

Note

I really want your opinion on this since your friends and family are in the industry. What do you think of people searching a celeb’s twitter history for something problematic? I’m torn on this cause sometimes I feel it’s overblown, sometimes, as a black woman, I would feel incredibly uncomfortable knowing this celeb regularly uses racist slur.

This is honestly a topic that deserves more nuance than it gets.

I feel one of the major problems with this is it’s being used as a stan war instead of a sincere cause. Now don’t get m wrong, this doesn’t excuse a celebrity by any means. Just that you have for example swifties looking for Ariana’s problematic behavior while simultaneous ignoring or trying to excuse Taylor’s own problematic behavior and vice versa. Or for a lot of male celebs, looking for their s/o’s problematic behavior while treating the man as a victim or excusing his own problematic behavior. It makes it hard for people to take it seriously and just makes you see people are not doing this cause they want problematic celebrities to take responsibility, they just want to use it for their own selfish purpose.

But that said, I am on your side that I would seriously feel uncomfortable knowing learning some celeb have no issue using racist slur and remarks. But, just my own opinion, I feel that also makes me consider context before I would totally cancel someone out. There’s a ton of difference between a 14 year old making an edgy joke or said something out of ignorance, versus a full grown adult making the same edgy joke. I wouldn’t find much reason to excuse the latter, at most I would want them to sincerely grow and learn, but at the same time I would find it harder to trust their sincerity. Like a celeb in their 30s already exposed to cosmopolitan areas have no excuse to be ignorant about racism or to make edgelord pedo jokes.

I think it’s also fair to point out that even regular people are not excused for this, they’re not just exposed to the whole world. HR departments scan your entire social media history and you could lose job opportunities for a mistake you did 10 years ago. If a normal person has to be careful, why would a celeb be excuses? I also don’t feel much sympathy that the difference is that it’s exposed to the world. For one, only relevant celebrities are given this treatment. Another, is that even in law, if you decide to become a celebrity you do automatically and expectedly have less privacy than normal people. And then, being famous should not be an excuse for any problematic behavior. Even if we say it was 10 years before, if you were already a grown ass adult doing so, it should be their effort already to convince the public they have learned and are continuing to learn from their mistakes.

For the public I think it’s their own responsibility in turn not to idolize celebrities and admire them outside their talents. I feel we also need more empathy and nuance in general. Again difference between a 14 year old and a 30 year old. Plus, although very much depending on what they’ve done, allow the idea that people can change but also be alert of their sincerity. That’s how I feel about it because trust me, celebs do think they can easily get away with behavior normal people would easily be persecuted with.

2 notes · View notes

royalberryriku · 4 months

Text

Okay so sort of a vent about history and Christianity, and yeah I'm gonna get personal with this and maybe emotionally hating religion at the moment, but more as a reaction than what I genuinely think of it

// TW slight mention of various genocides throughout history, and religious trauma. And abuse mention.

Not to diss my upbringing as a Christian here (but also to totally diss my upbringing asa Christian here), but looking at the history of a lot of what's going on as far as Palestine and everything bad that has happened to Jewish people ever always seems to relate back to Christians and Europe being fuckwits and messing shit up, at some point, somehow, every single time and killing every other group and ethnicity to try and "cause" Jesus to come back or to just be prejudiced little shits to literally every other belief system that isn't theirs. Like every single damn point in history where Jews or Muslims suffer and I see either Romans (either Christian or the Roman Pantheon, usually the former) or Catholics with their crusade or Evangelicals mistaking capitalism for religion like come on guys, just don't cause mass bloodshed for five fucking seconds. And then there's literally just. Everything else ever to consider.

Look, I know Christianity can be good just like how Judaism and Islam can be used as excuses to do the same stuff but god damn, the more I delve I to history the more embarassed I am just to think about how I used to be a Christian or how my dad would justify said bloodshed and shit as a paster. Every day, I just become more and more cynical especially with the idea "oh god doesn't intervene because it would ruin the Plan™" as if that matters when the ones causing the problems are those inspired by said god and I'm just so angry and frustrated that I can be torn apart and wish I could do anything to help but no if there is some cosmic being, they are sitting back refusing to do anything when they can stop this by just, at least, revealing that this wasn't the original intention. And damn, if it was I'd be going to Lucifer's side because that's even more fucked up.

This is why the only gods I'd worship are pantheons like the Greek Gods or Roman or Norse or anything else because at least the gods ACKNOWLEDGE they do fucked up shit and don't hide behind "I'm perfect so if you feel empathy and sadness for people and justifiable anger at the injustices you see clearly YOU'RE the one in the wrong for not trusting me enough" and a nice little facade, they just threaten you and be done with it. Like, yeah, if my dad punched me in the face of stop trusting him that shit is EARNED. If a god demanded trust while allowing people in his care to die, why should I just. Pretend that isn't wrong? Act like somehow caring is wrong? If caring is a sin I'd rather be guilty of it.

And then there's the stuff in my own life that I feel guilty of feeling angry about because I was taught to feeling fucking guilty of being angry about. All because old men from forever ago decided No Actually God Told Me To Say This and then told people that being angry at god for the pain in their lives makes them weak and sinful and shit. Like come the fuck on as if that wouldn't give a child issues. And then when I didn't do that like a good little Christian child, aka internalizing everything and numbing myself repetitively, the one thing that did make me question god despite all the bullshit that already existed ever was literally the story of Moses because I felt like it was unfair and the kids in Egypt didn't deserve to be punished for the pharaoh. And somehow that is supposed to make me feel guilty? Like nah be it then or now, the fact that I'm angry and horrified? Distrustful? Absolutely abhorred with the idea of allowing injustice? That comes from love and that comes from kindness. Fuck shaming love, hypocritical ass doctrine.

And don't get me started on the ahistorical propaganda bullshit I was taught at church because, considering it mostly came from my dad who was the paster, I may actually just come to hate him for it. Not completely like cut off hate, but damn if I don't have a grudge. Literally took most of my young adult years unlearning so much bullshit and I'm only just starting to unravel it. If god was present, I'm pissed almost solely for the fact he didn't speak the fuck up and allow a kid to get mentally fucked.

Oh and we don't even want to go into the separate trauma, like the literal abuse that I decided to forgive to be The Better Person and believing genuinely that hating god for what happened made me a bad person like I already was dealing with undiagnosed C-PTSD I didn't need the religious trauma convincing me to feel ashamed of being traumatised.

Anyway yeah I'm feeling a lot of rage tonight and realising how traumatic Christianity was for me growing up actually. Like. Wow.

#angry at upbringing rn brb #it's the religious trauma it just Be Like That Sometimes #What do you mean I have pent up rage directed at my parents and god of the bible himself for Literally Everything hahaha...#this is why Baldr KHDR wanted to go apeshit it was the religious trauma #like damn ain't that the most relatable thing ever #me 🤝 Baldr #wanting to go apeshit #I too have a lot of rage after being forced to shut away my emotions due to indoctrination damn #he just like me fr fr

1 note · View note

handelplayssims · 11 months

Text

And we’re back in the Stuart-Waddell household. Welp, I messed up the volunteering thing by leaving the lot and returning back but ah well. More opportunities down the line for empathy growth. Don’t like any of Roxana’s current whims at the moment so I’m going to have to go into the rewards thing and then pick up a want refresher potion. Let’s see, we got work for everyone in an hour expect Roxana. Annnd Roxana is feeling utterly flirty thanks to this lot having the Romantic Aura around it. And all of those romance socials I queued up because of said initial flirty moodlet. Let’s see, let’s do some cooking and baking first, since the kids only have so much food left for them. That being said, I’m making cookies. Both flirty heart and sugar ones. Real curious to see what moodlet the kids would get with those cookies.

Oooh, one of the people I thought about turning into a vampire dropped down for a social chat. Let’s just use our new ability to check his traits and...paranoid, slob, self-assured. You will make a fine vampire! Now to move into our home and- I knew I recognized him from somewhere! He has a cat! We need cat stuff stat! And what’s our new kitty’s traits? Territorial, affectionate and mischievous. What a kitty. Avery McHenry is this person’s name and his aspiration is to become a chief of mischief. That doesn’t require a job requirement soooo, let’s look at his skills. 7 mixology, 5 fitness, 3 fishing for tops. Hmm. With his paranoid trait, he’d absolutely be a bad mixologist. I don’t really think being an actor, an astronaut, an athlete would be up his ally either. So we got another cop, or military. Or a part-time fisherman! I honestly could go either or between military and cop. ...I’m thinking cop because military requires a lot of fitness and this dude has a handlebar moustache. It’s very cop vibes.

...annnnd Roxana decided to automatically flirt with him. GREAT. WONDERFUL. Let’s continue this uh, shall we? Flirts are a go! Oh boy oh boy oh boy. Kids are back from school as well. Time to manage needs! Emille wants pizza, which hey, good for her. Let’s order some. Selena wishes to be alone so I sent her to her room to read a book. Harrison is embarrassed from failing to prepare well for a test. Also low fun so let’s sort that out. Emille has her pizza and can now focus on her aspiration, aka play the violin some more! Now let’s see. Selena wishes to make more friends, both child and adult but hmm. Can’t leave the lot. Her sister’s playing the violin after all! And just as I was about to let Roxana and Omar have some steamy times, she gets utterly depressed by the fact her relationship with Avery withered and decayed. Likely, by being weird in proxmity to him. Alas and woe! Anyway, Selena befriended Avery before she went to bed. Her sister managed to get creativity up to 10! Now just needs to make some pictures. And Harrison has returned from work still embarassed.

With Roxana’s near eternal flirty mood, I actually set her to do what I was going to do ages ago. Write a romance novel. It’s totally vampiric propaganda. Omar wishes to mentor a child but also! Sounds like a good excuse to volunteer! Again! Night time volunteer time! A moment of peace and quiet for me, as I had all hands on deck managing all of the everyone in this house.

...got an alert about Yuki’s ghost about to pass on. Maaaaaan. I’m sad. Anyway, Omar’s goal is to still mentor a kid so he’ll still tutor Harrison in fitness. Huh. I checked NAPs and uh, we got free love. Welp. I guess Roxana can freely smooch whomever! Doesn’t matter whatsoever! But it’s time for-

Neighborhood Watch!

Luciano Guzman in the Guzman household is now a Chief Critic in the Arts Critic career.

#sims 4 #liveblogging #stuart-waddell #roxanna stuart #avery mchenry #emilie stuart #selena stuart #harrison stuart #omar waddell

0 notes

skinnymeanfaggot · 1 year

Note

oh shit i just saw you reblogged the post with the numbers ill send some of those too. 22 and 23 for javier, 9 and 12 for anim, and 29 and 37 for zora?

22. i think javier likes a lot of things about a lot of people, hes very like Humans are good and he likes how little things can make people happy, he likes people who are happy and optimistic in spite of life. he can totally understand why people Would be jaded but he just does like a lot when people are able to see the good in things. he likes animals, he likes people who like animals. he likes people who are funny but not super mean about it

23. as a therapist and also as, a decent person javier can understand having a lack of empathy but what really gets him is just the callous disrespect and harm to other humans. like in his mind theres no (very few) reasons to hurt others. just like! be nice to people. try to be good to others. make the world a better place.other than morality i think like, its hard for him to actively dislike a person, or like. he tries to repress his dislike for stuff because he believes its not important and tries to see the benefit of the doubt and hes probably just overreacting and blah blah.

but just like people who are super full of themselves and look down upon other people annoy him (anim). people who are purposefully spiteful and rude annoy him (anim). if youre an abuser he will kill you, unless you abused him, in which he will be sad but he cant really hate people who hurt him because he has issues. if you hurt someone else he will be furious but if youre bad to him he will be like hey :( and dislike the treatment but chances are he will make excuses and find a way to like you anyways.

9. yes! growing up anim lived in a like, mid, slightly mid lower? class household? they were fine but there were 6 of them. they would get hand-me-downs not because their family couldnt afford new stuff but just, you have two older brothers. it makes sense.

as an adult they went from, having Literally nothing for a brief time, then poor, and now like, very comfortable. just flat out rich. they get paid WELL by zora and they will flaunt the fuck out of it. a lot of why they work for her is the manipulation/feeling indebted/feeling like theres nothing else they can do, but like. they totally stick around for the pay. they like it. very very easy to forget your morals when you get a LOT of money for the murderings

12. bold to assume theyre ever calm. jk definitely it would be times with javier or kylin, because javier makes them feel genuinely safe and with kylin they love her and have fun with her so its hard to be anxious. unless shes like doing wild teenage shit

29. i never really ever to this day defined what zoras current "job" is besides something something probably a politician something something mob boss/underworld criminal. and she inherited that from her mom and a part of it was "my moms cool i wanna be like her" but like? as a kid? if she never got into that? like if her mom was different? can honestly see her as an artsy type. like creator of or connoisseur of fine arts. maybe a writer or poet. i just picture her as the same type of lesbian woman in pitch black but instead of being evil shes attending art shows or something

37. this is tough... i think like, she would recognize that maybe shes not "honorable" due to the horrors. like she fully believes shes in the right and has done nothing wrong ever. but in any case i think she prioritizes status. again she doesnt Entirely recognize that shes the villain but if she did she would be ok with it.

#.txt #ocs

1 note · View note