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semiweirdshipper · 7 months

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My favorite slashers.

I know it probably doesn't mean anything to anyone, but I've always wanted to make a list of my top favorite slashers and why I love them. I feel like some of the ones I listed won't surprise you, lol. In fact, none of them will. I'm very predictable. Now if I made a list of killers I actually dislike writing- that might actually surprise you.

1). Jason Voorhees

Baby boy!

I love Jason because of his character development. I've literally only written him in like three stories, but the amount of growth that he undergoes is incredibly fun to write. I'm also a sucker for physical flaws, so I think his appearance is really beautiful and cute. His backstory is heartbreaking- I probably sympathize with him the most out of any of the killers. Even without altering his personality, he just seems so much like the kind of person to want to grow and make changes (If he had the right person in his life), and I just really think he's a sweet character.

2). Freddy Krueger

Hey look! It's Jason's husband!

A Nightmare on Elm Street was the very first slasher movie I watched and it's pretty much the only slasher movie that I like. I love Freddy because his past abuse as a child is something I greatly relate to (abusive dads suck ass, bro). Of course I pretend like Freddy is not a pedophile or a rapist because that's just not fun. But altering his personality and writing him in my stories is something I've found to be an extreme joy. He's my favorite killer to write in the slasher dad drabbles. And he makes me happy.

3). Pinhead/Elliot Spencer

Pinny! My sweetest sweetheart of all sweethearts!

For Elliot, I kind of have little explanation. I think I fell in love with him because he has an obedient, submissive side to him, plus self control. The way he made the agreement with Kirsty in the movie without lying was attractive to me for some reason. His power is very interesting and unique and I've really, really enjoyed being able to mingle with it. Broadening his personality has been fun and I love using him to make other killers jealous and/or submissive. And he's adorable and sweet! Seeing Pinhead just naturally makes me feel giddy inside.

4). Herman Carter

Oh! There he is. Prince charming. The one we all expected to see sooner.

My version of Herman Carter is a character that I've grown to both love and be proud of. My altering of his personality is what brought my dbd stories to life. Every time I write him for the first time in my stories, I feel like I'm playing choir music in the background as if I'm introducing an epic character. And I love it. I enjoy it. Writing Herman is fun. His personality is so kind, charming, considerate and modest and just everything good. And that makes him one of the funnest characters for me to write. Plus I'll never forget how he was one of the first killers who I turned into an emotional supporter. When I wrote the first chapter of When a Survivor Bullies, it was such a wonderful moment because that's when something beautiful was born. Emotional support slashers.

5). Jeffrey Hawk/Kenneth Chase

The one everyones tired of me constantly hyping about!

Like Herman, I'm proud of how my version of Jeffrey turned out, and it makes me SO HAPPY when viewers admit to liking him. When I first got into dbd there was literally no positive fics with him. It seemed like everybody hated him, but not me! I'm the fuckin' king at making the biggest bitches likable! Jeffy wudn't even a challenge. Lol, but no seriously, Jeffrey is fun to write. I gave him a personality that's funny, teasing, irritating and caring while still staying true to his finger kinks. Also, I love his appearance. Hey, obese people are awesome and smexy!

6). Evan MacMillan

Sir papatron! The fictional dad of all dads!

As you can probably guess, I love Evan because I pretty much constantly write him as a overly stressed out dad. He's been both a good guy and an ass-hat in many of my stories. His personality is flexible and I find it rather simple and enjoyable to write. We have a lot in common when it comes to our fathers and broken jaws (again, abusive dads suck!) I just love writing him as the overwhelmed pops who just wants to do good but needs sleep and has way too much responsibility. Writing him in My Saddest Journey? Sooooooooo therapeutic <3 I love my papa.

#dead by daylight fanfiction #slasher fanfiction #slashers #jeffrey hawk #herman carter #evan macmillan #freddy krueger #jason voorhees #pinhead #elliot spencer #personal post

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hrodvitnon · 8 days

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Lately, I've been noticing that people are comparing MV Godzilla to Doomguy and a cat. It's funny because there's one thing all three of them got in common: people misunderstanding them as violent and angry jerks who hate everything, when that just isn't the case at all.

It's also an unfortunate trend I've been noticing, and now Godzilla's getting mischaracterized to hell and back as a dumb, angry, and violent brute by these people after GvK and GxK, especially on Twitter. In worst cases, I've even seen them say that Godzilla shouldn't be a sympathetic character at all, and that he doesn't need to be because Kong's already there, and as everyone knows, mammals are supposedly "more" sympathetic and relatable than reptiles are. Even though these are all fictional characters at the end of the day, and if so many works can make you sympathize with dragons, non-humanoid robots, and even a literal talking tree-man, among many other non-human and non-mammalian characters, then what's stopping you from doing the same thing to a big nuke lizard?

Also, they act as if Godzilla has never been sympathetic in any of his previous movies before. As if the original Gojira movie, most Showa era movies, Return of Godzilla and Heisei era as a whole, Kiryu Saga (though that applies more to Kiryu himself), and even MV Godzilla's own solo movies and in Legacy of Monsters magically don't exist to these people.

(Apologies for the sorta rant there, but this is really disheartening to see. Even Matt Frank himself has joined in with saying that MV Godzilla is a jerkface and that's all what he should be.)

As if we need another reason to avoid the Wretched Hive of Media Illiteracy and Bad Takes! But if it's any consolation, this house/blog is a MV Godzilla Support Zone: We know why Godzilla behaves the way he does, and he's just as sympathetic as Kong is. Have I made the Doomguy comparison myself? Yes, but only in jest and in response to a meme that also compares Kong and Suko to Kratos and Atreus. (Y'know, from that franchise about a guy who gets angry and kills gods; the guy who, according to old memes, would see stale bread as grounds for deicide; there's a lot more to the guy than that, but not to anyone who thinks "Kratos having nuance is boring" and are so allergic to water that they won't even touch the surface of an iceberg video.) I know how to make a joke and have the required media literacy to understand there's more to these characters than surface-level dumbfuckery.

Godzilla is like Doomguy in the sense that he loves something soft and fluffy (Daisy/Mothra) and will go through bloody hell to save the world; they both harbor scars physical and mental. He is also like cats in that he may bite and scratch, but he is subtle in showing his trust. His story may not have the found family angle like Kong, but Godzilla is still a big grumpy lizard with soulful emotional eyes who saves the world and loves his moth wife very much. Anyone says otherwise, I've got a bridge to sell them.

(Matt Frank, you better be trolling or I will be very disappointed and not reblog any of your art for a while.)

#alteringworldscapes #godzilla #monsterverse

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antianakin · 2 months

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In response to your previous post, why do you think people still love Anakin despite all the selfish and violent things he has done?

Just for archival sake, this is the post I assume you're responding to.

I love when you guys force me to drop the bitter old hag act and be more legitimately analytical about characters I dislike lol.

The somewhat less analytical response to this post is that people like him due to protagonist bias, Hayden Christensen being considered attractive, and Darth Vader having a lot of nostalgia from the OT.

However, while I think those things are always a major aspect in why people like the character, the more analytical version is that Anakin is a character created to be relatable. He's got flaws that most of us can look at and recognize in ourselves and even though he does become a monster because of them, he is also capable of saving himself in the end and doing something heroic despite that, he is allowed to get better and stand next to confirmed good guys like Yoda and Obi-Wan as what seems to be equals, he is capable of being loved by someone as kind and good as Luke Skywalker DESPITE his many flaws and heinous choices. And like... that's an impressively compelling character journey, to see someone become the worst version of themselves it is possible to be and still be loved enough to make the choice to be better.

And it's not like I haven't enjoyed my fair share of selfish characters who do heinous things in my day, even within Star Wars itself. Some of my favorite characters include people like Saw Gerrera and Luthen Rael and Cassian Andor and Reva Sevander, ALL of whom made some pretty nasty choices or acted selfishly at some point or another. Reva is literally built to be a parallel and then foil FOR ANAKIN.

So it's not like I don't necessarily see the appeal of Anakin as this massively flawed character with sympathetic motivations for his immensely awful choices, someone who wanted to be good and, for a little while, WAS good, but who was led towards a dark path that he knew he shouldn't take but took anyway because he let his fears control him. Anakin making the mistakes he does is literally a cautionary tale, you're SUPPOSED to relate to him and see yourself in him, the story kind-of doesn't work if you don't in some ways.

So I think a lot of people who like him probably just see a lot of themselves in him, both good and bad. They project onto Anakin and sympathize with his motives and his struggles and, even though they know he's a screw-up, they root for him. They want him to get better because if someone like Anakin can get better, then so can they, so can we all. Anakin is a cautionary tale saying that even those of us with the best of intentions can lead ourselves down a road of selfishness if we aren't careful about our motives, but he's also a hopeful tale saying that even the WORST of us can lead ourselves back to a road of selflessness if we're willing to put in the effort. So you can feel sympathy for the first half and take strength from the second half of his story, depending on where you are in your life.

This is obviously all sort-of said in like the best faith interpretation of why people might like Anakin. There's plenty of people who like him as a power fantasy, people who see Anakin as this impressive strong character who takes down his abusers and takes control of his narrative by defying the prophecy and killing the Jedi. And, you know, everyone gets to take what they want out of stories of course, but boy do these people and I take VERY different things out of Star Wars. I curate my internet experience so I never have to have anything to do with these people, but they absolutely exist.

And at the end of the day, all of that is wrapped up in a character who, in one trilogy, is played by a very classically attractive actor who gets to kiss Natalie Portman and is occasionally funny, and in the other trilogy, is represented as this cool-looking villain in an imposing black costume with a skull helmet and cape and some memorable quotes. So while the deeper reasons for people's enjoyment of his character definitely exist, the surface-level ones are still there and can enhance that enjoyment a lot.

And I'm sure there's any number of other, smaller things that impacted people's reactions to Anakin. He was introduced as a child in TPM and so people who were expecting this young adult character already in the throes of darkness might've ended up seeing him very differently and relating to him on a whole different level. People might've ended up rooting for him because the representation of the Jedi was so far away from what they THOUGHT Jedi would be that they ended up liking Anakin simply because he's pitted against the Jedi they didn't like. Maybe some people didn't like him until TCW and they really appreciate THAT version of Anakin quite a lot, maybe especially his relationship with Ahsoka. Maybe some people just really fell for the doomed romance plotline with Padme. Maybe some people like him because Obi-Wan and Luke like him and those dynamics are intriguing to them.

But for me, Anakin has just never felt all that compelling. I was introduced to the Prequels first as a kid and I was far more invested in Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon (who were way funnier than Anakin ever was) and Padme (who had really pretty costumes). I didn't HATE Anakin by any means, but he wasn't all that funny, he didn't have the cooler action scenes for the first two films, and the romance plotline didn't hook me. I didn't mind Anakin as an accessory to Obi-Wan, but that was about as far as I went.

As I got older and more into the fandom, though, I started learning a lot more about the Jedi and why they WEREN'T the true villains of the Prequels the way everyone said they were and what Lucas's messages had actually been intended to be, and the romance with Padme just kept aging like milk, and my investment in the Jedi often meant defending them AGAINST people who saw them as no more than Anakin's abusers at worst, or a repressive society that unintentionally led Anakin to darkness at best. Arguing FOR the Jedi usually meant arguing AGAINST Anakin and pointing out all of the places HE was wrong and selfish and why the Jedi were RIGHT not to trust him. And the more passionate I got about defending the Jedi, the less and less I ended up liking Anakin. I wasn't overly invested in him in the first place, so it wasn't hard to take me from neutral to decidedly negative. Had I enjoyed him more as a kid, either in the Prequels or the Original Trilogy, maybe I would've landed in a different place with him, but I didn't. It didn't feel like any great loss to decide I didn't like him that much anymore. By comparison, I liked Padme a lot more as a kid and so even though I often find her just as selfish as Anakin, I like her a lot more usually.

So I get why people find him compelling, I really do, but he just doesn't speak to me. I highly doubt he ever will anymore.

#star wars #anakin critical #anakin skywalker critical

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kyouka-supremacy · 1 month

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Hi! I hope you’re doing well

for the ask game,how about higuchi?

Higuchi, my beloved!!

Favorite thing about them: She's just... Very funny and messy and relatable. She has SO NOT her life together. It's nice to see a character that feels human once in a while.

Least favorite thing about them: She's so dismissed by the author, and yet she feels like she has so much potential... I really wish the narrative would explore her character more. Not only, I wish she was treated with more sensitivity and respect. You can write about abuse; I dare say, it's a good thing to write about abuse! But you should be respectful about it, and DEFINITELY not treat it as a gag. A lot of Higuchi's character - the physical abuse she faces, her infatuation with her abuser - make very interesting themes you can explore in literature; just do so in a way that doesn't stripe the character of dignity, you know? Which a lot of times feels like what's being done to Higuchi.

Favorite line:

brOTP: Pretty much Higuchi and any pm member, Gin, Tachihara, Hirotsu (Gin especially, I find the whole “call me onee-san” thing Higuchi has going on with her very endearing). I really like the tough front she assumes when facing the ada, and I've found her interactions with Atsushi really cute, I'd like to see more of them. Also, I totally believe Higuchi and Kunikida are online friends who don't know they actually know each other irl. I really like to explore her relationship with Akutagawa, I wish once Akutagawa has matured to be a decent human being they could be like. Cordial coworkers.

OTP: I really wish she would stay single tbh. Right now I find it hard to imagine her having an healthy romantic relationship with anyone? Which is what I wish for her, to be healthy and happy, a lot more than for other characters lol. She's just very easy to sympathize with.

nOTP: I've talked about how I'm not a big fan of higu/gin, but I don't take issues with it either, it's not that deep.

Random headcanon: About how she ended up in the mafia. She and her sister were raised by a single mother; when she died, Higuchi had to struggle to find a way to sustain the both of them. Stumbling on the streets, at some point someone posed a threat for her sister, and Higuchi assumed a very aggressive and violent stance to defend her. Akutagawa was passing by, and was struck by Higuchi's ardency, as well as her determination to protect her little sister even with her bare hands; so he took her in.

Unpopular opinion: I wish her romantic feelings for Akutagawa were acknowledged a little more. In general, the fandom openly discusses Akutagawa and Dazai's relationship, while the Higuchi and Akutagawa one, who mirrors it for the most part, gets largely dismissed. On one hand, I get it's unpleasant to talk about, since it evokes concepts of work harassment and women domestic abuse that are often disturbing to talk about since more often than not hit close to home. At the same time, that just translates in not talking about a big side of Higuchi's character that makes her complex and realistic, which is sad too.

Song i associate with them: Melt by ryo, perhaps? It's one of my favourite songs :)

Favorite picture of them:

Favourite panel from the manga:

Favourite illustration:

Favourite illustration in the anime art style:

Favourite Mayoi card:

Send me a character?

#Thank you all for asking!! <333 #ichiyō higuchi #bsd #mine #people asks me stuff

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hyperrkylo · 2 months

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COLA

// PHIGHTING! OC

❝ 𝐁𝐚𝐧 𝐇𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐲𝐩𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐠𝐮𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐚 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠. ❞

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PROFILE

name ; Cola

pronouns ; he/him

height ; 5’6 2/3

age ; 17

birthday ; 4 March

gear ; Bloxy Cola

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PERSONAL STATUS

Faction ; Factionless

Occupation(s) ; Painter / Photographer

Status ; Alive

Relations ;

Chez (Sibling)

Paint Grenade (Friend)

Blade (Friend)

Traffic (Semi-Friend)

Galactic (Mutual)

Hyperlaser (Mutual)

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BACKGROUND

Cola is a 17 year old demon who is currently on the run with his younger brother despite not necessarily doing anything illegal. He is a photographer who also enjoys watercolor painting. He used to be a cake decorator but eventually got bored of it and quit.

TIMELINE

[ To be added ]

APPEARANCE

[ picture ^ ]

PERSONALITY

Cola is a more “tame” version of Chez, being more calm and chill than his younger sibling.

Cola decides to be more passive aggressive than directly aggressive, unlike Chez. He tends to use threats though if things end up going too far to him.

He has a similar attitude to Chez, but he is way nicer and way more reliable. He isn’t all that hyperactive, but he has enough energy to keep up either Chez and his shenanigans.

Even though he doesn’t look the nicest, he tries to be. Or, he tries to be nicer than most people he meets.

Despite being a better version of Chez, he still has flaws. He tends to lie a lot and has trouble sympathizing with others, also taking things less serious than he should be sometimes.

Cola is responsible, but he can be a bit judgmental. He is also really indecisive about some things.

If he really doesn’t like someone, he will make sure they get a hint about how he feels about them, though he won’t directly tell them that he hates or strongly dislikes them.

Even though he’s more mature than Chez, that doesn’t mean he’s completely better. Cola also engages with the activities Chez partakes in, causing destruction and havoc with his sibling simply because it’s fun to him. Cola can be ruthless during these times.

He doesn’t always agree with how his sibling acts, so he sometimes forces Chez to do better things.

Also he’s smart, I promise.

RELATIONS

Chez ;

Younger sibling who can get on his nerves, but still deeply cares about.

Paint Grenade ;

A close friend who Cola enjoys talking to. They rarely see each other though due to Cola always having to move, they digitally keep in contact though.

Blade ;

A friend due to both of them having the same kind of problems, they can relate to each other to an extent and always have each others’ backs.

Traffic ;

Met while Traffic was on one of his “adventures.” Both of them got along well but they don’t talk much anymore. If Cola sees him again he does wanna catch up.

Galactic ;

Both talk every now and then, but Cola is still weary of him since he knew about the incident Galactic had in the past. Cola would probably consider him a friend if he didn’t know about the events that occurred back then to Galactic.

Hyperlaser ;

Their personalities somehow mesh well which makes them both somewhat get along. Cola likes to talk to Hyperlaser every now and then but keeps cautious of him.

TRIVIA

He is holding a chug jug lmao

Cola drinks orange juice with pulp in it

He also regularly drinks acid

Probably sucks at driving

Resting bitch-face

Trips other demons because its funny

Would probably win in a phight against the president

If you shake him, his horns will probably explode.

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SIDE NOTES

his personality bothers me but i’ll leave it for now..

lmao his appearance does not match his personality actually-

Dialogue coming never

He looks very evil but he is really nice I promise.

Galactic made by Tozuko, Paint Grenade and Blade are made by me.

check the blog inethrix for updates about my characters if ur interested or something.

#roblox #phighting #phighting!#roblox phighting #phighting roblox #phighting oc #oc phighting #im tired #ok bye bye lmao

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some-pers0n · 2 months

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ooh unpopular opinion time!

Mindreaders shouldn't have been able to mindread just dragons and scavs. It either should've been dragons only or most animals being able to be mindread by more powerful mindreaders. Seems pretty silly to have scavengers be the one exception, when, like, a lot of animals do still have emotions that can be mindread; they just don't have the same complexity as humans for the most part.

Turtle comes off as far more transfem than transmasc imo. Transfem Turtle is an under-appreciated headcanon in the fandom.

Deathbringer literally treats Glory the same way Undauntable treats Wren. It's just seen as cute and romantic with Deathbringer because Glory likes him back.

Darkstalker is a sympathetic villain and that doesn't make him morally grey in the slightest. You can sympathize with a villain while still acknowledging that they're pretty much pure evil.

Oh, on a related note, AUs where Peacemaker discovers he's Darkstalker aren't actually overrated. There's just a small minority of fans who like to say that it goes against the message of the book, when these AUs are often purposefully about pointing out the flawed messaging. And I have trouble believing Foeslayer would be a good mom to any of her dragonets, especially to the dragonet enchanted to be her "do-over" from the guy who killed her husband.

Luna's tapestry thing never really bothered me. What upset me was seeing the giant jump in character from being extremely ready and willing to fight to essentially being made into a pacifist because they needed to keep to the stereotypes.

Freedom was a bad choice of character plot-wise, but a lot of the people critiquing her just seemed to be picking on that she wasn't the perfect ever apologetic abuse survivor. Of course she's going along with what her abuser says, who's literally trapped her in his mind as a hatchling forever. At the same time, her pretty much suicide wasn't very impactful because... well, we never got time to get attached to her. She was just thrown in at the end to be a big emotional moment, and that's not really how character deaths work.

Yeah I agree with the mindreader bit. I'd love to see more unique and interesting bits with that.

I do love any sort of trans Turtle headcanons. Maybe I'm stupid but I just look at him and go: "he has no gender" and becomes just like me fr. Trans fem Turtle is so cool though,, oh you can do so much with that.

Imma be blunt and say I do like Undauntable and Wren's sort of dynamic, but as platonic. Same goes for Glorybringer. Take out the flirting and replace it with playful banter and make it platonic and you're golden. Glorybringer in its current state? Ehhhh....no thank you...

Precisely that. I love me my villains and objectively terrible characters who I WILL make relatable and hold traits the readers can identity with. Does that make them even remotely morally grey? No! It just means they have more complexity and depth than a piece of paper.

I refuse to believe Foeslayer, or Hope now, could go back to a somewhat normal life with Peacemaker. I've been itching to write a oneshot about that for a while. Also, good stuff with the other things. I just woke up and can't formulate thoughts as well lmao.

The tapestry thing bothers me a little cause it seems like Luna constantly harks back to it at the worst and most distracting bits. Not that much though. I just think it's funny to point at how much she mentions it. But, yeah, her character was pretty rushed.

On the topic of rushed characters...oh my god Freedom....you could've been so much better... But, yeah. People critique her and make her out like she's bad because she's not a perfect abuse victim who's always good. She's not that great of a character cause she doesn't have a natural and smooth arc of becoming redeemed and good. It just kinda suddenly happens. Also just because something made you cry doesn't automatically mean it's good.

#ask #ash

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cliozaur · 10 months

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By the end of the sixth book, I feel like I know Marius as well as if he were a member of my family. We have gotten to know him better and closer than any other character of the Brick—even Jean Valjean, because we had the chance to see him from his early childhood, in his eccentric family, with all his ups and downs, childhood traumas, peculiarities, and fixations. We witness his development, and nothing escapes our eyes—we see all his weaknesses. That is why we can treat Marius with irony and sometimes even disdain. (It is much easier to idealize and romanticize characters portrayed in broad strokes, such as most of les Amis.) However, I do like Marius as a character for his realism and weaknesses. It’s easy to make fun of him, but it’s also easy to sympathize with him.

His love adventures continue. It’s curious that Hugo presents his new infatuation with Cosette as a kind of substitute for his previous adoration of his father, which has now transitioned into a more passive phase and “had gradually become a religion.” Marius needs a new strong feeling. There is nothing romantic in these chapters on how Marius deals with his love. They are rather comical, which makes them more realistic and relatable. And that is why, once again, it is easier to sympathize with him.

His behaviour has once again transformed. Now he has become more daring, and he probably considers himself very cunning and wise, he “combined his stations behind the trees and the pedestals of the statues with a profound diplomacy” (in several other translations “Machivellianism” is used, as in original, which gives a much stronger connotation to his actions) because he is now aware that “it is better not to attract “the attention of the father.” But he is so naïve and inexperienced that every step he takes only worsens his prospects in the eyes of “the father.” As we will learn, his sneaky behaviour and obsessive attention would make Jean Valjean extremely suspicious. No surprise, that he “began to grow inexact, and no longer brought “his daughter” every day”.

And the episode with the handkerchief is absolutely hilarious! People in love often seek material objects to remind them of their loved ones, and Marius receives a handkerchief with mysterious letters that he now treats as a riddle. Of course, thanks to the narrator we know that it is Valjean’s handkerchief and those are his initials, and that is why it is so funny that Marius holds the old man’s handkerchief as his “treasure” and keeps it close to his heart, and misinterprets Cosette’s confusion for “modesty.”

#les mis letters #lm 3.6.7 #les miserables #marius pontmercy #jean valjean #cosette

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animanga-bonanza · 3 months

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team 7 and empathy

Chapter 3 marks the introduction of Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha in the Naruto manga. And one particular moment in this chapter has spawned a lot of discourse and memes: when Sakura badmouths Naruto in front of Sasuke.

Now, I think that the exact details of this moment have been sort-of exaggerated in order to make Sakura’s actions seem worse than they actually are (not to mention that there’s kind of a big plot hole at issue here).

Regardless, this chapter is pretty interesting in how it establishes one of the core themes of Naruto -- empathy -- and how each member of Team 7 relates to that theme.

In this post, I’ll re-examine this chapter to highlight interesting details about the characters and their dynamics.

[Note: I am relying on the official English translation of the Naruto manga, which may or may not be 100% accurate to the original Japanese text.]

First Impressions

The first time we see Sakura and Sasuke, we see them through Naruto’s point of view: he likes Sakura and thinks she’s very pretty, but dislikes Sasuke in part because Sakura has a crush on him, and because Naruto thinks that Sasuke is arrogant. So it seems at first that Naruto's crush on Sakura is superficial and his judgment of Sasuke is equally superficial.

We also see that Sakura dislikes Naruto, and seems to find him annoying. After the iconic moment in which Naruto accidentally kisses Sasuke, Sakura (seeming to think that this was a deliberate action) says to Naruto, “You make me sick!”

These words will later come back to Sakura.

Shenanigans and Revelations

Later, Naruto decides to impersonate Sasuke so that he can get closer to Sakura. Which, by the way, is a pretty skeevy thing to do!

Something that much of the fandom seems to forget is that Naruto was very intentionally presented as an obnoxious and socially clueless person early on in the series – the other characters often had good reasons to find him irritating, as he didn’t really endear himself to anyone.

Of course, we as fans sympathize with Naruto because we know what he’s been through and why he’s like that, and also because he’s the protagonist and we relate to him by default. But as this chapter demonstrates, most of Naruto’s peers are clueless about his lived experiences and are only reacting to his current behavior.

However, Sakura stands out because unlike many of Naruto’s peers, who avoided Naruto in part because their parents warned them away from him, Sakura dislikes Naruto because she genuinely misunderstands his intentions.

Here, when Fake Sasuke (Naruto in disguise) asks her what she thinks of Naruto, she takes a moment to think about it before responding. She says: “If he had his way, I’d never find love or happiness…He ruins everything…He enjoys tormenting me! Naruto doesn’t understand me at all! …I can’t stand to have him anywhere near me! In fact, the one person whose opinion I value…the only one I really want to be close to…is you, Sasuke. I’d do almost anything to win your attention…your respect…because I have a crush on you…I’m…desperate.”

This is pretty interesting. Instead of Sakura hating Naruto because he’s a “loser” or a “troublemaker”, as many of their peers do, Sakura hates Naruto because she mistakenly believes that he has a vendetta against her. Which is pretty funny – the girl you have a crush on thinks that you hate her and are trying to ruin her life. I suspect that Naruto has maybe pestered Sakura in the past to try to get her attention, which may have led to Sakura misunderstanding him.

However, what’s also interesting about this is that Sakura is simultaneously correct and incorrect about Naruto.

She’s incorrect in her belief that Naruto doesn’t understand her. In fact, in the above pages, Naruto realizes that he does understand Sakura on a fundamental level, and that’s the reason why he has a crush on her. When Sakura confesses to Fake Sasuke that she only cares about his approval and is desperate to earn his attention and respect, Naruto has a strong reaction to this and thinks, “I’m finally starting to understand…what I love about Sakura!”

Naruto likes Sakura because he knows what it’s like to desperately crave the validation and respect of others. He sees a part of himself reflected in Sakura. He empathizes with her. Although there may be an even more interesting meaning here: Naruto can specifically relate to Sakura wanting Sasuke to validate her. As we know from later in the series, particularly the Naruto vs Sasuke fight at the end of Part I, Naruto had always wanted to be friends with Sasuke, but felt like he had to become Sasuke’s equal first. Hence why Naruto decided that Sasuke was his rival. This fact about Naruto and Sasuke’s dynamic may have been foreshadowed as early as this chapter.

Ironically, Sakura is also proven correct in her belief about Naruto wanting to sabotage her, because he literally plans to do so later in this chapter. Not only does he pretend to be Sakura’s crush to get her to lower her guard (she even almost kisses him), Naruto later plans to manipulate Sakura into hating Sasuke. Of course, he doesn’t succeed because the real Sasuke finally catches up to him.

Again, this is kind of skeevy and shows Naruto’s immaturity and self-centeredness early in the series; despite his ability to empathize with Sakura, he thinks nothing of manipulating her to get what he wants.

The Call-Out

Now we get to the Big Moment that launched a thousand memes. When the real Sasuke comes along and asks where Naruto is, and Sakura has some choice words to say about him.

Sakura says that Naruto “always comes between us (her and Sasuke).” Then: “It’s because he was badly brought up! You know…Because he never had any parents? He doesn’t have to answer to anyone, ever, and it’s made him completely selfish! If I did the kinds of things he gets away with, my parents would ground me for life! Don’t you envy him being alone, not having parents nag at you all the time?”

Many people claim that Sakura was "making fun of Naruto for being an orphan." I think this isn’t an accurate description of what she’s doing here. She’s not saying, “Lol look at that dumb orphan Naruto that’s so cringe,” she’s making a point that Naruto’s obnoxious personality and selfishness comes from the fact that he didn’t have parents to raise him properly, so he doesn’t know right from wrong. She even says that she envies him.

Now, this is obviously still a very inappropriate and insensitive thing to say, and Sasuke rightfully calls her out for it. Sakura’s naivete is on full display here and stems from her sheltered upbringing. She has no idea how good her life has been.

[Personally, I think Sakura wasn’t entirely wrong here; it’s true that Naruto’s bad social skills stem in part from the fact he’s had to raise himself. But the way she said it was still very mean and judgmental.]

Many people have also pointed out the irony of Sakura saying this to Sasuke, who is also an orphan. While that is kinda funny, I also feel like it’s a bit of a plot hole. Why wouldn’t Sakura know that Sasuke is an orphan? In fact, her question, “Don’t you envy him being alone?” suggests that she had no idea Sasuke’s family was dead. It honestly doesn’t make sense, since the Uchiha massacre would have been common knowledge to everybody in the Leaf village.

Anyway, Sasuke scolds Sakura, saying: “Kids without families always grow up selfish. That, and lonely. Being scolded by your parents doesn’t even compare! You…make me sick!” And he’s totally right to do so. Sakura was belittling Naruto’s suffering by speaking so ignorantly, and she needed to face reality. Sasuke literally throws Sakura’s prior words to Naruto back in her face.

This moment is also interesting re: Sasuke’s characterization, because up until this point, he’s rather distant and seemingly uncaring toward other people. He’s annoyed at the fact that he even got assigned to a three-man team and spends most of the chapter trying to avoid his new teammates. But here, he shows that he does recognize Naruto’s feelings and empathizes with him to a certain degree, even though Naruto behaves very arrogantly toward Sasuke in this chapter (literally ambushing him, tying him up and impersonating him).

Later, Sakura reflects on Sasuke’s words and finally realizes that she’s been acting like a jerk, and resolves to try to do better in the future. She begins to empathize with Naruto.

This moment is conveniently ignored by the anti-Sakura crowd, who only spotlight her cruelty in the earlier scene as “proof” that she’s an irredeemable asshole. But here, Sakura shows that she’s actually a kind person capable of critical self-reflection.

Conclusion

Chapter 3 introduces the other members of Team 7 and the concept of “empathy” which is central to the series. Naruto’s feelings for Sakura are rooted in empathy, but he still lacks an awareness/respect of personal boundaries, hence his willingness to manipulate her to get what he wants. Sakura initially lacks empathy for Naruto because she misunderstands him, but later begins to think more about his feelings and perspective. And Sasuke initially seems cold and unfeeling, only to reveal that he is empathetic to others’ feelings and experiences.

This chapter, despite its brevity, establishes each of these characters as being multifaceted. Naruto cares about Sakura and desperately wants the approval of others, but he goes about it in a self-centered way. Sakura is naïve and judgmental but also compassionate and willing to own up to her own faults. Sasuke puts up a cold and uncaring front but deep down, he cares about other people.

#naruto meta #team 7 #sakura haruno #pro sakura haruno #naruto

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unawarer · 1 year

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my top 10 Total Drama characters cause yes

nobody asked but I will post my top 10 total drama characters and a small explanation why they are on my top 10 cause why the hell not

Courtney - words cannot explain how much I love her. My therapist say that the characters that we enjoy the most have a reflection about ourselves and I kin her a little too much and I am NOT gonna say why cause it's too much. Love her, love her and love her

Duncan - I think I have a theory but is embarrassing so I'm just gonna say that I have a thing for bad boys. God, I hate his actions but cmon 😩

Trent - Beforehand, I do not agree with any type of hate on this man and ya better not disrespect him in this house. I absolutely love him and I sympathize a lot with him after all the shit he went through. He deserves more love. "Is it because of Trentney?" U got me there, but that is not a crime.

Dawn - Of course there's the whole situation of her being a witch making relatable but she's hilarious??? I will never understand this whole fight between Dawn stans and Scott stans on tiktok tbfh, they are both really nice characters and I will confess that I kinda ship them???? I know, tragic.

Heather - No comments, she's one of the best antagonists and a fucking baddie. Writing her is so fun btw

Tyler - Underrated, everything he does is hilarious, everytime he gets screentime I know he will make me laugh cause he really be holding this power

Bridgette - She reminds me a lot of those Barbie movies "Barbie in mermaid life" SHES THE QUEEN OF THE WAA A A AVESSS. She's so chill and cool, I wanna be like her fr fr. Btw, her Brazilian VA is the same of Sam Pucket of ICarly so I fucking screamed when I first heard her voice lmaoo

Lindsay - Do I need to say anything? She's iconic. Carrying TD comedy on the back along with Tyler

Harold - As u can see, most of my favorite characters are the funny ones. He's stupid and nerd, I really like that.

Alejandro - And last but not least, this man. He's really fine, I cannot explain why else I like him but he's very entertaining as an antagonist. Also, I'm so sorry for talking so much about the Brazilians VAS but his Brazilian VA...His voice in portuguese is so hot and for what bro

And before u ask me "What about Gwen?" She's not even close of my top 10 but honorable mentions are: Scott, Shawn, The Goths, Geoff, Dj and Leshawna.

that's it, ty

#total drama #total drama island #my top 10 #total drama duncan #total drama courtney #total drama trent #total drama dawn #total drama bridgette #total drama alejandro #total drama heather #total drama lindsay #total drama tyler #total drama harold

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horizon-verizon · 8 months

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At least, Cersei is the one to refuse to go public with their incestous relationship and isn’t out there proposing to marry Myrcella to Tommen, unlike Saint Jaime who call his sister ‘queen of whores’, treat her as his property, and victim-blame her (I tell you, he [Robert] loves me not/And whose fault is that, sweet sister ?), and never spare a thought for Tysha (or Bran for that matter), but thats normal, its because he’s a feminist and teenage girl-coded. No wonder he has some sympathy for Criston Cole, lmao. Do people genuinely believes Jaime is a victim of patriarchy and that his gender doesn’t favor him over Cersei ?? Insane. Can’t wait for him to die. It’s 2023, Jaime isn’t Adam and Cersei isn’t Eve, dude is a misogynistic, racist and hyperprivileged white man and his father’s golden boy. Funny how you all talk like Green/Criston’s stans when it comes to Cersei and Jaime.

*EDITED POST* (9/21/23)

Probably from this recent post that itself has 3 links to other posts where I talk about Cersei as a character.

Um...when did I ever either imply or directly say that Jaime was "a victim of patriarchy and that his gender doesn’t favor him over Cersei"? Or express that he was better than his sister, morally? Or express that Cersei deserved to die more than he did?

Perhaps you have that impression because I never talked about Jaime exclusively once, or you're just going off of what you recently read and horribly misinterpreted the purpose and argument of that post. If the latter, I advise you to reread. If the first, I don't write about Jaime much simply because he doesn't interest me as much as Cersei or Tyrion, no one asked me my thoughts about him, and I'm not thinking of him apart from his relationship with Cersei or Tyrion. His knighthood and masculinity are...not "easy", but direct enough for me to not dwell as much as his other siblings' issues. (look to this post by blankwhiteshield about Jaime) I generally care more about women, children, and other marginalized people in fiction, even when I do sympathize with some white cis straight men some of the time.

I mean pre-Brienne Jaime. That's just how GRRm wrote his arc.

For me, blankwhiteshield's posts about Jaime HERE and HERE both suffice to give me a picture of who Jaime is bc they fill in some blanks I had in my pre-existing assessment of Jaime. Which actually wasn't favorable, anon. I find Jaime to actually be very annoying, and no, I do not think that he is Cersei's victim. He is deluded in some ways as much as her and is not a good person because of the abuse and emotional neglect they all get from Tywin/Westerosi society. I actually should have, since again, there were blanks. You can take a look at those links as well.

Look, Cersei is evil & abusive AS WELL AS a victim of domestic abuse woman & of misogyny since childhood. These are not mutually exclusive nor does it NOT mean that her domestic abuse only and directly caused her power-hungriness and need to control if not every, most aspect of her life and those she sees will help her get or maintain control and a good image of herself. Neither the abuse nor misogyny against her erases the fact that she develops hatred towards women, going so far as to violently and sexually objectify them like w/Taena. (Her using what she's observed men do to affirm power and copying it). Or that she pinched her baby brother's penis at a very young age, showing her classist and blase willingness to target children/one of the most vulnerable groups for her own sense of control over her husband, family, etc., and political power. She is also very willing to sacrifice/risk the entire city for her own control of power, similar to Aerys II. Cersei is complicated and there is nuance to her character, but she is unmistakably evil simultaneously. What I like about her or what I find compelling about her (if you haven't read the post about it) is that I can understand her motivations, and relate in some ways, and from practically babyhood she's been trying to be essentially "good enough" and perfect through external, social values of competency BUT also as someone has said: her need for perfection and power and total love comes across as pure in its own sort of twisted way. Her emotions are so intense and uncontrolled and she remains totally unaware of her loneliness that she comes across as childlike.

I also find it very funny how you're criticizing show!Rhaenyra for wanting to marry Jace to Helaena (I presume, you don't specify but that is the closest betrothal to the one you make b/t Myrcella and Tommen) when you say: "At least, Cersei is the one to refuse to go public with their incestous relationship and isn’t out there proposing to marry Myrcella to Tommen". Because while this would have done nothing to assuage Alicent--which was what Rhaenyra was trying to do--it was also not that bad of a deal for Helaena or Jace themselves. I personally dislike it bc, again, we're erasing Rhaenyra's relationship w/Laena and how she ever made it so that Jace married Laena's daughter...but I digress. OR you probably were referring to Jaime expressing the desire to go public with their relationship, that conversation? Again, what does this have to do with my argument in the post I recently posted and that I assume you're responding to?

#asoiaf asks to me #cersei lannister #the lannisters #jaime lannister #agot characterization #cersei's characterization #jaime lan's characterization #asoiaf parenthood #asoiaf #agot

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tyrantisterror · 8 months

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Since you've written so many essays about nuanced monsters, can you give advice on how humanize a monster while keeping the fear-factor?

My re-imagined versions of Strickler and Nomura (named Carter and Nakamura to keep the trend of book and show characters having different last names) are supposed to be more gross and horrifying than their show counterparts, but still with enough humanity in them so the audience can sympathize.

So, one of the dark truths about humanity is that while we can be taught that all humans are complicated feeling creatures like ourselves, it's very hard to truly understand that fact. It takes at least eighteen years of developing the brain to even be able to grasp that concept on a case by case basis, and there's an argument to be made that it's impossible for us to truly fathom that EVERY human on the planet is as complex and sensitive as we are. It's why we curse out people when they cut us off in traffic instead of thinking, "Man, maybe they're just nervous and late for work and didn't see me in their blind spot." If we don't have an explicit reason to think of other humans as human, we treat them as an enemy outgroup by default.

In regards to fiction, this manifests by audiences generally not caring when characters die if they weren't sufficiently humanized for us. A lot of comedy operates on this principle - there's the old adage that "tragedy is when I stub my toe, comedy is when someone else falls down a manhole and dies," i.e. the difference between whether we find something funny or tragic depends on whether we see ourselves in the person who's experiencing misfortune.

Horror stories work with this in mind too. If you want to give people a "fun" thrill, you make sure not to humanize the victim of your killer/monster - that way you're still scaring people on a shallow, human level, but not so deeply that they're truly emotionally affected by it. They're entertained in a cathartic way - scared, but safely disconnected from the subject so they can also enjoy it. Lots of horror stories work with this making up the bulk of their scares - i.e. disposable, one-dimensional victims falling prey to whatever horrors the writer concocts.

If you want to hit your audience deeper, though, you have to humanize the victim - put someone we like and relate to in peril and it hits much harder. That's what shifts the horror into the truly effective, and it's often something most horror stories don't do until the second act at the earliest for exactly that reason. It ups the stakes.

So, to finally address your question: you can have a sympathetic monster do all sorts of rancid shit so long as their victims are people we don't have a reason to care much about - i.e. shallow, one-dimensional bit characters. While on a moral level we should view that as just as evil as harming the characters we do care about, the simple quirk of humanity's limited and conditional capacity for empathy means that most people will not find it hard to sympathize with your monsters so long as they're only eating nameless background extras or total assholes.

I mean, if you get popular there WILL be people on tumblr who argue that anyone who likes your monsters is guilty of war crimes and fascism, but there will also be people who say your monsters never did anything wrong and it's actually the heroes who are fascist war criminals for opposing them, so it evens out in the end.

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evenmoreofadisaster · 1 year

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Jurassic/pop culture anon here I love your takes (tay ray being one’s pass like “I don’t ask for much but she’s not allowed to be banned!”)

I agree with how you’ve written one her later stuff probably is more relatable to him (although the one/usagi makes me thing he probably very secretly sings like sparks fly, ours, New Romantics,ect with his full chest) like oooof vigilante shit hits him but also like you’re own your own kid, antihero, champagne problems, mastermind he’d def just relate to her

(Also I love fma so much I think it’s funny because one relates to Ed so strongly but I feel like other characters would think he was more Roy mustang like just in the shrewd cunning ambitious person that plays a fool so he’s underestimated)

Okay other pop culture things

Stranger things?

Star Wars?

Uhhhh home alone?

I’m sure other anons could come up with better ones on the spot lol

YESS

He most definitely does sing those songs while thinking about Usagi. I have Don't Blame Me, Wildest Dreams, Red, I Knew You Were Trouble, You Belong With Me, and Fearless in their playlist, ehehe. I'm gonna add Sparks Fly bc that's a pretty good one for them as well. Antihero, You're On Your Own Kid, do also fit him and probably those other two, though I haven't listened to them but yeah, Taylor Swift definitely just.. fits him.

I hadn't considered the similarities between One and Mustang either, that's interesting. I can see how some people would make those connections.

One and Two would probably like Stranger Things. I can't really see them having any problem with it.

They'd both relate to El quite a bit, since she's an experiment. They'd sympathize with her.

Conclusion: Stranger Things- yay (both) | not banned

Honestly, I'm not that into Star Wars. I don't remember a lot of what happens in the films, so I can't really make any connections between the characters. Since it's sci-fi, I think Two would probably like it.

I don't think One would particularly hate it, but he doesn't love it.

Conclusion: Star Wars- yay (Two), meh (One) | not banned

I don't think I've watched Home Alone. If I did, I don't remember, but I think One and Two can appreciate the pranks pulled and would probably get some ideas to boobytrap the lair.

Conclusion: Home Alone- yay (both) | banned because it's a bad influence on One and Two

#emd au #emd asks

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rosencrantzsguildenstern · 3 days

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Hamlet......the eternal blorbo......character meme pls (also i7 trigger if you'd like)

OKAY. i was at school all day but here we go

(did gaku already here)

hamlet:

gah. hamlet. one of the most famous blorbos of all time. the thing about him is that he's not only tragic and well written, he's also, like, funny? relatable? the college-educated prince i think would have been someone much harder to connect to in shakespeare's time— definitely not impossible, and he's written as someone you can connect to, but still— but in this day and age the world is FULL of depressed college students, and hamlet's genuinely charming. i recoil at adaptations that frame him as a clear asshole (apart from immortal ros&guil performances that are clearly just having some fun with him) because while you can say 'oh, he killed those people, he mistreated ophelia, he caused the problems' and all that, you can and should sympathize with him, and a performance where you get to enjoy every moment of his being onstage is a good one; he makes a kind of sharp-tongued joke that an audience should be able to laugh at. i'm sad about him, too, but the tragedies that REALLY make me sad tend not to be hamlet-brand; what draws me to him is just like. his energy. and his tragic fall is done very well (of course it is, it's one of the most well-liked plays of all time)

tenn:

compared to hamlet tenn isn't as much of an all timer but on god. i'm obsessed with him. stream hidden region mv right now.

i always get hyped whenever a character is a collection of archetypes i've never seen before and on god. tenn. nice guy who acts like an asshole who acts nice. his layers. but that's such an oversimplification too... i want to dissect him. he's so stubbornly self sacrificial my boy LET PEOPLE HELP YOU. not me tho i wont help u i'll hit u with a baseball bat for being ableist to riku . but he's really good

ryuu:

RYUUUUUUU i tend to like the characters who are like... weird and complicated and really unique concepts and ryuu is not that like he DOES have complexity + every idolish7 character also has a cool twist that takes them beyond an archetype (i think every) . but i do love him he's just like. lovable. like how could u look at ryuu and NOT like him. i also really like when he gets mad like when he scares yaopapa or REALLY GOOD SCENE the times he like. very seriously and calmly, at a very mentally low state, gets antagonized by ryou and just. verbally eviscerates him. they make really good foils because he's everything ryou's not: he's down to earth, he deeply cares for people and isn't afraid to show it, and he understands himself. he's got moments of anxiety and self doubt, but he's managed to build himself up from that as trigger's grown closer. ik other fans like him when he's dumb/oblivious, i tend not to laugh as much at those moments (though some are iconic) bc i really like him as someone who like. knows what he's about. he's also kind of the touma of trigger; when i first met trigger, they were antagonistic and tenn and gaku were always bickering, so i saw them as villains, and ryuu was the member that endeared me to himself first (pretty much as soon as he stepped onscreen lol)

#hamlet #lit #i7 #ask game

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homemade-ghosts · 1 year

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I know this is a kind of weird question, but why do you think you never got into EJ and Gina?

I saw a comment saying was season 3 was backtracking, "how their relationship was so genuine and supportive in the first two seasons then suddenly all the development was gone in s3 with EJ back to being inconciderate and Gina is back to having feelings for Ricky'

Not a weird question at all!

I’ll start with things I think I’ve mentioned in previous PW-related asks (just to get the repetition out of the way lol). They share no common ground beyond both initially being seen as the scheming antagonists when the series began. They don’t understand each other — nor does EJ ever make a concerted effort to understand Gina, beyond asking her (literally one time) what it feels like to be constantly moving. They don’t communicate well; EJ put no effort into maintaining their relationship. + EJ essentially refuses to support Gina the second it becomes inconvenient for him (sure, he’ll pick her flowers to congratulate her on landing the lead, but then he’ll negate that by immediately talking about himself and his failings without giving Gina a moment to celebrate her own success).

& on top of EJ & Gina being, on paper, not compatible — regardless of who they are being played by — there’s also the fact that I have never once felt an ounce of romantic chemistry watching Sofia & Matt on screen together. Chemistry is, in part, something that just is. You either have it with your scene partner(s) or you don’t. They don’t. (IMO) That’s problem #1. & even actors who establish that natural onscreen chemistry can’t coast on that alone, to really get the audience (in this case, me lol) invested, they both have to have the emotional range to back it up.

Which brings me to problem #2: I don’t think Matt has the kind of depth, as an actor, that it takes to be a good scene partner to someone as incredible an actor as Sofia. I don’t want it to sound like I’m just trying to dunk on Matt, he seems like a nice guy and I by no means think he’s a bad actor (I don’t think anyone on the show is a bad actor) but, in my opinion, he doesn’t bring much, if any, nuance to his performance. It’s always very…shallow — meaning that Sofia, too often, has to carry (most? all?) the emotional weight in their scenes together. Josh, in contrast, is a much stronger actor who can hold his own in a scene with Sofia because he’s capable of giving a layered performance. Like Sofia, there’s so much going on behind his eyes, so much in the slight change of a facial expression. She doesn’t have to do all the heavy lifting in their scenes together, it’s more of an equal partnership.

I should probably also mention that I have never exactly loved EJ as a character, for reasons completely unrelated to Matt’s portrayal of him. Even when s1 was airing and he was in everyone’s “Big Three” edits on Twitter, I didn’t really get the appeal. I thought he was funny sometimes and a necessary part of the show’s narrative, but I had a hard time rooting for him because his problems were often so trivial compared to other characters’. Like, Ricky’s parents were in the midst of a divorce and his mom was miles away, seemingly starting a new life with a new relationship, without him. Gina had finally found a home and friends and somewhere to belong, only to have all of that ripped away from her, out of nowhere, the instant her mom gets a call from work. Meanwhile, EJ…lied and lost Instagram followers because of it ?? & I’m expected to sympathize with him? Then, in s2, Gina is heartbroken, without her mom to comfort her, Ricky is forced to move out of his childhood home & Nini is finally embracing her independence and learning not to see herself through the eyes of others and EJ just…doesn’t get into one Ivy League school until his dad effectively buys his way in and again, I’m supposed to feel for him because he's sad he couldn't earn that spot on his own? The only thing I feel is that he’s incredibly privileged. & when he was desperate to please his dad in s3, I tried to care (because it's the closest he's ever come to genuine struggle on the series) but I couldn’t because he was doing it at the expense of Gina & her feelings — something he never took responsibility or apologized for, by the way. Ricky makes a mistake, learns from it and does his best to make up for it. EJ makes a mistake and…well, that’s it. He keeps making it, but it’s supposed to be okay because he’s a good guy who’s always trying to do the right thing, even if he doesn’t succeed. & I’m tired of it, honestly.

TLDR: In order for me to root for a couple, they need to have chemistry, the actors need to have comparable acting abilities & I need to sympathize with both characters, to like both of them &/or to find them both interesting (I specified the “&/or” for that last part because I do have a couple ships where I don’t necessarily like one of the characters, but I do feel for them at times & find them interesting/compelling). PW has none of that.

As for the second part of your ask, the old “EJ & Gina’s relationship was great in s2, but the writers ruined everything in s3 by having EJ go back to being selfish and Gina go back to being in love with Ricky.” Ugh. Here’s the issue with that: neither of these factors ever changed. EJ has always been an inconsiderate & insecure boyfriend and Gina has been in love with Ricky this whole time. Neither of them went “back” to being anything, they just never left. EJ had all the same negative qualities in his relationship with Gina that he displayed in his relationship with Nini in s1 — jealous, insecure & secretive, with an inability to own up to his own actions & a tendency to blame Ricky for something that was entirely his own doing. That isn’t a sign of character regression. You can't regress if you never learned, never changed, in the first place. PWs only convinced themselves that EJ had changed because he was single for nearly all of s2 and that allowed them to completely forget what he was like in a relationship. Out of sight, out of mind.

& I don’t know where PWs get the idea that Gina was completely over Ricky once her & EJ got together. She only accepted EJ’s offer of a date after making it clear (at the sleepover) that she thought Ricky was no longer an option, not that she didn’t still harbor feelings for him. There was no closure between them, they never talked about Opening Night and, in order for EJ & Gina to get together, she had to literally not be on speaking terms with Ricky.

Also, about the whole “EJ was so supportive in s2” thing: I’m guessing their idea of “support” is 1. EJ asking how she was one time — even though he didn’t ask because he noticed she was emotional and wanted to check in, he asked as in, “how do you feel about everything you’ve pulled off tonight?” because she had helped plan the entire party and performed that musical number for Carlos in front of everyone. Gina, feeling alone & dejected, took it for more than it was. & 2. EJ bringing Gina that ass granola bar from his back pocket at the airport. Both of these aren’t so much expressions of support as they are the absolute bare minimum, which required little effort on EJ’s part. Like, wow, in the entire time they’ve know each other, he’s asked her about herself twice and picked her up from the airport once — boyfriend goals, am I right?

#apologize for any potential typos in advance #it's late and my brain is small lol #hsmtmts #asks #filmmakerdreamst

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but-ter-flie-ge · 1 year

Text

'Ollo

I'm back. Pahahaha. That sounded so menacing in my brain. Anyways it's six of crows time again. Crazy I know.

I reread the first book and had to get some thoughts out of my jelly brain:

Firstly: the last time I read the duology I didn't really get the hype around the first book.

It just wasn't that interesting to me and the whole ice court heist felt very... faulty and too fast paced. Everything was kind of weirdly put together and rushed. Fight scenes. Emotional scenes. Most of it except for the flashbacks and the banter felt too quick.

I couldn't connect with the characters and I feel like I also didn't really understand a lot of them. Maybe the fact that I read it in German changed something as well, probably changed something.

Now being older and rereading it after the show while properly indulging in the fandom I found myself enjoying every interaction between the characters and actually really noticed a lot of their growth. I appreciate them more and while reading I could overlook that the ice court heist still felt weird. Or rather the heist wasn't weird but it's weird to me that people call it an absolute masterpiece.

I think it should just be seen as something that it is: "A bunch of messed up teenagers doing the impossible with the help of luck and a few good tricks."

That's a mindset I ought to keep when musing about the heist, I suppose. I'm not sure if it was intended as such but it is what I gathered from it.

Secondly: I cherish the characters way more than before and that makes a major difference. Since what I've mentioned before and I have been constructing the characters in my brain as who they are and what I appreciate about them the first book became 10 times better.

This point is also related to the fact that everything feels rushed because when you barely know the characters their banter might be funny but it doesn't affect you as much as it does once you know them. Now it feels like you're reading of friends joking around instead of strangers.

Kaz:

During the first read I really despised Kaz. I may said I found him interesting but now I feel more like I just said that out of a want to understand what the rest of the world apparently agreed upon which is that Kaz is phenomenal. He's great he's wonderful and a big player when it comes to book crushes.

What I can say is that the TV series really helped me understand and ultimately like Kaz more. Specifically the second season. In the first season, I don't connect Book-Kaz with the Kaz on screen but the second season did him justice. To a degree. (Idk why he gives Nikolai his cane (please fix that)) Probably also because in season 2 he was in his actual plot and habitat.

This time when I write:"I find him interesting." I mean it. I actually really enjoy watching how his character moves and tada! I now even acknowledge his crush on Inej. Because in my first read I subconsciously never really believed him. He was too much of an asshole to me. But even if I believed him I didn't have any pity left to sympathize with him. Blinded by hate I suppose.

This time I actually had an understanding of his actions, why he takes them, and what they mean to him.

I still view him as a ruthless fucker who only has space for himself when it comes to his friends but it's easier to bear when I actually want to know more about his rage and logical reasoning. The way he gets to where he is.

Inej:

In the first read, I may liked Inej. In the second read, I put her on a pedestal and prayed next to her feet every night.

I don't know what hold me from seeing Inej for who she is in my first read but I know that now I could explode with love for her. It's funny to me because I thought I quite enjoyed reading about her but for some reason, it intensified.

Anyways her character growth and the resolve she finds in herself to say no, choosing what's best for her. Oof-

Also, Danielle Galligan (actress of Nina Zenik) said that Inej is just so authentic she brings other people to be truthful in her presence. I just really loved that statement.

Nina and Jesper:

I still adore both of them as I did when I first read it. Nothing much changed. Except maybe it got worse. But all in all, I'm the same old simp.

Wylan and Matthias:

Matthias I found way funnier. During the first read, I was just hating on him for obvious reasons. And even at the end of it all I wasn't a big fan and I didn't grab a lot of his pov nor what Nina meant when she said that he's just a boy with rage planted inside of him.

Now I understand that better and of course, he's still an annoying stupid big honk that doesn't know shit about the world but at least his confusion and the others mocking him were enjoyable. And the character development will forever make me happy.

I adore him and Nina. They're so sweet together and I didn't think I'd ever say that after my first read. But here we are. What a journey it has been.

It's the same as the first time with Wylan. I loved him but I didn't get any chapters from his pov so I was pissed. The show slaughtered the reveal of his dyslexia which I still don't support but maybe they can make the angst work somehow if there's to be a spin-off.

Also, I was scared that he would be useless throughout the whole book. Because in my memory, he wasn't but maybe that's just my old memory blinded by the pink glasses.

However, I think it's often hard to judge Wylan on this since he operates more in the background and with the few resources he has. Of course, he's still a weight the others drag along during the heist but let's be honest: Wylan was less of a problem than other characters messing up.

Obviously one has to consider that Wylan doesn't get the big jobs to begin with but one can counter-argue that Kaz could've left Pekka alone in the cell instead of taking too long and risking all their lives for his vendetta.

This reminds me: the scene where Kaz exposes Jesper about having told a dime lion he's leaving town will forever make me mad for this exact reason.

Kaz says he can't trust Jesper anymore. He says he wanted to punish him by not telling him about Wylan looking like Kuwei or that Wylan and Nina were actually safe when Van Eck destroyed their ship.

I don't even know where to start. Did Kaz ever really trust Jesper? Don't think so. He just knew how to use him but trust? The only one he ever conceded to was Inej which could be considered a spark of trust. That's it. I feel like he doesn't have the right to speak of trust when all he ever gave were simple orders.

Then his thoughts about punishing him.

Dear Kazzle Dazzle, did anyone punish you when your weakness showed and you collapsed in a prisoner wagon even though you knew this could've happened? Did anyone punish you when you left Nina alone in the corridor of a high-security prison? Did anyone punish you when you sent Nina in a death trap with Matthias and Brum that could've gone very wrong very quickly? It was a gamble and he says it himself. He even says he would be the one to pay for all these "tree jokes". But no Kaz. You wouldn't have been the one to take the brunt of this. It would've been Nina. She would've paid with her consciousness. Worse than death.

Nina was lucky that luck was on your side. I guess the third scenario is still very different from the first and second ones because at least Kaz tried to save her but nonetheless it annoyed me that he made it about himself. I get why but the why doesn't help him.

Thirdly: I have my problems with the writing style and plot.

By no means am I a professional especially not when it comes to English as it is not my mother tongue but I just wanted to describe the feeling I've got from it.

This is a tricky one because I'm not the biggest fan of either. I mean the only reveals or plot-twists that really hit home are the ones not related to the ice court. So the biggest portion of the book I wasn't too keen whenever some grand scheme worked because it didn't seem like a scheme at all. It was a lot of luck.

In the first read that bothered me. In the second read it didn't too much.

The writing style isn't my favourite. I don't hate it though. I feel like some of the similes are pretty damn good and the train of thought of the characters and descriptions are nicely woven together. The dialogues are very strong and the banters may be some of the best I've ever read. Even fanfiction got some serious competition here.

However, as I said it felt rushed and like sometimes there wasn't the right feeling for how the scenes should end. When I first read it I found this even worse than in my second read. For instance, the fight with Jesper and Wylan against the Tidemakers doesn't take much longer than a few seconds to read. But apparently, that fight had a big impact on Jesper. It's never mentioned again in the book but it's the start of him questioning whether he should go and learn about his powers. And since we already don't get any background about him in the first book I feel like this at least could've been a longer struggle.

In conclusion, I know it's not all about the plot and a book can be about good characterization and everything. But I also know that I can love something and still criticise it. Usually makes the media even better.

The characters are where the book shines which means a reread or watching the show and then reading it feels like the smarter option to me. It's worth it and it lets you see things in a different light. That's me speaking from my subjective point of view but it's also my review so. Get wrecked I guess?

#six of crows #soc #leigh bardugo #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #jesper fahey #wylan van eck #matthias helvar #nina zenik #review #very serious specific letter at #kazzle dazzle #we have beef #but its okay #slay

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