#when you are aware of a person's flaws you understand them better and they become easier to forgive
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Hi! I recently found your blogs, and can I just say how much I love your character analyses? Your portrayal of each character is always so in depth to the point where I can even picture them acting and speaking the same in game! I'm so impressed and I seriously don't know how you connect to each and every one of them so perfectly :O
If I may ask, what does your research and character profile process look like? As someone interested in writing, I hope to be as skilled as you with analysing characters (and writing plots and writing in general--) one day :) Any tips would be appreciated!
Thank you so much for all the hard work you do. I know I'll enjoy the story you come up with next!
Aww thank you so much!! Honestly sometimes I worry that my analyses won't be to everyone's tastes, so I'm very glad you think that they're good! I feel the same way about my writing because I know they're not the most romantic, so it's a relief to know you like it. ;v; <3 I have a lot to say about your questions though, so I'm going to put it under a readmore. It's an uh... infodump HAHA
When it comes to research, what it basically comes down to is reading everything. Read the character's lore, read their voice lines. Read what other characters have to say about them. Even talking to every NPC you see in the hopes that they'll talk about a character helps out a lot too HAHA. I also recommend going back to old events when doing research too. Reread them. Listen to the voice actor's portrayal of them. Read everything you can.
This is take three of trying to explain my character analysis process, but I'm going to give up and just explain to you the main logic that governs it. Basically what it boils down to is: we are not unique. Humans are not unique. What do I mean by this? People that are certain ways--for example, they have a low self-esteem, consistently overwork themselves, they want children when they get older, etc--they will typically share common characteristics. When you know the defining characteristics of each trait, you can potentially apply that trait to everyone you know that displays those characteristics.
For example, people that constantly overwork themselves typically have unhealthily high levels of perceived responsibility, typically with a self-deprecative trait that they don't deserve to be happy and rest. People that are very showy tend to care a lot about what people think of them. People that are extremely close to their families typically lose the ability to function properly without them.
If you know people that are like the examples above, you know that these observations are pretty accurate. And these examples represent pretty common types of people as well. Once you've seen one of them, you've seen them all. Nobody is unique. And because of that, you can apply these observations to characters because characters are meant to be human. Example one is Kaveh. Example two is Itto. And example 3 is Lyney. Now you've gotten a deeper dive into their psyche.
The way you become better at character analysis is by broadening your internal library of traits and their defining characteristics. This involves three steps: observation, drawing connections between observations, and fine tuning these connections by applying them to other people.
These steps are easy to understand, but let me go a bit more into step one. Observations come in two categories: physical observations and intuitive observations. Physical observations encompass things they physically do. Intuitive observations are larger statements that can't be tied to just a single physical observation. For example, physical observations may be that they don't go out much, they don't talk much in groups but do one-on-one, they wear bright colors, they're rude, etc. Intuitive observations are more: they seem to be uncomfortable around children, they act like they're scared to contact first, they're always on the move, etc.
The second step involves drawing lines between observations and trying to deduce meaning. For example, [they end their sentences using a rising intonation] + [they ask me my opinion a lot] = [this person cares about not sounding rude or unwelcoming]. Or, [they have a low self-esteem] + [they care about being seen as morally good] + [they engage in fandom] = [I probably should not tell this person I think Dottore and his penchant for human experimentation is hot].
Typically the logic goes: [physical observation] + [physical observation] = [intuitive observation]. [physical observation] + [intuitive observation] = [mid-tier intuitive observation]. [intuitive observation] + [intuitive observation] = [top tier intuitive observation].
But it does not end at step two. Step three basically tests to see if your observation from step two is valid or not. When you apply your observation from step two to a multitude of people, you're able to fine tune your observation to make it more generalized and more accurate. Maybe you realize that not everyone that ends their sentences in a rising intonation is necessarily polite, but it's more of a cultural thing. Maybe you see that having low self-esteem isn't always a symptom of having a high moral code. Test, revise, then test again. The higher the tier of your observation, the greater the chance it has of being wrong.
When I analyze characters, I go through my mental library and see which traits and characteristics I've catalogued before. And for things that don't have an exact match, I try to find ones that shares at least a few things in common that may follow the same logic. For example, I don't know anyone like Zhongli. However, I do have a friend that's very outgoing, but you can have a full on conversation with them and leave not knowing anything about them. Can I apply the logic of my friend to someone like Zhongli?
I will say this and I will say this again. People are not unique. Everyone is a copy of someone else in some way. When you treat the characters as if you were analysing any other normal human being, you can quite easily draw conclusions from what they have in common with people you know and have seen.
Anyway, this is so long I am so sorry. Hopefully I didn't completely bowl you over with information. OTL
#interactions#anon#another thing i want to say is like....#don't try to hold back the frankness of your observations#if you've ever read my analyses of kaveh they're uhhh.... not the nicest (tho idk if i only posted them on my personal...)#in order to become aware of flaws of characters you need to be able to accept the flaws objectively in others#if someone is mean then say they're mean. if they have a martyr complex then say they have a martyr complex#don't be afraid of being objective. that only hurts the process#some people think that it's not nice to give attention to the flaws of people you love#in my opinion that's complete bull#when you are aware of a person's flaws you understand them better and they become easier to forgive#you can rightfully say#'yes you may have flaws but knowing them makes me love you even more'#you get me?#also what helps is sharing your analyses with others and have them help you to refine your observations#also don't be afraid to observe and draw conclusions in general#sometimes you may feel you're invading a person's privacy#and uh..... to that....... um...#you have to decide what matters more to you. getting better at analysis or giving someone their privacy HAHA#by this i don't mean like... be a stalker or anything#but i think the biggest thing to actually remember the most is that....#CORRELATION DOES NOT IMPLY CAUSATION#just because a character shares all the traits a pattern you've seen in real life doesn't mean that's their issue#take everything EVERYTHING you deduce with a grain of salt#this is ESPECIALLY so when you are analyzing real people#no matter how accurate you think you may be you are not an empath nor are you a mind reader or god#do NOT act upon your deductions or think you know what's best for people from them#in the end analysis is purely theoretical so like... don't take yourself too seriously and have fun uwu
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My dear lgbt+ kids,
Can you have a healthy relationship with a narcissist?
Well, if you trust many social media posts, then the answer would be a resounding "No". Narcissistic is - apparently - a synonym for abusive, and of course you can't have a healthy relationship with an abusive partner!
But, well, social media is not always right. A lot of topics get oversimplified, terms get misused and black-or-white thinking is rampant - and "narcissistic means abusive" falls into all three of those pits.
Let's look at it a bit closer: "Abusive" describes a set of behaviors - while narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) describes, well, a personality disorder. It's a mental health condition.
I am not a trained mental health professional, so I'll use a medical source here. According to mayoclinic.org (link to article), symptoms and their intensity may vary from one affected person to the next (just like the exact symptoms and severity of depression or anxiety may vary!). A person with NPD may
have an unreasonably high sense of their own importance
have an excessive need for attention and admiration
have low/no empathy (struggle to understand or care about the feelings of others)
have low self-worth
be easily upset by criticism
struggle with social interactions
have difficulty managing their emotions
experience major problems dealing with stress
And, again just like with other mental health conditions, NPD can negatively affect the person in a lot of areas of life. For example, struggling to manage their emotions and stress levels may make it hard for them to hold down a job and cause financial worries, or they may avoid participating in social events, which may lead to them becoming isolated and depressed etc. And yes, of course some symptoms may also lead to problems in romantic relationships.
Therapy for NPD usually centers around talk therapy, with the goal of helping the person to better understand and manage their emotions, to learn how to cope with self-worth issues, and to create/maintain healthy fulfilling relationships and communication with the people around them.
Now, you can look at all this and go "See? The social media posts are right! They are self-centered, have no empathy and are easily upset! That's abusive!" - but that'd be jumping to conclusions. None of those things are behaviors.
An autistic person may also easily get upset and they may also feel low empathy. So could a person with major depression. Yet, we do not treat "autistic" or "depressed" as a synonym for abusive. We do not assume that their symptoms will definitely lead to abusive behavior. So, why would that be different for people with NPD?
Am I saying no person with NPD has ever been abusive? Of course not. That'd be black-or-white thinking, too. What I am saying is: People with NPD are people. And people can show abusive behavior or they can not.
If someone who easily feels upset hits you, that's abuse... but hitting would be abuse, even if they didn't feel easily upset. A partner with or without NPD shouldn't be hitting you. If someone with no empathy degrades and insults you, that's abusive... but that would be abuse regardless of their ability to feel empathy. A partner with or without NPD shouldn't be degrading and insulting you.
A person could have NPD and behave abusive - but "some people are X and Y, so all people who are X must be Y" is a flawed logic.
So, let's circle back to the beginning: can you have a healthy relationship with a narcissist? Yeah. It will be a relationship with someone who has a mental health condition and that's something to be aware of because mental health conditions do affect everyday life (duh?).
You should set boundaries and take warning signs of abuse seriously - like you should do when you date anyone, regardless of health status.
With all my love,
Your Tumblr Dad
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Secrets from > PLUTO < that he told me
Pluto is dark. And its hard to understand him. He is your shadow; he hides from you and you hide from him. But your both watching each other very closely >
> 1 > The brighter something is > The darker the shadow. You cannot expel darkness, you can only accept it. Evil things exist and they always will. NO matter how hard you try to remove something with 'evil eye' or try to fight the good fight; whatever your fighting will always exist and the ever prevailing fight of; 'good vs evil' always will prevail. But everyone seems to forget that the darkness resides in everyone as much as their light does too.
> 2 > Rules don't exist; but we think they do. Rules funnel everyone in similar directions > When you see a rule you are forced to go in certain directions in order to avoid 'breaking the rules' but by not breaking the rules you are 'following the rules' and this makes you go in certain calculated directions (set up by people in power/social constructs) in order to avoid trouble. Or out of frustration you purposefully break them; so rules have a much greater pull on all of us then we all want to give them credit for. Also the mere concept of a law or principle defining how we must live; makes us all compromise into the laws of that are governing us. And thus; we are all products of our environments; of the rules we were forced to obey. Social constructs, government laws, or issues of any sort affect your free will, and whilst you can do whatever you want; there are many punishments awaiting you, which inevitably will affect your overall happiness/contentment because when you thought you could do anything; you realise you are very restricted and you compromise far more often than what you would like to admit.
> 3 > The more you front; the more your showing us who you are > When it comes down to it its actually very difficult to fool anyone. You may have the hang of it; but if you meet someone who also knows how to fool others; you will both stick out like a sore thumb to each other. And well once the jig is up; and the perception of yourself falls as it always does. You will feel like a pathetic person, and so it is almost always worth telling the truth; the longer you lie, the darker the dark becomes. To you and to others. and it will make the shadow work far more difficult to overcome. Embody your light as much as your dark and you will not be afraid of yourself let alone others; and you will not feel the need to 'front'
> 4 < The more you prove yourself to others, the more you proved you are trying to prove yourself and rarely did you prove what you wanted to prove. You simply approved yourself as someone willing to prove themselves
> 5 >"When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you" > I love how everyone thinks they are better than one another, because we can point out certain flaws that maybe we are avoiding; to pretend we are better than the other. But your ratchetness is just as ratchet as another, or worse. Does that make you a worser person? well maybe. But that should make you feel pretty stupid for calling other people ratchet. People need to be told what is correct and what is not; but it simply doesn't matter most of the time, because that person usually is very aware of how destructive they are, because its hard to ignore the messes you create, and sooner rather than later, they will find their karma; so why intefere? work on yourself and become an example, don't adopt someones elses kids when they are already rebelling their real mothers.
> 6 >No one can or will hurt you more than who or what you love > your enemies may sting but if your love one hurts you, as no one knows you better than them, when they strike it will hurt. And sometimes you cannot recover a relationship because you 2 have hurt each other too much. Enemies will piss you off, but truthfully fighting enemies is good fun. Fighting love ones is a whole nother ball game and that is a far more plutonian thing. Sometimes it is necessary to hurt those we love so they learn a lesson, but far more often than not ; you both will cause irreparable scars that will leave a sore spot in both of your hearts.
> 7 < You are equally as powerful and as powerless as you believe to be. Your flaws are as real as your strengths; and the longer you deny your strength or your weakness, the more it will sting when the realization hits that you are both. You are not worse or better than anyone, and the more someone pretends they are one or the other, the more pathetic they are. Regardless of which form they choose to show.
> 8 < You can't blame anyone. Only yourself. If your the vessel of your destiny than everything that passes you is just the current; and you will have a difficult time arguing with the laws of nature. Learn to accept what you are and what is around you, and then you will discover ways to manipulate it. Do not try to educate something that is immovable, but allow it to pass you; in a respectful manner, that is true power; allowing something to exist and not let it interfere with your sense of being. Because you are able to be apart of the dark > notice how any light on in the dark is a magnet to everything that is awake in the dark?
> 9 > "The most beautiful thoughts are always besides the darkest" - dark lives in the shadow of light, and because of this many times over when your fighting darkness its when you feel the most powerful; and its because you are actually embodying a more darker aspect of yourself, as you also embody a stronger 'light' within; "dont you know you can only get as high as you fell?"
I don't want to talk about my pluto; I'm just discussing what pluto means to me. There are so many places you can find him, these are just some places I've found him.
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has bumble ever tried to clarify her story to the living, or do the beliefs of the living alter her memories themselves into believing the rogue of rot story? also, is turtle heart a patron of anything? :0
After a lot of time in StarClan and the distortion of prayer and generations of altered memory, a LOT of the founders have almost completely lost touch with themselves. Thunderstar especially-- as a Patron of Justice in a society with a very flawed understanding of it, the person he was in life might be furious with what he's become.
Bumble Mumble, mercifully, is the sort of Patron kept close to the heart of very soft cats. Cats who prefer diplomacy, those who feel unfit for battle. In a way, this Patron of Communication is also, secretly, a patron of the underdog. Pinestar was one example of them.
It makes sense, when you think about it. Even in her most legendary story, she won because she cried. It's one of the few stories Clan cats have where the combatants don't win. It resonates with the right kind of people.
So she keeps a lot of herself through the generations. She's not immune to the distortion of the gods of her generation, but I think of all of them, Bumble Mumble has stayed the most consistent.
But generally, no, StarClan cats don't clarify their stories. It serves their power better to let their tales become exciting and mythologized-- an interesting story is told more than a boring one. Bumble Mumble also probably does have "memories" of the false story, but in a hazy sort of way where she's vaguely aware are dream-truths.
Dark Forest cats are more likely to clarify their stories. Cloudberry and Ryewhisker, for example, are VERY eager to correct the record and talk about how evil the Law of Loyalty is.
Anyway, Turtle Heart is a Patron of Lost Parents. She was patron of unrecoverable bodies more broadly for generations, until the death of Palefoot. She's associated with grief, acquisition of skills that would otherwise be lost because of that death, and bringing families together to protect those who will be needing the protection.
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idk who needs to hear this, but can be a fan of a certain media AND be critical of the writing choices that were made into the work.
you can be a fan of a certain idea in the story, BUT wish the idea could have been executed better.
you can be a fan of certain themes introduced into the story, BUT wish the themes were handled better.
you can be a fan of certain parts of the story, BUT wish those parts of the story would have been build up before/introduced earlier.
you can be a fan of certain hyped up parts from the story, BUT wish the parts from the story would have lived up to the hype.
you can be fan of certain character, BUT wish the character's development had been handled better.
being critical of a piece of media, doesn't automatically mean you're some mindless hater. It just means you have certain criticism to a certain media and wish some of the writing choices were done differently.
i might disagree with some of the criticism, but, at the same time, I can just scroll past the post, engage in a conversation with the person, letting them know why i disagree with them or even block them if their posts bring me such discomfort/annoyance/etc.
but sometimes, when i see criticism about some of the things in the story, i get to see others view points and understand why certain tropes/story choices/etc. can be bad or even harmful if not handled properly.
i'm aware that those who are critical of a certain work can become toxic and stop seeing anything positive about the work, to the point you don't feel like you can share an opinion that might be differ from theirs, out of fear they might get agressive with you.
this in fact is one my personal worries that i might become like that and create uneasy space in my blog for others.
(and yes, I'm also aware that there are certain people who hate on certain stories for reasons outside of caring about the story.)
but, despite this i don't think that you can't be critical of media.
no media is 100% perfect and the writers behind the stories aren't perfect either, but it doesn't mean people who have genuine criticism or some small things they wish got adressed in the story, should keep their mouths shut and keep quiet.
criticism isn't 100% bad or 100% good, because both sides have their flaws, but it is needed.
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That Goddamn Fishbowl
Let's talk about Dream and that "fishbowl."
From a story and plot perspective, Dream's imprisonment starts off his story arc. This is where we first get to meet the King of Dreams, an entity imprisoned by a greedy, avaricious man who just wanted power, prestige and wealth. The comics don't even give Roderick Burgess a conveniently dead son to humanize him. He's just an asshole who wants to get one up on Aleister Crowley, a real person who was pretty well known in occult circles as "the wickedest man in the world."
I've seen some fans like to rationalize this as Desire's attempt to get the stick out of Dream's arse, knock him down a few pegs, stop him from becoming a complete monster. That the fishbowl was a "timeout" that was "good" for Dream and led to his character growth. So Desire had a point, right? Maybe Desire wasn't so bad after all.
People still continued to dream, right? Maybe Dream wasn't really needed to perform his function. Desire is the stronger of the two, after all, at the end of the Sandman series, Dream breaks. Dream as Morpheus comes to realize that in order for him to change, he should just die. The universe doesn't need Morpheus - they needed a Dream who was young, still capable of hope, a clean slate - hence, the rise of Daniel Hall as Dream - a pure, literal white knight who could lead the Dreaming better than Morpheus ever could.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA FUCK. NO.
The tragedy of Desire, to be honest, is this. Dream is the third eldest of the Endless for a reason. He is absolutely more powerful than Desire because dreams are where desires originate, where they are shaped and given form. It's not a coincidence that Destruction is fourth eldest after Dream, that just as Dream defines Reality, Destruction defines Creation, the logical next step when you're inspired to imagine and wonder. That's what Desire can't accept, because they're just as proud and as arrogant as Dream is, and ultimately, they're even more cruel and less self-aware.
If this was a bid for Dream's attention, then it's even more sad and pathetic. Dream loved Desire once and trusted them completely. And then Desire destroyed that love, affection and trust by messing around with Kilalla of the Glow and laughing in Dream's face about it. Was Kilalla a good match for Dream? Absolutely the hell not - she did not understand who Dream truly was, but she'd eagerly "traded up" when the star Sto-Oa courted her, dropping poor Dream like a hot potato. Could the relationship have developed better, given time and space to communicate? Maybe - they were still dating when all of this happened. We'll never know because Desire stomped all over that relationship and broke Dream's heart. It started off Dream's long string of disaster romances, where he could never trust and give into his desires in a healthy fashion, always afraid that his sibling was meddling and messing shit up.
The ironic thing is I can see that Alianora had to be Desire's attempt at a peace offering, but how would Dream accept that, knowing that this particular sibling just loved to fuck with his head? That he'd been manipulated and deceived before?
Dream is flawed but it's not impossible to talk to him. Death proves it when she points out how much of an asshole he had been to Nada. Death doesn't imprison Dream in a fishbowl to get him to calm his tits down and listen - instead, she literally helps him to make a friend in Hob Gadling. One mortal turned immortal - imagine that, you can actually drive home a point and make your little brother learn a lesson without emotional and physical abuse. Amazing!
There is nothing good about Dream's time in the fishbowl. The TV show only shows us the death of Jessamy - who absolutely did not deserve to die trying to save her lord - and Unity, who had spent her life in dreams and was actually raped and impregnated by Desire in a twisted plot to get Dream to spill family blood. The comics makes it clear that thousands of people died because of the sleepy sickness - little stories like the one of Ellie Marsden, Daniel Bustamonte and Stefan Wasserman. They didn't deserve this bullshit.
Ultimately, the Sandman is a tragic tale. Dream of the Endless attempts to change - to try and be a better ruler, a better friend, a better brother, lover, husband and parent. In the comics, many of his relationships and failings are repaired and fixed - Nada is freed from hell, Calliope is freed from Richard Madoc and closure is reached with her, Dream makes it to his meeting with Hob and calls him friend, Orpheus is finally set free from his living death. But it now has the sense of a person quietly closing out his affairs, having realized how terrible and unlovable and unworthy he is. That it's time to set down his crown and his powers and pass it on to someone worthy. It's a long suicide note, accomplished with the elegance and flair that Dream is known for, but it is suicide. Morpheus is dead. A wake is held for him. And his remains are set off in a Viking-style funeral - on a wooden boat set to sail straight into the heart of a star.
The last time we see Dream as Morpheus, he is with his brother Destruction, appearing one more time to Hob Gadling, in the same way dead loved ones appear to say a final farewell.
Where is Morpheus now? The text isn't clear, really. We are invited to imagine. Perhaps he is wandering between the stars and universes with his brother, free at last from function and duty. After all, there are many versions of Dream in the multiverse, and this version of Morpheus is just one of them. Perhaps he is now human, getting to grow old and creaky like the rest of us, living a mortal lifetime, ready to greet his sister when his time comes.
Maybe he's just some writer named Neil, grumpily answering inane asks in his Tumblr inbox.
#the sandman#dream of the endless#dream of the endless | morpheus#tw: suicide#meta#hob gadling#that goddamn fishbowl#death of the endless#desire of the endless#abuse isn't the way to get someone to change and grow#that's why it's fucking abuse
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Let's judge fairly. Yui had her development too. It's not like she didn't have any development.
// I wouldn’t necessarily call it development, I would rather say the story itself advanced and she grew accustomed to the circumstances. Over the course of the games, she got better at managing the Diaboys since you get to know someone after spending a lot of time with them and well… she also started acting more cheeky and bolder with them, for the reason that they started dating. She didn't know Karlheinz well in HDB and MB, so she didn't have any opinion about him, but in DF and CL, she called him out after Karl revealed how much of a jerk he is. It's not like she wouldn't have done that earlier if she had known the truth about him from the beginning—she called out Cordelia in the first game, after all.
However, I do think there are two particular scenes where they tried to highlight some major (?) development.
One is from Ayato's MB route, when she acknowledged acting in a selfish manner and concentrating solely on her feeling rather than on Ayato too, who was also having difficulties. She came to the realization that Ayato isn't perfect, despite being cute and giving her pleasure, and learned to accept him for all of his good and bad traits.
The other one is from Laito’s LE route, in which Reiji tries to make her understand that not believing in your lover can be very painful and that it’s not okay talking like that behind his back.
The message itself was good but this is the type of forced character development I have mixed feelings about. They didn’t have to make Yui act like that because it only portrays her as the bad one here. Yui is the first person Laito has ever opened up to and she was well aware that Laito hates Karlheinz, so getting his powers would undoubtedly damage him, yet she kept failing to understand that, despite the fact that they’ve been dating for some months and should have known better. The scene in which she says that Laito knows everything about her, yet she knows nothing about him only makes her appear so foolish in order to generate conflict. Like… come on, how can the heroine claim such a thing after dating a guy for SIX games?? Plus, the reasons of Laito’s actions were OBVIOUS that not even Reiji could entirely put the blame on him based on his situation.
As for Ayato’s MB route, I can’t entirely put the blame on her; I mean… Ayato is super good-looking and could probably pull anyone, but I can’t comprehend how she failed to realize that he has negative traits too?? It should be crystal clear that nobody is perfect and that everyone has their own issues, so you can’t beg someone to consider you special if they don’t feel like it.
It would have been 10 times better if Rejet actually tried to overcome her weaknesses, instead of adding new flaws. No, writing the heroine to suddenly have a shallow or selfish mindset only to make her “become a better person after realizing her mistakes” was not needed at all. And it’s also not fun making a character learn the same lesson in more games.
Credit to: dialovers-translations on Tumblr
The best scene, in which they could have genuinely made her evolve as a person, was in Carla’s LE route, when she admitted wanting to help him and the ghouls. It would have been nice seeing Carla putting faith in her and giving her an important yet hard task. Seeing Yui try her best to do it right, even if she was struggling at first, would have been such a cute moment. But nope, they decided to push her aside instead.
Other than that, idk if becoming a masochist and less sane as in the beginning count as development, lol, but if it does then it works like that too.
I get that it’s an otome game and most people play it for the guys but I feel like the heroine deserves to have her own storyline where she discovers herself and improves. DL feels more like the Diaboys' journey than her own, which is ironic because she’s the HEROINE, and in her most recent appearance, Rejet literally described her as “Ayato’s lover” without even using her name. I don’t really think the developers care that much about her, otherwise I doubt they’d be ok with all her character inconsistencies.
Yui is my favorite heroine because I find her really cute and likeable, plus I relate to her, but I’m aware of the fact that a likeable character does not equal a good one. She’s your average early 2010s heroine, who could have been indeed better written but serves her purpose, which is still good.
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Yesterday I watched Data's Day and it made me cry and I need to talk about it.
First of all I love that it was lowkey a slice of life episode? Like Data is just describing his normal day and some crazy stuff happens as usual on the Enterprise but it's also just like. The crew hanging out. I especially love his conversation with Worf about what wedding present to buy because it's just so normal? Everyday? And just seeing his casual friendships with everyone? And they all love each other? I love the whole tng crew so much.
Anyway, what made me really emotional was how much I related to Data as an autistic person and I know people talk about this all the time but I'M GONNA TALK ABOUT IT AGAIN FOR MYSELF.
Right in the beginning of the episode he talks about how he used to have trouble maintaining friendships but now that he's become better at predicting other people's emotions he's become able to form friendships. And just. The whole ordeal of having to take years and years to LEARN TO MAKE FRIENDS when it seems to come so naturally to everyone else, when it seems like something that should just be easy. Yeah. But then also the absolute joy when you succeed! When you think ah yes I've finally learned to understand others enough, to do the correct analyses, to make the correct predictions, I can finally make friends! And Data is so pleased with himself just like I have been the past couple years. And the thing is! He makes mistakes still in predicting emotions! But his friends forgive him and help him understand! And it's just so??? Oh my god the happiness that comes with being accepted despite your flaws, despite who you are and what you can't change about yourself. With being reminded that you still deserve friendship and a special place in people's lives even when you make mistakes. Because even though he upsets Keiko by trying to change her mind about the wedding she forgives him and still lets him act as "the father of the bride" because she still loves him! Everyone does! Because he's so sincere! Oh my god I love Data so much-
But the thing that made me cry was one little moment when they suddenly redirect their course towards the neutral zone and Data says it's a good thing his duties can't be interrupted by emotions such as the uneasiness he might feel about such a change to the course. While clearly exhibiting signs of being nervous like tapping his fingers and glancing behind himself at the drivers. And this is something about my experience of autism that I hardly ever see in fiction. Not only do I have trouble understanding the feelings of others, I have trouble identifying MY OWN FEELINGS. I have low body awareness so instead of feeling emotions in my body I have to engage with them intellectually which means I often can't tell that I'm experiencing an emotion even when people around me can. I saw another post a month or so ago talking about how Data probably has similar troubles because his emotions don't manifest physically the way they do for humans. And just. I've spent so long feeling like and being accused of being an unemotional person because I don't feel my emotions the way other people do, so to see this implication that Data DOES have emotions even when he himself doesn't always notice them is so lovely. Just because he or I don't always feel emotions physically, and must understand them intellectually, doesn't mean we are uncaring. It just means so much to see a character who thinks of himself as emotionless be portrayed as so gentle, kind, and loved.
And then the end of the episode- Data says he believes humanity is not an inherent quality but a way of thinking and something he can achieve. And that's so reassuring. Even if I'm not human now, maybe someday I will be. And even if I'm not human, even if I'm never human, I can still be good, I can still feel, I can still make friends, I can still be like Data.
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How to Fall in Love with Yourself and Attract your Soulmate.
We must give ourselves everything we need to be the best version of ourselves. A hard truth you must learn is that some people only want you when you are not loving yourself, some people only want you when you are toxic because that is what they are used to, they only want you when you are feeling not very confident, feeling insecure, low self esteem, needing external validation, when you beg for them and when you are not truly loving yourself. That makes it easy for them to disrespect you and use you. That makes more sense to them, than you being a healthy minded person with self respect and standards. If people want to deal with you then they have to understand you don't identify as the identity they assigned for you.
You must set high standards for yourself from the very beginning. "This is how I want to be treated and this is what I will accept." But my love, you must not disrespect yourself again even for that instant gratification. It's not worth it. Understandably, society has programmed you to feel shame about yourself in almost every aspect of yourself, never good enough, never whole as you are now ect. but it's a big lie, it's meant to take you off your higher path to keep you locked into the 3D matrix always searching outside of yourself for the love that's already within you. My love, when you catch yourself beating yourself up, stop become aware and say enough is enough. I love every flaw, every part of myself now as I am. I don't feel l need to fix myself. I need to love myself as I am now.
Never expect love from humans, who cannot even love themselves. Look to the higher dimensions for love if you truly need it when you cannot give it to yourself. Everything you need is within you. You just need the keys to unlock the doors to the house of your consciousness and your heart. You've been programmed to believe that you should just accept you'll never be good enough. Question everything forced down upon you. Why are they trying so hard to get you to do something when you are already whole, complete and perfect already? When you already have everything because everything you desire and need already exists. Your internal reality reflects your outside reality, just shift your perspective to already being that, to already having that desire. It can't change without you deciding. "I am simply deciding I am in love with myself. I am simply deciding I have 10,000 dollars ect." Everything else is a lie being sold to you to get you to question your worth and to get you to chase something outside of yourself.
False, illusion and you were also never taught in school, or in church, by society that if you want others to treat you a certain way, then you must first treat yourself the way that you want to be treated. That is the real reason why most relationships do not last. It's easy to say that these people hurt you are to blame and that they just need to become better people. But if we populate everyone in our reality, if we don't realize we have subconscious negative beliefs about men or women or relationships then we will never reprogram ourselves to attract healthy divine relationships with people who treat us with respect and love.
You've been mistreating yourself my love and seeing that lack of self love reflected back. There are hidden aspects of you that you rejected that are completely loveable, even spirit guides within you that you haven't met yet because you reject those parts of yourself. Unaware, unknowingly, unconsciously. We all have done it at some point. Unless your parents taught you self love from a young age and you never knew people walked around feeling unworthy and unwanted. The universe is a gigantic mirror, and it always reveals to you what’s going on inside of you, rather than what you want the world to think or see. For most of us we were taught that if you want love you have to give all of yourself and become a shell of yourself to receive a breadcrumb of love and acceptance. Lies. False. Illusion.
You are already whole, complete and perfect as you are now. Anything else you experience outside of you is just a bonus. Real love is equal give and take, it's an added bonus of the love that you already have for yourself. You will never need anyone to complete yourself. You can be happy forever single. It's true. If that's what you choose but you deserve people who love you. The golden rule is, treat yourself how you want to be treated. Be the love you want to receive. Be the partner you want to attract. Romance yourself. Hug yourself, kiss yourself, tell yourself everything you've longed to hear from another. Treat your body like you would a loved one, feed it, nurture it, water it, spend time with yourself alone. Gaze into your own eyes in the mirror and meet other versions of yourself in the mirror. Supplement and support yourself.
Tell yourself you will never settle for scraps again. This is your story, this is your life, and your book. You will respect yourself from now on and never settle for disrespect again. Disconnect from disrespect. See it neutrally, don't judge yourself for feeling upset. Then release and forgive yourself for creating the experience unknowingly. You were doing the best you could with the information you had. There's nothing wrong with you. It's not too late to flip the script and change the narrative. You know who you are. You know how they made you feel. They don't. They created a version of you they want you to be but you can be more creative and flip the script on them and be better than they could ever imagine.
But it's not about them. It's only about you, your self conception of yourself, how you view yourself, how you view others, how you view the world, how you define meaningless things, how you believe things will workout for you or don't ever workout for you, how you believe things about yourself and my love it's not selfish, it's wise to have self love and confidence. It's rebellious to love yourself in a world where we are programmed to hate ourselves. People must understand that you don't identify with the person they think that you are supposed to be. You are not the same person as you were yesterday.
Who you are at your core stays the same, but how you perceive yourself and the world changes everyday. You are a brand new person every single moment. You get to rewrite your story and write the story you prefer because you simply don't like the book that you were reading before. " Oh wait a minute I forgot. I'm in a library, let me put this book down and pick up the book of my heart." That is the story that you prefer, isn't it?
So, all you have to do is reprogram yourself to attract what you prefer. All of your beliefs are meaningless so you can erase them and delete them at any moment. You do that by embodying who you want to attract, and you do that by changing your subconscious beliefs and shifting your vibration to match the frequency of your desires. " I only attract healthy minded genuine people. I am in amazing relationships with people who inspire me. I meet people who are who they say they are. I only attract Divine partnerships. I am surrounded by a superior support system. I only attract healthy, loving, genuine men and women." Ect. Your internal world reflects your outer reality. Your internal world reflects your outer reality. Your internal world reflects your outer reality.
You can say these affirmations as much as you want, the more you say them and believe them, the more they generate energy and the more powerful they become. Everything you desire wants you more. You always get what you want. You are more than worthy of everything you desire. You are a God or Goddess or however you identify. Whatever you want others to think and say about you, please think those thoughts and say those things to yourselves. You are nothing short of pure magic. You deserve to be confident in every situation. Abundance is what you are, so that means you will always have more than enough of what you need.
Whatever it is that you want, you can have as much of it as you want. Tell the Universe what you want to see reflected back to you. Say, "Show me Universe how unconditionally loved I am. " Because remember, if it has conditions it's not real love. It's fake. You are good enough alone as you are. You don't need another person to complete you. But you definitely deserve a loving partner if that is what you so wish and desire to have. You have so much more to give others when you first feel whole and complete in yourself my love. I love you. I believe in you. You are loved beyond measure by the Universe.
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The thing about Katherine is that I am really defensive of how she is in canon. Like, she is absolutely flawed but she’s also at most 18 (IMO), the daughter of a very selfish man and fundamentally a good person. And the way a lot of the criticism I see of her comes across is very “GIRL has FLAWS? she must be EVIL!” which is misogyny when all the boys get to be flawed without suddenly becoming supervillains. So when I’m talking about canon Katherine I’m very leave her alone, she isn’t perfect but she is a good person with the capacity to improve!!!
At the same time, all my headcanons about her as she gets older are not about her improving, they’re about her getting worse. I think Katherine absolutely could become a lovely person but I also think she’s a lot more interesting if she doesn’t. Katherine who manages to right her father’s wrongs on a journalistic-business level but just becomes him on a personal level.
She dedicates her journalism to workers’ rights after the strike and spends 30 years getting incredible at it. Then, when her brothers are trying to sell The New York World, she forces them hand it over to her and she doesn’t just save it, she makes it better than it ever was. She dedicates it to actually serving the working class and standing for the values it pretended to have when she was a child. On that level of how she uses her influence and her talents, she is better person than her father.
But towards the people she loves, she ends up just as bad as he was to her. The thing you need to know here is that while a lot of things about Pulitzer in Newsies are very inaccurate, he was absolutely a bad father. To quote James McGrath Morris: “He was so cruel to his children, unspeakably cruel.” In my head, Katherine in canon has some Pulitzer-esque traits deep down that she is self aware about and wants to not have. After she moves out, she does get better in how she treats people. For 11 years she’s learning how to express love in a way that people who aren’t her, her father and her siblings can actually understand. Pulitzer dies in 1911 and something breaks inside her and it’s just a downhill spiral into the Pulitzer-esque from then. She is nice to people who are further away from her but she slowly stops being able to express love to the people closest to her in un-Pulitzer ways. Those who knew her when she was younger, especially the older newsies, and her siblings, who are just like her, understand that this is what’s happening and that she loves them. But (in my headcanon she has one daughter, you don’t need the details) her daughter doesn’t really get it and feels exactly how Katherine did when she was younger.
This whole post is just me waffling about how interesting I find the idea of a Katherine who is doomed by the Pulitzer family generational trauma (which did exist)… but I really do find that idea so interesting, she’s so miserable to me :(
#katherine who could’ve have been so much better but doenst have it in her to break the curse i will always love you#even if no one else gets it :(#katherine plumber pulitzer my beloved#katherine plumber#katherine pulitzer#newsies#mercury posting
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My avatar tla hot take ACTUALLY UNPOPULAR and not just minority opinion is that Azula is a terrible addition to the series. On her own? Oh, her character was great, complex, etc. She is a queen, a great diva, wonderful villain, interesting, deserved a great redemption too (She is 14! A baby!) etc. She just would have suited a magic girl show, a horror movie (in the typical scary, powerful little girl fashion), or a darker, more mature show with more characters like her, meaning child prodigies, better.
Combined with the rest of the atlab story? Kinda makes me laugh. She is such a ridiculous addition that makes it obvious this is a kids’ show. When I first watched the show, Zuko's father and the fact he had branded him was such a serious “oh shit” moment. Like, that is a father whose expectations are truly ridiculously high. It was scary. I mean who could meet them?
Zuko, whether a villain or an anti-hero, was a special, unique character the first few episodes because he was intimately acquainted with the scary main villain in a way no one was.
Then comes Azula. Come at me to debunk me (I may not even try to argue because this is such a weird opinion in the fandom, for real I haven't heard it) but she feels like a writer self-insert. Not a little kid’s writer self-insert, mind you, she feels like a well-written, dark, and complex self-insert or oc written by a talented fic writer in her 30s with years of experience that may become an original writer someday, but an oc nonetheless.
Azula feels like “oh, Zuko could never live up to his evil father’s ideals? Oh here comes my oc Azula, despite being 2 years younger she is soo much better at firebending and does everything better, even being evil, she is the main villain’s golden child and sidekick! And the sister of the main antagonist who interacts with him constantly!” (oh isn't that so cool?) “oh shit wait she needs flaws otherwise she is a villain Sue, let's see.… perfectionism! Perfect flaw! and at the very end after needing a 2 against 1 setting to be defeated she has a mental breakdown, perfect!”
“But gifted children and prodigies exist!!” you may say. Yesss I knowww. She is both too dark of a concept and too corny for atla. I see the flaws and contradictions in the ~vibes~ Azula gives me, thank you anyway. But regardless of rationally being aware of this, the reveal that this powerful character that comes to replace Zuko in causing the gaang trouble (Because let's face it, the beginning of Zuko's redemption arc and needing an even bigger bad to replace him and shock the viewers by how much more dangerous/powerful they are is the whole reason for Azula’s existence) is his 14-year-old LITTLE sister is so… dorky and laughable for me personally. And not only because of her gender in case you come to attack me from that angle. Zuko's prodigy little brother would perhaps have been an even worse and more ridiculous big bad replacement (Girls being shorter is understandable, but with a little brother we would visually see how much Zuko would be able to beat him if this weren't a kids’ show with magic, it would be even harder to suspend my disbelief to). Like, I am sure the reasons I hate the concept are the very same reasons some others love it, but you are telling me that the one capable of fulfilling the evil child burner father's expectations is… simply some rando younger child? It is not that Ozai was a freak who wanted the impossible, it is just that Zuko wasn't it. It is corny, it is dumb. It is so obviously meant for kids. Thanks, I hate it.
Azula also combines in a very weird and bizarre way with Zuko's tragic origin story (Also it is just another source of angst that is completely unnecessary, that distracts from what his father did to him and never living up to his expectations or being too compassionate for his own good, now there is a little sibling in the way being better than him at everything). Call me crazy, but Zuko as an only child, or at least a child without crazy op YOUNGER siblings would have had a MUCH more interesting relationship with his father. Perhaps an even ANGSTIER and more complex relationship where his approval is just within reach but also not quite there. Where it seems conceivable and yet out of reach. Where Ozai is the type of abuser who gives him praise when he does something right just to tear him down mercilessly when he doesn't.
What Zuko has in canon with Ozai and Azula is also interesting, painful, and angsty, but it is “never be able to be this other random younger child who happens to be a prodigy so what is even the point of trying when dad always reminds me of how meh I am compared to her” instead of “never be able to be like my father who is putting all his hopes and that of his empire on me, who at times seems to care so much”. That last one is much more compelling for me personally for a character that ends up being the opposite of his father and learns being like him is not a good thing, it also gives Zuko a good, believable reason to keep trying to please his father: there is actually a chance, there is no one there who has already won the race. Oh my, his search for the Avatar would have made so much more sense without Azula why does Azuka exist in this universe whyy 😭
Don't get me wrong, the sibling rivalry and abusers putting children against each other, having a golden child and a scapegoat, is realistic in many families, but from a storytelling perspective I find it VERY whatever, MEH. Like, the moment Ozai burns Zuko would have been a much greater instance of utter betrayal and shock if Ozai actually acted at times like he had some hope in his son instead of being constantly comparing him to his sister. Now everytime I am made aware of what Ozai did to Zuko I am like “duh” what were you expecting, Zuko, baby? It is still evil as fuck, but no longer shocking or a wtf moment, it is just the boring, edgy and predictable culmination of Ozai already having a “better” child he prefers to succeed him, a total overkill, and in fact, knowing Ozai, he should have done so earlier or straight up had Zuko killed, it makes no sense he is still alive when Azula is a much better successor from his perspective. It means nothing and Zuko should of fing course be traumatized and emotionally and physically distraught by the damage done to him by his own father, but he should not longer logically be that shocked or struck dumb. From a fictional, storytelling perspective, for me personally, the moment loses a tiny bit of its power, at least from the betrayal-someone-who-should-care-for-you—hurting-you—instead aspect.
If I had been there to write the ~big worse bad before Ozai~ meant to replace Zuko as he begins his journey of redemption, I would have chosen something much more serious (I get “abused child soldier” is serious, duh, I just mean serious in a way that makes me fear for the gaang being faced not with a peer but with someone bigger and much more experienced, and not just distract myself with how horrible it is that a “father” makes a 14-year-old girl into a soldier for an invading army). I would have chosen an equally or even more powerful, ADULT, right-hand man (or woman) of Ozai. If it really had to be a sibling of Zuko, it would have been a brother or sister 5 years OLDER, and that is AT THE VERY LEAST, perhaps the son or daughter of a minor wife or concubine (To fix the issue of why they are not the heir and why Zuko could be jealous of their much better skills while at the same time still having a good reason to keep trying to earn their father's approval, which is that there is still time to learn and improve as the younger party, this could have also made Ursa more sympathetic since the “evil” sibling is no longer a child of hers that she emotionally neglected). This could also give the character depth in the sense that they hate the fact they have no claim to the throne despite being older and “better”. They could still care for Zuko while having a love hate relationship with them, a sibling rivalry, Ozai turning them against each other, same as Azula, without taking away from Zuko's interesting relationship with Ozai (I just want his urge to overpower his better sibling to come from a place of his father actually expecting him to do it and be mad he doesn't instead of just Ozai putting all his hopes on the other sibling and Zuko for some plot related reasons still wanting his father's impossible approval despite never being able to earn it because Azula is there, better at a younger age, is that too much to ask? Like at this point Zuko should be smart enough to see that firebending skills are inborn and related to ~fantasy-version-of-genetics~, he should logically have seen it is not his fault and stopped trying to be Ozai or Azula MUCH earlier).
So in summary, believe it or not, I like Azula. I like the whole child prodigy golden child psychologically groomed and abused by evil father angle and I would love a redemption arc for her. I just don't like her AS an atla character. I feel like she does a disservice to Zuko by even existing due to how complex and interesting yet overpowered she is, actually. She ruins his motivations imo. Ironically enough, Zuko does not do a disservice to her, he makes her more interesting because he is a warning of what could happen to her if she is not perfect, he makes her vulnerable. But here is the deal, this would work better if she was the protagonist.
Edit: I just realized it is not just Azula who does a disservice to Zuko's story, it is the whole “Ozai straight up hated the little fucker since birth and tried to kill him before as a child therefore what he did to him was not a consequence of Zuko being compassionate as fuck, Ozai might as well have been looking for an excuse”. It just cheapens it immensely.
Zuko caring for those soldiers still counts just as much (of fucking course), but it would have been more poignant story-wise for his suffering to have also be a direct consequence of his first signs of goodness + his father being an abuser pshyco and not just the latter + Ozai always hated him because Zuko is the good guy and his father’s empire is evil so we need a way to make the children see Zuko is good and not like the rest from the beginning in a painfully simple way by making Ozai inherently hate him or smt because abusers “loving” their children in fucked up ways is too complicated
#atla#atlab#anti azula#not really#this is not about what she does in world or her character but her character combined with that of others#also I had a hard time explaining my issues with her in the overall narrative#avatar the last airbender#this probably sounds written by pre banishment zuko lmao#but I stand by it#the gaang#this is more anti zuko than anything#like baby boy after that burn that should have been the end of his arc#there is no longer a compelling reason for him to keep trying#he just comes across as dumb#azula literally takes away his reason for trying to please his father#I hate the fact she was written in this show#she should have been in another story 😭#also I know Zuko's actions come from a place of trauma but bitch I am no psychiatrist#I want him to make sense too#atla critical#azula negative#azula critical#but aang is 12 and more powerful than everyone!!#shh he is the avatar#he gets a pass
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thoughts on the akutagawa and chuuya stage play scene? i've seen people say while it was harsh of chuuya to say, it was a reality/wake up call for akutagawa.
This is such a complicated thing to answer, because of everything that happens in da. It'll be a bit long.
If you ask me, I think its just how Chuuya is. He isn't this gentle calming presence people present him as, he's confrontational and rude and sucks at communication. As I keep saying about Dazai, Chuuya is a mentally unstable guy who has no concept of being open and vulnerable with people. He doesnt sit them down and talk to them. He is the aloof older brother who cares about you and tries but sort of sucks at pep talk so he just shoves you in the right direction but he'll be there to catch you if you fall. The softness people want from him? That's just not him.
In the da stageplay Chuuya tries to get Akutagawa to realise that Dazai is once again not the be all end all of his existence. That he doesnt need to fixate on getting his approval. The problem with Aku is that he has this idea of Dazai in his head and looks upto Dazai because he gave him and Gin a shot at life. Chuuya then tells Aku to go and kill Dazai because Dazai is directly involved with Shibusawa, note that Chuuya is well aware that Aku cannot actually kill him considering Aku's ability has seperated from him and Dazai is immune to the fog. Aku insists that that isnt true because Dazai wants to save the city not destroy it so clearly he cannot be working with the enemy. And then Chuuya laughs at him because Aku genuinely believes he knows Dazai better than Chuuya. I feel like the mission to kill Dazai is symbolic in that Aku needs to kill the desire to please Dazai, or atleast kill the idea of Dazai that he has in his head. Aku is putting Dazai on a pedestal, stripping him of all his faults. Except Chuuya (and the audience) knows that Dazai is infact involved with Shibusawa and was partly responsible for the events of da even if his end goal was good. Chuuya then tells Aku that he doesn't understand Dazai because there is a darkness inside Dazai that he refuses to see and is instead idealizing the guy as having flipped a switch and become a good person. (This darkness btw pops out whenever Dazai interacts with Aku even post defection since he is still cruel to him and instead of seeing this as a flaw in Dazai he sees it as his own personal failure). Finally Chuuya tells him that the reason Dazai probably doesn't acknowledge him is because he is just constantly running after Dazai to gain his approval and that he himself has never looked up to Dazai.
Again note that Aku knows that Dazai, despite their banter, acknowledges Chuuya as powerful and capable. Regardless of whether or not he is aware of the sheer intensity of their actual dynamic its kinda hard to act like people wouldn't have noticed how capable Dazai considers Chuuya. And Aku does look up to Chuuya as well.
And Chuuya then taunts him because Aku tries to attack Chuuya for mocking his obsession with Dazai. Aku then says he will fulfill the mission and promises to come after Chuuya next. He's finally been motivated to focus on himself instead of Dazai now. The thing here is that Chuuya is harsh. He is deliberately being harsh because Aku is so deep in his own head that he needs to be shaken up and needs reality to smack him in the face (think the dhc punch Dazai needed to snap out of his spiral). Dazai is not this perfect dude just because he left the mafia, Dazai's own demons (the darkness/monster within him) will always exist to a degree and that doesn't mean Dazai's mistreatment of Aku is due to a personal failure on Aku's end but rather a Dazai problem.
I think there is a general disconnect between Aku and Chuuya when it comes to Dazai. Chuuya usually doesnt make excuses for Dazai. He says it like it is. He knows Dazai is fully capable of doing good but he also acknowledges that Dazai has a darkness within him that sometimes guides him to do shit that is very much not okay. He doesn't see Dazai as a monster but he knows there is something messed up within him. Aku refuses to see that. Much like how Dazai refused to see the darkness within Oda and put him up on a pedestal.
I also think its important to consider that Chuuya doesn't actually want Aku to kill Dazai, its more just a symbolic speech and an attempt to get him to see sense, start acting like his own person rather than someone desperately seeking Dazai's attention. Especially cause Chuuya literally risks everything to save Dazai's life later.
And its just hilarious how people ignore the final part of their da stage play interaction. When Aku shows up where Chuuya is post fight he is still a bit pissy and its Chuuya who smiles and reaches out to him. And this time he is pretty gentle with him. Dazai has been saved, Yokohama is safe, Aku has proven his strength by focussing on himself, not Dazai, and getting back his ability.
Chuuya then jokes about how Aku still seems mad about Chuuya calling him weak and Aku pretends to brush it off. Chuuya then tells him that Aku was always a part of Dazai's plan against Shibusawa, aka Dazai relies on him and therefore does think him capable. When that doesnt do much he tells him that as Dazai's partner he knows Dazai approves of him despite not showing it. And even if Dazai didnt, Chuuya will always see him as capable.
Dazai and Chuuya are not opposites. They understand each other because they are that similar. Just because Dazai was a shitty and extremely harsh mentor doesn't mean Chuuya would be the ideal mom figure. Chuuya is also harsh and sucks at communicating and just as much of a mystery.
#i need to add here#stage actors will always use a stronger tone and exaggerated gestures because they are stage actors#hence certaing actions will be a bit more overt than what you see in a movie/anime or in a manga/nove#novel*
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PROPAGANDA
Rose Quartz
It’s all “more morally grey women in media!” but when the mom from the space rocks singing and crying show turns out to not be the saint she was made out to be in the early seasons, suddenly she’s The Real Villain Of the Show and a Bitch and all the good she did in liberating the gems and saving the earth is completely erased. Yes! She was a diamond! She did some evil shit without understanding the consequences! She was once entitled and bratty and unempathetic. She got a lot of people hurt! But she also gave all our gems their freedom! She gave up her status and family and slowly tried to fix all the damage the diamonds had caused. She didn’t have Steven as a means to escape her past, she had Steven because she saw in humans everything she always wanted to be- something free and forever changing. You are allowed to not forgive her but claiming her to be inherently evil even after all she went through is flat out wrong. Imo you all just cant handle a bbw.
So many people absolutely DESPISE Rose Quartz. The show showed her character arc in reverse order, and when the show started, she was seen as this perfect being who was wise and kind and a rebel hero and utterly flawless. But then we find out that she wasn't perfect, and she was one of the tyrannical Diamonds the show has as the main antagonists. She used to be a spoiled brat who threw tantrums, hurt one of her servants, and left her friend/plaything Spinel to stand in a garden for thousands of years. She discovered the beauty of earth and rebelled to save it from being destroyed, even faking the death of her Pink Diamond identity so the rebellion could win. She works her entire life to change and become a better person from who she was. Ultimately she gives up her gem and life so Steven could live before the show begins, and the show has Steven gradually learning about her. She is often hated and seen as a villain and worse than the other Diamonds, who are genocidal tyrants until the very end of the show.
Steven Universe shows Pink Diamond’s arc in reverse. At the beginning of the show, all the characters see Rose as this great hero, this perfect unimpeachable goddess, and over the course of the show we learn that this is a lie — Rose was just as flawed as anyone else, in many was immature, lied to all of her closest friends, was at times very cruel to her loved ones, and spent most of her life unlearning the privilege and entitlement and cruelty which her youth taught her. The last things we learn about Pink Diamond (her abandonment of spinel, her treatment of volleyball) are perhaps the worst things she ever does. But these are also some of the *earliest* things she ever does — this is where she STARTS, and we see in the show that Pink spends a lot of time trying not to be the person who did those things, even if she never undoes them, so that by the end of her life she’s far from perfect but is also in many many important ways not that person. Her decision to become Rose Quartz is in part an attempt to remake herself, to *not be* the childish, callously cruel pink diamond she is meant to be. And rose quartz *is* kind, and works to be good, but she cannot truly stop being that person. In the end, I think we are meant to understand that Rose Quartz decided to become Steven because she wanted to grow and improve in a way she felt that she couldn’t — she KNOWS that she isn’t a good person and can never truly be a good person, so she destroys herself so that Steven can be the good person she can’t be. And her decision to bring steven into the world caused a lot of pain, and maybe it was selfish, but it’s also a fascinating expression of Rose’s self-awareness about her own flaws!!!! I love Rose/Pink for how flawed she is and how much she tries not to be flawed. Anyway a large portion of the SU fandom thinks Pink Diamond is an irredeemable monster. So that’s cool.
Chara Dreemur
There's a lot of bias against Chara for appearing at the end of the Genocide Route, but there's so much more to them than "I want to murder everyone". They're a kid!! They made mistakes and they felt bad for them, and now they're stuck following the player and watching their every move... The fandom misrepresents them very badly imo
Somehow people forgive Asriel for everything he's done as a soulless being after his death, but when it comes to Chara, it's like they're the devil incarnate.
Chara is a character commonly seen as guilty for the genocide run or harmless disregarding them only appearing at the end and posioning Asgore
Poor kid called themselves a demon ONE TIME and then got misrepresented so badly as immoral killer with no sympathy
People constantly blame them for the worst ending of the game, even though the entire point of the game is that the player has a the opportunity to choose senseless violence and that it is the player's fault for killing the characters. They are a troubled child, and while they do some bad things, like taking the player's violent example at the end, most of what the fandom pins on them is in the hands of the player.
#misrepresented morally grey#round 2#bracket b#steven universe#rose quartz#pink diamond#undertale#chara dreemur
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I put off watching it for a while because I was pretty sure I was going to have this reaction. But now that I've bitten the bullet, I'm sorry: the Strange New Worlds musical episode is bad. It's bad as a Star Trek story, it's bad as part of the Strange New Worlds story, and it's bad as a musical.
To start with, I think it's time to admit that the musical episode concept is pretty depleted. "Once More, With Feeling" was more than twenty years ago, and what was once fresh and shocking now feels almost rote. Very few shows really manage to earn it, because they don't have to - the musical episode of a non-musical show is an established trope, which means the very thing that made it so groundbreaking is now gone.
But it's specifically a bad fit for Star Trek, not because it can't justify the concept - there's honestly no daylight between Buffy's "a demon who makes people sing and dance" and SNW's "subspace anomaly pulls us into a universe where people habitually break into song" - but because that kind of fourth-wall-breaking, genre-aware storytelling doesn't belong in Star Trek (or, at the very least, it belongs in something a lot more heightened like Lower Decks).
Star Trek isn't knowing. It isn't genre-savvy. Star Trek is earnest. And it takes its world seriously and treats it like something coherent in its own right, not something you can poke holes in and peek into our own universe from. When it comes down to it, the core flaw of all NuTrek shows is that they're often less concerned with being Star Trek, the story, and more interested in being about Star Trek, the franchise.
Strange New Worlds is an odd duck in this respect, because there are parts of it that so clearly understand Star Trek, the story, and are so clearly interested in expanding it, that I can't help but fall in love. Episodes like "Spock Amok", "A Quality of Mercy", and "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" do such a great job of slotting into the existing story while making it their own (though I could wish the show was better at telling original stories). I'm especially wowed by how they're handling Kirk, who is such a smart, non-sensational take on the character while still having all the recognizable flaws and quirks of the original.
But it's also a show that thinks breaking the fourth wall is the height of sophistication, that is more than willing to comment on its storyness in a way that runs completely counter to its Star Trek-ness. You see this in episodes like "The Elysian Kingdom", "Those Old Scientists", and now "Subspace Rhapsody". And if the first two of those at least had a Star Trek link - "Elysian Kingdom" is essentially a holodeck episode (even if it isn't as good as any of them), and "Those Old Scientists" is obviously all about Star Trek (even if, like so many media franchises these days, it collapses living in the Star Trek universe into being a Star Trek fan). But "Subspace Rhapsody" is just a gimmick, fundamentally no different from similar episodes on Lucifer or Grey's Anatomy or The Flash.
And worst of all, it's a bad musical. One effect of the fact that this trope has become so familiar is that it has created an sideline for talented songwriters who can knock out an episode like this without putting much personality or style into it, just hitting the required beats. There's got to be a power ballad. There's got to be a comedy song. There's got to be a kicky saloon number and a big finale. "Subspace Rhapsody" feels like the nadir of that cottage industry's output. The songs are all generic. The lyrics are forgettable while you're listening to them. There's no unified theme or style, because the point isn't to be a musical. It's to convey a general sense of musical-ness. Beyond the novelty value of a Star Trek musical - which, as noted, is pretty degraded in 2023 - there's nothing here of artistic merit, much less something that feels uniquely like a Star Trek musical.
(Case in point: the Klingons. Having them do boy band music is a joke that's funny for the audience, probably means nothing to the characters, and most importantly, does not make sense within Star Trek. Of course Klingons would sing - they would sing opera.)
As if to add insult to injury, the biggest character development in the episode - which is also driven by the only memorable song - feels baffling, and ends up shortchanging a relationship that the show has been trying to get us to invest in for more than ten episodes. Spock and Chapel got together at the end of episode 6, had a crisis in episode 8, and are now, in episode 9, breaking up for another, unrelated reason. Seems like a better use of everyone's time might have been to let these characters and their relationship develop organically, rather than informing us, through song, that Chapel has suddenly decided to prioritize her career (by, um, leaving Enterprise for so short a period that most couples wouldn't even consider it a major relationship challenge). Are we meant to understand that something deeper was wrong, and that the internship has brought it to light? If so, why haven't we seen it? It's hard not to feel that the musical was being used as a shorthand for emotional development the show didn't feel equipped to deliver, which is only one more way in which it underserves the show.
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Ochako is NOT intended to be the REAL love interest of the story
Chapter 348 clearly told us that Ochako was NOT meant to be the true 'love interest' of this story.
Narratively speaking, Chapter 348 is very fascinating and very important because it helps us clarify what the character of Ochako Uraraka is supposed to represent thematically and what is the true role it has been designed to occupy in the series.
And the key to understand everything that is going on with Ochako?
Her antagonist: Himiko Toga.
Remember when Horikoshi said he created Toga specifically for Ochako?
Well, I truly believe that Toga was created to indirectly help Ochako find her true self and her true path in life; a path that does NOT directly involve Izuku.
The way Toga's presence is utilized by Horikoshi in chapter 348 is genius, and gives us a great insight into who Ochako Uraraka really is and what is the true nature of her feelings towards Deku.
How?
I'll try to explain it as concisely as I can.
You see, in a well written story, any character's primary antagonist is always crafted to be the key to make said character become fully aware of their weaknesses and limitations.
An especially effective technique that an author can use, is to have the antagonist be a symbolic and exaggerated personification of the darker aspects of the character's true self.
This is an excellent way to do it, and it is exactly what Horikoshi has chosen to do with Toga in regards to Ochako.
Because when a morally righteous character is too scared to accept their darker sides and flaws, a good solution is to shove the personified version of all of that in their way in the form of an enemy they just can't avoid to face.
This is why Ochako has been unable to stop thinking about Toga.
Because of everything we explained so far, it's obvious that we need to take take a closer look at Toga to uncover the more hidden layers of Ochako Uraraka's character.
Taking a good look at Toga's most important characteristics, in fact, we get a much better picture of who Ochako really is as a character.
By doing that, we immediately get a big clue that Ochako's weaknesses and limitations as a person (and as a character), all revolve around the concept of self-worth and self-identity. Along with the fact that these are, of course, evidently intrinsically linked to her 'crush' on Izuku.
The fact that Toga has: 1) a quirk that makes her transform into someone else and become the exact copy of them, 2) believes that the epitome of romantic love is being able to straight up become the one you love, and 3) Is 'in love' with Izuku Midoriya, and wants to literally become him, is NOT a random coincidence.
As Horikoshi said, Toga was specifically created to be the way she is for Ochako, to serve a specific purpose in regards to her character.
He created an antagonist for her with clear the intent of shining a light on what Ochako's limitations are as a hero and as a person and what she needs to acknowledge and overcome to grow and develop into a better version of herself.
And yes, from the closer look we just took, it appears obvious that her 'crush' for Izuku is effectively portrayed in the narrative as one of these limitations.
The story is explicitly suggesting that this crush was born as a result of a deep-rooted sense of insecurity, and that it was the result of Ochako needing to find someone close to her to set a relatively achievable ideal for what she wanted to become, rather than anything else.
By indulging in the illusion that her feelings are to attribute to a mere high school crush, Ochako doesn't have to confront the much more nuanced and complex issues of self-identity and self-worth, which are clearly at the root of the problem. But clinging to this illusion is obviously very detrimental as it impedes her to acknowledge the real problem and therefore get an actual chance to fix it.
The narrative Horikoshi expertly crafted, already implicitly promises the reader that the character of Ochako Uraraka will eventually let go of this illusion to get her chance to grow as a character.
Everything has already been set up for that to happen at a certain point in the future.
Ochako being with Izuku would not be a positive resolution, given all of the elements that have already been set in place.
Because the story itself by the manner in which it was constructed, already depicts and condemns this example of romantic love as inherently flawed.
Because Ochako doesn't want to be with Izuku she wants to be Izuku.
This is what has repeatedly been hinted, through the long list of Ochako's interactions with Toga and their subtext,
And the the story implicitly condems this.
The author in fact, implcitly informs us that this is NOT what true love should be like by making of Toga Himiko (an antagonist and an unstable psychopathic killer) the main proponent of this love philosophy in the story.
The message he wants to send is very clear.
The more it goes on,the more this story seems to hint that, true and healthy love is about two different people reconciling differences and uniting together in equilibrium to form a new, better whole. Not about idealising someone and striving to literally become them to fullfill a selfish need.
Which is why, I believe that it is no coincidence that we are shown Ochako finding her independence and true self at the same time that we get to see Deku and Bakugou's developing relationship becoming the central axe around which the entire last arc revolves.
This is ALL too well constructed to be 'just coincidence', this seems a well-designed resolution by a talented author, who's well-versed in the art of storytelling.
So, should we dare to hope to see My Hero Academia do something revolutionary with its ending despite knowing it is a Shonen manga from Shonen Jump?
The narrative is definitely pointing in a very interesting direction right now and Horikoshi is a very modern writer, but the fact that it is published by a magazine like Shonen Jump (which has always been fond of traditional manga endings) makes me wonder if something like this is really possible.
It would be extremely exciting if until now Horikoshi had used common Shonen manga tropes to hide his true plans for the ending of the story.
As someone who analyzed stories for years, let me tell you that I am seeing signs of this in all of the most recent developments, and it is very interesting.
I like Ochako as a character and I would love to see her maturely get over her 'crush' on Izuku, and develop into a character that has her own identity and a role that is different from that of the hero's girlfriend.
(Especially if I can simultaneously get to see Horikoshi leave enough well-placed hints to suggest that the true love story of the series has indeed always been that between Deku and Bakugou, which is looking more and more like it was intended to be the real romantic bond at the heart of the series ).
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Defending the Pink Princesses with Grey Mortality:
Some people like to give Princess Bubblegum and Rose Quartz such a hard time.
But why on earth is that?
Sure, they did morally messed up things, but so did the other characters in their shows.
So, why are these pink ladies given the most grief over their mistakes?
I think I know why.
It's because people expect them both to be perfect.
But the sad truth is that nobody is perfect, not even our favorite characters.
But I also understand that learning the characters you like ended up doing messed up things can mess with your own head.
Princess Bubblegum was originally Finn's love interest (even though Finn is 12 and she's 18... why?) and she was a sweet person, despite some of her mad scientist quirks.
But when Finn got a new love interest (Flame Princess), the writers decided to change Bubblegum's personality quite a bit.
They slowly made Bubblegum into a control freak that spies on everyone and she isn't quite as warm as she used to be.
...Yeah, even I didn't like that the writers did to her sometimes.
But to be fair, the fantasy world that they live in is a dangerous place (in even rains swords sometimes) and the candy people are literally at the bottom of the food chain. Most of the candy people are not the brightest people, with only a select few actually being smart (like Peppermint Butler). Also, candy people explode when they get too scared.
It's no wonder she's so viciously overprotective and controlling.
She also had no true parents and basically raised herself and her brother, so she doesn't know better about certain things.
And unlike others shows that would most likely sugarcoat or ignore a main character's flaws and mistakes, some of the other characters are aware of how messed up Bubblegum has become.
Later on, Bubblegum gets called out for her mistakes a few times and she even get punished when she temporarily loses her kingdom.
And when she gets it back, she gets better and less controlling.
You gotta give her credit for that.
She isn't perfect, she makes mistakes, but she's trying to improve herself for all her loved ones.
At the end of the day, she just wants to protect her people and the kingdom that she created, because their world is a silly yet dangerous place and most of her kingdom is dim-witted.
Meanwhile, Rose Quartz aka Pink Diamond was originally seen as Steven's perfect heroic deceased mother that everyone in his family loved.
But like Bubblegum, her flaws and mistakes are slowly revealed to us, showing us that she's not as perfect as her loved ones think she is.
She is smart, but not very wise.
She doesn't think about how certain choices can cause possible consequences in the future.
She also has a tendency to ditch people (Diamonds, Crystal Gems, Spinel) and keep secrets from them.
Steven even begins to kinda resent her.
Especially after the Pink Diamond plot twist.
Which I'm not a big fan of.
But to be fair, she was raised and surrounded by evil gems.
So, it makes sense that she's not the most moral or wisest person sometimes.
I'm just saying that considering her messed-up life before coming to Earth and how she was raised, she could have turned out a lot worse.
At the end of the day, she did save the Earth and wanted to protect the humans.
Plus, she's already technically dead, so there's not much that can be done about her anyway.
And I think that the true reason Rose had Steven at the cost of her life is so that the Crystal Gems can finally have a proper bond with a human being and understand why Rose cares about them.
Because the Crystal Gems didn't have any actual human friendships, before Steven arrived (except maybe Amethyst).
They protected the Earth because that's what Rose wanted.
But Steven helped the Gems finally connect with humanity.
Both pink ladies have done horrible things, but they've also done wonderful things as well... Shouldn't that count for something?
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