Latest Posts by kroltheprotocol - Page 7

Are fedoras really that bad?

YES YES THEY ARE

⚠️Heartbreaking Encanto Realisation ⚠️

So I was rewatching the music video to Dos Orugitas when I noticed something.

We all know that each family members room (with the exception of Mirabel) is unique to them and their likings. Antonio likes animals and his room is a jungle. Isabella likes plants and her room is a garden and so on and so forth.

Well…………look at Abuleas

It looks just like the one her and Pedro shared in their old home!

It’s not big and spectacular like the others. It’s small and simple and reminiscent of the life she once had. A small bit of familiarity, where after a long day of duties and responsibilities she can go back in time to the life she once had. When she didn’t have an entire town depending on her. When she didn’t know miracles existed because she never needed one. When she was just a young girl living in a small boring completely ordinary house with her loving husband and beautiful children.

Because THAT is what she likes most.

I just realised yet another little detail that symbolises so much in the story!

During Dos Orugitas, we see a young Alma Madrigal that seemed to be cheerful, playful and even a little clumsy. The braided hair, the frilly dress and the big smiles help create an image of her as a sweet, carefree young woman who was not afraid to just be herself.

Once the tragedy with Pedro happens and the miracle is born, Alma immediately takes shelter in casita and we see her alone, silently processing the events of the evening; looking extremely weary, lonely and traumatised. She looks down at her babies. Her Julieta, her Pepa and her Brunito, and her expression changes. She knows she needs to be strong for them. She’s resolute, but there’s a sadness in her eyes that says she knows what this means for her, too. She can never go back to the woman she used to be.

The next time we see Alma, she is putting on a black cloak and leaving the room. This room was the cocoon where she transformed into a new person, leaving her old self behind. She’s become different. Her smile doesn’t quite meet her eyes anymore. She looks tired, somber. Older, even.

There’s a shadow, a trauma she’s carrying that soon takes form in the perfectionism and control that eventually hurt her loved ones. This event shapes the way she deals with challenges from this moment on, and she is always in fear of the family losing their home once again.

She became harsh. Strict. Everything has to be perfect in order to protect and earn the miracle the love of her life granted their family with his noble sacrifice.

This is an incredibly strong woman who has been through hell and came out alive, for her family’s sake. This black cloak follows her from her young years to her old age, and becomes a constant throughout the movie. It represents the weight and the burden of the grief she silently carried ever since that moment, and will continue to carry for the rest of her life. It represents the change she had to go through, putting her emotions last in order to become the strong matriarch her kids and the village needed. It represents the loss of not only her beloved Pedro, but also of her innocence, her youth, her laughter and her smile.

From the moment young Alma Madrigal and her children were gifted a miracle, she became the one responsible for the whole village. She, as the only one blessed with the magic and the one whose gift repelled the enemies, was naturally placed in a position of power and leadership in the worst moment of her life.

It’s likely she was the one everyone immediately looked to for directions right after the miracle happened, and that she had to leave her feelings behind to help other lost and grieving people rebuild their lives and their homes, creating what the village of Encanto eventually became. She put everyone else first. She was extremely selfless.

Alma Madrigal is such a complex character. There are so many layers to her personality. This is why you guys can’t just write her off as a villain or as a horrible person/grandmother. It’s not so black and white.

Okay, I’ve been bingeing the Jesus show and I love it. I’m Christian but not usually a fan of Christian media because it’s often poorly done. But The Chosen is as good as anything I’ve ever seen. Acting, cinematography, everything.

- As far as possible, no one is whitewashed. Jesus himself looks VERY Middle Eastern.

- Jesus is very human and approachable.

- All of the “Follow me” scenes give chills.

- All of the disciples have backstory and personality. Creative liberty, but all are plausible and conform to what we know from the Bible. (ex. Nathaniel, whom Jesus called “an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile” is always overly honest, Simon Peter has obvious natural charisma but he struggles with understanding Jesus’ way of doing things, John the Baptist is a total wild man and apologizes to no one for it.)

- Matthew the tax collector is autistic and it’s well-done and makes so much sense in context.

- The Romans and Pharisees are just as diverse in personality and motivations as the protagonists. Gaius, Matthew’s Roman protector, pretends to hate him but is low-key a concerned dad.

- Gaius trying to make small talk with Matthew. “Did you see those Parthenian footraces?”

- Matthew’s dog.

- There is just as much emphasis on the experience of the women as the men. Several of them have trauma from the Roman occupation or their patriarchal societies in general, and that isn’t ignored, but it isn’t the focus of their character development either. And they get along (far better than the men, actually); there are no silly catfights as an excuse for drama. 

- Mary Magdalene is a total badass. I don’t know how else to describe her. I guess if you’re used to having demons in your head there isn’t much you can’t handle.

- Philip is so wise and capable, but also a total hippie from being John’s disciple.

- Simon the Zealot’s backstory. The Zealots were sort of anti-Roman terrorists. (And it is hard to blame them.) There’s this cool spy interplay going on between him and a Roman secret police agent.

- The sibling dynamics between Simon/Andrew and James/John.

- Nicodemus wants so badly to follow Jesus but is unable to pull himself away from his obligations. Sob.

- So many jokes:

- Everyone constantly throws shade on Jesus for being from Nazareth.

- Simon Peter can’t run.

- Thomas is secretly in love with his business partner and absolutely everyone knows about it.

You absolutely don’t have to be Christian to understand and enjoy it. But if you do know the Bible and/or Jewish culture well, it’s neat to see how they incorporate details.

@kroltheprotocol

ohO now THERE YOU GO

And you know what happens when Callan first says it? In Brutus's arms, reaching up eagerly towards his father's face?

Brutus choked, hearing the word spoken from his small child, who stared up at him expectantly, as if waiting to be told if he used the right word. Surely... Surely that wasn't his first word. He must have spoken before, said something else before this... it can't possibly be...

But no, no if that were the case, you would have told him. He knows you. You would have called him over excitedly, telling you that your precious baby had just spoken his first word. And if you hadn't done that, then it must mean...

Brutus offered Callan his hand, placing his fingers within Cal's reach, which he grabbed gladly and pulled down to his face. He inspected Brutus's hand intently, lifting each individual finger.

"Mm... Dada," he said more confidently, frowning in certainty that the word was correct.

Again... He said it again... Brutus watched Callan, who barely paid any mind to his father's face, for once holding something other than a vague scowl. This time, it was wide-eyed, amazed, almost... sad.

"Callan..." he whispered, "Fas'zel..."

It was at that name that Callan looked up. Of course he would, just like his stubborn father.

His thumb rubbed at Callan’s soft hands, pressing their foreheads together carefully, feeling where tiny horns had already begun to grow. Brutus was never one to cry, but if he had then, if small tears had begun to prick at the corners of his eyes, not a single person would know of it.

"You're doing well, Fas'zel..." he whispered once more, "You're doin' just fine."

Hades has become a meme - number 2

Folks, friends, y’all…. esk*mo is a slur. I understand a lot of people don’t know that, I don’t want to be a dick about it, but I’ve been seeing it in fics. Wanna write “esk*mo kisses”? Just say “nuzzled noses” or something.

I’m not here to call anybody out, it’s been in multiple fics, I’m not vague posting. This is just a psa. 👍🏻

let's talk about lily evans and the marauders, aka moony, wormtail, padfoot and prongs. given that i didn't use their actual names, i think you can figure out where this is going. it's also long as hell, so. canon vs fanon, marauder edition, except snek is sleep deprived.

now, before we begin, i don't dislike the marauders. or lily, tbh. if I'm being perfectly, genuinely honest, i still go back and forth sometimes but they've been growing on me for a while now. the canon versions, at least. fanon does them real dirty, and that's part of why i'm writing this, because i'm genuinely tired of it. it's an injustice.

you can at least make excuses for james and lily, who were so undeveloped that jkr practically dropped a fill-in-the-blank sheet of character information in our laps, but sirius, remus and peter were around long enough for y'all to get real acquainted with them.

in canon, sirius black is an unhinged mf. genuinely. this isn't to say he's a bad guy, in fact, we see that he's still capable of doing good things, still capable of love, still capable of all the things that prove he's actually not bad at heart, just,,, severely traumatised and very steeped in negativity from his time with the dementors. what i'm saying is that this man is absolutely, no questions asked, no holds barred demented, and how could he not be? the guy sat wrongfully imprisoned in azkaban for twelve years, a good portion of which he spent as a dog in order to protect himself from the dementors. he certainly wasn't completely insane, but you cannot tell me that he was all there. he got out of azkaban fuelled almost solely by the intent to get revenge on pettigrew, tried to commit murder in front of three witnesses who were also children—one of whom was his godson—ate rats and was also malnourished, which i'm certain did not help the situation any. this man is off his goddamn rocker, and you know what? you love to see it. good for him.

oh, but, snek, that's what he's like as an adult. what about when they were at school? before azkaban? my guy, the reaction he has to grimmauld place is not the reaction of someone without trauma. i don't believe that walburga and orion were the type to physically abuse their children, but whatever happened in that house helped to fuck him up enough that he skipped the joke of part of practical joke, and pranked snape by telling him how to meet a werewolf that he knew would be fully transformed and dangerous to humans. more than that, the werewolf was remus, whom he's friends with, and who—best case scenario—would be facing a trial if james hadn't stepped in. you can say that maybe he didn't think about or understand the gravitas of his actions, but at the end of it, that's not how properly sane people react to people they dislike, and that's not how they treat their friends. if anything, it reads like he was in the middle of a breakdown and absolutely losing his shit and he wasn't thinking at all.

my guy went through some serious shit, and was in no way completely mentally stable. we can see pretty clearly that he's got a serious dark side to him that probably would have gone unbridled had he not disagreed with his family, and yet, fanon took one look at him and went, "teehee, uwu bad boi go vroom."

fanon said padfoot is a pretty boy with nice hair who is tastefully traumatised from his horribly abusive household. sirius rides his motorcycle and plays jokes and flirts with anything that moves, but he can do no real wrong and always comes back to his soft, bookish, chocolate-loving boyfriend remus, who will laugh about his lycanthropy and quietly disapprove but secretly laugh at his friends' antics while hiding his smile in his cardigan.

respectfully, what in the absolute fuck.

i'd put that meme in here if i could, the one that's like, "well done, you've broken _______ down to its bare essentials," but no. i can't bc it doesn't even apply. this isn't a meme, it's theseus' fucking ship.

fanon broke it down, and replaced the pieces one by one until we got to this point, where we need to sit down and ask ourselves, "is this even the same character?"

the answer is no, by the way. it isn't. when people talk about woobifying characters—you know, taking away every flaw they have, romanticising everything they do and making them only capable of doing good, wonderful, lovely things?—this is what we mean.

and it'd be one thing if it was just the one character, but, no. fanon went all in and made them all squeaky clean and boring, especially peter, who draws the shortest of the straws.

remus got fucked, too. not just because fanon insists on sticking him into a relationship with sirius. which, we'll tackle wolfstar in a bit, but that's not even the worst of it. here, we have yet another example of blatant, rampant woobifying. again, is he a bad person? no. we know he's a good guy, we know he's generally kind and well-mannered, we know that he wants to fo the right thing but hey, fun fact. did you know that you can be nice and a coward? did you know that you can be benevolent and good and kindly and have the greatest of intentions and still be shady as fuck? no? ask dumbledore. the man played people like chess pieces when he needed to, and he was a twinkly grandpa. these are things that can coexist.

teenage remus is a coward who, understandably, does not stand up to his friends, likely for fear of being ostracised, and doesn't uphold his prefect duties as he should and takes part in their bullying of snape as a result. he lets them romp with him in werewolf form while they are in their animagus forms and then, he lets them continue to do so even after they have multiple close calls, which, again, had anything happened, would have resulted in a trial in the best case scenario.

grownup remus is still a coward, he tells no one that sirius can move about the school in his animagus form despite wholeheartedly believing that he's a mass murderer, he tries to run out on his wife and unborn kid. he isn't deliberately making attempts to harm anyone, but he's content to sit back and let things happen to him and around him so he doesn't rock the boat, although he is capable of action, which we see when he is more than willing to help sirius merk pettigrew in the shack. he can be careless, he runs out to the shack knowing he hasn't taken his wolfsbane and ends up transforming in front of the students he, as a teacher, is meant to be protecting. of course, this doesn't negate his good qualities, it just bears repeating that his flaws do exist, and they're pretty serious.

fanon moony is always pleasant and kind and soft-spoken and bookish, and he always has to have his chocolate. he knows when to tell off his friends, and he'll do it, even if he's secretly amused by everything they do and laughs about it with his best friend, lily evans, who coincidentally spends all her time with them so he and sirius can go on double dates with james and lily and no one has to remember peter exists.

why. theseus' ship 2.0. does the actual character still exist or is this something entirely different thing bearing the same name?

as for peter, who needs peter pettigrew, the actual, legitimate, fourth marauder when you have lily evans? canon pettigrew is opportunistic as fuck. he's latching himself to the biggest bad on the block and he's going all in. for teenage peter, that was james and sirius, and for adult peter, that's voldemort. canon peter is good enough at transfiguration to master the animagus transformation, just like his friends, and he's good enough at potions to brew the potion that gives voldemort a body. and honestly, you can't say he wasn't brave. he could've run off somewhere and died, or changed his identity or something after he faked his death and framed sirius, but, no. he goes and resurrects voldemort. that's fucked up, yeah, but it happened and honestly, i respect that it. he stuck to his guns.

fanon wormtail is lucky if he exists beyond being a spineless sycophant for james and sirius, or an evil conniving little rat who's looking to toss his entire friend group to the wolves at eleven.

of course, this isn't meant to negate his bad qualities, he still murdered people and framed sirius and sold out the potters to die, but his good characteristics do exist, and james, sirius and remus genuinely were his friends.

and now, we get to lily and james.

we have hardly any information on either of them. they're a pair of cardboard cutouts that we can paint and stick flyers to and colour outside the lines however we want. we can do whatever the fuck, as long lily is brave and smart and somewhat kind and james is brave and willing to die for his family. we were essentially handed a pair of ocs.

and yet.

what little bits of canon we have are thrown out of the window regardless.

james is privileged and rich, and he throws hexes for fun. he's willing to hex lily when she disagrees with him, and then, he goes behind her back to continue hexing snape after she believes that he's stopped doing so. and that's all we know about him until he dies for his family at twenty-one years old. once again, say it with me: this does not negate his good qualities. he definitely had them, he took sirius in when sirius ran away from home, he became an animagus to keep remus company as a wolf, and he saved snape in the shack, thereby saving remus and sirius by extension. him having flaws does not make him a bad person.

fanon prongs is a feminist. he fights for equal rights for women everywhere, and he constantly treats his girlfriend, lily, like an absolute queen. he's the hottest boy in school and everyone claps when he walks through the halls. mcgonagall and dumbledore are always patting him on the back and making jokes with him. he has a built-in dark detector that helps him sense when someone is a evil and needs to he punished.

give me a break. the dude's cool and all, but was the gary stu treatment necessary?

...oh, he needed to match fanon lily? right, right.

canon lily is a contradiction unto herself. she's supposedly a great friend, but since we see her at a point where they were already drifting apart, we see her putting little effort into keeping their friendship afloat. she victim blames based on rumours, she doesn't seem to care over much about what snape has to say about the people who have been tormenting him since day one. and she's justified, of course, she doesn't have to stick around. canon lily is a bit of hypocrite, she says that snape calls everyone of her birth mudblood, but then that begs the question why she still hangs around with him if that's the case. he calls her mudblood, she retaliates by calling him snivellus, and finishes up with a dig about his underwear, which, sure, it's kicking a man with a rusty spoon and pouring salt in the wound, but she's, again, justified. i get where she was coming from. and then, of course, she dies for her kid after marrying the guy who relentlessly bullied her quote-unquote best friend for their entire school careers. but, like i said, canon lily is, in many ways, a contradiction.

lily is basically a plot device. she pushes everyone's narrative but her own, and does little else.

of course, this trend would continue in fanon. fanon lily exists to be the perfect girl who gets really angry over the slightest injustice, and of course, she gets to be one half of one of the oldest enemies-to-lovers "it was just sexual tension" cliche pairings in the book. she's just,,, a mary sue. in so many fics, so many headcanons, she's just pettigrew's stand-in, a girl to form a gang with marlene, mary and dorcas—who happen to be more undeveloped ocs who also get the woobify mary sue treatment—to parallel the marauders. there is nothing compelling about her character when she's presented as a saint, and even less when she's supposedly the other moral compass for the marauders that doesn't actually work because she thinks that james is cute.

and this brings me to the next topic. jily. what, why, how. this was supposed to be a healthy, happy relationship that would have lasted in the long run? absolutely not. even for its time, i can't say that i see it lasting.

first of all, jkr presents james' crush on lily as just that: a crush. a mildly obsessive one, but a crush nonetheless, which she tries to liken to the pulling of pigtails. and then, we see that james' way of getting her to go out with him consists of blackmail, and when that doesn't work, he resorts to threatening her. this could have been set aside if he had actually, genuinely changed when they started spending more time together, but as we're told by sirius and remus, he didn't. he just got better at hiding what he was up to. and it has to be that he hid it, because if she knew, this further damages the character that she's set up to have and paints her out to be either unable to stand up to him or an enabler.

regardless, they get married. and while i have trouble believing that it was out of genuine love, there are scenarios that could make some semblance of sense. it's wartime, after all, and maybe lily is worried about her stability in the wizarding world, so why not marry into an established family whose son is already showing interest? or perhaps, she falls into the trap of every bad boy cliche ever, and she thinks to herself, well, i got him to be better then, maybe i can get him to do even better in the future. or maybe, she doesn't get into a relationship with him immediately and sees him on and off, until eventually, she accidentally gets pregnant and they scramble to have a shotgun wedding so as not to leave lily alone at nineteen with a baby. or maybe they marry each other because they're there and sure, neither of then is ready and they don't know what love even is but what else is there to do when there's a dark lord about? anyways, the point is, they get married.

and then what? if we count pottermore into canon, he goes on to further damage her relationship with petunia and vernon, to the point where she ends up crying. if we don't, she fades into the background enough that nobody has anything to say about her. she's harry's mum, she's james' wife, lily potter, she was kind and smart and brave and that's it. her agency is gone, anything else we have of her personality is gone.

jily just,,, wasn't built to last. and, yeah, this,,, this is a hill i'll die on.

same with wolfstar, honestly. there are so many reasons why it wouldn't work, but fanon has made it so fucking prevalent that it's literally everywhere no matter where you look.

first of all, i've said it before and i'll say it again. sirius is more likely to get with james that he is to ever end up in a relationship with remus. their chemistry is just,,, underdeveloped. net zero for a relationship.

secondly, sirius instigated the werewolf prank, and lupin would have paid the price for it. this could have been overlooked, but he doesn't seem the slightest bit guilty about any of it when it's brought up in poa. he could have been responsible for lupin losing the security of his place at hogwarts in the best case scenario, and in the worst case, his life. and he seems to look forward to full moons, even though they clearly aren't pleasant for remus, which,,, yeah, you're going to have fun, but like, maybe be concerned about the fact that your friend undergoes excruciating pain and it isn't a pleasant time for him? read the room, my g.

thirdly, they don't trust each other as much as fanon seems to think they do. they were both willing to believe each other the traitor before ever suspecting pettigrew. sirius thought remus gave away the potters, hell, he thought remus was a spy for voldemort, and remus was convinced that sirius was a mass murderer. neither of them needed to be convinced.

fourthly, maybe i'm reading too much into it, but like. sirius had money. remus had no money, since, yk, he was a werewolf and struggling for cash and still, sirius,,, did not leave him any money. i feel like if you had money to spare, you would give to your friend who is literally poor. but, again, maybe i'm reading too much into it and this isn't as valid a point as i think it is.

and ehh, the fifth reason is that it's,,, actually very much not the representation for the ltgbt community that fanon says it is but y'all aren't ready for that conversation.

anyways, just,,, even when you set the couple shit aside, the power dynamics between everyone here is fucked. like, james and sirius are clearly at the top of food chain calling the shots and egging each other on. then there's lily, who isn't even a marauder, but is always ever-so-slightly above remus but still not on their level, because, well. neither of them actually listen to her. remus is the novelty friend, the friend who's,,, alright, i guess, but you keep them around specifically because they're funny or they can dance or they have something that you can either show off to other people or keep as your little inside joke, your little secret, yk? and peter is just sort of there. like, yeah, he can do what we can but does that make him as good as we are? no. does he have a funny little something about him that we can exploit? nah. therefore he sits at the bottom. and like, yeah, james and sirius are on the same level, but james is yanking sirius' chain, not the other way around. anyways, like i said. power dynamic's fucked and it bothers me that we were given all of this, and fanon decided to take it all and throw it away so they could give us flamboyant!badboi!sirius black x softboi!motherhen!remus lupin going on double dates with feminist!trustfundbaby!james potter and saint!lily evans while ignoring peter pettiwho?

theseus' fucking ship, indeed.

anyways, this needed to be said. it might not make as much sense as i want it to, considering it's 4:12 in the morning as i'm posting this, after taking a break from writing to do some research and coming across way too much content about fanon marauders, but it's here and it still makes enough sense that you can read it and understand what i mean. and like, at the end of the day, you can go ahead and headcanon whatever you please, you can write fic and make art and do whatever you like, just,,, remember that they're exactly that. headcanons. stop presenting fanon as canon. please. i'm literally begging. we actually have evidence against it. just,,, acknowledge that they're headcanons and stop putting them forward as though they're able to fit into canon. please.

Your thoughts on wolfstar? I did not find anything in your marauders master post on it. It's just... such a weird pairing for me. I don't understand why it is weird for me, and at the same time I don't understand why people ship them.

I address them somewhat here.

As for asking me about pairings, well, I'll give my two cents but keep in mind that you're better off asking a shipper. If you want the how's and why's of someone loving this pairing, then it's best to go to the source.

I'm just here for the heresy of it all.

Thoughts on Remus/Sirius

Regardless, I don't see it. Or, rather, if I do see it then it's a toxic wasteland of a relationship that is terrible for all parties involved. (I'm about to get flogged for this, I'm sure.)

So, what's the trouble?

First, Sirius never seems all that interested in Remus. Throughout canon, and the glimpses we have in the past, he is far more interested in James. Remus is... the charity friend, it was James who was actually Sirius' best friend by far. This, obviously, is a big obstacle for the pairing.

Second, the werewolf incident. Sirius uses Remus, nearly causes him to become a murderer or else ruin Severus Snape's life against his will, and isn't sorry about it. Remus, had Dumbledore not covered for him, would have been expelled and likely imprisoned if not executed/banished. And Sirius did this for a laugh, because it was funny.

Remus knows all of this, and I imagine he never truly forgave Sirius for it. Certainly, when it looked as if Sirius betrayed the Potters, Remus didn't question it. Because, in retrospect, Remus could say he wasn't that surprised. Look what Sirius did before.

I doubt Sirius and Remus could ever truly be friends again after this. Oh, they pretended, but the friendship was broken. Shortly later, Sirius and James believe Remus is a spy. Remus has to live with everything that has happened. Given friendship's not on the table, romance certainly isn't.

Third, and somewhat related to the werewolf incident, but Sirius doesn't take Remus' condition seriously. He and James treated it as a joke, a cool quirk Remus has. And yeah, it's great they're so accepting, but Remus is living with a chronic condition that leaves him in agony every month, that will deny him employment for the rest of his life, and leave him destitute. And there's James and Sirius calling it his 'furry little problem'. There's this self-congratulatory air about it, that the Marauders thought they were so progressive because they were friends with a werewolf, without ever having to understand what it means to be a werewolf. And then, of course, Sirius using said chronically ill best friend to nearly murder a classmate.

And then of course there's Sirius. He spent ten years in hell on earth, comes out a broken and barely functioning man, and one who has to confront that his best friends are either dead, traitors, or believed he was the scum of the earth. I don't see Sirius ever truly forgiving Remus for believing he was a Death Eater, never mind Sirius thought Remus was a spy, but to me Sirius would never truly be able to forgive that. If Remus had fought for him, then perhaps Sirius never would have been sent to Azkaban. Remus didn't, and what does that say about how Remus views Sirius?

There's nothing left between them by the point we reach canon except barely restrained hostility, bitter feelings, and empty nostalgia for a time that will never return to them.

And if they did have a romantic relationship on top of all of this? It would be to make the other suffer, to take out all the rage over lycanthropy, the imprisonment, the werewolf incident, every little thing that stands between them after all these years. It would be thinly veiled hatred in the form of sexual intercourse.

Why Does Everyone Else Ship It?

They're Harry's cool gay uncles. The movies softened Sirius a lot and made him a lot less unhinged, they also made Lupin generally more pleasant, which makes them easier figures to ship. And with them you get the idea that Harry can have his found families (without the Weasleys).

He can have these two cool uncles who were his parents best friends and they can have breakfast together and eat waffles and wouldn't it be wonderful? They can tell Harry it's okay to like Draco Malfoy, not everyone's like those repressed muggles, and everything can be jolly and good in the world.

People adore this and they desperately want to fix Harry's situation, fix his world and his family life. More, everyone loves Sirius, he's the funny character, and Remus having such history with him, being a friend, is the obvious character to throw at him.

Which is why we get Remus/Sirius in many fics, even as just a secondary pairing to whoever Harry's chasing after today.

adult animation appreciation post bc we've got some good shows lately

Bojack Horseman

a lot of us know it and love it, but for the ones who never got around to it, PLEASE watch it at some point in your life. it has so many good storylines centered around depression, addiction, sexism, repercussions of child abuse, and the daily struggles of living in this messed up world that we all know and can relate to. it'll punch you in the gut with some of the most unique storytelling you'll see in your life

Tuca & Bertie

created by the lead character designer of Bojack, this show may seem like a spinoff from the look but it isn't in the slightest. created and starring amazing women and letting women be funny in their own unique way that feels so genuine and following the story of these two crazy bird friends, I cannot tell you the emotional rollercoaster this one took me on. our mains struggle with anxiety and sexual harassment, with some great queer rep, and the stories are so fun and inventive that you can't help but have a blast

Final Space

I could talk about this show for DAYS, but I already have in this post so I won't go on a massive rant rn. it may look like a normal little scifi comedy show at the beginning, but this show'll blow you away with plot for days. if you want an action show that has consistent storylines, here ya go. it's so heartfelt, and it has stories revolving around coping with loss and loneliness by building new connections and new families, and it rips your heart out while leaving you shook over how great the animation and the soundtrack is

Castlevania

this one is insane. it is super gorey and violent with tons of swearing, but if you like that stuff you'll love this one. vampires and action with some stunning animation drags you in quickly, and the plotline is actually really good and you'll end up feeling for the characters so hard. their struggles are so investing and even if there's blood every second, it still manages to hook you quickly and wanna know what happens next. still haven't seen the new season yet, but I bet it's great

Primal

created by Genndy Tartakovsky, the legend behind Samurai Jack, so you already know this one is good. it's a short miniseries but whoo boy is it good. the animation is so nice, and this one is so unique. following the story of a caveman and a dinosaur becoming unlikely companions after loss, there is no dialogue. that makes it such a unique experience and it gets so emotional with some pure raw emotions that just crush you

The Midnight Gospel

the newest addition to the family, created by Pendleton War, the genius behind Adventure Time, this one messed me up in ways that I can't even put into words yet. it's an animated podcast with crazy trippy animation behind it and holy shit it is so unique. it takes time to process everything going on, but once in you get in the flow of it it hits you with emotions. following a guy who goes into a simulator to different worlds to interview people for his spacecast, expect for some great discussions of the struggles of hoping, coping with loss, and meditation. take your time with this one, it is so beautiful and funny

adult western animation is finally swinging up, and these are only some of the good ones. thought it would be good to advertise how not adult animation is ugly and just gross humor all the time, because people are finally telling stories that only adults can understand and relate to and feel, and I for one am absolutely here for it

welcome to a new series <3

you can follow it on webtoons here so you don’t miss an update

Lainey Molnar

Dabi was Once an Abused Child & Enji was Once an Abuser

The main reason why some people refuse to see Dabi as once an abused child, and keep deeming him insane or evil since he was born, is undoubtedly because his abuser was Enji who is trying to change now.

Shigaraki and Toga are villains who were also once abused when they were children (in Shigaraki's case, he is still used by AFO till now). Fortunately, people generally aren't very keen on refusing to admit Shigaraki was groomed by AFO or was abused when he was a child. People usually have no hard time calling AFO or Kotaro an abuser and don't use excuses like AFO giving lil' Tenko a hug, Kotaro only slapping Tenko twice, or Kotaro not being harsh to his wife, to back them up. People also do not really deny Toga was neglected by her parents.

Matter-of-factly, neglect is one of the things Enji did to his children. The difference is Enji neglected Touya, Fuyumi, and Natsuo inside a luxurious house, provided them clothes and food. Other than that, quoting Natsuo's words, Enji was just like a complete stranger to his children.

How about physical abuse? Ironically, there are people who genuinely consider the things Enji had done to his family as not abuse. They think since Enji was hitting Shouto and Rei "rarely", then it wasn't abuse. Another common misunderstanding (or excuse) is since Enji was doing more of mental abuse to his family and "rarely" did physical abuse, then he wasn't abusive. In all honesty, what kind of conclusion is that?

Does Hori need to show us Enji hitting Rei 10 times for us to admit Rei was not only mentally but also physically abused by her husband? Does Hori need to draw a graphic image describing how Shouto could puke when Enji was "only training him" for us to include it as a physical abuse as well?

Ever consider if mental/psychological abuse is not part of abuse why it has word "abuse" in it? Mental abuse is included in the types of abuse too, though.

In addition, if child neglect is not part of child abuse then why WHO, APSAC, APA (American Psychological Association), and many others indicate it as a form of child abuse/maltreatment as well?

Someone who performs any type of abuse is called an abuser. Abuser is an example of a noun ending in -er. The ending -er is added to verbs to make nouns with the meaning ‘a person or thing that does something’, for example: builder, farmer, or sprinkler. Thus, since Enji was doing abuse so he was called an abuser, or in present settings, he is an ex-abuser. There is literally nothing wrong in calling Enji an ex-abuser or saying he was abusive. Getting mad or defensive when people calling Enji an ex-abuser or once abusive is overly ridiculous to me.

Dabi was once an abused child. Touya was neglected just like Fuyumi and Natsuo. Among the main trio villains or the Todoroki children, it seems like Dabi/Touya is the one denied the most (if not the only one) of his status as once an abused and innocent child. Tragically, encountering people deeming Touya was insane since he was born or calling him an evil manipulative child is not rare nowadays. Yet, almost no one calls Tenko an insane and evil child, considering both Touya and Tenko ended up as villains today. Tenko and Touya both were hurt and traumatized children. It is weird when people are able to symphatize with Tenko but not with Touya, forgetting Touya was engulfed brutally in broad-scale wildfire and his body was horrifically consumed by scorching fire; a 13-years-old boy almost died.

Why do people react to Tenko's story and Touya's so differently? Well, Touya/Dabi's abuser is trying to change now, isn't he? Now, let's think. If, for example, AFO wins the fight with Deku in the future, then he suddenly has a change of heart and wants to try to be a better person, would you say Shigaraki was never groomed by him before? Or, if Hawks's father some time later is released from the prison and wants to try to change to be a good father to Hawks then, would you say Keigo was never abused in the first place?

No matter happens to an abuser now, whether he's trying to change or not, it will not change the facts that the past still exists, the abuse still happened, and his victims will still be the victims. It is ironic to watch people doing it easier to label Rei as an abuser than Enji. Shifting the blame to someone else who was also one of Enji's abuse victims is not making his character any better. Refusing to admit Shouto, Touya, Fuyumi, and Natsuo were once children abused by Enji is not making his character any better either.

Truthfully, because of the past can't be erased, that's why Enji is trying to make amend to that in the present. Enji is in the process of trying to atone for his abusive self. If we are to erase and downplay his abuse, shift the blame to someone else, and refuse to acknowledge whom his victims were, then what is character development that he's going through all this time for?

hot take: ATLA going “actually killing this guy would be bad :\” was slightly rude. 

if Toph gets to shove her kidnappers in a metal box in the wilderness and leave them for dead, Katara can have a little vengeance, as a treat

(i’m fine with her deciding to spare him in the end, i just think it’s dumb that aang was allowed to soapbox at her with zero pushback from sokka or toph.) 

also, related:

Keep reading

AU where Sokka’s high-on-cactus-juice encounter with the giant mushroom takes a dark turn. (Also he has a gun)

based on this beautiful tumblr post

bonus:

I always wonder about how yue occupies her time in the spirit world. I bet she’d enjoy the library :)

Yeah, Zuko Alone is still one of the very best, if not the best, episodes of Avatar. The shocking and disturbing revelations about his family and backstory are riveting, the choreography of his fight with the earthbenders is incredible, and the choice to explore Zuko’s psychological trauma through the framework of a Western is brilliant. But above all, the moment when Li turns on Zuko and rejects him for being a firebender is so important, as it’s the first of many scenes in his path to redemption in which he tries to help but is ultimately rejected by those he saves. It’s such a pivotal episode for his character development, and it’s still one of my favs.

daily reminder that twice didn't deserve that

The First Murder of Twice/Jin Bubaigawara

one of the more heatedly debated topics in the My Hero Academia Fandom, Is the death of the mentally ill villain Twice/Jin Bubaigawara, at the hands of pro hero Hawks/Keigo Takami.

The debate is a facinating view of how each individual reader interprets justice, morality, when and when not killing should be allowed by law officers, should it be avoided at all costs? or should there be times where it is allowed?

On one side of the argument, is the fact that Twice WAS running off to help his comrades, and his briefly surviving clone did murder a pro hero to accomplish this goal.

on the other hand, there is the fact that Hawks stabbed a man who was running away from him, and sought to speciffically kill him, rather than knock unconcious, or capture. Further, his motivation was very speciffically, that he regarded twice as too powerfull to live, and simply a threat that was too massive to be allowed to exist in this world on the wrong side of the law.

There has been much and more debate about this topic, but i am not actually here to discuss the morality of Twice’s actual death.

Rather i wish to take a look at the first time Hawks tried to kill Twice, and show just how unheroic Hawks was while doing it.

The confrotation between Hawks and Twice begins as The number 2 hero ambushes him during the beginnng of the war arc, easily subduing the man he deems the biggest threat on the villains side.

after getting Twice into a position where he is in complete control, Hawks decides to lay it all out on the table. essentially, he’s monologuing for his audience because his ultimate goal at this moment is to convert his enemy into his ally, to make him switch sides. and that begins by laying out just how screwed Twice is.

What is very interesting here, is that Hawks flat out says he’s going to capture Twice and hand him over to the authorities. which is absolutely the right thing to do. That is his job, and i dont think anyone would argue othervise. capturing criminals alive and then bring them to justice, is what law enforcement should idealy be about, and it is most certainly the ideal of hero work within the context of MHA.

That however, comes with a price tag.

Hawks is willing to capture Twice, and even help him out on the path of becoming a law abiding citizen… if he’s willing to ideologically change, and turn to the same path as Hawks did.

what i dont want to do in this post is to debate the reasons for WHY hawks reacts this way(as that would require a full character post on him in his entierty). What i want to discuss, is the complete flip Hawks does once it become’s clear that Twice isnt going to join his side.

the very first thing he does Twice makes it clear he’s not going to cooperate the way hawks wants to, he immediatly turns this mission from capture, to kill, as his very first act is to slice off Twice’s arm, something that would at best have maimed him for life if it hadnt been for twice’s great strides in his abilities in the previous villain arc. this ability to replace lost limbs isnt something Hawks would be familiar with, given its the first time in the series both Jin, and the audience gets to see it.

the point here, is that the moment twice makes it clear where Hawks can shove it, he ditches all ideas of capturing him alive, and relatively unharmed, and switches straight to Lethal force.

and the worst part of it all is that at any point, Hawks could have ended this non lethally by knocking Twice out.

in the brief time where hawks and Endeavour teamed up, there was a very brief scene where a very minor villain tried to get revenge on his ex-company. 

the scene is very, very brief, and Hawks deals with it in one panel, knocking the guy in question out withouth even focusing on him.

This scene at the time was there both establish Hawk’s strength and quirk, and to act as a funny gag. in hindsight however, this very silly scene has a much more darker purpose. its there to showcase that Hawke is completely capable of knocking out people in one single blow to the back.

He could have done to Twice what he did to this random villain at any point during their confrontation, and he simply doesnt. 

he decides, after realising that Twice isnt going to become a hero no matter what, that he has to die.

after violently making mincemeat of twice’s first assault, Hawks gives Twice one more chance to yield, and come to the other side.

and when predictably, twice tells him to fuck off, he decides to end it, but while doing so, he uses some really interesting language. and this little detail is a very interesting one i never really noticed before i made this article. Hawks actually tapes this next part. he makes sure to record it, presumably for legal use. and what does he focus on in this next part, which he knows might one day be used in court?

he speciffically, makes sure to mention how villains like Twice refuse to get knocked out, to make it seem like he had no choice but to do what he’s about to do.

and without video to contradict him, who’s to say that he wasnt? he is free to spin this little encouter any way he wants. twice is after all resisting, so who’s to say hawke was in a position to knock him out?

The readers however, was shown that scene in the previous arc for a reason. to showcase that this is all bullshit on Hawks part.

Hawks is completely capable of knocking out Twice non lethaly here, and frankly speaking, he could, and should have ended this the moment he had him surrounded by his telekenetic feathers at the start of this match.

he beats him to the ground and prepares to murder him in cold blood, all while making sure to speciffically talk into the mic about how this battle has reached a point where one of them has to die, when it clearly has not.

even disregarding that hawks is capable of knocking twice out at any time in this battle, at this point, hawks doesnt even need any of that. 

Twice is beaten. he is bested. he is helpless, and not capable of posing any threat to hawks anymore. he IS resisting, but he is about as much danger to Hawks at this point as a small child with a set of bow and arrows made of twigs and twine is to a knight in plated steel.

there is NOTHING Twice can do here to escape his predicimant, or beat hawks.

which is really what makes what Hawks is doing here so chilling. as he has him on the ground, and Twice prepares his final pointless struggle, Hawks brings down the sword, fully preparing to murder him.

this is flat out murder. and not a murder in the heat of the moment either. this is a planned, and calculated one, where he prepped the legal justification he would need for it. Hawks prepared a freaking script to make the situation look much more dire for him than it actually were to justify killing twice.

For me, this scene is far, FAR more important than the actual killing that happened shortly afterwards. because this is the moment that shows that there is nothing noble, or heroic about the way Hawks killed twice. he had every single opportunity to avoid it, and end it quickly, but he decided on his own, that if Twice wasnt going to dance to his script, he HAD to die.

he decided that HE was the arbitrator of life and death, that he had both the right and the duty, to be both jury, judge, and executioner. 

i dont know about you, but i really dont think anyone could argue that his attempt to kill Twice as he laid on the ground could in any way be called self defence, or saving anyone.

To me, its just a murder, perpetrated by an officer of the law, who went out of his way to make sure that this would not fuck him over if it ever ended up in a court.

I genuinely hate how Hawks in this latest chapter has now completely hijacked all discussion this fandom. Why aren’t more ppl focusing on the fact that Hori once again chose to shaft Rei and avoided showing us any meaningful interactions between her and her children? If you had any doubts that Hori is a misogynist and is not interested in writing about abuse respectfully, this chapter should dispel them. I cannot believe Hori chose to write this, over what should have been a beautiful moment of a mother comforting her youngest son and other children. We should have finally gotten a chapter focusing on Rei.

Instead, what we got was a chapter focusing Hawks and HIS relationship with Endeavor. How Endeavor was important to HIM. How Endeavor inspired HIM. How much Endeavor the hero meant to HIM as a child. How he wants to help Endeavor now, like Endeavor did for him.

This is intentional. The framing of this chapter is designed to put us in Endeavor’s corner, so now we don’t want to see the downfall of Endeavor’s hero career because “Oh, look how he inspired kids like Hawks!”

Forget about showing us how Endeavor’s VICTIMS are now processing their feelings about Touya being alive and a villain. Don’t force the readers to remember that Endeavor abused his family, all while he continued to present himself as a ‘hero.’ Don’t remind readers about how Endeavor’s abuse has negatively impacted all of THEIR lives.

This chapter is designed to make us sympathize with Hawks and Endeavor as much as possible. So don’t question it when we are never shown Rei interacting with her children. The victims of abuse aren’t as important as prioritizing the feelings of an abuser after all. This has been continuously shown in both the manga and the fandom.

How can ppl be bothered to care about Rei, when Horikoshi doesn’t even care about her himself?

When the ATLA live action comes out we should all just. Collectively not watch it. Bc we all know that everyone's gonna hatewatch it and then it will get renewed for three more seasons bc of high viewership.

I know we’ve already read a lot of “men writing women” crap, but I am absolutely losing my mind at this passage

me: *gets depressed*

my breasts:

Touya is still in Pain

Touya/Dabi is portrayed in an extremely vulnerable light this chapter.

He’s ripping his hair out, crying, with a helpless mouth open/(perhaps grin?), hand stretched out, calling for help and scarred tissue already appearing. He’s looked from a high vintage point, as if the audience is looking down at him from above.

In the next one we Dabi’s scarred back, examining the new scars on his wrists/hands. His back is almost completely covered with scars, his white hair stark against his back. Showing one’s back has always been a sign of vulnerability.  By looking at his new scars, the readers understands he’s in pain that has new wounds to add to the already massive collection of scars. the tilt of his head is contemplative yet resigned, like ‘Ah another one.’ His hand here is contrast to the one above, curled and concealed, no longer reaching. 

By revealing this more helpless side of Touya/Dabi, Hori not only gains more sympathy from the audience, but also showcases how Dabi is still that hurt child, but he’s no longer calling out for help, after having been hurt for far too long. 

Ok so when are we getting Dabi's proper backstory Horikoshi? Preferably NOT from his abuser's pov? Thanks.