this is just six of crows but here we go:
- nina and matthias never actually abandoned their duties for “love”. they accept each other, but at the same time are tormented by their loyalty to their country. nina and matthias are extremely homesick all the time; nina never discarded her faithfulness in ravka or grisha and matthias never renounced his religion. they changed because of one another, yes, but their story is not just “enemies to lovers”.
- inej’s sexual trauma can be set off when someone touches her - even when nina or jesper hugs her. she doesn’t react quite as badly as kaz, but physical contact still triggers her. she suppressed it so even kaz didn’t know about this until she told him.
- jesper can actually hold his own in a physical, non-gun related fight (i have proof). he is also smart enough to make his own guns with the help of a fabrikator, to argue with wylan about explosive materials and to pursue higher education. he is not just a comedic relief.
- kaz is ruthless, amoral and cold but he is not a distant boss to the other crows. he makes jokes with them, flips jesper off when they banter, jokingly calls inej “treasure of [his] heart” and nina “love”, loses bets to wylan and makes fun of matthias’s religiousness - most of the time he acts like their slappable friend with a dark sense of humor and a questionable haircut.
- wylan is not just jesper’s cute love interest that tags along on a job just for shits and giggles and the occasional booms and bangs. he is a deeply damaged child who still believes in goodness despite never believing in himself.
for people who haven’t read the shadow and bone/ six of crows books, but have seen the show:
- inej ghafa is a survivor of childhood sex trafficking. she has ptsd and reacts in a panic attack at even walking past the menagerie
- kaz’s trauma isn’t just pekka rollins being responsible for jordie’s death, and waking up on the barge. he had to swim to shore, age nine and barely alive, using jordie’s body as a float
- the darkling has done far worse things than are shown on screen. he is not a ‘lost man’ and alina is not his ‘balance’
- alina was seventeen upon the darkling being nsfw/ romantic with her
- matthias helvar did not lead drüskelle, that was jarl brum- matthias is only just barely an adult himself
- the crows are not their own separate gang, they are part of the dregs, who per haskell leads and kaz takes over from haskell after haskell sold out his lieutenant (kaz) to pekka rollins
- zoya, genya, and alina have personalities outside of either being traumatised or hating each other
- alina never wanted any of the power and fame and idolatry, and in the end of the books is stripped of it all. she is very happy about this
- jesper is a gambling addict and somebody who watched the death of his mother
People on here are always like "fuck capitalism, why can't things be weird anymore" and then write up a whole dissertation about how the biggest IPs need to change to be weirder.
Like, you are so close. You are so close to getting the point. "Big" IPs *can only exist because they are normal*. They will *never* be weird. They will *never* do what you want. Go find some smaller IPs. Bring back discovery. Bring back never having heard of a book before you buy it. Bring back watching obscure anime online that none of your friends know about. Bring back trying new things, even if they're bad or cheaply made. That is how you get *weird*.
They are such cinnamon rolls I can’t TT v TT
Inspired by this post
thank you for saying this.
mel is good at being a politician but she is a flawed person. multiple things can be true at the same time. however, for some reason, the fandom and EVEN THE SHOW are afraid of criticizing mel in any capacity. she just has to be the ✨perfect✨ character, as if “perfect” isn’t the most uninteresting and unimaginative thing a character can be.
i personally never liked mel as much as some other characters, but i can appreciate her character, because i understand why she is the way she is and because i see potentials for a great character arc. but season 2 just completely stomped on all of my expectations for her. she deserved better. we as an audience deserved better and i can’t even deceive myself that they will handle her well in Noxus.
I didn't think this needs to be said but you can't be the richest person and politician in any country, particularly one with such wealth disparity and police brutality, while also being a "good person." Reasons for that can vary from ignorance or apathy (at best) to malice and deliberate exploitation (at worst). Yes this is about Mel Medarda. Idk why some parts of the arcane fandom try to erase her wrongdoings? Flaws give a character depth. You can recontextualize the nuances, which I love doing too, but thats an entirely different thing than trying to pass it off as being 'good'. She's infinitely more interesting with her flaws than if she were just pure and good like the fandom + writers tried to make her seem.
(This goes for Heimerdinger too, you don't get to be in charge of an entire country since its founding without being responsible for the way it turned out. Yet he got killed off before the story ever grappled with that, which frustrates me to no end. But that has more to do with how the writers mishandled the Piltover v. Zaun conflict and we'd be here all day if we went into that)
Idk, flaws to me are a positive thing. Characters with them are fascinating, and characters without them are dull. I will always prefer and fight for interpretations of characters that accomodate flaws while also staying true to who they are. The more, the better imo (provided they're still in-character, I too dislike seeing people hallucinate flaws/ wrongdoings/ motives that have no basis. "If you're going to hate them then hate them accurately etc. etc").
And personally I much prefer the version of Mel that actually takes into account that she is a powerful and wealthy politician who used different forms of manipulation and exploitation for personal reasons. Those reasons are interesting and incredibly nuanced (stemming from her experience with her mother). I don't really have faith in the arcane writers anymore (stuff that the writers have said really worsened my opinions on s2), so all I have is blind hope that whatever spinoff they do with her goes in that direction.
And before anyone misinterprets this: no this isnt a hate post. Its the opposite actually. Im describing the interpretation of mel that i love and have loved since season 1 (before the writing took a nose dive). If u look thru my blog u can find a post I did before s2 came out where im praising how morally ambiguous she was. So yeah i have receipts. If u dont love mel at her inaction corruption era then you dont deserve her at her magic empath era.
Art by catbox
Posted with Permission
my English prof teaching abt cover letters today and me trying not to bring up the luke skywalker cover letter post:
wylan is so funny
If I had a dollar for every time I shipped a straight couple I’d be broke
The kiss by Gustav Klimt but it’s satosugu
“Well, you see, the arranged marriage of her daughter is actually an unfortunate outcome for her because it was the only way to get the groom’s father to agree to help her set up a charity fund that would actually divert those funds to the rebellion.
And also, her daughter was already drifting away from her because she holds more traditional and conservative values. It might just be a way for her to rebel against her leftist mother, which itself is an interesting way to illustrate the different relationships and responses people have to authority figures in the show…
No, dad, Baby Yoda isn’t in this one.”
on this site i go by shuu. she/her. if you don't agree with me, blocking me is always an option. ship and let ship.
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