Always Bring a Phoenix Down

I bring random opinions and occasional hot takes. Being part of a minority that is never represented is a struggle

[alwaysbringaphoenixdown]

Saw a random post about Half His Age that further proves some people can't handle imperfect victims

Is it stupid for minors to pursue adults romantically? Yes

Are the adults more culpable than the minors if they reciprocate? Also yes

Is the adult even more culpable if he meets the minor in a context where he objectively cannot claim that he wasn't aware of her age as a minor because she is, not was, is his student in a high school class?

FUCK YES

[alwaysbringaphoenixdown]

Random thing I see every so often

Some women act kinda entitled to gay male spaces and media. If it's something specifically about gay men, I'm sorry but there's not gonna be many prominent female characters beyond supportive family members and friends

And let's keep if fair

If a man complained about a lesbian show not focusing on male characters, I'd call him an idiot, because why on earth would a show labeled with LESBIAN focus on male characters? Obviously, the women should be the primary focus

Yaoi focuses on male characters. Yuri focuses on female ones. That's how that works and that should be okay, but sometimes I see women look at something labeled GAY MEN, and throw sexist accusations for not having female characters in prominent roles

There is a huge difference between a show that has people of all kinds training as superheroes but repeatedly sidelines the superheroines and the show that's about gay couples falling in love that focuses on the gay boys falling in love

[alwaysbringaphoenixdown]

What's the difference between a character with flaws and a flawed character?

I don't like the defense some people use that is "They're supposed to be flawed" and that's it. Every character is supposed to be flawed in some way. That's the whole point of character arcs. There's a difference between having a flaw for the sake of a journey or comedy in a less serious show and a character with flawed writing

One of Zuko's biggest flaws is his desperation for validation and he doubles-down a lot of bad behavior in hopes of winning his father's approval. The show makes a whole point about how he wasted so much of his potential chasing a goal that wasn't necessary or worth it

There's also Alma Madrigal who is a massive control freak because she's already lost her home once and is terrified that losing even the tiniest bit of control would mean losing it all a second time. The movie makes a point to show that while everything she does is for her family, she is in fact harming her family and needs to let go a little for everyone's sake including her own

Even recently, there's Raito Souda from Digimon Beatbreak. His superior complex has convinced him that he is a genius who stands above everyone else and has no empathy for those he considers beneath him. When his superiority is threatened, he becomes irrational and after a series of failures, his entire sense of identity collapses in on itself and he has to reconstruct who he is from the ground up

One of my favorite characters is Della Duck and her impulsiveness led to the biggest mistake of her life. Different family members have realistic, but fair reactions to the aftermath of her decisions and we're shown Della's remorse and her resolve to make up for lost time. Notably, she still makes mistakes, but that very first one is one mistake she always tries to avoid repeating

These flaws all exist for the sake of building character. They have to confront these flaws and change and no one around them sugarcoats how they need to grow past these flaws

A character with bad flaws is Marinette in my opinion. I understand the whole point is that she's supposed to be making mistakes, but it feels like the show won't commit to making them real flaws. Part of a real flaw is having real consequences as a result of said flaw. Not saying she needs to be raked over the coals, but Alya had good reason to be upset about the lies. Why erase her memory to just repeat the same reveal twice? Mari and Alya would've had better character growth if this is an ongoing discussion that wasn't delayed by the mind erasure

I think a good comparison here are two characters who both have the flaw of "well-intentioned goal to save the world led to them being a shitty parent and doesn't realize it until it's too late." Celine and King Rhoam both meant well and just wanted to help their child become the hero they're meant to be

However, I have an easier time understanding Celine's mistakes than Rhoam's. Celine's motto of hiding every flaw no matter what is something she forces on Huntr/x because it was something forced on her. As another foil to Rumi, Celine's inability to accept the flaws in herself and others highlights Rumi's ultimate choice to accept herself. There's more of a narrative purpose here

In contrast, Rhoam's role in Zelda's story is less understandable. I know the point is that he's too much of a king than a parent and comes to regret this, but his overall role ends up being designated asshole. Forcing Zelda to sacrifice everything else for to focus on magic training that already wasn't working doesn't make sense even in context

Celine enforces the hunters' creed because from her perspective, it "worked" for Celine during her time and appears to work for Rumi on a surface level

Rhoam enforcing the constant prayer when he has no experience to justify that it's capable of any positive outcome and Zelda is blatantly more miserable trying to make it work that way just makes him look stupid for not trying something else sooner

Celine's flaws come full circle in the narrative. Rhoam feels like "designated obstacle" for Zelda

I think the main difference between a character with flaws and a flawed character is how well it ties to the themes of the story and the consistency. Even with a back and forth, the arc's direction is clear

[alwaysbringaphoenixdown]

Is anyone ready to have a talk about the tendency people have to queerwashing racism or no?

What about how many supposed empowering girlboss media are often still complacent in tokenization?

And how having the acceptable marginalized representation means something is beyond critique because it has the right kind of rep ignoring all valid red flags brought up by another group

Anyone? Anyone at all?

[alwaysbringaphoenixdown]

An important but overlooked aspect of creating content is "Good Will Management"

All forms of media rely on having the audience's good will to some extent. For all the ups and downs in the series, they have to be willing to continue the journey with you until the end

Honestly, Miraculous does kinda push the limit here. It's one thing to stand by Chloé not getting a redemption arc, but bringing her back just to double-down again and insist she's the worst of the worst kinda just feels spiteful and it invites unnecessary drama into your life

There's even a Marvel writer that admitted to ragebaiting Spider-Man fans, because he'd rather make fans angry than have them not care, but anger doesn't automatically make readers invested. If readers feel like a product is never gonna be satisfying, they give up on it

A bit of good will can go a long way. For example, in Heroes of Olympus, everyone was panicking after the Mark of Athena. Everyone spent the year before House of Hades freaking out and when the book finally dropped, Rick had a little excerpt for the fans

To my wonderful readers: Sorry about that last cliff-hanger. Well, no, not really. HAHAHAHA. But seriously, I love you guys.

No one got mad, because Rick Riordan had everyone's good will. Audiences are fine with having their emotions toyed with, but not if they feel like there will be no payout

Everyone has their own limit, but that is something to be considered at all times. I'm not saying you should always cater to fans every single time. Doing that is a whole other can of problems

Just remember that audiences always have the option to abandon your franchise and really weigh the risks factors before you intentionally do something you know is gonna cause a lot of reactions

[alwaysbringaphoenixdown]

In hindsight, Vlad's obsessive crush on Maddie was actually handled well

The show always made it clear that he's the pathetic one for never letting go

Maddie never reciprocated his feelings. Jack was never in his way. She just chose Jack and Vlad should've respected that

He's never treated as tragic or sympathetic because the woman he loved didn't want him back. He's sad and pathetic for pining after a married woman that's already told him no multiple times

Even in the alternate timeline episode, we see that version of Vlad try to control Maddie's interest in ghosts and are told that he lied to her and told her Jack wanted to hurt her after the accident when he didn't

It's also telling that Jack never abandoned Vlad after the accident and tried everything to maintain their friendship, while Vlad immediately screwed Jack over when the reverse happened

Vlad never saw Maddie as a woman he loved, but as a woman he's entitled to and the show never offered him sympathy for his unrequited feelings that he refused to move on from

[alwaysbringaphoenixdown]

I'm not gonna say this directly, because I'm afraid of jinxing things

There is one specific thing I like doing that makes it so nice to be more of a Digimon fan than a Pokemon fan. I'm not saying this to be hateful. If anything, I empathize with Pokemon fans because y'all are in the trenches when it comes to this

I sincerely pray that things improve for you guys soon because no one should have to suffer with bullshit from assholes just to enjoy your franchise. Like, holy shit

[digi-lov]

If you don't support LGBT+ you don't get Digimon

imho

[alwaysbringaphoenixdown]

Funny to see this immediately after learning Beatbreak introduced the first canon lesbians in a Digimon anime

Keyword is anime. The first canon queer woman in the franchise was Fei in Cyber Sleuth

[alwaysbringaphoenixdown]

Was rewatching the Pokemon anime and what was Ash's Swellow made of?

This was its first episode. It tanked 2 thunderbolts and a thunder as a Taillow and was ready to keep going

Brock straight up said "Ash, if you don't catch it now, you might actually kill it"

Even Pikachu was standing there wondering "How are you still going?"

If this pokemon doesn't have guts as its ability, I don't know what's going on here

[alwaysbringaphoenixdown]

I think the thing I hate most about Rhoam was how tunnel-visioned he was

I get it. Hyrule depends on Zelda harnessing her powers, but my guy, you had her practice through prayer non-stop with no noticeable results. Doing the same thing despite knowing it doesn't work is the definition of insanity

Also, if Zelda wasn't allowed at that last spring until her 17th birthday anyway, why not let her study Sheikah tech in the meantime? It's not like she would've been wasting time if she had to wait anyway

A character should make mistakes, but those mistakes should still make sense internally and I feel like Rhoam's mistakes don't make sense even within his internal logic

The problem was he didn't know anything about her sealing powers and how to make them work. So the solution should've been trying everything and causing subsequent problems that way instead of putting all of his apples in one basket

He'd still be making the mistake of putting too much pressure on her, but I'd have an easier sympathizing because his logic would make more sense despite being wrong

[alwaysbringaphoenixdown]

Apparently, Zelda notes suggested that the Wildverse's Hyrule used to be underwater?

The leviathan fossils are theorized to be ancient sea creatures, which actually makes sense since they're named leviathans

Zelda suggests that the ancient ocean would go deeper beyond the Depths and that's kinda terrifying, but I would play it

They could do another game with more of Hyrule floating into the sky, but also parts of Hyrule collapsing into the ground with the ancient ocean rising again

Imagine 4 whole world maps. Sky, land, underground, underwater

That would be insane

[alwaysbringaphoenixdown]

I think Techjacket's genderswap kinda proves the Invincible writers aren't that good at writing female characters if we're being honest

I saw the interview where he said they wanted more diversity since the original comic was mostly white men, and this gonna sound mean, if your best idea is "male character, but make them girl" you're not really good at this

I do and don't get the mindset. I do get that they have a budget and casting new characters all the time would get expensive. But, I also don't get it because it feels like they're changing because they feel obligated rather than wanting to. They say they want to diversify the cast, but they're pretty hesitant to add to the cast. They mainly stick to characters who already existed

If you want more women in the cast, just add more. To me, it's weird to say you want that but not create more original characters to fill out the cast

[alwaysbringaphoenixdown]

Random Expedition 33 thing about the Curator

The Paintress sustains the Canvas just as her name suggests. Aline keeps painting

By definition, a curator's role is to manage and preserve the art pieces in a museum. As the one trying to destroy the Canvas, the Curator is betraying his role

This is a reflection of their conflict where Aline believes preserving the Canvas at all costs is the correct way to grieve. How could she do anything else as a mother?

Meanwhile, Renoir views himself as a traitor to his son's memory because he is actively destroying the only thing their family has left of him. No father should do such a thing, but he's in a situation where he has no choice

[alwaysbringaphoenixdown]

Zenith's Unique Emblem has been named apparently??

I checked wikimon on a whim and the name was listed with all the Unique Emblems

It's Ragnarok Attainer which actually makes a lot of sense

Can someone tell me where the reveal happened?

[alwaysbringaphoenixdown]

I usually talk about Valerie, but I've never actually talked about my actual favorite character

Jazz is genuinely my favorite character in the show. From the moment she learned Danny's secret, she supported him while respecting his space. That's such a good role lesson about letting your loved feel comfortable without overstepping. Sure, she can be too pushy, but that's always played as a flaw she's working on so it's okay

She's also a good example of a secondary character who both supports the lead but still has her own agency

Jazz is more than just "Danny's supportive older sister." She has her own personal growth of making sense of her life in a family of ghost hunters. In many ways, she feels like she's the only adult in her family which is partially why she's overprotective of Danny, and it also means that she has trouble letting herself be a kid even though she is still a kid

While not a big focus in the show, Jazz has own B-plot of slowly getting more interested in ghosts to better understand her parents and Danny. I really liked the minor plot of ghost envy she brought up in the special with Freakshow. She was always developing based on what she wanted to do for herself

Also, credit where credit is due. When Jazz needs to fight, she's all in. She may not have her parents' experience, but she does not hesitate. Dark Danny who is more powerful, more dangerous, and pure evil? She grabbed that Fenton peeler immediately and was ready to fight

I absolutely love her

[alwaysbringaphoenixdown]

Does anyone else find it weird when people say "women can do anything a man can do" but forget that includes the bad things too?

Sometimes I see people say she couldn't have possibly have done this or it's not as bad in her case because the perpetrator is a woman, and I never agree with that

Equality is that everyone can be equally amazing or equally toxic. It must always go both ways

[alwaysbringaphoenixdown]

Explaining why they're the perfect couple in one image

They would risk anything to protect the other's happiness