#anti-character

[maneaterwithtail]

Why I likely will not love, just like Pearl and her series

I tend to like the characters people hate. Asoka made perfect sense for me from the beginning. I even like jar jar and love midi-chlorians. Overall when I dislike someone it's usually when righteousness is afforded to them as opposed to them just being annoying especially if theire annoying this is treated as if it's annoying. As an example I don't actually hate Korra from Legend of Korra I'm just frustrated with its writing and her fan base. 

Though I suppose if there is a main character that I dislike in Steven Universe it's Pearl. In no small part there's her fans because chances are there were 'pressed or budding queerfolk who view any attack on her as an attack on the entire concept of their identity. The fact that she's painstakingly tied into said Rebel lesbian identity while often referencing revolutionary girl utena which in my opinion did a much better job handling that as an identity / phenomena

But I don't have any real rational reasons. There's this one moment in this one episode that permanently pissed me off about ttheshow, months later it was still pissing me off. Okay this wasn't the first time this had happened with the sshow. at one point you would receive extra canonical material or the characters be characterized one way and then when it was necessary for the plot characterized another way. A popular one is when Pearl said she can't stand eating so that that way she doesn't become present at a parent get together which causes some really annoying hijinks. But that's just one episode. no, what really collapsed my suspension of disbelief for her as a character and required me to desperately not think she was a real character but just a series of events that did whatever the episode wanted her to?

"What is a sch-ool?"

To be clear this is an alien being who comes from another planet where they have temples. They understand the purpose of Arenas in which to fight for displaying to martial prowess. And she has a 14 year old human son. She's been on Earth for thousands of years. Also she doesn't just know how to operate a motor vehicle and repair one she talks explicitly about traffic laws these cannot be any older than 200 plus years. Despite all of this she does not know what a school is a human practice that has been practiced for thousands of years

That moment, right there, completely destroyed all credibility as a character. She'll have emotional moments that she evokes very well. Because they give her some pretty solid writing and her actress does a damn fine job. But that does not matter because they've basically told me in certain terms that she is made of stupid writing trying to be witty. Whenever they want to make her alien they will make her inexplicably alien and Incredibly dumb to make a plot go forward. Whenever they want to make her too traumatized they will make her too traumatized to justify some bullshit. It's everything I Hate About Mary Sue writing ( even though she is most certainly not a Mary Sue.) Arbitrary in order to evoke audience sympathy rather than earn it and ignore consistency with either setting or character. I don't even hate her that much it's just when they say care about her that I can't do it. I'm always at an enormous divide whenever they try to center on the character.

again this would be okay if she weren't front-and-center on several plots. And hating her basically didn't come with an immediate Repulsor field of saying anything bad or evil or mean about her basically brings out every lesbian, girl who's not like other girls, animation aspirant, or Shoujo Manga fan who's had to deal with any harassment at any point in their lives and assumes that you're part of another chain of evil man figures. Cuz seriously Pearl is really really bothersome. And it gets more so when it feels like her bother some parts get put aside to make her more sympathetic or to make sympathetic allusions. 

The big one for me was when they implied she was going to date a human woman. Despite the fact almost every other word out of her mouth about humans is utter contempt and disgust along with the aapprehensive fact she knows so little about their culture she can't pick up on 2000 year plus old practices. This would imply a level of bigotry that I honestly appreciate the entire fandom accepting in dis course

But much like a popular web novel series apparently her victimhood due to status and how she's crafted in terms of appealing identity matters more than the actual actions and character she displays. This is made even worse due to recent Revelations where I'm supposed to care even more

What's weird about it is that Pearl is in my opinion an incredibly well-written bigoted character. But she's not appreciated as such she's appreciated as basically a Justified bitch. And if any male character dares to show a similar level of fault unless yyou are stanning or shipping them they will be hated the fuck out oof or just dismissed. As far as I'm concerned Uncle Andy is Pearl with Aviation as opposed to space flight and spear use. He's effectively the straight older guy version of pearl. But no one will see that because all they can see is 

oh she's autistic just like me 

she's post-traumatic stress disorder just like me 

oh she's a lesbian or atypical about feminism in some sort of way just like me. 

And this got very explicit with one Tumblr poster who out and out said this then privately contacted me when I reblogged that moment to have me delete it and then close down her entire blog. This gets particularly bad due to the greater critical Steven Universe sentiment. Which honestly I want to enjoy but I can't help but feel that they're more pissed off that the lesbian Revolution was not what was being televised and not frustration with various storytelling beats because almost all the common storytelling criticism get apologized for by every fan and blamed on Cartoon Network

This is not helps with the plausible deniability especially combined with stuff that's happened above.

There is a fractal wrongness with the "what is a school" line coming from Pearl. To be fair it actually comes from Steven but she's basically repeats it a scene later and reveals her ignorance. Ignoring the fact that it's unrealistic for her to be ignorant or to not have looked it up in a fucking dictionary. There's the fact that that's "what is this thing you humans called love and or kissing?" level writing.

. Pearl is very deliberately kind of the anti girl written for guys sort of character. She's very much a girl written for girls sort of character. And I don't mean aimed at a female audience. I mean she's like the anti Starfire. this extends to hur character design which is all sharp edges along with the very deliberate I'm a lesbian fuck off codifiers that I keep mentioning. And the way they often and continuously show her as complicated is to do stupid shit like this. Make her have a breakdown and or make her ignorant about a human subject but only in a convenient way for a narrative. And when the consequences come they will be softened considerably because we need to be recognizing that she is a mentally ill lesbian who was oppressed and abused.

[elspethsunschampion]

Confession #14

With regards to things I discussed earlier, it really is one of the reasons I strongly identify with Jace and have very little sympathy for Liliana or Tezzeret.

Getting constantly told that everything is your fault--which is a behavior pattern displayed by both Lili and Tezz--does an absolute number on you.

And the behaviors that Jace displays are very, very true to how somebody dealing with that kind of thing really would.  His consistent shouldering of responsibility--to the point where he’s trying to juggle Gatewatch and Guildpact duties and never delegates anything--is really likely a response to thinking that everything is always his fault, and therefore everything is always his responsibility--his and his alone.

I think Gideon also displays similar behaviors, and I haven’t thought too hard about why he does, but I really wish someone would stand up and tell him that he needs to stop, for Jace’s sake if not his own, because much as I love Gids, he is a rotten example in this case.

Jace needs someone to teach him to be a little selfish (and this is, to be honest, one of the big reasons I ship him with Ral.)

[elspethsunschampion]

*spreads Liliana love on your blog*

Well, the way Wizards is taking her, I am starting to warm up to her.  I like her as the unquestioned villain of the piece, she’s kind of great like that.  I just don’t like it when people are trying to say she’s not evil as fuck.

[elspethsunschampion]

Can you go more into detail on the Liliana stuff? I don't know much of the game's story before BFZ and almost nothing before Theros block so even though I obviously believe you, I don't know what specific things you were referring to. (but the age difference is pretty self-explanatory)

Okay, once again: I am about to RANT ABOUT LILIANA UNDER THE CUT:

So, in Agents of Artifice, Liliana is working for Nicol Bolas.  She agrees to steal the Infinite Consortium away from Tezzeret and get it back to Bolas, in exchange for which he said he’d help her get rid of her demon deal.

She ran into a mind mage named Jace Beleren, who was on the run from the Consortium (having been tortured, abused, and almost turned evil while working for Tezzeret) and decided he could help her get hold of it.  So, she seduced him.  Let it be noted Jace was maximum 19 at this point, and she was over a hundred (and frankly, he could’ve been underage, it’s not exactly explicit).  

Now, at this point, Jace is not focused on killing Tezzeret or stealing the Consortium--he just wants to get away from the guy who was torturing and abusing him.  And he, being Jace, does something rather stupid.  His best friend--a man named Kallist Rhoka--is not a planeswalker, and Jace is desperate to get him away from Ravnica (this takes place on Ravnica).  Jace tries to basically planeswalk with Kallist’s mind, which leads to them accidentally swapping minds.

Liliana tries a few different things, but eventually decides she has to kill Kallist to get Jace back.  Which she does.  Which does “unswap” them--by which I mean leaves Jace alive and vaguely in his right mind, but he still doesn’t want to go up against Tezzeret--partly now since he’s feeling as if it’s his fault that Kallist died.

So, Liliana takes the completely reasonable and not at all overkill approach of putting out a hit on everyone Jace knows on Ravnica--which you will notice is basically everyone he knows at all because Ravnica is his adoptive home plane. Liliana thinks that if he thinks Tezzeret is going after everyone he knows and loves, it’ll force him to fight.

Well, Emmara narrowly escapes death, but she’s the only one.  Jace no longer has any friends or family anywhere that he knows about other than Lili and Emmara, so he finally goes ahead and agrees to go up against Tezzeret.

This fails, and Jace gets thrown into a dungeon and tortured for two weeks solid--after he realizes that Liliana has been playing him the whole time.  She then shows up to get him out (because, of course, her plan can’t come to fruition if Jace is still in jail) and--this is the kicker--she tells Jace that she’s sorry and she really does care about him, but she just had to do what she did.  Because of the demonic pact she’s in (which, let’s not forget, SHE’S THE ONE WHO MADE IN THE FIRST PLACE).  She literally says to Jace “oh stop complaining, you’ve had it so easy, you’re so young.”  And “well, I didn’t want to kill all your friends, but I had no choice because you wouldn’t fight Tezzeret.”  

Eventually, she breaks Jace out and he manages to defeat Tezzeret and then run away from her, but yeeeeaaaaaaah.  When she shows up in Catching Up, she’s again trying to get his help.  To deal with her demons.  After all of this shit, she still is basically like “come on Jace, help me, I like you, remember?”

I do not like Liliana, and I REALLY don’t like the Jaciana ship because ugh emotional abuse not cool.

[elspethsunschampion]

Strong Personal Feelings

The feelings below are STRONGLY PERSONAL, not necessarily objective, and INCREDIBLY NEGATIVE.  Please do not read them if you cannot handle me ranting about Liliana Vess.

I HATE HER SO MUCH OH MY GOD.  She

a) seduced a teenager when she was over a hundred

b) murdered everyone he knew (except for one person, and not for lack of trying)

c) got him brutally tortured on multiple occasions

d) ACTED LIKE IT WAS HIS FAULT.  I cannot stress this one enough.  She actually had the NERVE to turn to him and say that it was his fault, that he “hadn’t left her any choice” that she “didn’t want to do it.”

Guess what?  That’s fucking ABUSE.  Not WANTING to do it gets you exactly 0 points if you go ahead and fucking do it anyway.

I’ve said this before, but her and Jace’s relationship is really reminiscent of a previous relationship I’ve been in and, believe me, constantly questioning and doubting yourself?  That shit sucks.  Being told that whatever they do it’s because you forced them to do it?  It has absolutely horrifying effects on your psyche, self-esteem, etc.

Liliana is not some precious cinnamon roll.  She’s a conniving, evil witch who won’t even own up to the things that she’s done to fuck everyone else over, setting aside the fact that most of the problems she faces of her own making.

[hales-emissary]

Hey I don't know if this sounds rude because I don't want it to sound rude but can you tag your Malia hate with something other then her name? Because I love her character and if I blacklist that I won't see any gif sets of her. Sorry if this seems rude or something, you don't have to I was just wondering. (I know you tag it wank for ts but like.. Other wank doesn't make me upset you know?) Ignore this if you want that's okay I'm sorry you shouldn't have to go out if your way to tag things sorry

Hi there! Not rude at all, if you guys want me to tag something let me know. Sorry 'bout this, I hoped that using "wank for ts" tag would be enough? I didn't want to use a anti character tag, because I have issues with how her character is treated by the writers not Malia herself (if that makes sense). I don't often reblog posts like this, but when I do it's tagged as wank. So please nonnie, let me know how I can tag this, because I have no idea :|

[scarredbymonsters-archived]

characters i don't like:

Lilly: because of the fans

Kenny: Cause i just don't like him

the stranger: Cause he kidnapped Clem

Larry: Cause he's rude as hell.

no one else, i like every other character. 

[post-futurism]

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