Okay so I just finished watching the movie ‘Obsession’ since it’s gaining popularity right now and looking back at the TikToks of men SWEARING that Bear was not the villain genuinely pisses me off right now. Sure, he killed himself at the end to stop the chaos he created, but I HIGHLY doubt he did that for Nikki mainly because he knew she’d be in so much more anguish after she snapped back?? All of her friends dead because her guy best friend wanted her to love him. The scene where she was speaking through her subconscious while the entity was asleep said a lot about how selfish Bear really was. She begs him to free her while being in god knows what kind of agony and the only thing he replies with is “How bad is it to be with me.” IT IS NOT ABOUT YOU. Genuinely the creepiest thing about this is her independence and liveliness being stripped away and guys finding a reason to criticise her. Them laughing at the SA scene doesn’t surprise me tbh.
Hot take: I dislike how Pacifica Northwest’s character is treated.
This is in no way to send hate to the creators or anyone else that thinks just the opposite of this.
This is just me rambling, I am in no way stating facts, just my own opinions. I could be totally wrong about the truth of this character and how she’s handled, but I digress…
I don’t like how Paz is abased when it comes to her working at Greasy’s Diner. She used to be this sassy proud girl with more money than she can count, but now she works at a gross diner as a waitress? Didn’t her parents say they can still afford her a pony at the end of the series?
I dislike this because her whole things is that she’s the silly villain-of-week who’s fun to laugh at and mess around with and can be funny when you let her. She’s a stereotype. Without her money she isn’t a stereotype anymore! And I don’t know how I feel about taking Paz seriously. This is like chopping off her fingers or disemboweling her character for Pete’s Sake! What on earth? Give Pacifica Northwest her billions back! This is not who she is.
Although it’s a bit interesting, she never gets portrayed in a serious light. Even when her family has “lost everything” (cough cough, her mom can still buy her a pony, cough cough, they are so not poor at all) and she now works at a gross diner. This should be a pretty traumatic experience for her. And so should her parents mistreatment of her. But it’s still so cartoony the way she’s framed by the narrative in all circumstances. It’s like mixing roast fish with ice cream.
The intrinsic whimsy and silliness of Paz taking herself seriously as a proud beautiful rich sophisticated girl with sophisticated hobbies but really being this funny jerk who acts like a wet gremlin by verbally attacking anyone who displeases her even a little and is so sensitive her butler might as well push her around in a stroller with how much she can act like a baby vs her family “going broke” or her family abusing her. It’s a clash that doesn’t mix well in my opinion.
Why I don’t think Paz works well as a serious character: she’s a stereotype.
I don’t think Paz has any values or core characteristics that contradict how she’s a stereotype. Now I’m not talking about hobbies or likes or interests here. I mean who she is. Not what she likes.
Northwest Mansion Mystery did not transform Paz from stereotype to character. It transformed her into stereotype with a shitty home life. And then it transformed her into a stereotype who did something for a murderous ghost I guess.
I mean. That guy didn’t have anything to do with Paz. Only her ancestors. So what did all that matter to her really?
And what does Paz even believe in? Why is she so mean? These things are not explained away by how cartoonishly mustache twirling-y her parents are. Who Paz is comes entirely from her. Because who she is cannot be derived from anybody other than herself. It’s the part of her that chooses what to do with what raw material she’s been given by life.
And letting in a bunch of strangers into her house because a ghost was rightfully pissed at something that (while justified) was not something Paz was responsible for and there for should not have been held accountable for. Since there was nothing that Paz or her parents actually did to him. He might as well go into the afterlife and beat the shit out of the Northwest’s that locked him out that day if he truly wanted them to face the music for what they did to him and everyone else whom they broke the trust of. (Even though that deal was lowkey bogus anyway. Communal parties once a year instead of money paid to the people you hired to build your house?)
A true accountability story for Paz would be about the girls she’s bullied. Actual things she herself did and her perhaps even coming to terms with how what she says hurts other people.
A story that made her a character would not have mentions of her past stereotype persona. It would let us completely know the girl under the mask. And it’s not that the vain rich mean girl can do nice things every once in a while for people who don’t entirely like her or trust her. It’s that she has character traits and story beats that are separate entirely from being a stereotype. Plus no more jokes that are about her being a stereotype! For her to be more than that she has to be more than that. And if she’s more than that then how are you going to make jokes about what Pacifica no longer is? Anyway…
For example: Mabel or maybe even some other girl somehow outs Paz for mistreating her and Paz’s parents promise to her that they’ll be by her side no matter what. But when it comes time to meet with Mabel’s guardian (or some random girls guardian) and have a discussion they completely throw Paz under the bus. Like REALLY do. “How could she have done this!” The main point would be the betrayal of someone close to Paz. I think it ties in nicely with Gravity Falls’s “trust” motif/theme. The worst part is they’re only saving face. They do the exact same thing but no one calls the out for it. Paz would be truly, truly hurt by this. Like, her relationship with her parents will never be the same ever and it would take decades for Paz to even consider a relationship with them.
Maybe they could threaten to disown her if she does something that goes against them. They would never actually do it but Priscilla is an emotionally volatile person like her daughter. So…
Maybe we could see how abuse affected her and has caused her to be distrustful of the world to a degree which is unreasonable. Maybe she attacks people because she subconsciously believes everyone is out to get her or will hurt her if she lets people get too close. Maybe her selfishness stems from a place of thinking that if people try to befriend you they’re really only going to betray you in the future. So it’s best to look out for your own interest.
Maybe the raw material she’s been given by life has shaped her in ways that aren’t like her stereotype. Maybe she retreats into the digital world too much or begins to rely on material things like makeup, clothes, or stuffed animals or collections of cute or pretty things for comfort instead of turning to a person for comfort. She could be soft and sweet and sensitive in ways that are different to Mabel. Kind of child-like in a sense where she still depends on mommy and daddy because the hole they’ve left in her development still shows.
We could see her truly hate her parents. Fantasize about getting her revenge when they’re too old to take care of themselves. Making others feel the pain she’s feeling in that feeling abandoned or having your family torn apart. (Dipper could certainly sympathize with the last one.) struggle to forgive them for hurting her. Struggle with feeling resentment for people who haven’t done something so terrible as to earn it. Like someone making an off hand mean comment and Pacifica being too tender emotionally from her recent betrayal not to feel truly hurt by it. We could see her struggle with living in the past. One of her traits could be sensitivity. And she would certainly be sensitive to people who can be brash and abrasive. Like Dipper or Stan.
Maybe another one of her core values is how she can be quite modest or even self deprecating at times. Maybe it could be based on how she values quality over quantity in things. Or her dreams or aspirations. Or maybe she doesn’t have any of those good traits! We could dive deeper into her pride and vanity and take those things about her seriously. We could see how it erodes her attempts to make a relationship with the Pines twins.
Just something other than: she is a rich mean spoiled arrogant vain valley girl. And it’s partially because her parents are mean to her. And we’re not going to show them doing that in any realistic way or even show Paz cry because of what they do to her. We’re not going to delve into why she’s the way she is by examining Paz herself. We’re going to examine her environment, but not seriously, we’re not going to show her mom making scathing remarks or invasive comments about her body or restricting Paz against her will in what she’s allowed to or how much she can eat. We’re going to do this cartoonish thing where her crazy vain mom rips out the last pages of the Ugly Duckling and practically loudly proclaims to the world the value of vanity and how vain she is and how she’s going to push it onto her daughter. We’re not going to examine a character struggle within Paz. We’re going to examine struggles originating outside of Paz. Things her family did 150 years ago. Or things that come from her stereotype like her snooty attitude, arrogance, or vanity. She’s still not being taken seriously. She’s a joke stereotype still with lackluster depth. This is how pretty much all of Paz’s arcs go. She’s wrong, realizes she’s wrong, it’s not because of something she did all by herself or something that comes from within her. Because then she might gain a trait which is entirely her own. It all starts at the source of her cartoonishly evil parents. Or because grandpa was a criminal and now a ghost is angry at her because of it. Or because she’s a stereotype (genuinely snooty, arrogant, rude, vain valley girl) which we’re now trying to take seriously. Then she does something to aid the Pines twins. The end. Paz is pretty boring to be honest.
She’s not a character with a redemption arc. She’s a stereotype with an equally basic backstory.
I'm rewatching some Island material again, and... I genuinely forgot howich they flanderized Owen. Like, REALLY flanderized him.
I don't know if i'm way too dirty minded or whatever, but he was pretty much a voyeur back then or had some kind of kink for getting naked and everyone watching him. And on the later seasons, they treat either that as an joke because he's dumb and doesn't realize getting publicly naked is wrong or whatever. No, on island, you can literally see him making a smug face as he showed his ass to his team, you can see how he did that either because he wanted to or because he wanted to get a reaction out of them.
He pretty much a bissexual pervert tho? C'mon, he picked on Lindsay's chest on Action, you saw him showing interest in women who remind himself of him, you can see him most definitely having a thing for Justin, till the point that got so obvious that they had to stop.
He was a fucking coward back then tho. Like, one of the main things about me thinking like that is him throwing Izzy to the slasher killer wannabe and immediately running away as far as he can, keep that in mind that he DID NOT know that was chef. If that was an actual slasher killer, he would've leave Izzy to death and wouldn't care.
Okay, so gather all that, he's a self conscious douche bag sometimes, he's a coward, has a thing for both men and women, has some kind of exhibition kink, since he got naked Alot of times in Island & Action and seemed to enjoy doing it, he cursed and had the capacity of getting angry or disappointed at people...
And rn, he's literally a fat dude™ who so happens to be so silly and goobersome that you forget he once won a season because of his bastardness instead of him being a cutie or something... Not gonna lie, i love both Owen's, but god he should've stayed the same.
hopper is too similar to lonnie, he’s not a good fit for the kids or Joyce if im being honest. his character development went down the drain and he got reduced to “angry grieving army dad”. just a very poor character in the end. his Russian plotline was unenjoyable.
Bob was just as devoted to them, if not, more because he didn’t even know what was happening, he just wanted to help. he was smart kind and willing to protect them. he would never yell and he was so sweet to Joyce and the kids. jane would have love him.
hopper was cool in season 1 and 2, but it gets old after so many seasons. he had the same storyline from season 1 right to season 5.
So I'm about halfway into Midnight Whistle (I think) and I've realized: guys.... I think Sem might be bad at her job.
vvv Midnight Whistle Spoilers under the cut vvv
Okay, let's start from the top:
Intro. Semmelweis has failed (pay attention; you'll see this word A LOT) to make contact with her team and deems the mission important enough to move ahead anyways. This is an okay start! This characterizes her as motivated, autonomous, and presumably pretty professional. Good so far.
The mission statement: get aboard the Danube Dawn and see if there is a Vampire aboard already. Get It before it Kills Everyone.
First thing she does: fails to grab the train ticket.
Fails to grab Rubusuka. Outs Rubuska in the process. 0 for 0 so far!
Suspects Rubuska, who does not have a viable ticket to the Danube Dawn, is a Vampire.
Uses her spare ticket to get Rubuska, the suspected Vampire, aboard the Danube Dawn, a thing which to all appearances wouldn't have happened otherwise.
Go back. Read the last bullet again.
If Rubuska (who flashily took a big risk to get a ticket) can't get aboard the train, then she is Not The Mission Vampire. Which means. That Semmelweis just doubled the minimum amount of suspected Vampires aboard the train.
Respectfully: girl, what the FUCK?
This is clearly intended to characterize Semmelweis as compassionate, but the actual result is that she may have just, knowingly, seriously endangered the people she claims to want to protect.
Next: almost immediately abandons Suspected Vampire in a car full of helpless passengers to hassle the conductress for the right to interview the passengers. To see if they're Vampires. Completely ignoring the Probable Vampire that she brought aboard.
Sidenote: up to this point, said conductress (Corvus for brevity) is the only person we've seen provably capable of physically subduing Suspect Vampire Rubuska. Semmelweis is now holding something like a half-hour long negotiation with her, at least one carriage away from the Suspected Vampire that she brought aboard.
While Semmelweis is completely failing at keeping an eye on her or retaining any responsibility whatsoever for bringing her aboard, Suspected Vampire Rubuska immediately outs herself to several children.
The kids are separated from their guardian and lulled to sleep by the time Sem+Corvus+Aima return. If Rubuska were actually evil, she could have had a kill count in the double digits before Sem even realized what was happening. Those kids could have died in minutes.
Back to Semmelweis! She's conducting interviews. Awkward interviews that make people scoff, mostly. Up until the children out Rubuska who, once again, would not be on the train if not for Semmelweis, as a Vampire in the middle of the car full of helpless civilians.
Continuing to fail to take any responsibility for bringing Rubuska aboard, Semmelweis apparently allows Corvus to restrain Rubuska. So, 1, if All Vampires Are Evil, then she's not doing due diligence and is just letting Corvus do the work, and 2, if Not All Vampires Are Evil, then she just let someone tie up the minor she's supposed to be responsible for on account of racial profiling. Neither of these are a good look. Like, those are the least of our worries at this point, this is my very personal take on this particular scene, but I find it pretty what-the-fuck?-y.
Anyways. Semmelweis again fails to take responsibility for Rubuska, who then attacks when she's released.
Semmelweis's only success so far: beating up the child she brought aboard.
Aima then actually deescalates the situation without any assist from Sem.
It's decided that Rubuska will be thrown off the train at the checkpoint. She hasn't actually done anything but lash out after being falsely accused and restrained, but she's on the train and a Vampire so she has to go.
I once again want to iterate that as far as the narrative has shown, Rubuska would not be on the train if Semmelweis had not actively decided to bring her aboard.
Semmelweis doesn't protest NOR take responsibility whatsoever during this decision. At this point in the story, we can accurately call this her typical response to anything important happening with Rubuska. Ma'am???
Anyways, Semmelweis then lets Aima wander off with the Vampire to go gossip. No oversight!
Spies on Corvus's exchange with guards. Fails to avoid being spotted.
Follows Corvus out for more spying. Fails to avoid being spotted, but by a different group.
Success #2: beating up half-conscious thralls who have no ammo. Great job!
Oh, and she does actually report things to the SPF. We need a moment of her Being Professional.
(The problem is that she spends a lot of time Acting Professional instead of Being Professional.)
Lets the thralls be discovered, putting her next enemy on high alert.
Almost beats up Rubuska AGAIN while scaring the shit out of a carriage of refugees.
Tries to negotiate with the refugees for info. Maybe I'm just biased, but she comes off as pretty skeezy during it. No one is interested in working with this complete stranger who's a huge threat to their salvation, and I cannot blame them.
Oh and in her focus on the extra carriage, she fails to notice the Infected passenger in the next bullet. Like, he wasn't supposed to be there and the carriage is pretty notable, so normally this would get a pass. But it's the latest in a very, very long line of Semmelweis Failures.
Loudly alerts the entire carriage to the victim's Infection, swiftly outing the possibility of a Vampire attack and sending everyone into a panic.
Genuinely, with all the love in my heart: what the FUCK?
Once again does nothing helpful while Rubuska is outed and restrained.
Sits quietly and avoids being spotted while the teenager who, once again, is only here because of Semmelweis' intervention, is dragged off to parts unknown.
This is as far as I've gotten.
I think the main issue(s?) here are: the writers wanted an obtuse and suspenseful mystery, so they keep throwing in twists and turns. Understandable, and it keeps the suspense going - by this point I'm only just starting to parse the motives and intents of each party (some introduced faster than others for respective reasons). I think, at this point, that Corvus is supposed to Be A Good Guy insofar as anyone in this game is (in the main story I've hit the third part so we're getting a glimpse into how questionable the Saint Pavlov Foundation is, so I know gray morality is intended in many cases).
I'm reminded of watching a crime procedural over my dad's shoulder years ago - I was barely paying attention yet I was able to predict twists right before they happened. By the end of the episode, nobody's motivations matched their actions whatsoever.
Writing is hard, and writing a compelling mystery is definitely hard. The writers here used the episodic format and twists to keep things in the dark, but in the case of Semmelweis at the very least, they've accidentally introduced a host of new issues. (I'll have to review to check the others', but I think hers is in the worst spot because she's the one whose goals and motives are known from the start. We've been following her from the word go while knowing what she's supposed to be accomplishing, so it becomes pretty obvious when she fails to actually achieve her goals.
Now, I think I'm about halfway through (there's at least 7 nodes to go based on unlock requirements, possibly more), so it's possible this trend will hit a turnaround. I have to admit: I'm not confident. I truly don't think the writers realized what they did here. I would like to hope, anyways, that they can salvage this. I think the best thing they could do at this phase is own up to all of her fuckups and just make her a Manus Vindictae double agent. At least that means her actions are the result of intended malice rather than... incompetence.
It's clear that they're trying to characterize Semmelweis as compassionate, intelligent, and professional. Unfortunately, the actual outcome doesn't match those intentions. All of her successes so far are related to violence, and she's actively created several of the situations that are escalating out of control.
Like, her letting Rubuska onto the train. That could be seen as Compassionate (helping the lost kid get where she needs to go while escaping the authorities). That could be seen as Pragmatic (keeping a close eye on a possible related factor involved in her mission). But the writers then completely miss every opportunity for Semmelweis to followup on either such intention - she manages to question Rubuska and learn nothing of substance before getting called out for her lie by Corvus. She doesn't ever take responsibility for Rubuska as a kid OR as a threat. Semmelweis bringing Rubuska aboard ultimately either doubled the number of Possible Vampire Threats or introduced a vulnerable human child to a situation she knew was dangerous! At this point, for the sake of her mission and Rubuska's health, the best thing she could have done was leave Rubuska behind! Hell, trying to figure out what's up with Rubuska (under Corvus' impetus rather than her own) has cost Semmelweis time and tangled the plot of the mission she was supposed to be focusing on, and there's no real reward for her personally or overall narratively for it. Rubuska is currently locked in a warehouse full of corpses with an Actually Evil Vampire and she would not be there if Semmelweis had left her at the station. And Semmelweis simply... doesn't care? Is barely thinking about her? I'm sorry, I'm spiraling a bit, this is just... ridiculous.
I feel like I've seen reference to her outside of this event (I've been here for like. a week.), so maybe this isn't how she usually does things, I don't know. I get the feeling I'm dissing a fandom favorite right now and it worries me tbh, but the more I think about this the messier it gets.
GIRL
EDIT: OH YEAH, the thing I keep forgetting. So, like. Rubusuka not being a vampire is revealed to everyone at the same time, right?
So Semmelweis failed to ascertain whether she was actually a vampire, despite the fact that that was the most probable goal for bringing her aboard the entire time. She didn't discern for certain whether Rubuska was or was not a Vampire, and seems to... again... not care at all about the result??
Like, surely someone being on the mission to discover deadly vampires might have some kind of skill or tool to help her discover deadly vampires? Why does she have to keep leaving it up to people outing themselves/each other or just flat out fate? Why does she not have SOMETHING to help her perform the minimum requirement of her fucking mission? It's not just Semmelweis who's fucked up at that point, it's everyone involved in prepping this mission. I'm fucking agog.
Hi, how are you? I'd like to know your honest opinion about certain characters; the question is about your opinion on the canon version of the character. The characters are Izuku, Toshinori, Tenya, Ochako, Aizawa e Bakugou.
If you'd like, you can send more questions about my rewrite; I enjoy answering your questions.
Hi!! I’m good!!
As for my opinions:
canon Izuku: he’s really sweet and silly and I do like him as a character most of the time but I don’t like the scene where he tell Shoto he can forgive his dad because forgiving your abuser who claims to be changing but isn’t is not an obligation. Though, i will give him the benefit of the doubt and say he probably learned that viewpoint from the people around him always telling him to forgive Bakugo but still. Overall I really like him :3
Canon toshinor: well, while in canon, toshinori has made some questionable decisions I can see he has good intentions and he really cares about Izuku so overall I really like him :D
Canon Tenya: he’s awesome in canon. Trying to murder stain w/ no backup or anyone knowing and punching Izuku that one time like right after he got discharged from the hospital were both some of us more questionable decisions but overall he’s a great character imo :)
Canon Ochako: she’s so sweet!! And I love how her motivation to be a hero is to be able to help her parents!! (I know a lot of people think she’s in it for the money or wtv but that’s cause they decided to ignore the second half of that sentence and it pisses me off) she’s a great character!! :D
Canon Aizawa: mmm, he’s. Something. Like, for the most part I don’t really like him, especially with how he enables and ignores Bakugo and mineta’s bad behavior, or how he literally doesn’t seem to want to teach his students (like when he throws them into new situations without them having any sort of prior knowledge and expects them to just know what to do as if they aren’t there to learn) but also there are *some* scenes where he does seem to care abt 1A. Most of the time he sucks tho. 3/10
Canon Bakugo: fuck him. I hate him. I don’t care abt him. He sucks. Idc abt his Stan’s thoughts on his non-existent development, he sucks. I’m sorry, I cannot bring myself to care about a character who relentlessly bullies his supposed ‘close friend’ (which, they aren’t even friends let’s be real) and treats all the people around him like shit. Plus, after his apology (which was mainly just him making excuses for himself) he literally doesn’t make any changes to his attitude! Like- he says ‘sorry for abusing you’ and then continues to act outta line :/
I hate the evil alter trope so much. Mal had the potential to be a great season villain without all the over-the-top "Mwah ha ha ha! I'm evil!" things he had going on. ;-;
