Behold! A mild comparison/rant on Snotlout from the first movie, and his latest adaptation. I apologize for any error and the lack of visuals, though hope this is enjoyable, nonetheless.
Now, starting off simple with dragon training. In the original, the teens are quick to scatter, with Snotlout specifically having the unique path of running right rather than the left all the other teens take. In the Live Action, however, he simply backs up- though seems to shield Hiccup slightly judging by how his hand is outstretched to the only path Hiccup could take. Interestingly, it doesn't seem like Live Action Snotlout stepped forward when/if questioning Gobber as he's no closer to the camera than Astrid.
When entering the arena, he lacks the enthusiasm of his animated counterpart, seemingly furthering the idea that the riders were dragon sympathizers rather than the reality of what canon implies to us: Snotlout wants to kill a dragon because it is why he was spawned in the very first place, but upon seeing a dragon save Hiccup* from the Monstrous Nightmare (aka. the dragon that only Stoick and Gobber are ever shown to fight)- something he's very clearly stressed by judging by how he climbs the bars when Hookfang attacks.
When Hiccup is revealed however, the difference is most notable; Live Action Snotlout appears nearly disgusted at the sight of the heir, whereas the Animated Snotlout glances him up and down incredulously, starting to smile when Gobber begins the lesson.
Considering this, there is an inferable trait of Live Action Snotlout that differs from Animated Snotlout is that he seems to genuinely dislike Hiccup- which combined with his supposed "be cool" mindset serves as evidence for him actually going out of his way to bully Hiccup. This is far different from Animated Snotlout whom actually does the opposite: go as far out of his way as possible to make sure Hiccup stays away from him (think his jibes and moving so that Hiccup can't sit with them). This is given motive by Spitelout: status is all he cares about and if Snotlout were to hang up with Hiccup, he'd effectively telling his dad to screw off.
Live Action Snotlout prioritizes being seen as cool by his peers, Animated Snotlout prioritises surviving living with his father.
Both Snotlout's are a product to their environment, but environments seemingly different to each other. Both wants fame, power, recognition-
One to be "cool" and one to cope with the fact that deep down he knows his father is willing to leave him once the moment arrives. Sure, he's delusional, he thinks that his father knows best for everything and that all the injury he gets he must deserve for something he's done, but that doesn't mean he isn't scared of his father, doesn't know that his childhood is one unusually* unpleasant.
At this point, this becomes more opinion, but I imagine that such is why he leans so hard into being what his father wants. It gets him food, it gets him affection and yet he never gets love. He's weak, too weak, so he needs to prove that he's not the worst by fighting fights he knows he'll win- to retreat from a fight is a sign of weakness, of losing the battle. If he must smother the guilt, the affection he feels, then it is simply to do as his father wants, it is to ensure he gets a "well done son, I'm proud". Perhaps if he pretends he only cares for what his father does, that he has none of the wild thoughts Hiccup has always had that his father hates so, his father will finally tell him he loves him?
And then there's dragons. He is to be like Hiccup- and so he leads the dragon riders until Hiccup awakens. He can't play the facade for long, and as soon as Berk realises he provides so very little, not even the leader his father desires of him, he's hated. He returns to his roots, for Berk is still a land of Vikings, and he knows it'll get him back the praise, back to being the second best-
It doesn't. Nobody likes him, no matter how he tries, so he decides to hate them back. His loyalty keeps him from betrayal, but is it not sweet vengeance to force them to pay for life giving water, to leech them of their wealth? It is immoral, and yet wealth is power, and his father has always taught him to aim high no matter if by playing clean or dirty.
Okay so I woke up this morning and finally got around to typing this but like.
Dr.Glass, IMO, is definitely not the "cutesy, soft UwU , empathetic therapist who's got his shit somewhat together" as much as people portrayed him to be.
In the "Routine Psychological Evaluations by Dr Glass" report, it was very obvious that he fancies Diogenes to the point he made more sessions with them alone, and is blatantly asking them out to hiking.
Bear in mind that I am not a psychologist, therapist or well-versed in any laws but I am almost 100% certain this is very much illegal. Psychologists and Therapists are definitely not allowed to form relationships with their patients in accordance to HIPAA laws due to power imbalance, patient confidentiality and more. (correct me if I am wrong)
So, my conclusion is that, seeing Glass very obviously using his powers and position manipulating his sessions to pursue Diogenes' attention says a LOT about Glass.
I'm pretty sure he's not as soft and empathetic as the foundation staff and most of the fandom make him out to be. From this Lil fact alone, he sounds manipulative, selfish and doesn't give a flying fuck about laws and rules that could literally put his job and license as a Doctor at stake.
Also @notyouraveragelunatic also pointed out in SCP 5555-j, despite it being a joke SCP,
"he looked cute, cuddly and sweet at first before brutally murdering someone. This is a copy of Glass with his personality traits. This implies this is actually how Glass acts."
Tldr:
Simon Glass is possible definitely a manipulative and selfish bastard who's definitely more than cutesy UwU baby boy.
okay. gonna word dump this, and probably other interpretation asks, so I can get the words out there.
from my POV, there’s 3 types of canon Jake + 1 fanon vers + my personal interpretation. lemme explain what they are;
Book Jake, who I don’t have enough experience with bc I STILL haven’t finished the book… >_>;
2River Jake, who is kinda oblivious and very in-the-moment impulsive (not so bad he’s jumping place to place ADHD like Rich, but like, not considering that maybe dropping everything to seduce Madeline or Christine is a bad idea when he clearly really likes Chloe). these are debatably survival mechanisms bc of his family (and wealth, if you want to go into the “being rich actually traumatizes you and locks you into dissociation” theory–but to be fair, this is partially reliant on thinking Jake is Genuinely Rich. … well, not Rich as in… yeah); ignoring any pain he feels in favor of getting dicked down and forgetting about everything for a while. very “I’m not sad, I’m busy!!!!!”
Bway (possibly the new canon general for all Jakes since it sounds like London’s is modeled after him but just… toned down), who is still oblivious, but towards other people’s emotions instead of himself; he’s manipulative, a little impulsive but a lot more malicious about it, and he knows exactly how hurt he is about his parents. this jake’s awareness of himself makes him act worse because he knows this is the only thing that seems to help and it’s basically the only thing he actually has control of. his wealthiness is undeniably present and Bad here because the reason taking what he wants and not caring that it hurts people is his main coping skill is pretty much only because he’s been allowed that privilege all his life. i tend to think this version of him should be done by a white cishet dude (despite jake’s actor on bway being genuinely FANTASTIC) bc being marginalized in a high school should’ve curved a lot of the “endless power and privilege” he gets for being rich (Not That One).
[i… think this jake has ‘better’/more nuanced writing in BWay… but i don’t think it fits the musical nor is it the overall direction i think it should’ve gone. BMC feels best to me when there’s a heavier element of Dark Humor that briefly nods to a Larger and more Fucked Up world behind the bit we see in the musical. making it largely a twisted comedy, maybe even ramping that up further with more whiplash lines like jake’s “which means the house is empty, so that’s fun”]
Fanon Jake is… like most of the fanon characters in BMC, a bit… “bipolar” (like, radically shifting depending on the situation). the BMC fandom has been born with heavy engagement from minors in the current fascist climate of fandom as a whole. as a result, you have three general uses of jake that as “approved of” by somehow the exact same people despite being conflicting in a lot of ways. THIS IS NOT ME SHITTING ON FANON, i actually think most of this fandom is just a casual romp for most people and that shouldn’t be snatched away from them nor mocked nor treated like you HAVE to be logically consistent when this is just a fun hobby for most… but there are still trends i notice:
1: Jake the sweet bi disaster who loves their significant other and is just a little bit hopeless in their silliness and Down For Whatever-esque personality. this is often used for shippy pictures and memes and cute little oneshots, plus, of course, fluff.
2: Jake the tragic abuse victim who is extremely sad and has to learn to love again and has always been selfless, plus or minus a permanent disability post-fire. this is of course used for hurt/comfort, plus in combination kinda with michael in the bathroom-esque posts and tragic art, often also used as an example of the squip being the worst for jeremy or rich guilt trauma. also: aesthetic and moodboard posts.
3: the one I have the least good will towards: Jake the “why does everybody woobify mlm? You can’t portray him without flaws! queer boys aren’t your fetish!!!” with an attached, clunkily written reasons why he was an asshole that is also simultaneously watered down so you don’t think he’s a Monster bc then you’d be vilifying queer men (well, more like they’d feel bad about their cutesy-er ‘emotional support’ art and writing which is Totally Different from all the other cutesy emotional support art and writing).
basically, Meta Trying To Make Jake Reasonably Flawed But Not Evil in this fandom is RARELY genuine–it’s more often than not moralistic hand-wringing made so that they can wash themselves of the guilt for actually enjoying something with a character they portray as mlm, or otherwise the guilt of enjoying anything romantic or sexual involving men or queer people period when we’re apparently not supposed to do that anymore, as decreed by the radfems infesting our spaces.
and, well, or you’re an mlm writing this post, you’re probably young and still feeling extremely sensitive and scared about your identity. i once saw a very wise post by a trans person who had been trans for a long time, who said that when you first come out as trans (or queer in general, but especially trans people who are beginning social or physical transition and coming to terms with themselves) you are obvs on High Fucking Alert and so you’re insecure and scared of anything, ranging from “obvious transphobia” to “just trans people enjoying themselves and exploring transphobia in fiction or else their own sexuality”. again, this can relate to a lot of identities tbh, and as such young mlm either cis or trans can get very Itchy about people enjoying mlm content.
anyway.
wrapping it back around to me: i edit jake on a case by case basis (sometimes i even make him eviler or meaner based on what’s set up during Bway, he’s just not my usual go-to villain), but i tend to think of him as a tragic Mr. Peanutbutter-y sweetheart who kinda knows he feels like shit yet also knows that if he stops to assess it, it would make his life a lot harder in a time where he can’t afford that. his relationship with chloe is extremely toxic (chloe abuses him horribly, specifically), and so he tries to claw his way out of it only to be continually back in by chloe and her bullshit.
this is why he doesn’t really get... well. he genuinely thought the thing with christine was going to be permanent; he wasn’t jerking her around, he thought he was over chloe and wanted a girl as cool and fun and genuinely nice as her. afterward he Gets It, and so feels Really Bad--at a time where he doesn’t have his house, his legs are broken (i don’t tend to put him in a perma-wheelchair), his parents have abandoned him, and he best friend is in the hospital. guilt crashes in on him from all sides, and he just has to... pretend it isn’t, even as he can no longer stop himself from thinking about it.
if i was to do a jake focused story, it’d probably be a dating sim where you play as him and watch his life change in conjunction with his attempts to find happiness again; you can either choose decisions that help him greatly or ruin his life so ver much... hmm. lets file that under hashtag “story ideas i’ll never use even though they could be great”
to wrap this up: i like jake. i don’t... really enjoy most of the written content (fanfic, meta, sometimes even the storylines on ask blogs) in this fandom about him or... really, most of the characters, which i feel bad about--i’d enjoy it more if it was every in conjunction with my usual Wants in a fic, which is, like. extreme angst.
BUT
i do still like jake, and i can super enjoy his portrayal in memes and visual art
he’s just not my total fave, but like, the reason he tends not to come up a lot in my content is more what i’m focusing on and why. i’d be happy to use him in stories if his presence fit.
as a bonus
here’s the ships i’m happy to use him for, generally: deere, michael/jake, brooke/jake, toxic chloe/jake, and of course, different ocs/jake
his identities/labels: cis, bisexual/romantic... tho sometimes i actually go for bisexual and aromantic! outside bway and eviler jakes, i’m good with him being any race, and even then it’s just a matter of suspending disbelief re: privilege theory. also, PTSD probably, and maybe generalized anxiety as a result. maaaaaybe autistic too? adhd would be a hard sell for me since he seems super put together in a way that’d be extremely difficult for every form of adhd, but i can see him being neurodivergent on the spectrum + like dyslexia maybe. oh, and i sorta-kinda think he may be color blind? but really i’d drop that at a moment’s notice if it’d be easier to write him without it lol.
his interests: one is more or less sports in general, tho i think that, unless he went straight for track or swimming or something Olympics (which he probably can’t do now...), that’s a high school or some college only focus for him. so, besides sports, i think he’d kinda like the satisfaction and steady growth of Collecting Rare Things That You Have To Look For, like cool rocks, bugs, etc.
as for careers... some form of doctor something, maybe a businessman of some sort but he’d likely try to curve his power in that field as much as possible; he inherits his parents' assets and company or whatever, but he probably takes a backseat to that and only really has it out of a sense of ‘it’s my job as my parent’s kid to keep the company going--without engaging in the same awful legal issues they did--for as long as i can’. one of my fave jake-is-there stories, vanceypant’s spicy bis-focused fic 1999, has him owning a restaurant, and that was cool as hell.
also jake loves dogs. especially golden retrievers. yes.
My take on the teenage relationships of Legend of Korra: Book One: Air
I admit that my reception of Korra may be colored by the fact that I already know Korra will end up with Asami. So, I wonder if I would have been so displeased with Mako had I continued to watch Book: Air as it was airing, rather than losing interest after the pilot episode.
I clearly remember thinking that the frustrated Zutara fans seemed to be thrown a bone with the projected Korra/Mako relationship. But I also saw that, as of the end of the pilot (Episode 2), no relationship yet existed beyond friendship and partnership. Mako didn’t feel about Korra the way she felt about him; his interest in her was, at most, distantly respectful. To me, he seemed more wary of her, and how she might betray him and his brother. After all, they’re orphan street-rats struggling to make it big in Pro-Bending, and she’s the Avatar. They’re from two completely different worlds and social standings, and he’s learned to be suspicious to survive.
After the third episode, Mako clearly trusts Korra more, but shows no hint I can recall of returning her affections.
Contrast this with his reaction to meeting Asami. Korra never once did anything to hurt or threaten Mako, and he can barely bring himself to give her the time of day. But Asami actually crashes into him on a motorcycle and he forgives her the moment he sees her face, as well as agreeing to go on a date somewhere far above his financial means. Then he trusts her enough to accept her father’s help and enter into a binding contract. Later, he accepts her offer to go live at her home as a guest.
Since I knew Mako/Korra wasn’t going to happen, I might have tricked myself into thinking that was the end of it. Mako clearly had feelings for Asami, and the beginnings of a committed relationship with her. He had nothing with Korra because he’d rejected every such attempt.
I was actually a little excited, because I thought avoiding a love-triangle entirely and having Korra deal with the disappointment of rejection was a novel thing. I rarely get to see that in fiction. It was, perversely, made all the better when Korra showed herself to be a flawed hero who threw away the beginning of a healthy relationship with Bolin the moment that she thought Mako was jealous.
He didn’t seem jealous, to me. Remember, I already interpreted his interest in Korra as being wary of how she could betray him and his brother. Old street-rat habits die hard, and he’s worried that she’s only going on a date with Bolin to get back at him for rejecting her. He even explicitly accuses her of such motives afterwards.
And yeah, he sort of returned the kiss, but come on. Korra is sexy, they were both hot under the collar, and teenagers do things they regret. He clearly regretted the kiss afterwards, not just because it hurt Bolin, but because it was betraying Asami. Afterwards, he continues building his relationship with Asami, such as by moving into her house.
So I wasn’t happy when the writers seemed to suddenly jerk Mako’s puppetstrings and started having Mako rapidly begin to forget Asami and focus more on Korra. I would much rather have seen Book: Air end with Mako/Asami.
I’m definitely glad Korra didn’t end with Mako/Korra. This kind of start would have left a bad taste in my mouth.
I wasn’t particularly rooting for Bolin/Korra, either. Knowing about Korrasami, I saw their relationship as playdate buddies remaining just that after they had a few more dates and Korra eventually making it clear that she only saw Bolin as a friend. And watching Bolin deal with that and the two of them remaining good friends would have been cool.
Oh, and I also liked how Korra and Asami interacted. From Korra’s initial contempt, to her consistent jealousy, her budding respect, and Asami’s thick skin, desire to make friends, and gracious adaptation to the revelation that Korra had feelings for Mako. That was a cool female friendship to watch develop.
“This is just a personal pet peeve, but I don’t like it when people make some characters completely innocent and oblivious. I tend to see this happen with “nice guy” characters like Spain or Denmark. It upsets me because they’re COUNTRIES and you don’t live for centuries without learning and doing some things…“
It’s odd when they’re innocent since I prefer Spain being still oblivious (as his profiles mention he cannot read the atmosphere - not even bothering to try) but he definitely knows what you’re talking about when you say it straight to his face. It’s just that you need to be straightforward. :)
But it does boggle me whenever people make Denmark extremely ditzy and oblivious since none of his profiles mention him being unable to read the atmosphere or being air-headed like Spain’s. I would think Denmark is highly aware of what’s going on around him: he either just doesn’t let it get to him, doesn’t want to get into a negative social confrontation, or is obfuscating stupidity (i.e. playing dumb). But if it’s a fight you challenge him, on the other hand...
It’d make sense though if they were in a human AU. But even then, I’m still particularly iffy when Denmark gets portrayed like that.
“I dislike how people portray APH Hong Kong as the youngest Asian member. In fact, his age isn't confirmed yet. Basically, APH South Korea is 15 and a half years old, and it would be likely that he is the youngest one.“
“It feels like the Hetalia characters have like two or three different portrayals to them in fan works. Usually, the nice ones are dumb passive moe blob Purity-Sues or they're total badasses that are portrayed OOC 24/7. The complex ones are either a 'misunderstood baby' or a total psycho. The third one is in lemon fics where the character (mostly the quiet ones) is a proud slut that was fucked by everyone.“
