#fandom analysis

[aemelia]

I was thinking about how much BBC Merlin fic has been published since I joined the fandom, and felt inspired to take a leaf out of data queen @frogmerthur's book and make some graphs about it.

As of 28 January 2026, there are currently 70,125 published works in the BBC Merlin tag on AO3. We are never moving on. 🙂‍↕️

[captainzutara]

Fandom "Flanderization" of ATLA Characters

Over the years, much of the fandom has totally flanderized the characters in a lot of the common headcanons and creative depictions. I know this happens in a lot of fandoms (especially big, older, ongoing ones), but I see it pretty commonly here, across the board in all ship spaces. This isn't to try to police how anyone makes content by any means, but pointing out how things can devolve into ridiculousness because of how audiences anticipate tropes to play out, and they then home in on them and whittle a character down to it in a way that's at odds with the depth of their actual portrayal. Below the cut, I discuss how I believe the fandom has done this to each member of the gaang after floating around the fandom the past 15ish years:

Sokka

I think Sokka's fandom flanderization is the most commonly seen, and it was the most doomed to happen because part of the nature of his character: comic relief. The show actually does an excellent job making Sokka both comic relief and someone with serious depth, personality, struggle, and heart. The fandom remembers this at times, and I totally get memeing Sokka's silliness, but in many portrayals he's often completely overlooked as a buffoon, as is the case for comic relief characters typically.

But Sokka is not a buffoon. He has buffoonish behaviors from time-to-time, sure, he's a 15/16-year-old boy and he's funny. But, he's actually one of the most intelligent members of Team Avatar, if not the most intelligent member of Team Avatar. He's often the brains of the operations, a man of common sense, and very innovative and brave. To see him constantly depicted as fumbling over himself, shouting gaffes, and just being an idiot doesn't align with his actual character. He's very multifaceted.

This goes so far that even [spoiler warnings for The Legend of Aang ahead] in the movie where the Gaang are adults, Sokka is pretty much a walking buffoon. He basically just mumbles one-liners for comic relief and is running from danger and downplaying the danger and risks throughout the movie in ways even teenage Sokka wouldn't. So, for Sokka, I would say this goes beyond the fandom. Bryke has even done this, I think, as a form of fanservice to a degree, and also because they have consistently struggled to depict their main cast with the same depth and complexity that the original writing team did as a collaborative whole.

So this is likely to just further cement the fandom's treatment of Sokka in fics, fanart depictions, TikToks discussions, headcanons, and memes. It's unfortunate because Sokka is done so well and is given a really compelling arc in his original story. It's not super common to see a character who's written as comic relief get such multitudes. I think Bryke tried, and failed, to replicate this in Bolin, but he just was not nearly as well done.

Zuko

I would argue that Zuko is actually the second biggest victim of flanderization within the fandom. Zuko, is also, a very complex and well-written character and people do remember this about his redemption arc, but not so much about his personality and depth as a character. He is very often whittled down and mislabeled as, conflictingly, aloof and socially inept/unable to read between the lines.

Zuko is not aloof, he's shy and emotionally reserved from child abuse. Aloofness is someone who is distant and detached usually from nonchalance in a social setting. This is not the case for Zuko, he is shy and lacks confidence because of growing up isolated in a palace until he was thirteen, and then living among a group of old men the next three years. He is seen consistently craving to be a part of something and yearning for approval.

When Zuko is comfortable, we seem him wearing his heart on his sleeve and yearning for connection. As soon as he joins the gaang, he's very eager to not just make amends with them, but forge genuine connections with them. He is warm with Sokka during their interactions in the Boiling Rock, gives him advice, and opens up to him. He is also warm with Aang the further along they get in The Firebending Masters, and makes jokes with him. He is highly attuned to Katara's emotions in The Southern Raiders and almost desperate to connect to her. Even Toph, Zuko opens up to and shares an earnest heart-to-heart with in The Ember Island Players.

Suffering child abuse that makes someone stunted and afraid doesn't equate to aloofness as a personality trait.

Now for the "socially inept" or "Zuko can't read between the lines" types of portrayals.

This is also glaringly false and overdone, like Sokka's flanderization, for humor. Zuko can be awkward, especially in new social groups or with new people. He was raised in a palace and seemingly did not even go to a real school, like Azula got to. Presumably, he was privately tutored or something. So, growing up he literally had no peers to interact with his own age. The closest thing he had to that was presumably Mai and Ty Lee, who were more so under Azula's thumb. So of course, he's going to be awkward and stumble over his words.

He also, is traumatized, so his confidence in himself and who he is is not very strong. When people are self-conscious, they are awkward as well, and struggle to believe good things about themselves. This is not the same thing as being unable to read people, their feelings, or social situations at large.

We consistently see that Zuko is very empathetically attuned to people's feelings and is actually very good at connecting the dots, or reading between the lines. He is clearly very aware of his uncle's feelings and how he thinks of him as his own, even before Iroh has ever said it. He knows well that Sokka will go off to try to rescue his father to "restore his honor" and why he's doing it in advance to crash his trip.

He pieces together Katara's anger towards him is connected to her mother's murder and intuitively understands her feelings of anger, resentment, and desire to avenge her mother. He anticipates her needs by staying up all night for her, encouraging her to rest, and listening patiently is she opens up about her grief.

When he does believe things foolishly, it's often a symptom of his abuse as well. He is in denial about his father banishing him because he doesn't love him as a coping mechanism, not because he's so "socially inept" he doesn't see the truth. That's why he so eagerly believes Azula is inviting him home and why he so fervently chases after the avatar despite no evidence.

Zuko also is not stupid, as the fandom likes to play for laughs because of the gaang calling him this and Azula's teasing. He is often shown being very cunning in his plans and ideas. He strategizes leagues ahead of his years and bests adults at their own games consistently. He's impulsive and rash, yes, but not stupid. If he was supposed to be seen as a stupid character, they would not write him to be fire lord and restore balance to a nation 100 years into imperialist warmongering. He wouldn't be the other person alongside Katara keeping the gaang in check. Throughout the finale, he's the one staying on track and reining the gaang in to keep focus. He's the one who comes up with the game plan for their Plan B to defeat his father when Aang disappears without a word. He executes that plan too, takes charge and takes everyone to find his uncle and get things in order. Stupid people don't do that!

They like to overplay the awkwardness and morph it into social ineptitude or inability to read between the lines for people, too. Zuko's awkwardness in The Western Air Temple makes sense and awkwardness is not the same thing as social ineptitude. He reads people very well, he just lacks the confidence and life experience to behave anything but awkwardly around his peers. A lot of it's social anxiety as well.

Azula is the same way among peers she isn't dictating, as seen in The Beach. She's almost just like Zuko, but instead of resorting to shyness, she resorts to assertiveness because that's what she knows. And Azula, of course, has no trouble reading people. But unlike Zuko, she does struggle to connect to them emotionally.

Speaking of Azula, this idea that Zuko isn't an extremely talented firebender is also false. He may not be on the prodigal levels of Azula, Katara, and Toph (let's go girlsssss), but he is an excellent firebender. It takes effort, practice, and time -- but Zuko is a very skilled fighter in his element. He consistently defeats his opponents in firebending and holds his own.

Toph

Toph is victim to fandom flanderization to the point that she is made out to be emotionally rigid, cool, and uncaring. The fandom portrays Toph as someone who could not be bothered to listen to someone's pain, is too tough to care about anything, and is kinda always just looking out for A#1.

That's how Toph presents herself as a coping mechanism, sure, but as the show consistently depicts, this is not truly the case. Her parents had her propped up like a delicate flower and fragile doll, pushing her into a box for their expectations and limitations they imposed on her because of her disability. In defense of this, Toph has created a tough exterior shell to counter her parents' beliefs.

Toph pretends she doesn't care, but deep down she really cares. This is why Toph breaks down when talking to Sokka about how Katara cares about her — the real her — more than her actual mother ever did. (Which also reminds me how crazy it is that certain parts of the fandom are trying to say Katara was not motherly and that Sokka was more parentified than she was…)

And Toph might have a rough exterior, but she's a very caring and loving person. She's always the first to stand up against situations of injustices and very passionate about stopping the fire lord, despite growing up in wealth and privilege herself. Her tough edges when teaching Aang is her own personal approach to earthbending — taking this bluntly and head on, like a rock. It doesn't mean she doesn't care.

She shows in the Tales of Ba Sing Se that she also is a regular girl in that she is insecure about things, including her appearance, even if she can't see it. She cries when talking to Katara, confiding in her about it, and is touched when Katara warmly tells her that she is pretty while sending the girls (literally) down the river.

She also shows vulnerability in how hurt and upset she was in having to let the benders who abducted Appa get away. She feels tremendous guilt in having to hold up the tower to keep the gaang from dying at the expense of Appa's safety. She is offers Zuko very sage and compassionate advice in The Ember Island Players too, knowing that he, too, struggles to be vulnerable with people and taking his trust to confide in her seriously.

Just because Toph wears a tough mask does not mean she's an unfeeling person who doesn't have just as much love in her heart as the rest of the gaang. The way the fandom paints her, again, leaning into the comedic side of things, as bluntly unfeeling is really whittling down the depth of Toph's character and everything at play here about her.

Katara and Aang…

Now, for Katara and Aang, I honestly do not see a ton of flanderization. I see mischaracterization, but not so much flanderization. They're connected, but not one and the same.

Katara is presented as someone simply, whiny, annoying, and preachy. Talking about Katara as "whiny" or "annoying" is likely some misogyny. If you think Katara is "whiny", but Zuko is "deep" and "suffering" about his trauma, then you're probably just sexist. But this is common in the fandom from the early days on.

Again, if Katara is "preachy", but Iroh and Aang are "wise", then again, it's time to look inward and start asking yourself the big questions.

Katara is also strangely portrayed in fandom as hating Zuko's living guts post canon, which is just… not accurate. I see many fandom comments, such as "she really haes that man fr" and stuff, as if they never watched the rest of the show following The Southern Raiders and skipped their connecting moments, such as Crossroads of Destiny, or The Chase. But, I figure this goes back to hating Zutara, which also is, a majority of the time, misogyny.

Katara also gets this strange rap for being absolutely cruel and cutthroat. She has moments where she lashes out in anger, yes, she has a temper. But overall, Katara is the most compassionate, loving, and empathetic person in the entire gaang. Her biting remarks in the heat of the moment to Toph, Sokka, and Zuko are not indicative of her overall personality. Of course, portraying the multifaceted sides of her is great, but this whittling down of her to portray her as a "bitch" almost is absolutely bizarre to me.

Now, for Aang, this is a doozy. There is so much idoloization of Aang's character as a perfect hero from people's childhood and also some over-the-top critiques of his character that makes it hard to pinpoint what's going on. Aang's character is also kind of all over the place and there are moments that don't add up from the writers' side of things, so it makes nailing this one down tough.

But Aang is not a happy-go-lucky character all the time. He leans into his juvenile traits as a literal 12/13-year-old, but also he has a serious streak, especially Book 2 onwards. He gets livid angry, lashes out to the point of going into an Avatar State rage, and has tantrums that are unfair to people.

He behaves selfishly at times, like taking away Katara and Sokka's chance to see their father out of a fear of abandonment. He's not this perfect, does-no-wrong character. He also runs away from his problems as a common theme throughout the whole show up until the finale, which is weirdly never addressed as a hurdle to overcome for him by the narrative.

But, Aang is also a very loving, earnest character. He genuinely loves people. He's a people person and wants to befriend everyone. The writers, imo, didn't flesh him out to his full potential in the cartoon. I wish that he had gotten more time to explore his grief, showcase his grief, and experience it. Instead, they seemed to be too afraid to break the portrayal of him as a happy kid, and just didn't go there too much. There was far much more angst from Aang about being the avatar and the weight of those expectations than grief he would be feeling as a lone genocide survivor. And I really wish we got to see more of him grappling with that. His character deserved that, imo.

He also didn't get the full chance to overcome a lot of character flaws. The show sort of decided he suffered enough (without showing him grapple with that fully) and that he kinda didn't have to overcome other things that were set up as if he would. I think that Aang's character sometimes gets over demonized as well for things that are writing flaws that aren't adding up, and making him seem like multiple characters rather than one, consistent MC.

But, Aang is a complex case for fandom dissection because there seems to be two prevailing trains of thought for him, and a lot of mistakes in the writers' room pertaining to his character that bleed into this fandom dichotomy.

Overall, it's frustrating when fandoms bastardize characters and reduce them to either entirely mischaracterized traits or memeified tropes. Of course, memes are fun, but like how show writers do this in late seasons, fandoms do it late into fandom (sometimes early too). They whittle the character down to a trope that either has some basis, or something they anticipate will happen because of the trope's common themes, even though it did not occur with this specific character.

So many fandoms do this, and the Avatar one is no exception, in fact, I would argue that it's a huge culprit of it. These characters, for the most part, are so well fleshed out and deep, that it's exhausting and disappointing to see the fandom flanderize and mischaracterize them, even if it seems inevitable. And of course, these flanderizations speak the loudest, even if the majority in the "real" (not casual) fandom, don't do it.

The ATLA characters are why this show has had such an indelible mark in TV storytelling and animation. The plot is good, the world is exciting, and the creatures are creative, but above all, it is these characters that keep people coming back. They connect with people because of their complexities and depth. When that's the crux of a show, watching the characters get flanderized and mischaracterized is even more disappointing.

So I wanted to write about what I'm seeing and open the discussion further for fans here. Thanks for sticking with me in this long post and meta! We'll see how many edits I make later as I think of things.

[wisteriasymphony]

[craftyzombieeee]

I want to put down my thesis of the "white guy enjoyer" phenomenon, wherein someone engages with a piece of media only to find the most attractive (to them) white guy to write x reader imagines, ignoring basically everything else about said piece of media. These fanfics tend to simplify characters, themes and relationships to fit into neat little tropes and scenarios that can be reused and recycled with any character without much changing, despite the fact that people are writing for a variety of fandoms with completely different contexts that the characters are in. But, don't worry, you can read about half a dozen flavours of "yandere x reader", "ceo x reader", "boyfriend scenarios", etc. Because this seems to be such a widespread phenomenon in certain fandoms, you also end up with a side effect of all these x reader fanfics seemingly clogging up tags and hiding other types of content.

Let's look at a few examples:

Knifes Out (2019): An innovative mystery comedy about a latina woman having to navigate a rich family's many problems, that talked about issues of immigration, power, how façades of liberalism and conservatism fall when a rich person's money is at risk, etc... And after the movie was released, tumblr was full of x reader fanfics for the asshole villain of the story, just because he was played by Chris Evans.

Weapons (2025): a mix of horror and absurdism, about a town having to deal with a class of children that seemingly got up in the middle of the night and walked out of their homes, dissapearing into the night. It's bloody, it's thrilling, it's a metaphor for child abuse, school shootings, alcholism, disease... and the tumblr tag is just one x reader fanfic about the minor drug addict character after another, just because he is the most attractive white guy of the movie. Bonus points! Besides x reader fanfics, there are a bunch of analysis about how the teacher character, that got blamed and turned into a scapegoat after her students dissapeared, is actually a bad person and deserved what happened to her, because she has a history of alcoholism and innapropriate behaviour (she hugged a child and slept with a consenting coworker); but the drug addict is a funny cinnamon roll and his substance abuse is actually cool and fine because..... ?

Scream (1996): this is actually an interesting case, because a lot of older movies and series and whatnot, have tags filled with a lot of diverse content, since their fans tend to be older and not following the most recent trends of x reader fics. But because Scream is a franchise that is still being continued to this day, new movies get released and people go back and become fans of the older ones as well. So a lot of the Scream tag is Billy Loomis x reader, or Stu Macher x reader, or Billy Loomis x Stu Macher x reader, or...

Jujutsu Kaisen (2020): This is a good example of the extension that "white guy" can take on. Obviously, most characters in this series are japanese, and as such, not white guys, but depending on the fandom culture that springs around the piece of media, basically any light-skinned guy can become a white guy if you strip away all of his nuances. So Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto become white, Miguel O'Hara from Across the Spiderverse becomes white, most recently Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein in Frankenstein (2025), becomes white, in the way they are written (i.e. their singular cultural and racial identities and the way those interact with the world around them are erased, and they are made to fit into the archetype that the writer wants them to fit into.) Bonus points! Like I said before, a lot of writers make content for wildly different types of media, across mediums and genres using the same tropes and established tecniques for all of them, regardless of the context the characters are in. So it seems like this specfic sub-phenomenon tends to happen because "white guy enjoyer" fans, started engaging with a new piece of media without any white guys, and just implemented what they already knew to new non "white guy" characters, and thus, turning them into "white guys". Also to note is that these characters also fall into traditional western male attractiveness models (thin, light-skinned, physically fit, etc).

Sinners (2025): This feels especially outrageous, and while the tag isn't entirely clogged with Remmick x reader fics, they still fill a significant portion. In a movie all about Black experiences, Black fears, Black history, filled with excellent (and attractive) Black actors, you deciding instead to focus on the singular white villain of the piece feels shallow at best, and activelly racist at worst.

Now let's look at a few fandoms where this didn't happen, mainly because there weren't any white or white-adjacent guys to do this to:

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022): First of all, there are only two white named characters, Becky and Deirdre; and they are both mostly instruments to the themes of especifically Asian-American dispora, culture, generational trauma and healing that is absolutely central to the story. The most central male characters don't fit traditional parameters of western male attractiveness as well, making it so that there are no ideal candidates for a "white guy enjoyer" to attach themselves to.

Glass Onion (2022): After the dissapointment that was the knives out tag in 2019, the glass Onion tag in 2022 healed a little bit of my soul. I can't really explain why Miles Bron or Duke Cody aren't seen as boyfriend material for x reader writers, but I am just glad that their negative rizz has kept the tag much more diverse.

Wicked (Musical, 2024 & 2025): Another instance where there is a white guy (two in fact!) to write fanfics for, but apparently the Gelphie agenda is so strong that they trump out everything else going on (for good and for bad).

Get Out (2017): A movie that feels similat to Sinners in the sense that it's a Black story, led by Black creatives, featuring Black actors about a horror that is so specific to Black people in the USA that you feel like you can't focus on anything else. Maybe it's because this movie came around a little before the phenomenon really kicked off on tumblr, maybe it's because the horrors done by the white characters are far too psychologically damning to be twisted into something palatable, maybe it's because all the young attractive men in the story are Black, and all the white dudes are old. I'm really not sure.

What motivated me to make this post, after years observing this thing happening and just sort of moving on with a disgruntled sigh, is after i watched the movie "I Came By" with my dad the other day, I was excited to go on tumblr and see what people had said about it. It's the story of a grafitti activist that goes into rich people's homes and tags their walls, and he accidentally discovers that a rich judge is actually a serial killer that targets refugees seeking asylum in the UK.

Spoiler alert! for the sake of my argument: the graffiti activist that initially discovers this is a white guy who gets killed a third into the movie. Now imagine my dissapointment when I go into the tag for the movie on tumblr and I find exactly three posts even pertaining to it, ALL of them are about this white guy and one is a x reader fanfic. Honestly, I'm kind of relieved that I didn't see any posts about the racist judge, but I wouldn't put it past this website.

Let's discuss why this bothers me so much: not only does it make finding other stuff so difficult on tumblr, because even with filters, a lot of times things aren't tagged correctly, or stuff slips past; it's also incredly frustrating because a lot of these fanfics sell the fantasy of x reader with these white guys at the expense of all other characters in the story, especially poc, especially women, especailly woc. I'm talking about Marta Cabrera not existing in Hugh Ramson x reader fanfics, because the reality of what he did to her (what his whole family did to her) is too unconfortable for the people wanting "What would Hugh Ramson give you on valentine's day?" fanfics. I'm talking about the way people villify or minimize Sidney Prescott's emotional turmoil, blaming her and her mother for hurting a boy's feelings, nevermind that that boy then decided to become a serial killer. I'm talking about the fact that the shounen genre is already littered with misogyny, and the few well-written female characters in stories like Jujutsu Kaisen and Kimetsu no Yaiba get completely thrown to the side in favour of highlighting the attractive boys. I'm talking about the fact that I have never watched a single episode of Peacemaker, but looking at the tag on tumblr, you would have guessed that Adrian Chase was the main character and Leota Adebayo was a funny side character (even in her own tag, she gets sidelined!). I'm talking about the fact that both Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne have their identities either erased, ignored or changed to fit into a specific mold that x reader writers have in mind.

If you want to write a story about falling in love with a character, fine! Don't let me stop you! But why is Remmick the one you were attracted to, and not Elijah or Elias? What is it about him that makes him the better option, can you tell me? Why are Walking Dead x reader always about Rick or Neagan and never about Glenn, or Tyresse, or Morgan? Why have I seen a million x reader stories about the same dozen light-skinned guys from Honkai Star Rail, and not a single one of Arlan, the ONLY dark-skinned character in the whole game? Why do I see so few of the women? Can you look me in the eyes and tell me that these tendencies across basically the entire tumblr fandom landscape is just "coincidence" (as someone to whom I talked about this back in 2020 told me) and since it isn't harming anyone, I should just move on with my life? Why is it that your fantasy doesn't have space for people with my shade of skin? Why is it that when I go on tumblr I have to be constantly reminded of the injustices that await me on the outside world, and you get to just have a good time? Why do people talk about wanting their male characters to be covered in blood, looking like wet pathetic cats, but when Michael B Jordan and Miles Caton get put through the ringer, you completely ignore them?

P.S. There is also a "white girl enjoyer" syndrome, where the same thing happens, except the tag is filled with people writing lesbian versions of the same x reader fics you can find everywhere else. This happened to Wandavision (and, by extension, Agatha All Along) and Scream (2022 & 2023), and I can't really explain why some fandoms have this phenomenom inverted, but the rest of may arguments still stand. The black or darker-skinned characters of these franchises are noticibly not the subjects of these x readers and are often either completelly missing or turned into objects to advance the white character's interests.

[adri24alon5]

Hot Take: Why Spy x Family is objectively one of the best sandboxes for fanfiction writers 🧵

Let’s talk about why this fandom is an absolute goldmine for writers. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned author, Spy x Family offers something that very few anime/manga series manage to achieve: the perfect balance between structure and absolute narrative freedom.

Here is my breakdown of why this series is the ultimate playground for fanfics:

1. The "Elastic" Character Design (The Power of Aging Up)

The characters have incredibly distinct, unshakeable core traits, yet they grant the author immense freedom. The best example of this is Damian and Anya. Because they are children in canon, writing them as teenagers or adults is a blank canvas.

You can interpret their future aesthetics, their career choices, and their mature dynamics completely in your own way. Yet, as long as you maintain a few core anchors—Anya’s chaotic empathy and Damian’s proud-but-easily-flustered nature—they will always feel exactly like Anya and Damian. They adapt to any timeline you put them in without losing their essence.

2. The Goldilocks Zone of Worldbuilding

The world of Ostania and Westalis hits the perfect sweet spot: it is rich enough so novice writers don't have to suffer from worldbuilding burnout, but open enough that stories never feel wasted or constrained.

Think about it this way: a fanfic of Attack on Titan (AoT) is incredibly hard to pull off because the canon lore, the tragedy, and the plot are a tightly knit masterpiece. A fanfic can rarely match the stakes or the weight of the original work because the world is too rigid. In Spy x Family, the Cold War setting gives you a solid political backdrop ready to use, but the margins are wide open for you to expand the spy networks, the political intrigue, or the daily slice-of-life elements however you want.

3. A Flexible Foundation That Showcases the Author's Hand

Because the canon universe is so flexible, the writer’s personal voice and style don’t get drowned out by the source material—they get magnified. Every fic feels deeply personalized, and it allows for the creation of literal fanfiction masterpieces.

A perfect example of this is the author theunbearablelightnessofbeing. Works like "The Bar Closes at 100 Seconds to Midnight" or "Starlight Parabellum" are so brilliantly crafted that they could easily be published as standalone novels or adapted into a high-budget series.

In these fics, Damian and Anya (and the entire cast) feel completely unique, reinvented, and distinct to that specific story, yet their true essence remains completely unshakeable. You can read a single paragraph and instantly recognize the author’s signature style. That is only possible because Spy x Family gives us a foundation flexible enough to bear the weight of heavy, complex writing.

What do you guys think? Do you feel Spy x Family gives you more freedom than other fandoms you’ve written for? Let’s debate! 👇

[aarbeaz]

Okay this might seem like the weirdest thing to point out but I was re-reading the PJO books again and it just struck me how the characters' discussion on Gabe's mortal scent directly foreshadows how Luke's rebellion was doomed from the beginning.

Gabe is described as "repulsively human" by Grover, and he claims it's because Gabe is so disgusting and horrible (there wasn't much detail about this so I'm assuming this is what they meant) that his putrid scent was enough to cover Percy for two weeks.

The directly implies that "the more horrible of a person you are, the further you stray from immortality".

Which just goes to show how the gods view mortals. Gods and powerful demigods can manipulate the Mist, we've seen that, and they directly affect the existence of the Mist itself. So the fact that the gods seem to think of themselves as these saintly creatures that can do no wrong whereas mortals are these horrible, stinky animals that aren't worthy of recognition, is kind of jarring especially because there are several other gods who are described as Gabe is. There is a literal direct comparison between Ares and Gabe. But that's a different point entirely.

And now I say that this shows how Luke's rebellion was doomed from the start only because the gods show that their attitudes are never going to change. The environment, the very existence of this mortal- scent thing never goes away, which is a direct reflection of how the gods view mortals.

In the first book, Chiron describes the Mist as a kind of fog that happens when the divine interacts with the non-supernatural, AKA, monsters and gods start messing with the mortal world. But later on through the books, there is a sort of derisive undercurrent when the characters talk about the Mist in relation to mortals - they always say something along the lines of "the Mist confuses mortals because their tiny brains can't process the information so they like to rationalize everything they see, ew what a bunch of non-believers."

It just really shows the hierarchy of this world. Gods think of themselves as these overlording, saintly creatures - which ironically makes them more human than anything, by giving them qualities like ego or pride which are commonly associated with the humans they so despise - and humans as the physical manifestations of all the sins that have ever existed. They were never going to change, because change requires respect and understanding. Which is never going to happen.

The books actually show that very beautifully, I think. In the end you wonder: would Zeus have listened if so much destruction didn't fall upon their only sanctuary? The gods are pretty casual with killing and committing atrocities to the mortal world, so would they have even cared if Kronos didn't directly attack Olympus?

[ameeraljinn]

Let’s talk Orientalism in Absolute Superman

My argument is not “Arab villains are bad” or “Ra’s al Ghul can’t be evil.”

My issue is with how the comic constructs him and what representational frameworks it draws from.

Orientalism is not just individual prejudice. It is a system of representation that frames the “East” as irrational, excessive, mystical, authoritarian, violent, primitive, and fundamentally different.

These patterns shape interpretation before a character even acts.

As Edward Said argues, representation does not simply reflect reality — it constructs meaning. Comics are especially important here because they rely heavily on visual shorthand and immediate recognition.

Characters are rapidly simplified into recognizable types: hero, monster, threat, savior, fanatic, victim.

And Absolute Superman very consciously constructs Ra’s as spectacle.

Look at how he is framed: hypermuscular, towering, looming over Superman. Heavily shadowed. almost inhumanly massive

The nudity matters too.

Ra’s is repeatedly drawn with large exposed areas of skin while Superman remains clothed and visually controlled. The body becomes spectacle.

The proportions push beyond ordinary humanity into something monstrous and mythic: heavy muscles, exaggerated size, animalistic posture, overwhelming physical presence and dominance.

That matters because Orientalist depictions of Arab/Muslim men have historically framed them as barbaric, hyperviolent, sexually excessive, patriarchal and physically threatening. The body itself becomes coded as danger.

This isn’t accidental visual design. It’s part of a long representational history.

Ra’s also isn’t framed as a psychologically grounded person so much as an archetype. He becomes less a psychologically grounded person and more a ritualistic, prophetic archetype; eternal, imposing, almost inhuman. Meanwhile Superman is framed as emotionally readable, illuminated, morally centered, rational and humanized. The contrast is intentional.

Ra's characterization becomes symbolic instead of personal.

That’s why the resurrection imagery matters too Lazarus pits, ritual language, dynastic authority and rebirth imagery. He becomes less a political actor and more an immortal Eastern patriarch archetype.

Another issue is how systemic problems become displaced onto Ra’s specifically. The comic gestures toward environmental collapse, inequality, global instability and authoritarian systems but these issues become condensed into ONE racialized body.

So instead of engaging structurally with those problems, the narrative transforms them into individualized evil. Ra’s becomes a symbolic container for extremism, apocalypse, overpopulation discourse, authoritarianism and irrational violence.

This is especially important because many of the ideas attached to him (population control, eco-authoritarianism, necropolitics) have real historical roots in Western political systems too. But the comic relocates them entirely into an “Eastern” villain figure.

That displacement matters. It obscures structural accountability by making one racialized body carry the weight of multiple global anxieties.

And these portrayals do not exist in isolation.

The American media has a long history of constructing Arabs and Muslims through spectacle, threat, mysticism, and dehumanization, especially post-9/11.

My point is not that the media cannot portray Arab villains. My point is that media can be visually compelling while still reproducing representational patterns worth critically examining.

[chaoticvintagelesbian]

There's something about Homura Akemi's character that i think almost always gets missed in analysis of her initial wish.

And to me, that is the role her heart condition & hospitalisation play. Most of you of you have never been queer, chronically ill teen girls with self-worth issues & depression, and it shows. Which is fine, I am aware that is not a universal experience.

However, a lot of the analysis i see that frames the wish as being selfish (specifically the part about Homura wanting to be strong enough to protect Madoka) or obsessive from the start don't seem to understand Homura's relationship with Madoka - or even herself - at this point in time. There's the obvious of Homura still feeling physically weak & having hang-ups from spending a substantial period in the hospital by 14, and Madoka literally saves her life, then dies protecting her later, but if it was just these things Homura would've equally imprinted this onto Mami too.

No, the main thing is how chronic illness & isolation have formed Homura's social anxiety, self esteem issues & lack of social skills. Madoka is one of the first people to treat Homura with true kindness after starting school & genuinely tries to engage with Homura. Homura, after her first day, is already ripping into herself (an experiance lot's of teens with anxiety know well) before the witch appears, then is saved by Madoka who she finds out is as well as being confident & actively participating in school socially, in her free time saving people's lives. It's no wonder Homura starts to see Madoka as having all the traits & inherent emotional & physical strength Homura thinks she lacks. Especially as a girl in her early teens with strong self-worth issues, this idolisation of someone she saw as someone who brightened the world & protected others (emotionally & physically) wouldn't be unusual at all.

Homura wouldn't see it as prioritising her role as protector for credit or to further her ends with Madoka, more that in protecting Homura, Madoka was protecting someone unworthy & too weak to be worth the effort. So she wanted to be strong enough A) to not be a burden to Madoka, B) to be useful & worthy in the way Madoka was & C) By not being weak she wouldn't be from her view the cause of Madoka's death by causing Madoka to prioritise protecting Homura over herself. Homura would see this as just returning the favor of the role Madoka played saving her, she would probably see it as more selfish to wish for Madoka to be strong enough to save herself because Madoka was already the strongest person she knows, Homura saw her own weakness as the reason for Madoka dying, so fixing that would be the easiest way to help Madoka, in her eyes at least.

Anyway, IDK, this might all be bullshit, but I thought it was an angle I don't see that often.